Reference: South
Easton
Heb Negeb, that arid district to the south of Palestine through which lay the caravan route from Central Palestine to Egypt (Ge 12:9; 3/1/type/asv'>13:1,3; 46:1-6). "The Negeb comprised a considerable but irregularly-shaped tract of country, its main portion stretching from the mountains and lowlands of Judah in the north to the mountains of Azazemeh in the south, and from the Dead Sea and southern Ghoron the east to the Mediterranean on the west." In Eze 20:46 (21:1 in Heb) three different Hebrew words are all rendered "south." (1) "Set thy face toward the south" (Teman, the region on the right, 1Sa 31:13); (2) "Drop thy word toward the south" (Negeb, the region of dryness, Jos 15:4); (3) "Prophesy against the forest of the south field" (Darom, the region of brightness, De 33:23). In Job 37:9 the word "south" is literally "chamber," used here in the sense of treasury (comp. Job 38:22; Ps 135:7). This verse is rendered in the Revised Version "out of the chamber of the south."
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And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South.
And he went on his journeys from the South even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Ai,
And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. read more. And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him:
And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, And full with the blessing of Jehovah, Possess thou the west and the south.
and it passed along to Azmon, and went out at the brook of Egypt; and the goings out of the border were at the sea: this shall be your south border.
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk-tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Out of the chamber of the south cometh the storm, And cold out of the north.
Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow, Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
Who causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who maketh lightnings for the rain; Who bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries;
Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the field in the South;
Fausets
The designation of a large district of Judah; the Negeb. (See JUDAH; PALESTINE.) Palmer (Desert of Exodus) notices how accurately Jer 13:19 has been fulfilled, "the cities of the South shall be shut up, and none shall open them." Walls of solid masonry remain; fields and gardens surrounded with goodly walls, every sign of human industry, remains of wells, aqueducts, reservoirs; mountain forts to resist forays of the sons of the desert; desolated gardens, terraced hill sides, and wadies dammed to resist the torrent; ancient towns still called by their names, but no living being, except the lizard and screech owl, amidst the crumbling walls. In Jg 1:16 it is called "the wilderness of Judah South of Arad"; a strip of hilly country, running from the Dead Sea westward across Palestine, obliquely to the S.W. This tract is separated from the hills of Judaea or the mountains of Hebron by the broad plain of Beersheba (wady el Malih, "the valley of Salt") extending from the Dead Sea westward or S.W. to the land of Gerar.
The cities were 29 (Jos 15:21-32); some of the names are not of distinct cities, but compound names. The land is now at rest, enjoying its Sabbath, because it did not rest in the Jews' Sabbaths (Le 26:34-35,43). Besides the application of "the Negeb" to the whole district there are ethnological and geographical subdivisions; the Negeb of the Cherethites, the Negeb of the Kenites, the Negeb of Judah the Negeb of Arad, the Negeb of Jerahmeel. The Negeb of Caleb was a subdivision of, or identical with, the Negeb of Judah, as appears from 1Sa 30:14,16; 25:2-3; compare with Jos 21:11-12).
The low country N. and W. of Beersheba was the Negeb of the Cherethites. The Negeb of Judah was South of Hebron in the outposts of Judah's hills; Tel Zif, Main, and Kurmul (Carmel), ruined cities, mark the Negeb of Caleb. Tel Arad marks the Negeb of the Kenites reaching to the S.W. of the Dead Sea. The Negeb of Jerahmeel lay between wady Rukhmeh (corruption of Jerahmeel) in the N., and wadies el Abaydh, Marreh, and Madarah, in the South. The Amalekites (in Nu 14:25) dwelt in the valley and yet "in the hill," for their land was a plateau, the sense of sadeh "country" in Ge 14:7; compare 1Sa 27:8. Some lived in the hills, others in the fertile lower level to which the wadies debouch; so now the Azazimeh.
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And they returned, and came to En-mishpat (the same is Kadesh), and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazazon-tamar.
Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye are in your enemies land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it had not in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths, while it lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected mine ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: to-morrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea.
