Properly, hidden , i.e. dark ; used only of the north as a quarter (gloomy and unknown)
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H6828 names the north, a northern direction, or the north side of a place or object. It serves ordinary geography in descriptions of land, travel, architecture, winds, and troop positions, while prophetic and poetic passages may associate the north with a particular invader, place, or image.
Reader summary
Full entry for צָפוֹן (H6828) · Open the biblical lexicon
H6828 names the north, a northern direction, or the north side of a place or object. It serves ordinary geography in descriptions of land, travel, architecture, winds, and troop positions, while prophetic and poetic passages may associate the north with a particular invader, place, or image.
The BSB source-word alignment has 153 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include of the north (29), the north (24), north (19), from the north (13), to the north (13).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 13:14. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (46), Jeremiah (25), Joshua (25), Daniel (9).
H6828 names the north, a northern direction, or the north side of a place or object. It serves ordinary geography in descriptions of land, travel, architecture, winds, and troop positions, while prophetic and poetic passages may associate the north with a particular invader, place, or image. The directional noun itself does not mean judgment, evil, divine dwelling, or mystery in every occurrence.
In Gen. 13. 14, the Lord tells Abram to look north, south, east, and west as part of the land promise, placing the north within a comprehensive view from his location. In Jer. 1. 13, the prophet sees a boiling pot tilting from the north, and the Lord interprets the vision as disaster breaking on Judah because of its idolatry. In Zech. 2. 6, exiles are summoned to flee the land of the north after the Lord has scattered them, using the direction for the imperial region from which return is required.
H6828 opens teaching on God’s rule over geography, the historical routes of invasion and exile, and the need to let prophetic symbols receive their meaning from divine interpretation. It corrects attempts to map every northern reference onto a contemporary nation or spiritual power. North may be a side of the tabernacle, a wind, a destination, a political realm, or one point in an all-directions expression.
Context supplies the referent and theological weight.
H6828 appears in mundane orientation, cultic architecture, land descriptions, weather, poetry, and prophetic visions. Because major powers approached Judah along northern routes, north can become historically charged in some prophets, yet other texts use it neutrally. Canonical reading honors both the ordinary direction and the contextual associations an author activates.
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,
After Lot departs, the Lord commands Abram to look north, south, east, and west from where he stands as He restates the promise of land and descendants.
Again the word of the Lord came to me, asking, “What do you see?” “I see a boiling pot,” I replied, “and it is tilting toward us from the north.”
Jeremiah sees a boiling pot tilting from the north, and the following divine explanation announces disaster on Judah for forsaking the Lord and worshiping other gods.
“Get up! Get up! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the Lord, “for I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven,” declares the Lord.
The prophetic summons tells the scattered people to flee from the land of the north as the Lord speaks of gathering and dwelling again in Zion.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. North denotes the hidden, dark, unknown quarter—associated with mystery and threat in biblical geography and theology.
North denotes the hidden, dark, unknown quarter—associated with mystery and threat in biblical geography and theology.
properly, hidden, i.e. dark; used only of the north as a quarter (gloomy and unknown) BDB: north Usage: north(-ern, side, -ward, wind).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 153 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H6828 is ordinary directional language that can become historically and theologically significant in a particular passage. Abraham looks north as one part of a four-direction survey, and the promise emphasizes the breadth of land visible from his location. Jeremiah’s boiling pot comes from the north, but readers do not have to invent the symbol’s meaning because the Lord announces coming disaster and names Judah’s covenant unfaithfulness.
Zechariah calls scattered people out of the land of the north as part of an oracle of renewed divine presence and restoration. The direction can thus participate in promise, judgment, and return without inherently meaning any one of them. Geography matters: roads, empires, winds, temple sides, and territorial perspectives are real features of the text. Yet geography remains under the sovereignty of the Lord, who grants land, summons invaders in judgment, and gathers exiles in mercy.
Teaching H6828 well means refusing sensational maps while also refusing placeless interpretation. The north is a direction; within inspired discourse it may identify where a person looks, from where danger approaches, or from where God calls His people home.
Jer.1.13
H6828 is a Hebrew noun for north or the northern side. It can function in orientation, directional motion, architectural placement, and geographic naming. Contextual associations with weather, invasion, or a distant land arise from usage, not from an invariant symbolic definition.
The Old Testament’s promises of gathering from scattered regions contribute to the canonical hope of one redeemed people drawn from many nations through Christ. The New Testament can use all-directions language for the reach of God’s kingdom, but that theological trajectory does not authorize replacing the historical referents of Jeremiah or Zechariah with current geopolitical guesses.