Beersheba—The Last Stop and a Point of Beginning

What God told Jacob there also applies to you.

Just say the name, “Beersheba,” and images come to mind of an old, crusty patriarch leaning on his staff in the dry winds of the wilderness. I imagine Abraham squinting through the head covering that shelters his wrinkled face and thirsty lips. He scans the barren Negev for thieves.

(Tel Beersheba, courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Not for thieves who would take his flocks or possessions, but for those who would steal water—the Negev’...