Well
Well
(prop. , beer, , a dug source of living, though not running, water; but well is an occasional rendering in the A. V. likewise of , b6r, 2Sa 3:26; 2Sa 23:15-16; 1Ch 11:17-18; 2Ch 26:10, a pit, i.e. cistern; also of , mayan, Jos 18:15; 2Ki 3:19; 2Ki 3:25; Psa 84:6, a fountain; of , makior, Pro 10:11, a fountain; and even of 2, , Gen 24:13; Gen 24:16; Gen 24:29-30; Gen 24:42-43; Gen 24:45; Gen 49:22, a living spring; and so of , Joh 4:6; Joh 4:14), . The difference between a well (beer) and a cistern (br ) consists chiefly in the use of the former word to denote a receptacle for water springing up freshly from the ground, while the latter usually denotes a reservoir for rain-water (Gen 26:19; Gen 26:32; Pro 5:15; Joh 4:14). SEE CISTERN.
Both these Heb. words come from a root ( or ) significant of digging, and are thus distinguished from a natural fountain. The formier (beer) is still represented by the Arabic bir, used in the same sense; but the latter (br) has in modern times given place to birket (=, ), which signifies an open pool of surface water. SEE TOPOGRAPHICAL TERMS.
The first well mentioned in Scripture is in the wilderness, in the way to Shur, where Hagar sat down when fleeing from Sarai, which was afterwards called Beer-lahai-roi, the well of him that liveth and seeth me (Gen 16:14), between Kadesh and Bered. It is called both a fountain and a ell. The second well mentioned is also in connection with Hagar’s history (Gen 21:19) in the wilderness of Beersheba. After this a good many wells are mentioned the wells of Beersheba, which remain to this day (Gen 26:25); the Mesopotamian well (Gen 24:11), at the city of Nahor; the wells in Gerar (Gen 26:15; Gen 26:18); the well Esek (Gen 26:20); the, well Sitnah (Gen 26:21); the well Rehoboth (Gen 26:22); the well in Haran (29:2); the wells of Elim (Exo 15:27); the well dug by the princes (Numbers 21:61); the well of Nephtoah (Jos 18:15); the great well in Sechu (1Sa 19:22); the well of Bethlehem by the gate (2Sa 23:16); the well of a rod (Jdg 7:1); Jacob’s well, on the low slope of Gerizim (Joh 4:6).SEE FOUNTAIN.
The importance of wells is very great, especially in the desert, where the means of forming them are deficient, as well as the supply of labor necessary for such undertakings, which, after all, are not always rewarded by the discovery of a supply of water. Hence in such situations, and indeed in the settled countries also, the wells are of the utmost value, and the water in most cases-is very frugally used (Num 20:17-19; Deu 2:6; Deu 2:28; Job 22:7). It is, however, not merely the value of the well itself, but certain other considerations that explain the contests about wells which we find in the histories of Abraham and Isaac (Gen 21:25-31; Gen 26:15-22). The special necessity of a supply of water (Jdg 1:15) in a hot climate has always involved among Eastern nations questions of property of the highest importance, and sometimes given rise to serious contention. To give a name to a well denoted a right of property, and to stop or destroy one once dug was a military expedient, a mark of conquest, or an encroachment on territorial right claimed or existing in its neighborhood. Thus, the well Beersheba was opened, and its possession attested with special formality by Abraham (Gen 21:30-31).
