SOUTH (south), the country, or quarter of the heavens, which the Semite, standing with his face to the east, supposes to be on his right hand. An inp,,rtant use of the word is as the name or designa tion of the desert regions lying at the south of Judea, consisting of the deserts of Shur, Zin, and Paran, the mountainous country of Edom or Idumea, and part of Arabia Petrea (comp. Mal. i :3 ; Shaw's Travels. p. 438 ; Gen. xii :9 ; xiii :1). In this region the Amalekites are said to have dwelt, 'in the land of the south,' when Moses sent the spies to view the land of Canaan (Num. xiii :29), viz., the locality between Idumea and Egypt, and to the cast of the Dead Sea and Mount Seir. (See AMALEKIT•S.) The inhabitants of this region were included in the conquests of Joshua (x :40). Whenever the Septuagint gives the Hebrew word in the Greek letters, Nd-yeg, it always relates to this particular district. To the same region be longs the passage. 'Turn our captivity as the
streams in the south' (Ps. cxxvi :4) ; Septuagint, "hos keimaddous en to Noto," 'as winter tor rents in the south' (Vulg., 'sicut torrens in :Ins tro'); which suddenly fill the wadys or valleys during the season of rain (comp. Ezek. vi :3 xxxiv :13 ; xxxv :8 ; xxxvi :4, 6). These are dry in summer (Job vi 18). The Jews had, by their captivity, left their country empty and deso late, but by their return would 'flow again into it.' Through part of this sterile region the Israelites must repass in their vain application to Egypt (Is. xxx :6; comp. Deut. viii :15). It is called the Wilderness of Judea (Matt. iii ; Josh. xv: 6t ; comp. Ps. lxxv :6, Hebrew or margin ; see also Jer. xvii :26: xxxii :44 : xxxiii :14 ; Ezra xx: 47: xxi :4 ; comp. Obad. xix :2o. Through part of this region lay the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, 'which is desert' (Acts viii :26).