Baalath-beer

Baalath-beer ("mistress of the well") was a town allotted to the tribe of Simeon within the inheritance of Judah, described as "Baalath-beer, Ramah of the South" (Joshua 19:8, 1 Chronicles 4:33). The double name suggests it was a well-known waterhole on the southern frontier. The site has not been securely identified, but it lay somewhere in the western Negev wilderness, possibly the same place as Bealoth in Joshua 15:24, and is sometimes connected with Khirbet el-Mshash or Tel Beersheba's satellite settlements. As the southernmost border-town of Simeon's territory, it marked the limit of Israelite settlement before the open desert that ran down to Kadesh-barnea and the Wadi of Egypt.