In the hope of expelling Isaac from their neighborhood, the Philistines stopped up the wells which had been dug in Abraham’s time and called by his name, an encroachment which was stoutly resisted by the followers of Isaac (Gen 26:15-33; see also 2Ki 3:19; 2Ch 26:10; comp. Burckhardt, Notes on the Bed. 2, 185, 194, 204, 276). The Koran notices abandoned wells as signs of desertion (sur. 22). To acquire wells which they had not themselves dug was one of the marks of favor foretold to the Hebrews on their entrance into Canaan (Deu 6:11). To possess one is noticed as a mark of independence (Pro 5:15), and to abstain from the use of wells belonging to others, a disclaimer of interference with their property (Num 20:17; Num 20:19; Num 21:22). Similar rights of possession, actual and hereditary, exist among the Arabs of the present day. Wells, Burckhardt says, in the interior of the desert, are exclusive property, either of a whole tribe, or of individuals whose ancestors dug the wells. If a well be the property of a tribe, the tents are pitched near it, whenever rain-water becomes scarce in the desert; and no other Arabs are then permitted to water their camels. But if the well belongs to an individual, he receives presents from all strange tribes who; pass or encamp at the well, and refresh their camels with the water of it. The property of such a well is never alienated; and the Arabs say that the possessor is sure to be fortunate, as all who drink of the water bestow on him their benedictions (Notes on the Bed. 1, 228, 229; comp. Num 21:17-18, and Jdg 1:15).
It is thus easy to understand how wells have become in many cases links in the history and landmarks in the topography both of Palestine and of the Arabian Peninsula. The well once dug in the rocky soil of Palestine might be filled, with earth or stones, but was with difficulty destroyed, and thus the wadys of Beersheba, and the well near Nablius, called Jacob’s Well, are among the most undoubted witnesses of those transactions of sacred history in which they have borne, so to speak, a prominent part. On the other hand, the wells dug in the sandy soil of the Arabians valleys, easily, destroyed, but easily renewed, often mark, by their ready: supply, the stations at which the Hebrew pilgrims slaked their thirst, or, as at Marah, were disappointed by the bitterness of the water. In like manner the stations of the Mohammedan pilgrims from Cairo and Damascus to Mecca (the Haj route) are marked by the wells (Robinson, 1, 66, 69, 204, 205; 2, 283; Burckhardt, Sy, Syia, p. 318, 472, 474; App. 3, 656, (660; Shaw, Trav. p. 314; Niebuhr, Descrip. de I’Alabie, p. 347, 348; Wellsted, Tasm. 2, 40, 43, 64, 457, App.).
Wells in Palestine are usually excavated from the solid limestone rock, sometimes with steps to descend into them (Gen 21:16; see Burckhardt, Syria, p. 232; Col. Ch. Chronicles 1858, p. 470). The brims are furnished with a curb or low wall of stone, bearing marks of high antiquity in the furrows worn by the ropes used in drawing water (Robinson, 1, 204). This curb, as well as the stone cover, which is also very usual, agrees with the directions of the law, as explained by Philo and Josephus, viz. as a protection against accident (Exo 21:33; comp. Josephus, Ant. 4:8, 37; Philo, De Spec. Leg. 3, 27; 2, 324, ed. Mangey; see Maundrell, in Early Tray. p. 435). It was on a curb of this sort that our Lord sat when he conversed with the woman of Samaria (Joh 4:6); and it was this, the usual stone cover, which the woman placed on the mouth of the well at Bahurim (2Sa 17:19), where the A. V. weakens the sense by omitting the article (; Sept. ; Vulg. elamen). Sometimes the wells are covered with cupolas raised on pillars (Burckhardt, App. 5, p. 665).
A well was often covered with a great stone, which being removed, the person descended some steps to the surface of the water, and on his return poured into a trough that which he had brought up (Gen 24:11; Gen 24:15; Gen 29:3-10; Exo 2:16; Jdg 5:11). There is, in fact, no intimation of any other way of drawing water from wells in Scripture. But as this could only be applicable in cases where the well was not deep, we must assume that they had the use of those contrivances which are still employed in the East, and some of which are known from the Egyptian monuments to have been very ancient. This conclusion is the more probable as the wells in Palestine are mostly deep (Pro 20:5; Joh 4:11). Jacob’s Well near Shechem is said to be 120 feet deep, with only fifteen feet of water in it (Maundrell, Journey, March 24); and the labor of drawing from so deep a well probably originated the first reluctance of the woman of Samaria to draw water for Jesus: Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. SEE JACOBS WELL.
