* 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. NEGINAH, NEGINOTH.—See PsAms.
NEGO (53; [once Dn 3” x\33]).—Found only in the compound proper name Abed-nego (13; 13», ‘servant of Nego’) given by the prince of the eunuchs to Azariah, one of Daniel’s three companions, Dn 17 28 3128. (LXX and Theod. ’ASdevays). It is prac- tically certain that ‘2 is a corruption, which may be set down to the mistake of a copyist or, more probably, of the author of Dn, from ‘3; NEBO (wh. see). Cf. the use of Nebuchadnezzar for the correct form -rezzar. This is the view of Hitzig, Gritz, Schrader (KAT? 429 [COT ii. 126}), Sayce (HCM 532), ete., and is supported by the discovery of the name ‘Abed-nebo’ on a bilingual Assyr.- Aram. tablet of the 7th cent. (iii. Rawl. 46 col. i. 82) and in two Aramaic inscriptions of the 6th and 5th cents. B.C. discovered, one of them by Flinders Petrie and the other by Sayce, on the sandstone
* Read in the last clause ‘ went and dwelt with Amalek.’
NEHELAMITE, THE
NEHEMIAH 507
rocks north of Silsilis in sit Egypt (see HCM 177 n.). The same name was borne, long after the Christian era, by heathen Syrians (Bevan, Daniel, p- 61). It is possible that the author of Dn pur- posely changed Nevo into Nego, in order to obscure the reference to a heathen deity. J. A. SELBIE.
NEHELAMITE, THE ('p>n;n).—An epithet ap- pied to Shemaiah, a false Brophet who opposed
eremiah, Jer 29% 1-83, According to analogy the word should mean an inhabitant of Nehelam, but there is no place of that name mentioned in the Bible. This, however, is not a fatal objection. The Targ. derives the word from a place Helam, LXX Αἰλάμ, which is mentioned in 2S 10'®!7 as apparently near the Euphrates. The LXX in Jer 36 [Heb. 29] has B Αἰλαμείτην, ANQ ᾿Ελαμίτην. Vulg. agrees with English Versions. ‘Nehelamite’ might also be related to the personal name Helem (1 Ch 735, Zec 6). The AVm ‘dreamer’ is of course incorrect, yet there can be little doubt that a play on the words "πὶ and obn ‘to dream’ was in the prophet’s mind. This verb and the cognate noun (0177) are used specifically in Jer (237 27-28. 82, cf. Dt 13% “ 5) of the dreams of false prophets. The words elsewhere are scarcely ever used of the higher inspiration, being employed, e.g., of Jacob, Gn 28"; Joseph, 375%; Pharaoh and his servants, 4057 4)" (all E, not elsewhere in Hex.); of a lower order of prophets than Moses, Nu 12° (ef. Job 33"); of the Midianite, Jg 7%; the object of Saul’s desire, 1S 28°15; of Solomon, 1 K 3%; of old men in latter days, Jl 2%; of Nebuch- adnezzar, Dn 2": ; of Daniel, Dn 12”.