NEGEB, originally meaning 'the dry land,' is in most passages in the OT the name of a definite geographical area (Dt.1.7, 3.43, Jos.10.40, 12.8 etc.); the word is, however, also used in the sense of 'South' (Gn.13.14). The Negeb was often the scene of Abraham's wanderings (Gn.12.9. 13.1, 3, 20.1); here Hagar was succoured by an angel (Gn.16.7, 14); Isaac (24.62) and Jacob (37.1, 46.5) both dwelt there; through this district passed the spies (Nu.13.17, 22). In Nu.13.29 the Negeb is described as belonging to the Amalekites. Later it was allotted to Simeon, and its cities are enumerated (Jos.19.1-9), some of which they shared with Judah (Jos.15.21-32). David was stationed by Achish at Ziklag just NW. of Beersheba on the borders of the Negeb (1 S.27.6). At this time the Negeb is described as of several parts, the Negeb of Judah, of the Jerahmeelites, and of the Kenites (1 S.27.10); while in 1 S.30.14 we read of the Negeb of the Cherethites and of Caleb. Jeremiah prophesied trouble as coming on the cities of this region, but on return from captivity they too were to participate in the blessings (32.44, 33.13).
The district in question was an ill-defined tract of country lying S. of Hebron, and extending some seventy miles to the Tih or desert. It was bounded on the E. by the Dead Sea and the Arabah, while W. it faded into the maritime plain. It was a pastoral region, wedged between the cultivated lands on the N. and the wilderness, and formed a most efficient barrier to the land of Israel on the S. Attacks of large armed forces could not come from this direction, but only by the Arabah from the SE. (e.g. Gn.14), via Gaza on the SW. or by the E. of the Jordan. The country consists of a series of mountainous ridges running in a general direction E. and W., with open wadis in which a certain amount of water collects even now. The OT, in the stories of Saul's and David's captures from the Amalekites (1 S.15.9, 27.9), witnesses to a great wealth of cattle. Recent archaeological survey work by Glueck has, in fact, established that the region was much more settled in the 2nd millennium BC and in the Hebrew Monarchy than was previously thought, though it must be emphasized that settlement in the Israelite period was mainly confined to the lines of communication with the copper-mines of the Arabah and the open cultivable wadis extending about seventy miles S. of Beersheba. The area was settled in the early Christian period by the Nabataeans, and again in Byzantine times, when it was a frontier area, it reached its maximum development in antiquity. In this period several considerable towns nourished, such as Elusa (Khalsa), Mampsis (Kurnub), Eboda ('Abda), and Subaita (Sbeita), where excavations have revealed the remains of three large churches and a monastery. There are many traces of channelling of hillsides and cisterns for collection and storage of water, damming of wadis and terracing of slopes against erosion of soil, while regular small piles of stones once served as vine-props. After the Arab invasion the region lost its significance as a frontier area and experienced a rapid decline. In the state of Israel, however, the chemical industry at the S. end of the Dead Sea, the strategic significance of Elath on the Gulf of 'Aqaba, water piped in for irrigation, and above all a greatly swollen population, are rapidly developing the the Negeb to capacity.
[Article: Dictionary of the Bible, J.Hastings, 2nd Ed., T&T.Clark, 1963 - E.W.G.M. - J.Gr.]