From this deeper kind of well the usual methods for raising water are the following: 1. The rope and bucket, or water-skin (Gen 24:14-20; Joh 4:11). When the well is deep, the rope is either drawn over the curb by the man or woman, who pulls it out to the distance of its full length, or by an ass or ox employed in the same way for the same purpose. Sometimes a pulley or wheel is fixed over the well to assist the work (Robinson, 1, 204; 2, 248; Niebuhr, Descr. de l’Arabie, p. 137, pl. 15; Col. Ch. Chronicles 1859, p; 350; Chardin, Voy. 4:98; Wellsted, Trav. 1, 280). 2. The sakiyeh, or Persian wheel. This consists of a vertical wheel furnished with a set of buckets or earthen jars attached to a cord passing over the wheel, which descend empty and return full as the wheel revolves. On the axis of the wheel revolves a second wheel parallel to it, with cogs which turn a third wheel set horizontally at a sufficient height from the ground to allow the animal used in turning it to pass under. One or two cows or bulls are yoked to a pole which passes through the axis of this wheel, and as they travel round it turn the whole machine (Num 24:7; see Lane, Mod. Egypt. 2, 163; Niebuhr, Voy. 1, 120; Col. Ch. Chronicles 1859, p. 352; Shaw, p. 291, 408). 3. A modification of the last method, by which a man, sitting opposite to a wheel furnished with buckets, turns it by drawing with his hands one set of spokes prolonged beyond its circumference, and pushing another set from him with his feet (Niebuhr, Voy. 1, 120, pl. 15; Robinson, 2, 22; 3, 89). 4. A method very common, both in ancient and modern Egypt, is the shaduf, a simple contrivance consisting of a lever moving on a pivot, which is loaded at one end with a lump of clay or some other weight, and has at the other a bowl or bucket. This is let down into the water, and, when raised, emptied into a, receptacle above (Niebuhr, Voy. 1, 120; Lane, Mod. Egypt. 2, 163; Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 1, 35, 72; 2, 4). SEE IRRIGATION.
Wells are usually furnished with troughs of wood or stone (; Sept. ; Vulg. canalis), into which the water is emptied for the use of persons or animals coming to the wells. In modern times an old stone sarcophagus is often used for this purpose. The bucket is very commonly of skin (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 63; Robinson, 1, 204; 2, 21, 315; 3, 35, 89, 109, 134; Lord Lindsay, Trav. p. 235, 237; Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. loc. cit.; comp. Gen 24:20; Exo 2:16). Unless machinery is used, which is commonly worked by men, women are usually the water-carriers. They carry home their water-jars on their heads (Lindsay, p. 236). SEE DRAWER OF WATER. Great contentions often occur at the wells, and they are often, among Bedawin, favorite places for attack by enemies (Exo 2:16-17; Jdg 5:11; 2Sa 23:15-16). See Burckhardt, Syria, p. 63; Notes on the Bed. 1, 228; Col. Ch. Chronicles 1859, p. 473; Lane, Alod. Egypt. 1, 252; Robinson, 3, 153; Hackett, Illustr. of Scripto. p. 88-93. See WATER.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Well
(Heb. beer), to be distinguished from a fountain (Heb. ‘ain). A “beer” was a deep shaft, bored far under the rocky surface by the art of man, which contained water which percolated through the strata in its sides. Such wells were those of Jacob and Beersheba, etc. (See Gen. 21:19, 25, 30, 31; 24:11; 26:15, 18-25, 32, etc.). In the Pentateuch this word beer, so rendered, occurs twenty-five times.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Well
(See FOUNTAIN.) As ”Ayin, “fount,” literally, “eye”, refers to the water springing up to us, so beer, “well,” from a root “to bore,” refers to our finding our way down to it. The Bir- and the En- are always distinct. The rarity of wells in the Sinaitic region explains the national rejoicings over Beer or the well, afterward Beer-Elim, “well of heroes” (Num 21:16-17-18,22). God commanded Moses to cause the well to be dug; princes, nobles, and people, all heartily, believingly, and joyfully cooperated in the work. Naming a well marked right of property in it. To destroy it denoted conquest or denial of right of property (Gen 21:30-31; Gen 26:15-33; 2Ki 3:19; Deu 6:11; Num 20:17; Num 20:19; Pro 5:15). “Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well,” i.e. enjoy the love of thine own wife alone.
