THE CITY OF BEER ' SHEBA AND THE NEGEV.

Beer'Sheba id the largest city in the Negev desert of Southern Israel, often referred to as the 'Capital of the Negev.' Beer'Sheba is mainly dealt in the Hebrew Bible in connection with Abraham and Isaac, who both dig a 'well' and close 'peace treaties' with king Abi'Melech of Gerar at the site.
There are several studies (etymology) for the origin of the name 'Beer'Sheba'. 'Beer' is the Hebrew word for 'Well'; and 'sheva' for 'seven' or 'oath'. The Arabic form can also be translated as '7 Wells.'
Abi'Melech (Father/Leader of a king) was the name of multiple Philistine kings mentioned in the Bible.
There are 3 wife-sister narratives in the Book of Genesis, all of which are similar. They occur in Genesis 12, 20, and 26. At the core of each is the story of a Biblical Patriarch, who has come to be in the land of a powerful foreign overlord who misidentifies the Patriarch's wife as the Patriarch's sister, and consequently attempts to wed her himself. The overlord later finds out his error. Two of the three stories are similar in many other details, including the ruler's name, Abi'Melech.
- In the 1st, Abram is pressured to move to Egypt in order to evade a famine. Because his wife-sister is very beautiful, Abram asks her to say that she was only his sister lest the Egyptians kill him so that they can take her. On arriving before the Pharaoh, the Egyptians recognize Sarai's beauty, and the Egyptian princes shower Abram with gifts of livestock and servants to gain her hand in marriage. Sarai thus becomes part of the "Pharaoh's House"(harem), but God sends a plague to punish Pharaoh. Pharaoh realizes the truth of the matter, restores Sarai to Abram and orders them to leave Egypt with all the possessions Abram had acquired in Egypt.
-In the 2nd episode the story splits in two parts. The 1st in Genesis 20 and the 2nd in Genesis 21. It begins with Abraham emigrating to the Southern Region of Gerar, whose king is named Abi'Melech.
By this time, God had changed Abram and Sarai's names to 'Abraham and Sarah' respectively (Gen17).
He states that Sarah is only his sister, leading Abi'Melech to try to take Sarah as a wife; God intervened, before Abi'Melech touched Sarah, in a dream and tells him the truth, acknowledging that Abi'Melech made the mistake innocently, but ordering Abi'Melech to restore Sarah to Abraham. He complains to Abraham, who states that he did not exactly lie, since Sarah is his half-sister. Abi'Melech restores Sarah to Abraham, and gives him gifts of livestock and servants by way of apology, and also allows Abraham to reside anywhere in Gerar. He also gives 1000 pieces of silver to Abraham to reprove Sarah by a "covering of the eyes"(sign of vindication). The story then states for the 1st time that Abi'Melech, his wife, and household, had previously been punished for Abi'Melech's mistake concerning Sarah, by being made infertile. After an intermission concerning the birth of a son to Abraham and Sarah, the 2nd have of the story begins with Abi'Melech requesting Abraham swear an 'oath' of non-aggression towards Abi'Melech and his family, to which Abraham agrees. Abi'Melech's servants later 'violently take away' a well, and so Abraham complains to Abi'Melech, who apologizes. Abraham then sets aside 7 ewes (adult female sheeps) as witness to his having dug the well, and Abraham, Abi'Melech, and Phi'chol (Abi'Melech's chief captain), then make a 'covenant', and leave each other.
The place the 'covenant' was made is consequently named 'Beer-Sheba,' which translates either to 'Well of Oaths' or 'Well of Seven' or 'Seven Wells,' and Abraham planted a Tamarisk Tree there in memory.
-In the 3rd episode, it is Isaac who, in order to avoid a famine, emigrates to the Southern Region of Gerar, whose king is named Abi'Melech. Isaac has been told to do so by God, who also orders him to avoid Egypt, and promises to him the fulfillment of the 'oath' made with Abraham. Isaac states that Rebekah, his wife, is really his sister, as he worried that the Philistines will otherwise kill him in order to marry Rebekah. After a while, Abi'Melech spots Isaac doing things that a brother do not do with his sister, and states that she must be Isaac's wife rather than his sister.
Abimelech then orders that Rebekah be left alone by the denizens of Gerar, on pain of death. Isaac goes on to spend a year in the area, and gradually built up a large household of servants, and a strong possession of livestock, leading to the envy of the Philistines of Gerar, so Abi'Melech sends Isaac away. Noting that the 'wells' that Abraham had dug have since been filled in, Isaac re-digs them, giving names for three:
Esek, which means 'argument', gaining its name due to the Gerar herdsmen contesting the 'ownership of the well.'
Sitnah, which means 'opposition', gaining its name due to the Gerar herdsmen also 'contesting this well.'
Rehoboth, which means 'enlarged space', gaining its name because 'God made room for Isaac.'
Isaac then travels to Beer'Sheba, and God appears to him, so Isaac builds an altar there. Abi'Melech then meets Isaac there, with a friend named Ahuzzath, and Phi'Chol (Abi'Melech's chief captain). They then make an 'oath of non-agression, hold a feast, and then depart from one another. Later on the same day, Isaac's servants report to him that they have found 'another well,' so he names the place in such a way that it later becomes known as 'Beer'Sheva.'
