Bible Dictionary
Rehoboth
Rehoboth means “broad places.” It was the name of a well dug by Isaac, a city near the Euphrates, and possibly a reference to the public squares of Nineveh.
Definition
Rehoboth means “broad places” or “streets.” The name belongs to a well dug by Isaac, an ancient city called Rehoboth by the river, and possibly the public square or streets of Nineveh.
Biblical Usage
Isaac named the well Rehoboth after finding room to prosper without dispute. The name also occurs in genealogical and geographical references connected with the Euphrates and Asshur.
Historical Background
The well is commonly identified with Ruchaibeh or Rubuta southwest of Beersheba. The site had extensive ruins, cisterns, and evidence of a once substantial settlement, though the identification is presented as probable.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Broad places. (1.) A well in Gerar dug by Isaac (Gen. 26:22), supposed to be in Wady er-Ruheibeh, about 20 miles south of Beersheba. (2.) An ancient city on the Euphrates (Gen. 36:37; 1 Chr. 1:48), “Rehoboth by the river.” (3.) Named among the cities of Asshur (Gen. 10:11). Probably, however, the words “rehoboth’ir” are to be translated as in the Vulgate and the margin of A.V., “the streets of the city,” or rather “the public square of the city”, i.e., of Nineveh.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(wide places, i.e. streets).
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>re-ho'-both, re-ho'-both (rehobhoth, "broad places"; Euruchoria): One of the wells dug by Isaac (Ge 26:22). It is probably the Rubuta of the Tell el-Amarna Letters (Petrie, numbers 256, 260; see also The Expository Times, XI, 239 (Konig), 377 (Sayce)), and it is almost certainly identical with the ruin Ruchaibeh, 8 hours Southwest of Beersheba. Robinson (BR, I, 196-97) describes the ruins of the ancient city as thickly covering a "level tract of 10 to 12 acres in extent"; "many of the dwellings had each its cistern, cut in the solid rock"; "once this must have been a city of not less than 12,000 or 15,000 inhabitants. Now it is a perfect field of ruins, a scene of unutterable desolation, across which the passing stranger can with difficulty find his way." Huntington (Palestine and Its Transformation, 124) describes considerable remains of a suburban population extending both to the North and to the South of this once important place.</p><p>E. W. G. Masterman</p>