Wells and cisterns are the two sources of oriental supply, each house had its own cistern (2Ki 18:31); to thirst for filthy waters is suicidal. Son 4:12; in Palestine wells are excavated in the limestone, with steps descending to them (Gen 24:16). A low stone wall for protection (Exo 21:33) surrounds the brim; on it sat our Lord in conversing with the Samaritan woman (Joh 4:6; Joh 4:11). A stone cover was above; this the woman placed on the well at Bahurim (2Sa 17:19), translated “the woman spread the covering over the well’s mouth.” A rope and bucket or water skin raised the water; the marks of the rope are still visible in the furrows worn in the low wall. See Num 24:7, “he shall stream with water out of his two buckets,” namely, suspended from the two ends of a pole, the usual way of fetching water from the Euphrates in Balaam’s neighbourhood.
Wells are often contended for and are places of Bedouin attacks on those drawing water (Exo 2:16-17; Jdg 5:11; 2Sa 23:15-16). Oboth (Num 21:10-11) means holes dug in the ground for water. Beerlahairoi is the first well mentioned (Gen 16:14). Beersheba, Rehoboth, and Jacob’s well are leading instances of wells (Gen 21:19; Gen 26:22). They are sunk much deeper than ours, to prevent drying up. Jacob’s well is 75 ft. deep, seven feet six inches in diameter, and lined with rough masonry; a pitcher unbroken at the bottom evidenced that there was water at some seasons, otherwise the fall would have broken the pitcher.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Well
WELL (, , Joh 4:6; Joh 4:11).The one well mentioned in the Gospels is that of Jacob, near ancient Shechem, under the northern cliffs of Gerizim. There is no reasonable doubt that this is the well pointed out to this day as Br Yakb in the eastern opening of the pass of Nblus. Samaritan, Jewish, Christian, and Moslem traditions support this identification with absolute unanimity. See Jacobs Well.
There is a law of the well in the East, which, although unwritten, receives well-nigh universal homage. Drawing water from the cisterns or wells that abound in Palestine occupies much of the womens time. The stones round the mouth of many a well are scored deeply by friction of the ropes to which the bucket or leather daluw is attached. Few experiences are more trying than to pass one of these wells in the heat, seeing the water in the cool depths but having nothing to draw with. The appeal of the thirsty to one drawing, Give me to drink, is never refused. While surprised that a Jew, even when urged by thirst, should thus accost a Samaritan, the woman did not deny the Saviours request. Even a Metwileh, one of the most fanatical of all Oriental sects, will give water to the thirsty, if appealed to, although to avoid the possibility of pollution he must destroy the vessel from which the infidel has drunk.
W. Ewing.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Well
WELL.See Cistern, Fountain, Water.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Well
(1) (, be’er; compare Arabic bi’r, well or cistern; usually artificial: And Isaac’s servants digged (dug) in the valley, and found there a well of springing (margin living) water (Gen 26:19); some times covered: Jacob … rolled the stone from the well’s mouth (Gen 29:10). Be’er may also be a pit: The vale of Siddim was full of slime pits (Gen 14:10); the pit of destruction (Psa 55:23). (2) (, bor), usually pit: Let us slay him, and cast him into one of the pits (Gen 37:20); may be well: drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem (2Sa 23:16).
