Beera is a name found in the King James Bible, appearing 1 time in the text.
Who This Was
Beera was a leader of the tribe of Reuben. He is named in the genealogy of Reuben’s descendants recorded in 1 Chronicles 7. The chronicler lists him among the “heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of valour, famous men, and heads of the house of their fathers” (1 Chronicles 7:40, referring to the wider clan record of which this list is a part). Beera appears in a genealogical sequence near the end of that record: “Bezer, and Hod, and Shamma, and Shilshah, and Ithran, and Beera” (1 Chronicles 7:37). He is thus remembered as one of the named men of Reuben, a family head within the tribe.
The setting of his appearance is the tribal roll of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn. The Chronicler, writing after the return from Babylonian exile, gathered the genealogies of the tribes to show that God’s people remained rooted in their ancestral lines. Beera belongs to that record—a single name in a long chain of fathers and sons, preserved because he was counted among the leaders of his tribe.
According to the source note, Beera was among those taken into exile by the Assyrians. This fits the history of Reuben: because the Reubenites and their neighbors “transgressed against the God of their fathers” and served other gods, “the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh” (1 Chronicles 5:25-26). Scripture says nothing further of Beera personally—no deed, no word, no fault or praise. He is a name in a genealogy, a leader of Reuben whose line was carried away into exile.
The Name
The name Beera (Hebrew: בְּאֵרָא) is generally understood to be related to the Hebrew word be’er, meaning “a well” or “a spring.” The form suggests something like “a well” or perhaps “fountain.” Some connect it to the same root behind names such as Beerah and Beeroth. The meaning is not stated in Scripture itself, and while the connection to “well” is widely recognized, the precise nuance of the name as a personal name is not fully certain. It should be treated as probably meaning “a well” rather than as a meaning the text itself defines.
A Closing Thought
Beera’s life is summed up in a single line of a family record—a leader of Reuben, carried away when his tribe was exiled for unfaithfulness. There is no monument to him, no story told beyond his name. Yet God’s word preserved that name for thousands of years. Most of us will not be remembered by crowds or chronicles, but we are never unknown to God. Even a quiet life, lived among the ordinary generations of His people, is held in His memory—and the exile that ended Beera’s chapter did not end God’s faithfulness to His people.
At a Glance
- Gender: Male
- Testament: Old
- Mentions in the KJV: 1
Where It Appears in Scripture
- 1 Chronicles 7:37 — Bezer, and Hod, and Shamma, and Shilshah, and Ithran, and Beera.