Hebrew word · H883

בְּאֵר לַחַי רֹאִי

be'er

Beer-lahai-roi

Beʾer means a dug well, as opposed to a spring or cistern. Laḥai is most often read as 'of the Living One', from ḥai, 'living'. Roʾi is 'seeing me' or 'my seer', from raʾah, 'to see'. 'Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi' (16:14).

Appears 9 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

§ Beer-lahai-roi = "well of the Living One seeing me"

a well west of Kadesh, south of Israel

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 25:11

Range of meaning

Beʾer means a dug well, as opposed to a spring or cistern. Laḥai is most often read as 'of the Living One', from ḥai, 'living'. Roʾi is 'seeing me' or 'my seer', from raʾah, 'to see'. The text itself explains the name: after God's messenger found the runaway, pregnant Hagar, she called the LORD 'El-roi' ('God of seeing' or 'God who sees me') and said, 'Have I really seen here the one who sees me?' (16:13). 'Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi' (16:14).

Against the English

Most versions keep the Hebrew name (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV). KJV has 'the well Lahai-roi'. YLT translates it as 'the Well of the Living One, my Beholder', which brings out meaning the others hide. Readers who don't know Hebrew miss that the place name holds a whole story.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the Bible the name appears only in Genesis 16:14, 24:62 and 25:11. Genesis 16:14 places it 'between Kadesh and Bered' in the Negev, the dry south. The Greek Septuagint translated rather than transliterated it, for example as 'the well of the vision' in 24:62 and 25:11. Jerome's Latin Vulgate gives roughly 'the well named of the Living and Seeing One'.

Where it appears

Genesis · 9

  1. Genesis 16:14 בְּאֵ֥ר לַחַ֖י רֹאִ֑י Beer, Lahai, Roi

    Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi. It is located between Kadesh and Bered.

  2. Genesis 24:62 בְּאֵ֥ר לַחַ֖י רֹאִ֑י Beer, Lahai, Roi

    Now Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negev.

  3. Genesis 25:11 בְּאֵ֥ר לַחַ֖י רֹאִֽי׃ ס Beer, Lahai, Roi

    After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near Beer-lahai-roi.

    Here: A well, which in the arid Negev was the most valuable thing a herding family could control. It is the first part of a place name.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.