What does בְּאֵר (bĕʾēr) mean in the Bible?
A well gives access to water and often brings people together around a necessary resource. Hagar sees a well after God hears the boy's distress, and she gives him a drink.
Hebrew · H875
בְּאֵר
A well gives access to water and often brings people together around a necessary resource. Hagar sees a well after God hears the boy's distress, and she gives him a drink.
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
בְּאֵרH875
Pronunciationbĕʾēr
What does בְּאֵר (bĕʾēr) mean in the Bible?
Reader summary
Full entry for בְּאֵר (H875) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H875?
The BSB source-word alignment has 37 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a well (8), the well (7), of the well (6), well (4), . . . (2).
Where does בְּאֵר (bĕʾēr) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 14:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (23), Numbers (5), 2 Samuel (3), Proverbs (2).
What This Word Actually Means
A well gives access to water and often brings people together around a necessary resource. Hagar sees a well after God hears the boy's distress, and she gives him a drink. Isaac's servants find water, but other herdsmen dispute their claim, making access a matter of conflict as well as discovery. Moses sits beside a well after fleeing to Midian and helps women whose flock has been driven away from the water.
These accounts make the place important through thirst, competing claims, or protection of people using it. The noun itself does not guarantee that every discovery is a promise of prosperity or that every conflict should be solved in exactly Isaac's way. Reading the people, needs, and actions around the well reveals how concrete provision belongs within the larger narrative.
How the Bible Uses It
Hagar's drink for her son, Isaac's disputed access, and Moses' help at Midian show why a water source can become a consequential meeting place. Its narrated role depends on who needs it and who permits access.
- Gen.21.19
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
After God hears the boy, Hagar sees a well, fills the water skin and gives him a drink, making the provision concrete within their wilderness distress.
- Gen.26.20
But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him.
The herdsmen's claim that the water belongs to them creates a dispute over the well found by Isaac's servants; the place's name records that contention.
- Exod.2.15
When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.
Moses arrives beside a Midianite well as a fugitive, and the following encounter shows him helping the priest's daughters regain access for their flock.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Ita well8×Genesis 21:19, Genesis 21:25, Genesis 26:19, Genesis 26:25
the well7×Genesis 16:14, Genesis 24:11, Genesis 24:20, Genesis 26:20
of the well6×Genesis 29:2, Genesis 29:3, Genesis 29:8, Genesis 29:10
well4×Genesis 21:30, Genesis 26:21, Genesis 29:2, Proverbs 23:27
. . .2×Genesis 14:10, Genesis 26:22
from any well2×Numbers 20:17, Numbers 21:22
the wells2×Genesis 26:15, Genesis 26:18
O well1×Numbers 21:17
out of the well1×2 Samuel 17:21
pits1×Genesis 14:10
the Pit1×Psalms 69:15
to the Pit1×Psalms 55:23
your own well1×Proverbs 5:15
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 14:10בֶּֽאֱרֹ֤תtopitsNoun - feminine plural constructGenesis 14:10בֶּאֱרֹת֙to. . .Noun - feminine plural constructGenesis 16:14לַבְּאֵ֔רtothe wellPreposition-l, Article | Noun - feminine singularGenesis 21:19בְּאֵ֣רtoa wellNoun - feminine singular constructGenesis 21:25בְּאֵ֣רtoa wellNoun - feminine singular constructGenesis 21:30הַבְּאֵ֥רtowellArticle | Noun - feminine singularGenesis 24:11בְּאֵ֣רtothe wellNoun - feminine singular constructGenesis 24:20הַבְּאֵ֖רtothe wellArticle | Noun - feminine singularGenesis 26:15הַבְּאֵרֹ֗תtothe wellsArticle | Noun - feminine pluralGenesis 26:18בְּאֵרֹ֣תtothe wellsNoun - feminine plural construct
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 14:10
Aligned rows37
Books represented7
Genesis23Exodus1Numbers52 Samuel3Psalms2Proverbs2Song Of Solomon1
Source forms
בְּאֵ֣ר6xbə·’êrGenesis 21:19, Genesis 21:25, Genesis 24:11, Genesis 26:21
הַבְּאֵ֖ר3xhab·bə·’êrGenesis 24:20, Genesis 26:32, Genesis 29:3
הַבְּאֵ֔ר3xhab·bə·’êrGenesis 29:3, Genesis 29:10, 2 Samuel 17:19
בְאֵ֑ר2xḇə·’êrNumbers 20:17, Numbers 21:22
בְּאֵ֖ר2xbə·’êrGenesis 26:19, Song Of Solomon 4:15
