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/nasb'>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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So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him, and Lot with him.
He went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai,
So Israel set out with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said, "Here I am." read more. He said, "I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. "I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again; and Joseph will close your eyes." Then Jacob arose from Beersheba; and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob and their little ones and their wives in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They took their livestock and their property, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and came to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him:
Of Naphtali he said, "O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, And full of the blessing of the LORD, Take possession of the sea and the south."
It continued to Azmon and proceeded to the brook of Egypt, and the border ended at the sea. This shall be your south border.
They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
"Out of the south comes the storm, And out of the north the cold.
"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who makes lightnings for the rain, Who brings forth the wind from His treasuries.
"Son of man, set your face toward Teman, and speak out against the south and prophesy against the forest land 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 conquered all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, who lived in Hazazon-tamar.
'Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths all the days of the desolation, while you are in your enemies' land; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths. 'All the days of its desolation it will observe the rest which it did not observe on your sabbaths, while you were living on it.
'For the land will be abandoned by them, and will make up for its sabbaths while it is made desolate without them They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My statutes.
"Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites live in the valleys; turn tomorrow and set out to the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea."
Now the cities at the extremity of the tribe of the sons 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 (that is, Hazor), Amam and Shema and Moladah, and Hazar-gaddah and Heshmon and Beth-pelet, and Hazar-shual 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; in all, twenty-nine cities with their villages.
Thus they gave them Kiriath-arba, Arba being the father of Anak (that is, Hebron), in the hill country of Judah, with its surrounding pasture lands. But the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as his possession.
The descendants of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up from the city of palms with the sons of Judah, to the wilderness of Judah which is in the south of Arad; and they went and lived with the people.
Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel; and the man was very rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats And it came about while he was shearing his sheep in Carmel (now the man's name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail And the woman was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was a Calebite),
Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites and the Girzites and the Amalekites; for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times, as you come to Shur even as far as the land of Egypt.
"We made a raid on the Negev of the Cherethites, and on that which belongs to Judah, and on the Negev of Caleb, and we burned Ziklag with fire."
When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.
The cities of the Negev have been locked up, And there is no one to open them; All Judah has been carried into exile, Wholly carried into exile.
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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Of Naphtali he said, "O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, And full of the blessing of the LORD, Take possession of the sea and the south."
and the Arabah as far as the Sea of Chinneroth toward the east, and as far as the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, eastward toward Beth-jeshimoth, and on the south, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah;
to the south, all the land of the Canaanite, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, as far as Aphek, to the border of the Amorite;
Then Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, "Is David not hiding with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon?
Then they arose 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 land is still because of the south wind?
He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens And by His power He directed the south wind.
The north and the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at Your name.
"I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not hold them back ' Bring My sons from afar And My daughters from the ends of the earth,
Then he led me toward the south, and behold, there was a gate toward the south; and he measured its side pillars and its porches according to those same measurements. The gate and its porches had windows all around like those other windows; the length was fifty cubits and the width twenty-five cubits. read more. There were seven steps going up to it, and its porches were in front of them; and it had palm tree ornaments on its side pillars, one on each side. The inner court had a gate 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 those same measurements. Its guardrooms also, its side pillars and its porches were according to those same measurements And the gate and its porches had windows all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. There were porches all around, twenty-five cubits long and five cubits wide. Its porches were toward the outer court; and palm tree ornaments were on its side pillars, and its stairway had eight steps. He brought me into the inner court toward the east And he measured the gate according to those same measurements. Its guardrooms also, its side pillars and its porches were according to those same measurements And the gate and its porches had windows all around; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. Its porches were toward the outer court; and palm tree ornaments were on its side pillars, on each side, and its stairway had eight steps. Then he brought me to the north gate; and he measured it according to those same measurements, with its guardrooms, its side pillars and its porches And the gate had windows all around; the length was fifty cubits and the width twenty-five cubits. Its side pillars were toward the outer court; and palm tree ornaments were on its side pillars on each side, and its stairway had eight steps. A chamber with its doorway was by the side pillars at the gates; there they rinse the burnt offering. In the porch of the gate were two tables on each side, on which to slaughter the burnt offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering. On the outer side, as one went up to the gateway toward the north, were two tables; and on the other side of the porch of the gate were two tables. Four tables were on each side next to the gate; or, eight tables on which they slaughter sacrifices. For the burnt offering there were four tables of hewn stone, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and one cubit high, on which they lay the instruments with which they slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice. The double hooks, one handbreadth in length, were installed in the house all around; and on the tables was the flesh of the offering. From the outside to the inner gate were chambers for the singers in the inner court, one of which was at the side of the north gate, with its front toward the south, and one at the side of the south gate facing toward the north. He said to me, "This is the chamber which faces toward the south, intended for the priests who keep charge of the temple;
"The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment and will 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.
But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert road.)