(3) (, pege), usually running water, fount, or source: Doth the fountain send forth from the same opening sweet water and bitter? (Jam 3:11); may be well; compare Jacob’s well (Joh 4:6). (4) (, phrear), usually pit: the pit of the abyss (Rev 9:1); but well; compare Jacob’s well (Joh 4:11, Joh 4:12): Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a well (the King James Version pit) (Luk 14:5). (5) (, krene), wells (Sirach 48:17), Latin, fons, spring (2 Esdras 2:32).
(6) , ayin, compare Arabic ain fountain, spring: the fountain (English Versions of the Bible) which is in Jezreel (1Sa 29:1); In Elim were twelve springs (the King James Version fountains of water (Num 33:9); She (Rebekah) went down to the fountain (the King James Version well) (Gen 24:16); the jackal’s well (the English Revised Version the dragon’s well, the King James Version the dragon well) (Neh 2:13). (7) (, mayan), same root as (6); the fountain (the King James Version well) of the waters of Nephtoah (Jos 18:15); Passing through the valley of Weeping (the King James Version Baca) they make it a place of springs (the King James Version well) (Psa 84:6); Ye shall draw water out of the wells of salvation (Isa 12:3). (8) (, makor), usually figurative: With thee is the fountain of life (Psa 36:9); The mouth of the righteous is a fountain (the King James Version well) of life (Pro 10:11); make her (Babylon’s) fountain (the King James Version spring) dry (Jer 51:36); a corrupted spring (Pro 25:26). (9) (, mabbua), root , nabha, to flow, spring, bubble up; compare Arabic (nab, manba, yanbu) fountain: or the pitcher is broken at the fountain (Ecc 12:6); the thirsty ground springs of water (Isa 35:7). (10) (, moca’), spring, root , yaca’, to go out, the dry land springs of water (Isa 41:18); a dry land into watersprings (Psa 107:35); the upper spring of the waters of Gihon (2Ch 32:30). (11) (, nebhekh), root uncertain, reading doubtful; only in Job 38:16, Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? (12) (, tehom), deep, abyss; compare Gen 1:2; translated springs, the King James Version depths (Deu 8:7). (13) (, gal), (root , galal), to roll; compare Gilgal (Jos 5:9); a spring shut up (Son 4:12). (14) (, gullah), bowl, basin, pool, same root: Give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper sprigs and the nether springs (Jos 15:19); compare Arabic (kullat), pronounced gullat, a marble, a cannon-ball.
As is clear from references cited above, wells and springs were not sharply distinguished in name, though be’er, and phrear are used mainly of wells, and ayin, mayan, moca’, mabbua and (poetically) makor are chiefly used of fountains. The Arabic bi’r, the equivalent of the Hebrew be’er, usually denotes a cistern for rain-water, though it may be qualified as bi’r jam, well of gathering, i.e. for rain-water, or as bi’r nab, well of springing water. A spring or natural fountain is called in Arabic ain or nab (compare Hebrew ayin and mabbua). These Arabic and Hebrew words for well and spring figure largely in place-names, modern and ancient: Beer (Num 21:16); Beer-elim (Isa 15:8), etc.; Ain (a) on the northeast boundary of Palestine (Num 34:11), (b) in the South of Judah, perhaps = En-rimmon (Jos 15:32); Enaim (Gen 38:14); Enam (Jos 15:34), etc. Modern Arabic names with ain are very numerous, e.g. Ainul-fashkhah, Ain-ul-hajleh, Ain-karim, etc. See CISTERN; FOUNTAIN; PIT; POOL.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Well
[WATER]
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Well
Well. Wells in Palestine are usually excavated from the solid limestone rock, sometimes with steps to descend into them. Gen 24:16. The brims are furnished with a curb or low wall of stone, bearing marks of high antiquity in the furrows worn by the ropes used in drawing water. It was on a curb of this sort that our Lord sat when he conversed with the woman of Samaria, Joh 4:6, and it was this, the usual stone cover, which the woman placed on the mouth of the well at Bahurim, 2Sa 17:19, where the Authorized Version weakens the sense by omitting the article. The usual methods for raising water are the following:
1. The rope and bucket, or waterskin. Gen 24:14-20; Joh 4:11.
2. The sakiyeh, or Persian wheel. This consists of a vertical wheel furnished with a set of buckets or earthen jars attached to a cord passing over the wheel. Which descend empty and return full as the wheel revolves.
