The Song of the Well at Beer

Numbers 21:16-18 preserves one of the oldest hymns in Hebrew literature, sung by Israel at a wilderness station east of Moab when the Lord provided water: "And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves." The song celebrates the cooperative effort by which Israel's leaders dug the well at the Lord's command — a poetic snapshot of communal labor in the wilderness.

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