Bible Strands
Genesis 16:14
Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator identifies a well’s name and location following Hagar’s wilderness encounter with the LORD. This statement bridges Hagar’s divine declaration in the preceding verse and the birth record of Abram’s son in the following verse.
The words — The place name combines בְּאֵר (be'er, "well") with לַחַי רֹאִי (laChai Ro'i, "of the One who sees"). These lexical components directly encode Hagar’s preceding confession that she has witnessed the God who perceives her.
The thread — The site functions as a geographic anchor in later patriarchal records, marking where Isaac returned from and where he resided after Abraham’s death (Genesis 24:62; 25:11). Its recurrence ties the family’s territorial history to a specific moment of divine visibility.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that divine encounters leave permanent geographical and historical markers. Readers must track how God’s self-revelation at a specific location shapes the subsequent movements and inheritance of the covenant line.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Wherefore the well was called Beer–lahai–roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
Cross-references
- Genesis 24:62 Now Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negev.
- Genesis 25:11 After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near Beer-lahai-roi.
- Genesis 21:31 So that place was called Beersheba, because it was there that the two of them swore an oath.
- Numbers 13:26 and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.
- Genesis 14:7 Then they turned back to invade En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh), and they conquered the whole territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-tamar.