Beer

Beer is a place name in the UPDV — Hebrew for "well" — and it surfaces twice, once on Israel's wilderness itinerary and once as the town where Jotham takes refuge from Abimelech. The two locations are distinct, but the underlying sense is the same: a settlement marked by its water source.

Beer in the Wilderness Itinerary

On the march toward the Jordan, Israel reaches a station that takes its name from the well there: "And from there [they journeyed] to Beer: that is the well of which Yahweh said to Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water" (Nu 21:16). What follows is the only song-fragment preserved from the journey: "Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well; you⁺ sing to it: The well, which the princes dug, Which the nobles of the people delved, With the scepter, [and] with their poles" (Nu 21:17-18). The itinerary then carries Israel onward — "And from the wilderness [they journeyed] to Mattanah" (Nu 21:18) — leaving Beer as a named stop remembered for water given and a song sung over the well.

Beer as Jotham's Refuge

The other Beer is a town. After Jotham delivers his fable against Abimelech from Mount Gerizim, he flees: "And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother" (Jud 9:21). The verse fixes Beer as the place of asylum but says nothing further about it.