south: the southern direction, and the side, region, or wind that lies toward it
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
The word means "south." Ancient Israel got its bearings by facing the sunrise, so its compass words come from the body: the right hand pointed south. This word is literally "the right-hand side," built from the word for the right hand (יָמִין), which is why "south" is its steady, unmistakable sense throughout the Bible.
Most often it simply marks a side or a bearing: the south wall of the tabernacle, the tribes camped on the south, a border running along the south, or a gaze turned southward. From there it reaches naturally to the whole southern region or country. Hebrew has other words for the same direction, such as the dry southland (נֶגֶב) and a poetic term for south (דָּרוֹם); this one frames south by the right hand rather than by a particular territory.
In a few poetic lines the same word stands for the wind that blows up from the south, set opposite the north wind or the east wind. Nothing changes in the word itself; the setting simply makes it the breeze rather than the bearing.
Nuances
1athe south as a direction, side, or region: the southern quarter, a south-facing side, or the southern land
the plain Hebrew word is simply "south"; the reader supplies "wind" from the setting, as when it answers the north wind or the east wind in poetryPsa 78:26Sng 4:16
Both
both point to the current of air that comes up from the southPsa 78:26Sng 4:16
Only south wind
the English "south wind" spells out the wind that the Hebrew leaves the context to supply
How teman differs from similar Hebrew words
נֶגֶבthe Negev, the parched southern land, which came to double as a word for the direction "south"; this word names south by the right hand rather than by that region.
דָּרוֹםanother word for the direction south, favored in poetry and in Ezekiel and sometimes paired with this one.
The fixed south quarter in layout and boundary texts, one of the four compass points and the side reinforced by "south" (negeb): the tabernacle's south side, a tribe's camp on the south, the four directions surveyed from a mountain, a tribal border's south edge.Exo 26:18Num 2:10Deu 3:27Jos 15:1
The south as a distant land or region peoples and things come from, and the southern quarter of the sky: exiles brought from the south, the south country the horses ride toward, the star chambers of the south.Isa 43:6Zec 6:6Job 9:9
The south wind as a moving, summoned force in poetry: the wind God causes to blow, the wind called to breathe over a garden, the storm winds that sweep up out of the south.Psa 78:26Sng 4:16Zec 9:14
Both
Both are plain terms for the compass direction "south," the bearing one faces or turns toward, and they can stand for each other. In one command the prophet sets his face toward the south (teman) and lets his word fall toward the south (darom).Ezk 20:46
The bearing that structures Ezekiel's temple vision: the way of the south, the south gate, the south chambers, all as concrete architectural directions inside the guided tour of the building.Ezk 40:24Ezk 40:28Ezk 42:13
The point where natural motion comes to rest, in wisdom poetry: the wind circling around to the south, a fallen tree lying toward the south, the land stilled by warmth from the south.Ecc 1:6Ecc 11:3Job 37:17
יָמִיןthe right hand, and the idea behind this word: facing the sunrise, the right hand points south.
A compass direction, the south, used to lay out the tabernacle, the tribal camp, and territory.Exo 26:18Num 2:10Jos 15:1
The quarter the wind blows from, the warm south wind that God stirs up.Psa 78:26Sng 4:16Job 39:26
Both
Both grow from the idea of the right side; for someone facing the sunrise, the south lies on the right hand, so the words for right and south spring from the same orientation.Deu 3:271Sa 23:24
It marks the fixed southern edge of a territory in land grants and border lists: where Judah's lot begins at the far south, where the plain runs from the south under the slopes of Pisgah, and where the south side of the restored land is measured out. The picture behind the word is the right hand of someone facing the sunrise, a settled side of the map rather than a wind, which is why surveyors reach for it.Jos 15:1Jos 12:3Jos 13:4Ezk 47:19Ezk 48:28
It belongs to instructions about where people stand and which way they turn: Reuben's banner pitches on the south, the camps lying south move out at the second trumpet blast, the sons of Kohath settle on the south side of the tent, and a prophet is told to set his face that way.Num 2:10Num 10:6Num 3:29Ezk 20:46
It can point to the far southern sky as a region beyond human reach, the hidden chambers God made along with the great constellations, and the quarter a hawk spreads its wings toward.Job 9:9Job 39:26
Both
Both are the plain name of one of the four quarters of the world, standing in a list beside east, west, and north: Moses looks west, north, south, and east from the mountain, and people come from east and west and north and south to the table in God's kingdom.Deu 3:27Isa 43:6Luk 13:29
Both carry a double duty, naming the wind that comes out of that quarter as well as the direction itself, so the same word rendered "south" in one verse is the moving "south wind" in another: the bride calls the south wind to blow across her garden, God drives it across the sky, and a rising south wind speeds Paul's ship up the Italian coast.Sng 4:16Psa 78:26Act 28:13
Both name the south side in the layout of a holy structure: the courtyard of the dwelling gets its hangings and its frames along the south, and the new Jerusalem has three gates on the south.Exo 27:9Exo 26:18Rev 21:13
Both can widen from a compass point to the stretch of country lying that way: the dappled horses ride out toward the land of the south, and the queen of the South travelled from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon.Zec 6:6Mat 12:42Luk 11:31
It shows up as ordinary weather that people read and act on: a gentle south wind is why the sailors pull up anchor and coast along Crete, a fresh one carries the ship to Puteoli in two days, and a crowd sees it blowing and says the day will be scorching. In the Hebrew verses the south wind is sent by God or called on in a poem, never a forecast someone works from.Act 27:13Act 28:13Luk 12:55
What scholars say about teman
The lexica (BDB, HALOT) derive תֵּימָן from יָמִין "right hand," reflecting the standard Hebrew practice of orienting by facing east, so that the right hand marks the south. The word denotes the southern quarter or side, the southern region, and, by metonymy in poetic texts, the south wind (Psalm 78:26;Song 4:16). It is distinct in the Strong's numbering from the homographic gentilic and place name Teman in Edom (H8487), though the two share the same form. TWOT treats it under the root ymn alongside other derivatives of the right hand.