Word study

South

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “south”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “south” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נֶגֶב negebsouth-country, Negeb, southtranslated this way 51 times of its 108 uses · Strong’s H5045Noun  ·  Translated: south 50, Negev 42, southern 11, southward 2

    Genesis 13:14 After Lot had departed, the LORD said to Abram, “Now lift up your eyes from the place where you are, and look to the north and south and east and west,

    Exodus 26:18 Construct twenty frames for the south side of the tabernacle,

    Full study and all 95 verses →
  • דָּרוֹם dârômsouthtranslated this way 15 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H1864Noun  ·  Translated: south 13, south wind 1, southward 1, it 1

    Deuteronomy 33:23 Concerning Naphtali he said: “Naphtali is abounding with favor, full of the blessing of the LORD; he shall take possession of the sea and the south.”

    Job 37:17 You whose clothes get hot when the land lies hushed under the south wind,

    Full study and all 14 verses →
  • תֵּימָן têmânsouth, south windtranslated this way 14 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H8486Noun  ·  Translated: south 9, south side 2, south wind 2, southward 1

    Exodus 26:35 And place the table outside the veil on the north side of the tabernacle, and put the lampstand opposite the table, on the south side.

    Numbers 2:10 On the south side, the divisions of Reuben are to camp under their standard: The leader of the Reubenites is Elizur son of Shedeur,

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • יָמִין yâmînright handtranslated this way 13 times of its 132 uses · Strong’s H3225Noun  ·  Translated: right hand 59, right 47, south 9, south side 4

    1 Samuel 23:19 Then the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon?

    2 Samuel 24:5 They crossed the Jordan and camped near Aroer, south of the town in the middle of the valley, and proceeded toward Gad and Jazer.

    Full study and all 128 verses →
  • יְמָנִי yemânîright hand, righttranslated this way 8 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H3233Adjective  ·  Translated: right 22, south 8

    1 Kings 6:8 The entrance to the bottom floor was on the south side of the temple. A stairway led up to the middle level, and from there to the third floor.

    2 Kings 11:11 And the guards stood with weapons in hand surrounding the king by the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple.

    Full study and all 17 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • νότος nótosthe south wind, the Southtranslated this way 4 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G3558Noun  ·  Translated: of 2, south wind 2, south 2, a 1

    Luke 12:55 And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It will be hot,’ and it is.

    Acts 28:13 From there we weighed anchor and came to Rhegium. After one day, a south wind came up, and on the second day we arrived at Puteoli.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.