negev · Negev, south

What it means

negev (נֶגֶב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “Negev, south”.

Negev: the dry region in the south of Canaan; so the word also means "south".

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. The dry land in the south of Israel.
2. One of the four sides of the land: the south.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Negev: the dry region in the south of Canaan; so the word also means “south”.

• The region of the Negev Genesis 12:9Numbers 13:17Psalms 126:4
• One of the regions of the land Joshua 10:40
• The south as a direction Genesis 13:14Genesis 28:14Exodus 26:18
• “The king of the south” Daniel 11:5

Historical and cultural background

Abram moves on by stages “toward the Negev” (Genesis 12:9), and Moses sends the explorers “into the Negev” and then into the hill country (Numbers 13:17). Psalm 126:4 speaks of “the streambeds in the Negev”.

How we translate it

“South” 62 times, “Negev” 43, “southward” 4, “southern” 2. “Negev” when it is the region, and “south” when it is the direction or a side (Exodus 26:18). This edition sets the list of regions in Joshua: “the hill country, the Negev, the Shephelah, and the slopes” (Joshua 10:40), and in Ezekiel 20:46 it keeps three words apart: תֵּימָן “the south”, דָּרוֹם “the southland” and נֶגֶב “the Negev”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• south ×62
• Negev ×43
• southward ×4
• southern ×2

Where it appears

• Genesis×7
• Exodus×5
• Numbers×10
• Deuteronomy×2
• Joshua×27
• Judges×4
• 1 Samuel×8
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×2
• 1 Chronicles×3
• 2 Chronicles×3
• Psalms×1
• Isaiah×2
• Jeremiah×4
• Ezekiel×15
• Daniel×12
• Obadiah×2
• Zechariah×3

• Genesis 12:9

  Then Abram set out, moving on by stages toward the Negev.

• Genesis 13:1

  Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him.

• Genesis 13:3

  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,

• Genesis 13:14

  YHWH said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;

• Genesis 20:1

  Abraham journeyed from there toward the land of the Negev and settled between Kadesh and Shur, and he resided as an alien in Gerar.

• Genesis 24:62

  Isaac had come back from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the land of the Negev.

• Genesis 28:14

  Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the ground will be blessed in you and in your offspring.

• Exodus 26:18

  You shall make the boards for the dwelling: twenty boards for the southern side, toward the south.

• Exodus 27:9

  You shall make the courtyard of the dwelling. For the southern side, toward the south, the courtyard shall have hangings of fine twisted linen, a hundred cubits long for the one side,

• Exodus 36:23

  And he made the boards for the dwelling: twenty boards for the south side,

• Exodus 38:9

  And he made the courtyard: for the south side, the hangings of the courtyard were of twisted fine linen, a hundred cubits,

• Exodus 40:24

  And he put the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table, on the side of the dwelling southward,

• Numbers 13:17

  Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go up this way into the Negev, and go up into the hill country,

• Numbers 13:22

  They went up into the Negev and came as far as Hebron; and there were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of Anak. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

• Numbers 13:29

  Amalek lives in the land of the Negev; and the Hittite and the Jebusite and the Amorite live in the hill country; and the Canaanite lives by the sea and along the Jordan.”

• Numbers 21:1

  When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

• Numbers 33:40

  The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the sons of Israel.

• Numbers 34:3

  Your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin alongside Edom, and your south border shall be from the end of the Salt Sea on the east.

• Numbers 34:4

  And the border shall turn for you south of the ascent of Akrabbim and pass on to Zin, and it shall end south of Kadesh-barnea; and it shall go out to Hazar-addar and pass on to Azmon.

• Numbers 35:5

  And you shall measure outside the city the east side two thousand cubits, and the south side two thousand cubits, and the west side two thousand cubits, and the north side two thousand cubits, with the city in the middle; this shall be for them the pasturelands of the cities.

• Deuteronomy 1:7

  Turn, set out, and go to the hill country of the Amorite and to all its neighbors, in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the Shephelah, in the Negev, and on the coast of the sea, the land of the Canaanite, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

• Deuteronomy 34:3

  and the Negev, and the plain, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.

• Joshua 10:40

  So Joshua struck all the land: the hill country, the Negev, the Shephelah, and the slopes, and all their kings; he left no survivor, and he devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, had commanded.

• Joshua 11:2

  and to the kings who were in the north, in the hill country, in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, in the Shephelah, and in the heights of Dor on the west,

• Joshua 11:16

  So Joshua took all this land: the hill country, all the Negev, all the land of Goshen, the Shephelah, the Arabah, and the hill country of Israel and its Shephelah,

• Joshua 12:8

  in the hill country, in the Shephelah, in the Arabah, in the slopes, in the wilderness, and in the Negev: the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

• Joshua 15:1

  And the lot for the tribe of the sons of Judah according to their families was to the border of Edom, the wilderness of Zin to the south, at the farthest south.

• Joshua 15:2

  And their south border was from the end of the Salt Sea, from the bay that faces south;

• Joshua 15:3

  and it went out south of the Ascent of Akrabbim, and passed along to Zin, and went up south of Kadesh-barnea, and passed along Hezron, and went up to Addar, and turned to Karka;

• Joshua 15:4

  and it passed along to Azmon, and went out to the Brook of Egypt, and the ends of the border were at the sea. This shall be your south border.

• Joshua 15:7

  and the border went up to Debir from the Valley of Achor, and northward turned to Gilgal, which is opposite the Ascent of Adummim, which is south of the brook; and the border passed along to the waters of En-shemesh, and its ends were at En-rogel;

• Joshua 15:8

  and the border went up by the Valley of Ben-hinnom to the slope of the Jebusite on the south (that is Jerusalem); and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lies over against the Valley of Hinnom to the west, which is at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim;

• Joshua 15:19

  And she said, “Give me a blessing; since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water.” And he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

• Joshua 15:21

  And the cities at the far end of the tribe of the sons of Judah, toward the border of Edom, in the Negev, were: Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur,

• Joshua 17:9

  And the border went down to the Brook of Kanah, south of the brook. These cities belonged to Ephraim among the cities of Manasseh. And the border of Manasseh was on the north of the brook, and its ends were at the sea.

• Joshua 17:10

  The south was Ephraim’s and the north Manasseh’s, and the sea was its border; and they reached Asher on the north and Issachar on the east.

• Joshua 18:5

  And they shall divide it into seven portions. Judah shall stay on its territory in the south, and the house of Joseph shall stay on their territory in the north.

• Joshua 18:13

  And from there the border passed along to Luz, to the slope of Luz on the south (that is Bethel); and the border went down to Ataroth-addar, on the hill that is south of Lower Beth-horon.

• Joshua 18:14

  And the border bent and turned on the west side southward from the hill that lies over against Beth-horon on the south, and its ends were at Kiriath-baal (that is Kiriath-jearim), a city of the sons of Judah. This was the west side.

• Joshua 18:15

  And the south side was from the end of Kiriath-jearim; and the border went out westward, and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah;

And 71 more times.