and masonry, which still remain, being of immense proportions and apparently of great antiquity. Judging from the proximity of this well to Ruhaibeh, and the appearance of the masonry, which is more massive and antique than that of any others in the neighbourhood, we deemed it far from improbable that it is the well of Rehoboth, which we are told, in Gen. xxvi. 21, 22, that Isaac dug. The term Rehoboth (spaces), being in the plural, may well apply to any or all of the valleys between these low sloping hills; and the name Ruhaibeh, which still lingers in the neighbourhood, may be a reminiscence of the more general title, though now confined to a single spot." This is not the well, but one outside the ruins which lie in the Wády Rehoboth itself, which Dr. Rowlands identified as the Rehoboth of Isaac's diggings. Mr. Palmer heard of this well, and its situation was pointed out to him; but this did not alter the opinion he had previously formed. On passing out of the Wády Ruhaibeh, he tells us that the Wády el Bir "opens out and receives the name of Bahr-bela-mi (the waterless sea), and on the left comes in a small valley called Shutnet er Ruhabeh, in which name are preserved both the Sitnah and Rehoboth of the Bible."1 We must be content, it seems, with the two wells at Beer-sheba which lie near Rehoboth as the only two yet positively identified. When the whole district, however, has been thoroughly explored, and the site of Gerar discovered, and its numerous wells carefully examined, the names and the architecture may enable another Fergusson to fix for us the sites of more of the wells of Abraham and Isaac. That particular region-of which some idea, so different from that commonly entertained, may be gathered from the extracts already given-may fitly be called the haunt of Abraham and the homeland of Isaac. The notices 1 See The Desert of the Exodus, pp. 354-385. G of the places of residence of Abraham and Isaac, from the time of the first settlement at Mamre till the death of each, are to be found in the following passages :-Gen. xiii. 18; XX. 1; xxi. 14, 31-34; xxii. 19; xxiv. 62; xxv. 11; xxvi. 6, 17, 23; xxviii. 10; xxxv. 27. From a comparison of these it will appear that the last 100 years of Abraham's life were about equally divided between Hebron and Beersheba. Isaac manifested a decided predilection for the south country. He was born in it. By far the larger part of his life was spent in it. He was aged and blind before he took up his residence at Beer-sheba. His years at Hebron can scarcely be counted, so that the singular fact emerges from a study of the times and places of his residence, that he never, till age enfeebled him, moved farther than a two days' journey from the place of his birth; that he was at once the longest lived, and the least locomotive of the patriarchs. |