3. A modification of the last method, the Persian wheel, by which a man, sitting opposite to a wheel furnished with buckets, turns it by drawing with his hands one set of spokes prolonged beyond its circumference, and pushing another set from him with his feet.
4. A method very common in both ancient and modern Egypt is the shadoof, a simple contrivance consisting of a lever moving on a pivot, which is loaded at one end with a lump of clay or some other weight, and has at the other a bowl or bucket. Wells are usually furnished with troughs of wood or stone into which the water is emptied for the use of persons or animals coming to the wells. Unless machinery is used, which is commonly worked by men, women are usually the water-carriers.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
WELL
Well is a pit sunk below the surface of the earth; and it may signify any obscure place, out of which it is hard to draw any thing which seems to be buried therein.
In the Eastern countries the prisons wherein slaves were shut were generally made like pits or dens under ground; and so were their graves, being made as a pit, vaulted and built with stone, or out of a rock, and then covered with a large stone; which was the Egyptian manner, and of the Phrygians too, as appears from Homer.f1 Hence it comes that graves were compared to prisons, and prisons to graves; and that in Isa 24:22, the pit there mentioned is explained of a prison; and so a prison is called puteus, a pit, in Plautus;f2
” Vincite, verberate, in puteum condite.”
So that a well or pit without water, singly considered, may, as the case requires, either signify the grave or a prison.
F1 Hom. Il. w. ver. 797.
F2 Plaut. Aulular. A. ii. Sc. v.
Fuente: A Symbolical Dictionary
Well
Gen 21:19 (c) We may use this as a type of that sweet experience of the soul wherein the desolate and distracted Christian finds precious truths in the Word of GOD. Water may represent blessed promises, in which relief and refreshment are found.
Gen 24:11 (c) We may consider this as a type of the Word of GOD and the Spirit of GOD. The believer, living in the blessings of both of these, may expect to be led into paths of profit and usefulness in his journey. (See also Gen 49:22).
Psa 84:6 (a) It is the privilege of the child of GOD, to turn deserts into gardens. Many times in our lives dry, deserted valleys are changed into sweet, rich mountain tops of joy and peace, as the grace of GOD is seen and experienced.
Pro 5:15 (a) This well refers to the privileges and blessings of one’s own home. There, with the wife of his youth, he may enjoy all that his heart desires, instead of seeking for satisfaction elsewhere.
Pro 10:11 (a) The Lord expects that the man of GOD will be a source of rich blessing for his neighbors, and those who observe him, or have contact with him. Out of the life of the godly man there should emanate the blessings of helpfulness, sympathy and kindness which enrich the lives of others.
Isa 12:3 (a) There are unlimited treasures found in the Christian life. They are called “wells” in this passage, because they bring untold blessings to the hearts of the people of GOD who come into GOD’s family. These may consist of love, joy, peace, rest, comfort, happiness, gladness, zeal, vision, confidence and trust. Faith is prominent and greatly enriches the life. Fruitfulness also is present and the life becomes radiant with usefulness. These are the wells of salvation. Let us drink deeply from them.
Joh 4:14 (a) This is plainly a type of the Holy Spirit abounding abundantly in the soul of the Christian. When He is acknowledged and given the place of Lordship in the heart and life, He will make His presence felt. He fills the heart with the joy of the Lord, and sweet hopefulness in service.
2Pe 2:17 (b) This type beautifully represents the ungodly leader or teacher who has a religious message, but with no power from Heaven, and no life for those who listen. He may have a muscular Christianity, with lots of noise, illustrations and activities, but he gives no living water to those who listen. He disappoints his hearers.