The Hebrew place name Be'er Lachai Ro'i means 'the well of the Living One who sees me' — the name given by Hagar to the place where the Angel of the LORD appeared to her in the wilderness. It is one of the most theologically profound place names in Genesis.
The naming of Be'er Lachai Ro'i in Genesis 16 is Hagar's act of theology — her recognition that the God who had appeared to her was El Ro'i (the God who sees). An Egyptian slave woman, cast out and desperate in the wilderness, encounters the living God and names the place accordingly. This anticipates the New Testament revelation that God sees and cares for the marginalized, the outcast, and the forgotten. Jesus' ministry to Samaritans, tax collectors, and the poor echoes the God of Hagar's well.