Yeruham Well

The story

At the western entrance to Yeruham, next to Tel Rahma, is an ancient well — Bir Rahma, the well of mercy. Professor Yohanan Aharoni identified it with the well that Hagar found at the time when she strayed with her son Ishmael in the wilderness of Beersheba, as told in the Book of Genesis. Tel Rahma itself, adjacent to the well, is identified with ancient Yeruham. The name Yerham is mentioned for the first time in the Shishak inscription, which documents his invasion of the Land of Israel at the end of the tenth century BCE, in the phrase "Arad of the house of Yerham". Yeruham sits on the ancient way of Atharim, which came from Kadesh Barnea by way of today's Sde Boker and up to Arad, and along it many fortresses from the period of the kings of Judah have been found.

• Biblical
• Water and wells
• Bedouin
• Yeruham