Beeri
Bee'ri (Heb. Beeri', בּאֵרִי, fontanus, according to Gesen.; enlightener, according to Furst; Sept. Βεήρ in Gen., Βεηρεί in Hos.), the name of two men.
1. The father of Judith, one of the wives of Esau (Ge 26:34). B.C. ante 1963. SEE ESAU. Judith, daughter of Beeri, is the same person that is called in the genealogical table (Ge 36:2) Aholibamah, daughter of Anah, and consequently Beeri and Anah must be the same person. SEE AHOLIBAMAH. Yet Beeri is spoken of as a Hittite, while Anah is called a Horite and also a Hivite. SEE ANAH. It is agreed on all hands that the name Horite (חֹרִי) signifies one who dwells in a hole or cave, a Troglodyte; and it seems in the highest degree probable that the inhabitants of Mount Seir were so designated because they inhabited the numerous caverns of that mountainous region. The name, therefore, does not designate them according to their race, but merely according to their mode of life, to whatever race they might belong. Of their race we know nothing, except, indeed, what the conjunction of these two names in reference to the same individual may teach us; and from this case we may fairly conclude that these Troglodytes or Horites belonged in part, at least, to the widely- extended Canaanitish tribe of the Hittites. On this supposition the difficulty vanishes, and each of the accounts gives us just the information we might expect. In the narrative, where the stress is laid on Esau's wife being of the race of Canaan, her father is called a Hittite; while in the genealogy, where the stress is on Esau's connection by marriage with the previous occupants of Mount Seir, he is most naturally and properly described under the more precise term Horite. SEE HORITE; SEE HIVITE; SEE HITTITE.
2. The father of the prophet Hosea (Ho 1:1). B.C. ante 725.
