Neesing (Hastings' Dictionary)

There are in Middle English two distinct verbs fnese and neese. The former means ‘to breathe hard’ and is connected with the Gr. wvéw; the latter, which is pure Teut., though not found in Anglo-Sax., means ‘to sneeze.’ ‘Sneeze,’ which has now replaced ‘neese,’ is in fact simply a dialectic variety of that word (cf. ‘lightly ἡ and ‘slightly ’). In the 1611 ed. of AV the word ‘neese’ is accepted from Coverdale in 2K 45. ‘the child neesed seven times.’ The meaning is evidently ‘sneezed’ (Heb.

τὴν Po. of (m1), prob. onomatopoetic, cf. sternuo), and mod. editors (since 1762) have so spelt it (though Scriv- * On the ingenious but futile pro to substitute ‘cable’ eo for ‘camel’ (s&umder), found as early as Cyril of Alex- Hastings ria, see and Nestle in Expos, Times, ix. (1898), B88, 474. For the word cf. Chapman, Odysseys, xix.

732, 736— ‘This said, about the house, in echoes round, Her son's strange neesings made a horrid sound ; At which the Queen yet laugh’d, and said, ‘‘ Go call The stranger tome. Heard’st thou not, to all My words last utter’d, what a neesing brake From my Telemachus?”’ But in Job 4118 we find in 1611 AV ‘By his neesings a light doth shine,’ which again comes down from Coverdale.

Modern editors have re- tained the spelling ‘neesings’ here, a feeling that the modern ‘sneeze’ di the meaning, as it certainly does not. erhaps from not express 1 The Heb. (ayy) is a different word from that found in 2 Καὶ 455, and clearly refers to the crocodile’s habit of inflating itself, as it lies basking in the sun, and then forcing the heated breath through its nostrils : this in the sun appears like a stream of light (Dav.) Now this is the meaning not of neese, but of fnese.

Wyclif’s word in 1388 ed. is ‘fnesynge,’ and it is probable that Coverdale, by whose time the verb Jnese had gone out of use, adopted ‘neese’ either as the same word or its nearest equivalent. In av case ‘neesings’ should no longer be retained, still less should it be replaced by ‘sneezings’ as in Amer. RV ; the modern word is ‘snortings.’ In Jer 816 Wyclif has (1382) ‘Fro Dan is herd the fnesting of his hors,’ and there, though the Heb.

word (7793) is different, the meaning is the same, and AV ‘snorting,’ after Douay ‘snoring (sic) noyse.’ . HASTINGS. NEGEB (2330, lit. ‘the dry’; LXX vdye8, ἡ ἔρημος) was a name specially applied to that district south of Judah which in comparison with the rest of Pal. was waterless.* From the fact that this region did lie to the south of Judea rose the later use of the word to indicate that point of the compass.

+ This use became so habitual, the original sense of Negeb as a geographical term so obscured, that AV ignored the distinction. Wilton (The Negeb, London, 1863) was among the first to call attention to its exact sense, and RV has restored the more accurate tr®. About forty passages in OT can be understood only when this is remembered. Thus, e.g., Abraham is represented (Gn 13!)

as going up from Egypt into the land of the Negeb, while of course the direction of his march was not south- wards but northwards. The hill-country (197) of Judah near Hebron marks the limit of the Negebon the north. On the E. its mountains form steep and barren precipices above the Southern Ghor and the apabate W. it descends more gradually and with wider wadis toward the sandy tract along the Mediterranean. On the S.

the plateau of Jebel el-Magrah, ‘about 70 miles long and 40 to 50 broad,’ marks the natural boundary, Sante it is probable that, when the inhabitants were able to possess themselves of what are now the mountains of the Azazimeh, the name of Negeb may have extended to these also. The entire district is mountainous, composed of ridges, which run in general from E. to W. and which rise from el-Magrah towards the ‘hill’ of Judah in a succession of great terraces.

These are drained by a number of wadis, shorter and more abrupt on the E., wider and more gradual on the west. One result of this characteristic of the Negeb was that no great road ever ran through it from north to south. Trade and war flowed be- tween Pal. and Egypt along ‘the way of the sea,’ the shore-road by Gaza and the Wady el- Arish. The peoples of the N. and N.E, would seek Egypt * Cf. the modern Daroma with the same meaning and applied to part of the same region. + Cf.

the use of 7) (lit. ‘ seawards,’ i.¢. Mediterrancanwards) in the sense of west. NEGEB 506 by what is the modern Hajj road, which leaves the ΝΑ το precipices well to the W. of it. Traders fron Gaza to Akabah and Arabia could avoid the worst of these mountains by skirting them on the W. and crossing into the Arabah to the south- ward of Jebel el-Magrah.

Only the men of Hebron and 5, Judah, in order to reach these points, would probably be forced to climb one of the steep passes of Magrah—Yemen, Sufah, or Fikreh.* The country was always isolated. A further consequence of this character belonging to the district was that the Negeb formed a natural frontier to Judah on thesouth. Noarmy, especiall if it possessed cavalry or chariots, could reac Hebron and Jerus. in this direction.

