REHOBOTH rĭ hō’ bŏth (רְחֹבֹ֔ות; LXX Εὐρυχωρία, meaning broad places). 1. A well dug by Isaac SE of Beer-sheba. Genesis 26 relates Isaac’s troubles with Abimelech and the herdsmen of Gerar. The Philistines had filled in the old well so that Isaac’s servants had to dig new ones. But the herdsmen of Gerar claimed the first two for themselves (vv. 20, 21). When a third one was uncontested, Isaac named it “Rehoboth,” saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land” (v. 22). Ruheibeh, c. twenty m. SE of Beer-sheba, bears a similar name and is generally accepted as the Biblical site.

2. Genesis 36:37 and 1 Chronicles 1:48 speak of Shaul of Rehoboth on the Euphrates (Heb. has only “river”). He is one of “the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites.” This Rehoboth has not been even vaguely identified and certainly is not the one in S Judah.

3. Rehoboth-Ir (broad places city) is one of the places in N Mesopotamia that Nimrod the mighty hunter built (Gen 10:11). It too is unidentified. Some read Rehoboth-Ir in this context as a common noun rather than a separate city name and understand it to refer to the open squares or open suburbs of either Nineveh or Calah, which are the names preceding and following Rehoboth-Ir in the list.