Bible Strands
Nehemiah 11:27
in Hazar-shual; in Beersheba and its villages;
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Nehemiah records the post-exilic resettlement of Judah, cataloging the towns and families returning to their ancestral lands. This verse operates as a geographic entry within that administrative census of southern communities.
The words — The text records חֲצַר שׁוּעָל (ḥăṣar šûʿāl), literally "Hazar of the Fox," and בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע (bəʾēr šᵉḇaʿ), meaning "Well of the Oath." It appends בְּנֹתֶיהָ (bənoṯêhā), "daughters of it," to designate the dependent villages belonging to Beersheba.
The thread — These names recur in Genesis 21:31 and 26:33 as locations of patriarchal oath-swearing and in Joshua 15:28 as boundary markers of the southern tribal inheritance. Nehemiah 11:27 repurposes these ancient territorial designations to map the restored Judahite settlements.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that the post-exilic community's identity is anchored in specific, historically named geography. It requires the reader to trace the continuity between ancestral land claims and the practical administration of a rebuilt society.
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
And at Hazar–shual, and at Beer–sheba, and in the villages thereof,
Cross-references
- Genesis 21:31 So that place was called Beersheba, because it was there that the two of them swore an oath.
- Genesis 26:33 So he called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the city is Beersheba.
- Joshua 15:28 Hazar-shual, Beersheba, Biziothiah,
- Joshua 19:3 Hazar-shual, Balah, Ezem,
- Judges 20:1 Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.