Only once do we read of an invasion entering by this route, when Chedorlaomer (Gn 14), after rounding the S. end of the Dead Sea, led his army across the ‘ plateau of the Amalekites,’ and so fell on Hazazon- tamar.t In comparison with Judah the country is barren and waterless, though in comparison with the desert et-Tih it is fertile.

‘Almost sudden was the transition to the upland wilderness, the Negeb, a series of rolling hills clad with scanty herbage here and there, especially on their northern faces. Nothing can be barer than the south-country of Judah, neither grand desolation, nor wild, but utter barrenness—not a tree nor shrub, but stunted herbage covered with myriads of white snails which afford food to thousands of birds.’ So writes Tristram (Land of Israel, p. 360 f.)

, and he adds that the suddenness of the transition (he was travelling northwards) has a geological cause, because the soft limestone covers on these hills the hard crystalline which makes the south wilder- ness hopeless. But Palmer (Desert of Exodus, vol. ii.) states that there are abundant signs that this region in earlier times was GAL wad main- tained a large population. Toward the S. there are many rude cairns from a prehistoric period, and hdzérim or stone enclosures for folding sheep.

Toward the N., and especially the N. W., the ruins of towns are frequent, the hillsides are covered with flint-heaps over which to train vines, many of the wadis show signs of cultivation in terraces and dams which would keep and use the winter torrents that stream through these. This latter feature of the cultivation largely determined the fate of the Negeb.

The artificial character of the irrigation, without which cultivation was impossible, depended for its continuance upon e and settled order among the ulation. Vhenever this was granted to the Negeb, its towns bloomed into a fitful importance; but, whenever this ceased, the neglected works fell into ruin, the desert reasse itself, the Bedawin swarmed in from the south, or the people reverted to that earlier condition.

And what has always aided that reversion has been that the country when in its natural condition is stated to be the very ground for browsing camels. Thus the Negeb was the favourite home of the early Israelites, while they were still nomads. Here their forefathers are represented as wander- ing between the more settled Egypt and Palestine (Abraham Gn 20', Isaac 24", Jacob 37! 46°).

The gine home of the traditional Avvim may be looked for in this district (Jos 13+), and of them the chief characteristic which is noted (Dt 2%) is that they ‘dwelt’ in Adzérim, those stone en- closures of a nomad-race which depends on its tlocks. But, when Israel approached this border * Those indomitable road-makers, the Romans, did not shun even these hills,as the Peutinger tables and broken milestones prove.

1 Contrast the conduct of Nebuchadnezzar, who on his way to Egypt detailed a force to reduce Jerus., but led his prin- cipal army by a route clear of these barren hills. NEGO from the wilderness, the spies reported that the Negeb was inhabited, not by Avvim, but by Amalek (Nu 13”, ef. Gn 147); and this people associated with the Canaanites (Nu 1455: 45) was strong enough to repel the invaders at Zephath-hormah, the modern Sebaita.

It is possible that Amalek held the plateau, while the Canaanites occupied the more cultivated wadis. With Amalek as old inhabitants of the land 1S 278 associates the Geshurites and the Gizrites or Girzites. The region was overrun by Simeon when that tribe turned southward with Judah from Jericho; at least the cities assigned to Simeon (Jos 19") lie here.

Along with them went the Kenites, who, with the natural instinct of a clan which had never known anything except the life of nomads, settled near tie ἧς (Jg 1155). But the shock of conquest, where it succeeded, shook down the artificial culti- vation ; Amalek till the days of Saul was ever on one flank, the Philistines rose into strength upon the other side; Simeon was probably from the beginning the rudest of all the clans (Gn 34, ete.)

This tribe, never left in peace, needing peace more than the others, and planted in a district which peculiarly required peace, could not maintain itself, and merged partly into Judah, partly into the Southern Bedawin. The cities of the Negeb are enu- merated in Jos 157!-*?, and assigned there to Judah. On the edge of this district, at Ziklag, Achish planted David (1S 278).

One cannot but suspect that by means of this outpost of men, who were already accustomed to border war, he hoped to cover, against the raids of the lawless border tribes, the route down to Egypt, and ἜΡΜΟ that to Akabah. Incidentally it is noted (15 30% 9710) that the south country was divided at this period into the Negeb of the Cherethites, of Jerahmeel, of the Kenites, of Judah and of Caleb, to which Jg 115 may add that of Arad (for details see these names).

uring the royal period the Negeb was considered a part of Judah, and shared the fortunes of that kingdom. Jeremiah (13!) speaks of it as belonging to Judah, and as suffering, perhaps more than the rest of the country, from the troubles of his time; but in an exhaustive list of the districts which made up the Southern realm (17% 32 3318) he promises restoration to the Negeb as to the rest. Obadiah (v.)

anticipates that its cities shall possess Edom, from which some have inferred that Edom, which finally overran this district, was then pressing on the borders of the weakened kingdom. See, further, on this passage, art. OBADIAH, p. 579. LirgraTurs.—See references in the body of the article. Most of the usual books on Pal. geography devote a section to this subject. Of these, Robinson, BRP, is here the best. E.

Wilton, The Negeb, and Trumbull, Kadesh Barnea, are devoted to that district, but are popular. The most thorough work is still that of Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, vol. ii. A. C. WELCH.