This site draws its name from events that followed the conclusion of an alliance between Abraham, the first patriarch, who grazed his herds in the region, and Avimelech, one of the sheikhs of the same area. The Pentateuch relates:

Beer means well, sheva means seven or oath – thus Beersheva means the Seven Wells or the Well of the Oath. The tamarisk – ESh(e)L in Hebrew – that Abraham planted would be that shrubby tree with tiny, narrow leaves and minute, pink flowers on a spike which makes it the object of numerous commentaries in the Talmud. One of them makes it a symbol of hospitality, converting the three letters of the Hebrew word, ESHL to the initials of the three components of hospitality:

E for achila – food
Sh for shtiya – drink
L for lina – resting place

The tamarisk, which generally dominates the area in which it grows, also symbolizes the most illustrious man of his generation or in his community. The Aramaic expression talya beeshel ravravei – to cling on to a large tamarisk – signifies that, in general, we have a tendency to refer to the words and actions of great men and to benefit from them. Later, the title Ha-Eshel ha-Gadol – the Great Tamarisk will be conferred upon the medieval rabbis.

The covenant with Isaac

The historic site of the city – Tell Beersheva – evidently sheltered a sanctuary, to which the Biblical text does not cease to refer. God, moreover, reveals Himself there to Isaac, the second patriarch, the son of Abraham, to renew the covenant made with Abraham:

The covenant with Jacob

God will also reveal Himself to Jacob, the third patriarch, in this same place. At the time, there was a famine in the region. Only Egypt, where Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, held an important position in the Court, did not suffer. God revealed Himself to Jacob – who is also named Israel – to encourage him to go to Egypt:

In Egypt, the descendents of the sons of Jacob multiplied to such an extent that they formed twelve tribes. Feeling threatened by them, the Egyptians reduced them to slavery. At the end of four hundred years, they were liberated by Moses, conquered the land of Canaan and divided it among themselves. The northern point of the Negev was allotted to Yehuda, the rest was allotted to the tribe of Simeon, which was composed of poor people who, moreover, depended on the protection of Yehuda. Saul and David will contain the Amalekites who were entrenched in the south of the country and will subdue the Canaanites who lived in the area of Arad. Solomon and his successors will establish strongholds all along the route from Eilat to Egypt. For a long time, the site of Beersheva designated the southern point of the territory of the Israelites, which extended “from Dan to Beersheva”. Thereafter, it is not mentioned until the moment when the Romans establish a garrison there in 70 A.D. to contain and control the Nabateans, the semi-nomadic tribe of Trans-Jordan, who were allied with the Jews in the revolt against Rome. Under the Byzantines, its inhabitants gradually vacate it so that it is completely deserted under the Arabs.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Turks, in turn, decide to create an urban center to control the Bedouins. During the First World War, Beersheva, which is connected to a railway system, is the site of a Turkish-German military base that is occupied by the British in 1917. At the same time, the first experimental agricultural settlements led by the Jewish pioneers are established around the city, but the latter must leave the area when the riots of 1936-39 between the Jews and the Arabs erupt all over the country under the imperturbable eyes of the English. The leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine – of the yishuv – continue to acquire land no less than before. In 1943, the first points of settlement are established in Gvulot, Beit Eshel and Revivim, which are followed by the establishment of eleven localities during the night of October 6, 1946 and of four others in December of 1947. Taking advantage of the evacuation of the British from Palestine to invade the Negev, the Egyptian army occupies Beersheva in 1948. Recovered by the Israelis in October 1948 , it welcomes new immigrants from different countries, especially Morocco, Poland, Russia and India. In 1949, the armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt leave all the Negev, with the exception of the Gaza strip, to the Israelis. The urban and agricultural development of the region would intensify with the construction of the aqueduct that drew water from the Yarkon during the fifties and then from the national water main that is fed by Lake Tiberias in the sixties. Beersheva would become the capital of the Negev with its mining industries, Ben Gurion University and its solar energy and agricultural research institutions in the arid environment . Today, it has a population of almost 150, 000 inhabitants.