BEER

1. Israelite campsite on their wilderness journey, probably just north of the Arnon River on the Moabite-Amorite border (Nm 21:16). The name means “a well.” Water from the well they dug there was commemorated in a song (Nm 21:17-18). A Moabite well that was later called Beer-elim (Is 15:8) may have been the same location. See Wilderness Wanderings.

2. Place to which Gideon’s son Jotham escaped after telling a parable against his half brother Abimelech, who had killed all the other sons of Gideon in an attempt to become king of Israel (Jgs 9:21).