Study Desk

Akhish would ask, "Where were you raiding today?" and David would answer, "Against the Negev of Y'hudah," or "Against the Negev of the Yerachme'eli," or "Against the Negev of the Keni."

Three days later, when David and his men arrived in Ziklag, they found that the ‘Amaleki had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had sacked Ziklag and burned it down;

We raided the Negev of the K'reti, the Negev of Y'hudah and the Negev of Kalev; and we burned down Ziklag."

The P'lishtim too had invaded the cities in the Sh'felah and in the Negev of Y'hudah; they had captured Beit-Shemesh, Ayalon, G'derot, Sokho with its villages, Timnah with its villages and Gimzo with its villages; and they settled there.

Return our people from exile, Adonai , as streams fill vadis in the Negev.

A prophecy about the coastal desert: Like whirlwinds sweeping over the Negev, it comes from the desert, from a fearsome land.

A prophecy about the animals in the Negev: In a land of trouble and anguish, of lionesses and roaring lions, of vipers and poisonous flying serpents, they carry their riches on donkeys' backs and their treasures on camels' humps to a people who will not help them.

The cities of the Negev are besieged, and no one can relieve them; all of Y'hudah is carried into exile, completely swept into exile.

They will come from the cities of Y'hudah, from the places surrounding Yerushalayim, from the land of Binyamin, from the Sh'felah, from the hills and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, frankincense and thanksgiving sacrifices to the house of Adonai .

Yes, people will buy fields for money, sign the purchase contracts, seal them and call witnesses, in the territory of Binyamin, in the areas around Yerushalayim, in the cities of Y'hudah, in the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the Sh'felah and in the cities of the Negev. For I will cause their exiles to return,' says Adonai ."

In the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the Sh'felah, in the cities of the Negev, in the territory of Binyamin, in the areas around Yerushalayim and in the cities of Y'hudah flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them," says Adonai .

"Human being, turn your face southward, preach to the south and prophesy to the scrublands of the Negev;

say to the Negev forest: ‘Hear the word of Adonai . Adonai Elohim says, "I will light a fire in you; it will devour every tree in you, green and dry alike; a blazing, unquenchable flame that will scorch every face from the Negev to the north.

Since I am going to rid you of both righteous and evildoers, my sword will also go out of its scabbard against everyone, from the Negev to the north.

"‘On the side of the Negev toward the south it will be from Tamar as far as the waters of M'rivot-Kadesh, then to the Vadi [of Egypt] and on to the Great Sea. This is the south side toward the Negev.

"‘Alongside the territory of Gad, from the Negev southward, the border will run from Tamar to the water at M'rivat-Kadesh, then to the Vadi [of Egypt], and on to the Great Sea.

Those in the Negev will repossess the mountain of ‘Esav, and those in the Sh'felah the land of the P'lishtim; they will repossess the field of Efrayim and the field of Shomron, and Binyamin will occupy Gil‘ad.

Those from this army of the people of Isra'el exiled among the Kena‘anim as far away as Tzarfat, and the exiles from Yerushalayim in S'farad, will repossess the cities in the Negev.

Isn't this just what Adonai proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Yerushalayim was inhabited and prosperous, as were the cities around her; and the Negev and the Sh'felah were inhabited?'"

All the land will be made like the ‘Aravah, from Geva to Rimmon in the Negev. Yerushalayim will be raised up and inhabited where she is, from Binyamin's Gate to the place where the earlier gate stood, and on to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hanan'el to the king's winepresses.