‘And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, set your face towards the south (temana), and drop your word towards the south (darom), and prophesy against the forest of the country in the Negeb.” '
There is an emphasis on the ‘south' in the Hebrew brought out by the use of different Hebrew words (the Negeb also indicated south of the hills of Judah), and we can see Ezekiel turning towards the south from Babylon in the sight of his listeners. Today the Negeb is waterless desert except where it is watered by man made irrigation, but it is clear that in Ezekiel's time the land somewhat more fruitful and sufficiently watered to produce a ‘forest' of trees. It was from the south that Egypt was expected to come with its useless aid.
But ‘the south' in the first two cases may have reference simply to the southern kingdom, to Jerusalem (Ezekiel 21:2 a) and the ‘land of Israel' (Ezekiel 21:2-3). LXX translates the words for ‘south' as place names.