For reasons of climate in ancient Israel, references to water wells in the Bible are numerous and significant. River water sources The River Litani and the River Jordan are the only rivers of any size in the vicinity of the land of Canaan. Perennial brooks are very scarce and the wadis, or streambeds, while numerous and impetuous in the rainy season, are dry during the rest of the year. Job 6:16-17 compares faithless friends to these torrent-beds, swollen in the spring, but vanishing in the hot weather. Ben Sira twice enumerates water as the first among the "principal things necessary for the life of man." Wells All springs, wells and fountains were landmarks in the topography of Israel. Abraham dug wells near Gerar. Jesus, sitting on the brim of Jacob's Well, taught the Samaritan woman the passing of the Old Covenant. An angel found Hagar at a well in the Sinai, Beer Lahai Roi (Genesis 16:7). To own a well and to possess the surrounding country were synonymous terms (Proverbs 5:15-17). On the other hand, so serious might be the disputes arising out of the use or claim of a well that the sword was appealed to as the sole arbiter (Genesis 26:21; Exodus 2:17; Numbers 20:17). If the approach of an enemy was feared, his progress might be seriously hampered, if not altogether frustrated, by stopping or destroying the wells along his route (2 Chronicles 32:3). “Wells of water” speak of access and supply, and much more in the Bible.When Israel traveled to a place where God had miraculously provided water in the past, they sang, “Spring up, O well! All of you sing to it…” (see Numbers 21:16-17) God's people recognized that He was the One who had provided the water before, and that He would do so again. Springs A spring is the "eye of the landscape", the natural burst of living water, flowing all year or drying up at certain seasons. In contrast to the "troubled waters" of wells and rivers (Jer. 2:18), there gushes forth from it "living water", to which Jesus compared the grace of the Holy Spirit (John 4:10; 7:38; compare Isaiah 12:3; 44:3). Towns and hamlets bear names compounded with the word Ain (En), Hebrew for a well or spring. For example, Endor (spring of Dor), Engannin (spring of gardens), Engaddi (spring of the kid), Rogel or En-rogel (spring of the foot),