BERSABE (anc. geog.), a town in the tribe of Simeon (Joshua); the south boundary not only of its own tribe but of the whole land of Israel, as appears from the common expression "from Dan to Bersabe;" in our translation it is Beer-Sheba. It was the residence of the patriarchs; as first of Abraham, from whom it took its name, and of Isaac. It signifies the
well or fountain of the oath; dug by Abraham, and claimed as his property by covenant and the religion of an oath, against the insults of the Philistines. Eusebius and Jerome say, that there was a citadel and large village of that name in their time. It was called Beer-sheba of Judah in 1 Kings xix. 3. not to distinguish it from the Beer-sheba of Galilee, which probably did not then exist, but to ascertain the limits of the king of Judah. In the lower age called Castum Versabini.