Christian interpretation of the narratives has varied considerably. Some have seen them as a symbolic interpretation of God's spiritual power in order to achieve His ultimately Plan of Salvation. The Patriarchal individuals did not lie, they merely concealed part of the Truth.
The Negev, which play a part in the Patriarchs' lives, is a desert and semi-desert Region and the city of Beer'Sheba is located in the North of it. At its South end is the Gulf of Aqaba.
Nomadic life in the Negev dates back as much as 7000 years. The 1st urbanized settlements were established by a combination of Phoenicians (Canaanites), Amalekite, and Edomite groups. Pharaonic Egypt is credited with introducing copper mining and smelting in both the Negev and the Sin'Ai between 1400 and 1300 BC.
In the Bible, the term Negev only relates to the Northern, semi-arid part, located in the general area of the Arad-Beer'Sheba Valley. According to the Book of Genesis, chapter 13, Abraham lived for a while in the Negev after being banished from Egypt. During the Exodus journey to the promised land, Moses sent 12 scouts into the Negev to assess the land and population. Later, Northern part of biblical Negev, was inhabited by the Tribe of Judah and the Southern part by the Tribe of Simeon. The Negev was later part of the Kingdom of Solomon (in its entirety, all the way to the Red Sea), and then, with varied extension to the South, part of the Kingdom of Judah. In the 9th century BC, development and expansion of mining in both the Negev and Edom (modern Jordan) coincided with the rise of the Ass'Yrian Empire.
Beer'Sheba was the region's capital and a center for trade in the 8th century BC.
The 4th CE arrival of Nabateans resulted in the development of irrigation systems that supported new urban centers located along the Negev incense route. They were Arab people who inhabited Northern Arabia and the Southern Levant, and whose settlements, most prominently the capital city of Petra (Raqmu), in 37-100CE, gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Arabia and Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. They controlled the trade on the spice route between Petra and the Gazan seaports. Nabatean currency and the remains of red and orange fragments of stone and glass vessels (pot-sherds), identified as a trademark of their civilization, have been found along the route. Nabatean control ended when the Roman empire annexed their lands in 106 CE. The population, largely made up of Arabian nomads, remained largely tribal and independent of Roman rule, with an animistic belief system.
Byzantine rule introduced Christianity to the population. Agricultural-based cities were established and the population grew exponentially.
The Southern Negev saw a flourishing of economic activity during the 8th to 10th CE. Six Islamic settlements have been found in the vicinity of modern Eilat, a busy port at the Northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aqaba, along with copper and gold mines and stone quarries, and a sophisticated irrigation system and road network. The economic center was the port of Aqaba (Ayla).
Nomadic tribes ruled the Negev largely independently and with a relative lack of interference for the next 1000 years. Bedouins of the Negev historically survive chiefly on sheep and goat husbandry. Scarcity of water and on permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly. What is known of this time is derived from oral histories and folk tales from the areas in present-day Jordan.
In 1900 CE the Otto'Man Empire established an administrative center for Southern Palestine at Beer'Sheba including schools and a railway station. The authority of the tribal chiefs over the region was recognized by the Otto'Mans. A railroad connected it to the port of Rafah.
Rafah has a history stretching back 1000s of years. It was first recorded in an inscription of Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I, from 1303 BC as 'Rph', and the first stop of Pharaoh Shoshenq I's campaign to the Levant in 925 BC. In 720BC it was the site of the Assyrian king Sargon II's victory over the Egyptians and in 217BC the 'Battle of Raphia' was fought between Ptolemy IV and Antiochus III, one of the largest battles ever fought in the Levant, with over a 100,000 soldiers and 100s of elephants.
In the 19th CE, the extension of the Freanch language by its adoption as a first language of the Jews in the French colonial North Africa, resulted in a separation of the community from the local Muslims.
The French began the conquest of Algeria in 1830CE. The following century had a profound influence on the status of the Algerian Jews. The situation in colonial Libya was similar; as for the French in the other North African countries, the italian influence in Libya was welcomed by the Jewish community, increasing their separation from the non-Jewish Libyans. The Alliance Israelite Universelle, founded in France in 1860CE, set up schools in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia as early as 1863 CE.
Beer'Sheba grew in importance in the 19th CE, when the Otto'Man Turks built a regional police station there. The Battle of Ber'Sheba was part of a wider British offensive in World War I aimed at breaking the Turkish defensive line from Gaza to Beer'Sheba. In 1947, Beer'Sheba was envisioned as part of the Arab state in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. Following the declaration of Israel's independence, the Egyptian army its forces in Beer'Sheba as a strategic and logistical base. In the battle waged in October 1948, Beer'Sheba was conquered by the Israeli Defense Forces.
An Arabic history of tribes around Beer'Sheba, published in 1934, recorded 23 tribal groups.
Since 1948, when the Negev came under Israeli rule, it absorbed many of the Jewish refugees from Arab countries, with Israeli government setting up many development towns. Beer'Sheba has grown considerable since then. The Soviet Jews immigrants have made the game of chess a major city's sport. The city is now Israeli's national chess center, with more chess grand-masters per capita than any other city in the world.
Since then, the Negev region has also become home to many of the Israeli Defense Forces major bases -a process acelerated in the past two decades.