הַבְּאֵֽר׃2xhab·bə·’êrGenesis 29:2, Exodus 2:15
בְאֵ֣ר1xḇə·’êrGenesis 29:2
בְאֵ֖ר1xḇə·’êrNumbers 21:17
Parsing patterns
Article | Noun - feminine singular13xGenesis 21:30, Genesis 24:20, Genesis 26:20, Genesis 26:32
Noun - feminine singular10xGenesis 26:21, Genesis 26:22, Genesis 26:25, Genesis 29:2
Noun - feminine singular construct5xGenesis 21:19, Genesis 21:25, Genesis 24:11, Genesis 26:19
Noun - feminine plural construct3xGenesis 14:10, Genesis 26:18
Article | Noun - feminine plural1xGenesis 26:15
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular1xProverbs 23:27
Noun - feminine singular construct | second person masculine singular1xProverbs 5:15
Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular construct1xPsalms 55:23
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Offer practical relief where water and other necessities are inaccessible instead of replacing material help with a metaphor.
- Use the dispute narratives thoughtfully without giving property-law directions or demanding unsafe surrender of necessary access.
Avoid claiming...
- Finding a well does not promise financial increase to every believer; the selected narratives describe water needs, contested access and particular divine provision.
- The water in every Old Testament well is not explicitly identified as eternal life, whereas Jesus establishes that distinction in His own John 4 conversation.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. A well as life-sustaining water source; carries covenantal weight in patriarchal narratives and divine provision contexts
Source Gloss
a pit ; especially a well
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
A well as life-sustaining water source; carries covenantal weight in patriarchal narratives and divine provision contexts
a pit; especially a well BDB: well Usage: pit, well.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
A water source disputed between parties, literal infrastructure
A communal water source where shepherds gather livestock to drink
Metaphorical danger or trap set by an immoral woman
Metaphorical figure for a wife and marital intimacy in wisdom context
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 37 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
בְּאֵר is built from this root:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Water can be present while access remains contested. Genesis 26 records a fresh well and immediately follows it with the herdsmen's quarrel. Exodus 2 likewise places women at a water source but shows other shepherds driving them away, until Moses intervenes and waters their flock. Hagar's account gives another view: God hears distress, she sees the well, and the boy receives the drink he needs.
The place is therefore more than scenery, yet its meaning still comes from the story around it. Teaching can attend to tangible help, protection and disputed resources without promising that every hardship ends in an equivalent discovery. When Jesus speaks of living water in John 4, His own words establish the gift's relation to eternal life rather than turning all earlier wells into identical symbols.
Anchor passage
Gen.21.19
Doctrinal connections
- Genesis 21:17-19 connects God's hearing of the boy with Hagar's concrete act of giving him water.
- Genesis 26:19-20 records the difference between finding fresh water and obtaining undisputed access to it.
- Genesis 26:22 reports Isaac's acknowledgment that the Lord has made room after an uncontested well is dug.
- Exodus 2:16-17 displays help through restoring the displaced women's access and watering their flock.
- Numbers 21:16 presents the gathering of Israel at a well under the Lord's stated promise of water.
- John 4:10-14 moves from a named well and recurring thirst to Jesus' promised gift springing up to eternal life.
This Hebrew noun can be rendered well or pit according to its referent. The selected passages specifically identify a water source; other pit imagery must be examined separately instead of importing danger or imprisonment into every well.
From Old to New Testament
The woman in John 4 asks about Jacob's well before Jesus contrasts its water with His gift leading to eternal life. That passage explicitly develops the comparison in different Greek wording; it gives a gospel connection without establishing that Hagar's or Isaac's wells independently predicted the entire conversation.