Beer means a spring and Sheva means an oath, and the two combine to form the name of the city that is known as the capital of the Negev of modern Israel.

Ancient Beersheba is where the Patriarch Avraham discovered a spring and where he made a covenant with the Philistines which he sealed with an oath. The well built on this spring was eventually stuffed up by the Philistines until the Patriarch Yitzchak restored it to use. Like his father he also made a covenant with the Philistines and reinstituted the name given to it, which became the name of the city which grew around it.