And the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the border of Edom in the South were Kabzeel, and Eder, and Jagur, and Kinah, and Dimonah, and Adadah, read more. and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Ithnan, Ziph, and Telem, and Bealoth, and Hazor-hadattah, and Kerioth-hezron (the same is Hazor), Amam, and Shema, and Moladah, and Hazar-gaddah, and Heshmon, and Beth-pelet, and Hazar-shual, and Beer-sheba, and Biziothiah, Baalah, and Iim, and Ezem, and Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah, and Ziklag, and Madmannah, and Sansannah, and Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon: all the cities are twenty and nine, with their villages.
And they gave them Kiriath-arba, which Arba was the father of Anak (the same is Hebron), in the hill-country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it. But the fields of the city, and the villages thereof, gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession.
And the children of the Kenite, Moses brother-in-law, went up out of the city of palm-trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt with the people.
And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail; and the woman was of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.
And David and his men went up, and made a raid upon the Geshurites, and the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for those nations were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.
We made a raid upon the South of the Cherethites, and upon that which belongeth to Judah, and upon the South of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.
And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the ground, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.
The cities of the South are shut up, and there is none to open them: Judah is carried away captive, all of it; it is wholly carried away captive.
Hastings
Morish
In the Bible, as we might expect, the points of the compass are spoken of as they refer to the land of Palestine. The south would therefore indicate the part of the land which contained Judah's and Simeon's portions, or to the district still further south, a country little known. Ge 12:9. It is called negeb in the Hebrew. Two other words are yamin and teman, signifying 'the right hand,' and are translated 'south' because the Israelites considered themselves as looking toward the East when speaking of the points of the compass. 1Sa 23:19,24; Ps 89:12; Jos 12:3; 13:4; Ps 78:26; Isa 43:6. Another word is darom, 'bright, sunny region,' hence 'the south.' De 33:23; Job 37:17; Eze 40:24-45. In the N.T., except in Ac 8:26 (where the word is ?????????, 'mid-day,' because the sun is then in the south: as the Latin meridies, 'mid-day,' also signifies 'south'), the word is ?????, 'the south.' Mt 12:42; etc.
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And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, And full with the blessing of Jehovah, Possess thou the west and the south.
and the Arabah unto the sea of Chinneroth, eastward, and unto the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, eastward, the way to Beth-jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah:
on the south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongeth to the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the border of the Amorites;
Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in the strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the desert?
And they arose, and went to Ziph before Saul: but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah on the south of the desert.
How thy garments are warm, When the earth is still by reason of the south wind ?
He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens; And by his power he guided the south wind.
The north and the south, thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon rejoice in thy name.
I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth;
And he led me toward the south; and, behold, a gate toward the south: and he measured the posts thereof and the arches thereof according to these measures. And there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about, like those windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits. read more. And there were seven steps to go up to it, and the arches thereof were before them; and it had palm-trees, one on this side, and another on that side, upon the posts thereof. And there was a gate to the inner court toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the south a hundred cubits. Then he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the south gate according to these measures; and the lodges thereof, and the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, according to these measures: and there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about; it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad. And there were arches round about, five and twenty cubits long, and five cubits broad. And the arches thereof were toward the outer court; and palm-trees were upon the posts thereof: and the ascent to it had eight steps. And he brought me into the inner court toward the east: and he measured the gate according to these measures; and the lodges thereof, and the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, according to these measures: and there were windows therein and in the arches thereof round about; it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad. And the arches thereof were toward the outer court; and palm-trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the ascent to it had eight steps. And he brought me to the north gate: and he measured it according to these measures; the lodges thereof, the posts thereof, and the arches thereof: and there were windows therein round about; the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits. And the posts thereof were toward the outer court; and palm-trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the ascent to it had eight steps. And a chamber with the door thereof was by the posts at the gates; there they washed the burnt-offering. And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to slay thereon the burnt-offering and the sin-offering and the trespass-offering. And on the one'side without, as one goeth up to the entry of the gate toward the north, were two tables; and on the other side, which belonged to the porch of the gate, were two tables. Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight tables, whereupon they slew the sacrifices . And there were four tables for the burnt-offering, of hewn stone, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high; whereupon they laid the instruments wherewith they slew the burnt-offering and the sacrifice. And the hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened within round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the oblation. And without the inner gate were chambers for the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the north gate; and their prospect was toward the south; one at the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the north. And he said unto me, This chamber, whose prospect is toward the south, is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the house;
The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
But an angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza: the same is desert.