region

Negeb

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History

The Negeb is the dry south of the land, the triangle of desert between the hills of Judah and the Sinai peninsula, from the Beersheba basin down to the Gulf of Aqaba, bounded by the Mediterranean coast on the west and the Arabah on the east. The Hebrew negev means dry land, and since the desert lay south of Judah the word came to mean "south" itself; the King James Version renders it "the south", and the Synodal Bible likewise speaks of the south and "the south country". Rain falls only in the north, about 200 mm a year at Beersheba and far less farther south, where the land breaks into the limestone highlands and the great craters of Ramon and Hatira.

Abraham "journeyed, going on still toward the south", dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, dug wells and planted a grove at Beersheba, and Isaac "dwelt in the south country". From Kadesh-barnea the spies "ascended by the south" to Hebron and reported that "The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south"; the king of Arad, "which dwelt in the south", fought Israel on its way. Joshua's southern cities of Judah "toward the coast of Edom southward" lay here, with Beersheba as the limit of the settled land. David from Ziklag raided "the south of Judah", of the Jerahmeelites and of the Kenites, and the Amalekites burned Ziklag in return. Archaeology shows the Beersheba valley settled in the Iron Age, with the fortress and sanctuary of Arad; the many small forts of the highlands are dated by some to Solomon's century and by others later.

The prophets look to the Negeb as part of the land to be restored: "The cities of the south shall be shut up", Jeremiah warns, yet men "shall buy fields" again in the cities of the south, and Obadiah promises that "they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau". The psalm prays for a return "as the streams in the south", the flash floods of the desert wadis. After the exile Edomites settled the northern Negeb, which became Idumea, and from the fourth century BC the Nabataeans ran the incense road across it from Petra to Gaza, building Avdat, Mamshit, Shivta and Haluza, which flourished as Byzantine towns and were inscribed by UNESCO in 2005.

Today the Negev makes up more than half of Israel's land but holds only a small share of its people. Beersheba, its capital, has grown to more than 200,000, the Bedouin Arabs number well over two hundred thousand, and Eilat stands at the southern tip; Ben-Gurion, who urged the settling of the desert, is buried at Sde Boker above the wilderness of Zin.

Scripture: Gen 12:9; Gen 13:1; Gen 20:1; Gen 21:31–33; Gen 24:62; Num 13:17; Num 13:22; Num 13:29; Num 21:1; Deut 1:7; Josh 10:40; Josh 11:16; Josh 15:21; Judg 1:9; Judg 1:16; 1 Sam 27:10; 1 Sam 30:1; 1 Sam 30:14; 2 Sam 24:7; Ps 126:4; Isa 30:6; Jer 13:19; Jer 17:26; Jer 32:44; Jer 33:13; Ezek 20:46–47; Obad 1:19–20; Zech 7:7

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (43)

Gen 12:9

And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

Gen 13:1

And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

Gen 13:3

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 Hai;

Gen 20:1

And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.

Gen 24:62

And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahai-roi; for he dwelt in the south country.

Gen 25:11

And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi.

Num 13:17

And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:

Num 13:22

And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

Num 13:29

The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.

Num 21:1

And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners.

Num 33:40

And king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the children of Israel.

Deut 1:7

Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.

Deut 34:3

And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.

Josh 1:4

From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.

Josh 10:40

So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.

Josh 11:16

So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same;

Josh 12:8

In the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country; the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites:

Josh 15:1

This then was the lot of the tribe of the children of Judah by their families; even to the border of Edom the wilderness of Zin southward was the uttermost part of the south coast.

Josh 15:19

Who answered, Give me a blessing; for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And he gave her the upper springs, and the nether springs.

Josh 15:21

And the uttermost cities of the tribe of the children of Judah toward the coast of Edom southward were Kabzeel, and Eder, and Jagur,

Josh 19:8

And all the villages that were round about these cities to Baalath-beer, Ramath of the south. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon according to their families.

Judg 1:9

And afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites, that dwelt in the mountain, and in the south, and in the valley.

Judg 1:15

And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.

Judg 1:16

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 lieth in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.

1 Sam 27:10

And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.

1 Sam 30:1

And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;

1 Sam 30:14

We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.

1 Sam 30:27

To them which were in Beth-el, and to them which were in south Ramoth, and to them which were in Jattir,

2 Sam 24:7

And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beer-sheba.

2 Chr 28:18

The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.

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King James Version