Rehoboth (Bible)
Encyclopedia
Rehoboth is the name of three Biblical
places:
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
places:
- A well in GerarGerarGerar - meaning "lodging-place" - was a Philistine town and district in what is today south central Israel. Archaeological evidence points to the town having come into existence with the arrival of the Philistines at around 1200 BC and having been little more than a village until 800-700...
dug by IsaacIsaacIsaac as described in the Hebrew Bible, was the only son Abraham had with his wife Sarah, and was the father of Jacob and Esau. Isaac was one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites...
(Gen. 26:22), supposed to be in Wady er-Ruheibeh, about 20 miles south of BeershebaBeershebaBeersheba is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. Often referred to as the "Capital of the Negev", it is the seventh-largest city in Israel with a population of 194,300....
. - An ancient city from which came SaulSaul (Edomite king)Saul was a king of Edom mentioned in the Bible, in Genesis 36:31-43. He succeeded Samlah of Masrekah in the apparently elective kingship of the early Edomites. He is described as being from "Rehoboth on the river"; . He was succeeded by Baal-hanan ben Achbor....
, an Edomite king (Gen. 36:37; 1 Chr. 1:48), "Rehoboth by the river." Since "the River" in the Bible generally is used about EuphratesEuphratesThe Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
, scholars have suggested either of two sites near the junction of the Khabur RiverKhabur RiverThe Khabur River , , , ) is the largest perennial tributary to the Euphrates in Syrian territory. Although the Khabur originates in Turkey, the karstic springs around Ra's al-'Ayn are the river's main source of water. Several important wadis join the Khabur north of Al-Hasakah, together creating...
and the EuphratesEuphratesThe Euphrates is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia...
. However, this would be a place far outside the Edomite territory. The river mentioned could be a river in the land of EdomEdomEdom or Idumea was a historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region...
, such as Wadi ZeredWadi ZeredThe Wadi Zered is a wadi in western Jordan. Also known in Jordan as Wadi-Hasa. In ancient times it was the boundary between Moab and Edom. Mentioned in the Torah ....
(also known as Wadi al-Hasa). Rehoboth could possibly be identical with a site southeast of the Dead SeaDead SeaThe Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
. - Rehoboth-IrRehoboth-IrRehoboth-Ir is a biblical town named in Genesis 10:11 as among those founded by either Asshur or Nimrod. Its exact geographic location is unknown. Rehoboth-Ir may possibly have been in the vicinity of the town of Nineveh...
.