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/leb'>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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Then Abram went up from Egypt, he and his wife and all that [was] with him. And Lot [went] with him to the Negev.
And he went according to his journey from the Negev, then to Bethel, to the place where his tent was at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
So Israel journeyed with all that he had, and he came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said, "Here I [am]." read more. Then he said, "I [am] the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I myself will also bring you up. And Joseph will place his hand over your eyes." So Jacob arose from Beersheba. And the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, and their little ones and their wives in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to transport him. And they took their livestock and their possessions that they had acquired in the land of Canaan. And they came to Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him,
And of Naphtali, he said, "Oh, Naphtali, sated of favor, and full of the blessing of Yahweh; take possession of [the] lake, and [the land to the] south."
{it passes on} to Azmon, continues by the wadi of Egypt, and {it ends} at the sea. This will be your southern border.
Then they took their bones and buried [them] under the tamarisk in Jabesh, and they fasted [for] seven days.
"[The] storm wind comes from its chamber and cold from [the] north wind.
Have you entered into [the] storehouses of [the] snow, or have you seen [the] storehouses of [the] hail,
[He] causes clouds to rise from the edge of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain; [he] brings out [the] wind from his storehouses.
"Son of man, set your face [toward] the way of [the] south, and preach to [the] south, and prophesy against the forest of the territory of the Negev.
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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Then they turned back and came to En-Mishpat (that [is], Kadesh). And they defeated the whole territory of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who were living in Hazazon-Tamar.
Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolate, and you [shall be] in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of its lying desolate it shall rest [for the time] that it had not rested during your Sabbaths while you were living on it.
And the land shall be deserted by them, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths in its being desolate from them, and they themselves must pay for their guilt, {simply because} they rejected my regulations, and their inner self abhorred my statutes.
And the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; tomorrow turn and set out [for] the desert [by] way of the {Red Sea}."
the cities belonging to the tribe of the descendants of Judah to the far south, to [the] border of Edom to the south, were Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah, read more. Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan, Ziph, Telem, Bealoth, Hazor Hadattah, Kerioth Hezron (that [is], Hazor), Amam, Shema, Moladah, Hazar Gaddah, Heshmon, Beth Pelet, Hazar Shual, Beersheba, Biziothiah, Baalah, Iim, Ezem, Eltolad, Kesil, Hormah, Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah, Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain, and Rimmon; [in] all, twenty-nine cities and their villages.
And they gave to them Kiriath Arba, [Arba being] the father of Anak (that [is], Hebron), in the hill country of Judah and the pasturelands surrounding it. But the field of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his property.
The descendants of Hobab [the] Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up with the descendants of Judah from the city of palms [into] the wilderness of Judah, which [is] in [the] Negev [near] Arad. And they went and settled with the people.
Now there was a man in Maon, whose business [was] in Carmel. The man was very rich and {owned} three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. {Now} the shearing of his sheep [was taking place] in Carmel. The name of the man [was] Nabal, and the name of his wife [was] Abigail. Now the woman [was] wise and beautiful, but the man [was] stubborn and {mean}, and he [was] as his heart.
Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites, for they had been living [in] the land for a long time {in the direction of} Shur and {as far as} the land of Egypt.
We raided the Negev of the Kerethites and that [which belongs] to Judah and then the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire."
So he took him down, and {there they were}, spread out over the surface of all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all of the abundant plunder which they had taken from the land of [the] Philistines and from the land of Judah.
The towns of the Negev are shut up, and there is no [one who] opens [them]. All of Judah is deported; it is deported [in] completeness.
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, "Oh, Naphtali, sated of favor, and full of the blessing of Yahweh; take possession of [the] lake, and [the land to the] south."
and the Arabah up to the Kinnereth Sea to the east, and as far as the sea of Arabah, the Salt Sea to the east, {in the direction of} Beth Jeshimoth, and to [the area] southward, {at the foot of} the slopes of Pisgah;
In [the] south; all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah, which [belongs] to the Sidonians up to Aphek, to the border of the Amorites,
Then [the] Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "[Is] not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh on the hill of Hakilah, which [is] south of Jeshimon
Then they got up and went to Ziph before Saul. Now David and his men [were] in the wilderness of Maon in the Arabah, to the south of Jeshimon.
[You] whose garments [are] hot, when [the] earth is being still because of [the] south wind,
He caused [the] east wind to blow in the heavens and drove along [the] south wind by his strength.
North and south, you created them; Tabor and Hermon shout joyfully over your name.
I will say to the north, 'Give!' and to [the] south, 'You must not withhold!' Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the end of the earth--
And [then] he took me {toward the south}, and look, a gate {toward the south}, and he measured its pilasters and its porticos; [they had] measurements [just] {like the others}. And [there were] for it windows and for its porticos {all the way around it} like these windows; fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. read more. And seven steps [were] going up [to] it and its porticos {before them}. And {it had palm tree images} {all along} its pilasters. And [there was] [to] the way of the south a gate for the inner courtyard, and he measured from gate to the gate [on] the way of the south, hundred cubits. And he brought me to [the] inner courtyard through the gate of the south, and he measured the south gate, [and it had] measurements like {the others}. And its alcoves and its pilasters and its porticos [were] [just] like these measurements. And [it had] windows for it and for its porticos {all the way around}, fifty cubits along [its length], and twenty-five cubits [wide]. And [there were] porticos {all the way around} [its] length, twenty-five cubits; and [its] width [was] five cubits. And its porticos [were] to the outer courtyard, and palm tree images [were] on its pilasters, and eight steps [were for] its stairs. And he brought me to the inner courtyard [by way of] the east [gate], and he measured the gate [as] [just] like {the other measurements}. And its alcoves and its pilasters and its porticos [were also] like these measurements, and windows [were] for it and for its porticos all around; [its] length [was] fifty cubits, [and] [it was] twenty-five cubits wide. And its porticos [were] toward the outer courtyard, and palm tree images [were] on its pilasters {one each side}, and {eight steps served as it stairs}. And he brought me to the gate of the north, and he measured [it]; and he measured {the same measurements as these others}, its alcoves, its pilasters and porticos, {and its windows} {all the way around}, and length of fifty cubits and twenty-five cubits wide. And its pilasters {faced the outer courtyard}, and {it had palm tree images on its pilasters} {on each side}; and eight steps [served as] its stairs. And a chamber with its doorway [was] in the pilasters at the gates, and there they rinsed off the burnt offering. And in the portico of the gate {were two tables on each side} to slaughter the burnt offering on them and the sin offering and the guilt offering. And on the outer side as [one] goes up to the doorway of the gate [to] the north [were] two tables, and on the other side, which [is] toward the portico of the gate, [were] two tables. {On each side of the gate were four tables}, eight tables [in all], [and] on them they slaughtered [sacrifices]. And four tables [were] for the burnt offering, [and made of] dressed stones, one cubit and a half long and one cubit and a half wide and one cubit high {was their measurements}, and they placed the objects [with] which they slaughtered the burnt offering on them and the sacrifice. And [there were] double-pronged hooks, one handbreadth [in width], put in place in the house all around, and on the tables [was] the flesh of the offering. And on the outside of the inner gate, [there were] chambers for singers in the inner courtyard, which [was] to the side of the north gate, and their faces {were to the south} [with respect to one], [and] on the side of the east gate [one] facing to the north. And he said to me, "This chamber {with its face toward the south} [is] for the priests [who are] taking care of the responsibility of the temple.
The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, [something] greater than Solomon [is] here!
Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Get up and go toward the south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert [road].)