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/darby'>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, towards the south.
And he went on his journeys from the south as far as Bethel; as far as the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai;
And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba; and he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to 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 to Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down with thee to Egypt, and I will also certainly bring thee up; and Joseph shall put his hand on 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, on the waggons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle, and their goods which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him;
And of Naphtali he said, Naphtali, satisfied with favour, And full of the blessing of Jehovah, Possess thou the west and the south.
and passed on to Azmon, and went out by the torrent of Egypt; and the border ended at the sea. That shall be your border southward.
And they took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
From the chamber of the south cometh the whirlwind; and cold from the winds of the north.
Hast thou entered into the storehouses of the snow, and hast thou seen the treasuries of the hail,
Who causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; who maketh lightnings for the rain; who bringeth the wind out of his treasuries:
Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop words against the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field;
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, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites that dwelt at Hazazon-Tamar.
Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, when ye are in your enemies' land; then shall the land rest, and enjoy its sabbaths. All the days of the desolation it shall rest, the days in which it did not rest on your sabbaths, when ye dwelt therein.
For the land shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths, when it is in desolation without them; and they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they despised my judgments, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley.) To-morrow turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness, on the way to the Red sea.
The cities at the extremity 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 Jithnan, Ziph, and Telem, and Bealoth, and Hazor-hadattah, and Kerioth-Hezron, that is Hazor, Amam, and Shema, and Molada, and Hazar-gaddah, and Heshmon, and Beth-Pelet, and Hazar-Shual, and Beer-sheba, and Biziothiah; Baalah, and Ijim, and Ezem, and Eltolad, and Chesil, and Hormah, and Ziklag, and Madmannah, and Sansanna, and Lebaoth, and Shilhim, and Ain, and Rimmon: all the cities twenty-nine, and their hamlets.
and they gave them Kirjath-Arba, which Arba was the father of Anak, that is, Hebron, in the mountain of Judah, with its suburbs round about it. But the fields of the city and the hamlets thereof gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession.
And the descendants of the Ken'ite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad; and they went and settled with the people.
And there was a man at Maon, whose business was at Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats; and he was shearing his sheep at Carmel. And 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 a Calebite.
And David and his men went up and made a raid upon the Geshurites, and the Gerzites, and the Amalekites: for those were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, and as far as the land of Egypt.
We made a raid against the south of the Cherethites, and against what belongs to Judah, and against the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.
And he brought him down, and behold, they were spread over the whole land, 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; all Judah is carried away captive: 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, Naphtali, satisfied with favour, And full of the blessing of Jehovah, Possess thou the west and the south.
and the plain as far as the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and as far as the sea of the plain, the salt sea, on the east, toward Beth-jeshimoth; and on the south, under the slopes of Pisgah;
in the south, the whole land of the Canaanites, and Mearah which belongeth to the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the border of the Amorites;
And the Ziphites came up to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Does not David hide himself with us in strongholds in the wood, on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of the waste?
And they arose and went to Ziph before Saul; but David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of the waste.
How thy garments become warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind?
He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind;
The north and the south, thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon triumph in thy name.
I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the end of the earth,
And he brought me toward the south: and behold, there was a gate toward the south; and he measured its posts and its projections according to these measures. And there were windows to it and to its projections 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 its projections were before them; and it had palm-trees, one on this side and one on that side, upon its posts. 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. And he brought me into the inner court by the south gate; and he measured the south gate according to these measures: and its chambers, and its posts, and its projections, according to these measures; and there were windows to it and to its projections round about: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits. And there were projections round about, twenty-five cubits long, and five cubits broad. And its projections were toward the outer court; and there were palm-trees upon its posts: and its ascent was by eight steps. And he brought me into the inner court toward the east; and he measured the gate according to these measures: and its chambers, and its posts, and its projections, according to these measures; and there were windows to it and to its projections round about: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits. And its projections were toward the outer court; and there were palm-trees upon its posts on this side and on that side: and its ascent was by eight steps. And he brought me to the north gate, and he measured it according to these measures: its chambers, its posts, and its projections; and there were windows to it round about: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth twenty-five cubits. And its posts were toward the outer court; and there were palm-trees upon its posts, on this side and on that side: and its ascent was by eight steps. And there was a cell and its entry by the posts of the gates; there they rinsed 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 at the side without, at the ascent to the entry of the north gate, were two tables; and on the other side, which was at the porch of the gate, were two tables: four tables on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate, eight tables, whereon they slew the sacrifice, and at the ascent, four tables of hewn stone, of a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high; whereon also they laid the instruments with which they slew the burnt-offering and the sacrifice. And the double hooks of a hand breadth were fastened round about within; and upon the tables they put the flesh of the offering. And outside the inner gate were two cells in the inner court, one at the side of the north gate, and its front towards the south; the other was at the side of the south gate, the front towards the north. And he said unto me, This cell whose front is towards the south is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the house.
A 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, more than Solomon is here.
But the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Rise up and go southward on the way which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza: the same is desert.