1. A "dug well", whereas EN or AIN is a "fountain" or "spring". Israel's last halting place was so-called, from the well dug there, beyond the Arnon, by the princes and nobles. A poetical fragment celebrates the fact (Numbers 21:16-18): "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". What a contrast was this Beer, digged amidst the people's joyous songs in honor of their princes, to the miraculous smiting of the rock amidst their murmuring against God and their leaders (Numbers 20:2).
Perhaps the BEER-ELIM, "well of the princes," of Isaiah 15:8, on the border of Moab southwards. The howling (yillelathah; Beer-elim is chosen as similar in sound) shall reach even that remote point. Tradition made this the last appearance of the water that "followed" the people before their entrance into Canaan; compare 1 Corinthians 10:4.
2. A place whither Jotham, Gideon's son, fled from Abimelech (Judges 9:21).