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/kj2000'>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 Negeb.
And he went on his journeys from the Negeb even to Bethel, unto 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 Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke 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 your father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of you a great nation: I will go down with you into Egypt; and I will also surely bring you up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon your eyes. And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: 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 descendants with him:
And of Naphtali he said, O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the LORD: possess you the west and the south.
From there it passed toward Azmon, and went out by the river of Egypt; and the border ended at the sea: this shall be your south boundary.
And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
Out of the south comes the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.
Have you entered into the treasury of the snow? or have you seen the treasury of the hail,
He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain; he brings the wind out of his treasuries.
Son of man, set your face toward the south, and proclaim your word toward 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 Enmishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezontamar.
Then shall the land enjoy its sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy its sabbaths. As long as it lies desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when you dwelt upon it.
The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy its sabbaths, while it lies desolate without them: and they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.
And the furthermost 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, and Hezron, which is Hazor, Amam, and Shema, and Moladah, And Hazargaddah, and Heshmon, and Bethpelet, And Hazarshual, and Beersheba, 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 the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the pasture lands round about it. But the fields of the city, and its villages, they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession.
And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lies to the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among 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 she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was surly and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.
And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gizites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as you go to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.
We made an invasion upon the south area of the Cherethites, and upon the territory which belongs to Judah, and upon the south area of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.
And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, 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 shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it, it shall be 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 the LORD: possess you the west and the south.
And from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and unto the sea of the plain, even the salt sea on the east, the way to Bethjeshimoth; and southward beneath the slopes of Pisgah:
From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites:
Then came up the Ziphites to Saul to Gibeah, saying, Does not David hide himself with us in strongholds in the forest, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?
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 Jeshimon.
How your garments are warm, when he quiets the earth by the south wind?
He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
The north and the south, you have created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in your 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 ends of the earth;
After that he brought me toward the south, and behold a gate toward the south: and he measured its posts and arches according to these same measurements. And there were windows in it and in its arches round about, like those windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the width five and twenty cubits. read more. And there were seven steps to go up to it, and its arches were before them: and it had palm trees, one on this side, and another on that side, upon its posts. And there was a gate in the inner court toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the south a hundred cubits. And he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the south gate according to these same measurements; And its little chambers, and its posts, and its arches, according to these same measurements: and there were windows in it and in its arches round about: it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits wide. And the arches round about were five and twenty cubits long, and five cubits wide. And its arches were toward the outer court; and palm trees were upon its posts: 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 same measurements. And its little chambers, and its posts, and its arches, were according to these same measurements: and there were windows in it and in its arches round about: it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits wide. And its arches were toward the outer court; and palm trees were upon its posts, on this side, and on that side: and the ascent to it had eight steps. And he brought me to the north gate, and measured it according to these same measurements; Its little chambers, its posts, and its arches, and the windows in it round about: the length was fifty cubits, and the width five and twenty cubits. And its posts were toward the outer court; and palm trees were upon its posts, on this side, and on that side: and the ascent to it had eight steps. And the chambers and its entrance were by the posts of the gates, where 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 on them the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering. And on the outside, as one goes up to the entrance 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 were on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight tables, on which they slew their sacrifices. And the four tables were of hewn stone for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half wide, and one cubit high: on which also they laid the instruments with which they killed the burnt offering and the sacrifice. And inside were hooks, a hand wide, fastened round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the offering. And outside the inner gate were the chambers for the singers in the inner court, one at the side of the north gate; facing toward the south: one at the side of the east gate facing toward the north. And he said unto me, This chamber, facing toward the south, is for the priests, the keepers in 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 uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
And the angel of the Lord spoke unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goes down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.