Lexicon
בְּאֵר
be.er
H0875
H:N-F Hebrew

well

37
Occurrences
7
Books
Hebrew
Language

be.er denotes a water source reached, covered, dug, drawn from, or used figuratively in comparison.

The term most often identifies a water source: people sit beside it, draw from it, dig it, cover its mouth, or dispute access to its water. A smaller group of verses uses the same noun in comparisons that portray a person or source of water through this image.

Senses in use

  1. Water source used, dug, and accessed · dominant

    In Genesis 24:11 the construct singular stands in the setting of women coming out to draw water, and in Genesis 29:2 the APB renders a source in a field from which flocks are watered and whose mouth is covered by a stone. Genesis 26:20 places the singular in a dispute over water, while 2 Samuel 17:18 describes men going down into a courtyard source; the plural forms in Genesis 26:15 refer to sources that had been dug and then stopped up.

  2. Image in comparison and description · occasional

    In Proverbs 23:27 the singular is part of a comparison in which the APB renders a foreign woman as “a narrow well.” In Song of Songs 4:15, the construct singular occurs in a descriptive sequence that the APB renders “a well of living waters that flow from Lebanon.”

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the supplied verses, the APB usually presents the noun as “well,” including sources of water that are dug, covered, or visited for drawing. In Proverbs 23:27 it uses “narrow well” in a comparison; Psalm 69:16 does not make the noun's contribution visible in the supplied translation.

Passages featuring this word

Across Scripture