For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. So Hupfeld, Kay, Canon Cook, and the Revised Version Others suggest the meaning to be, "For it is not from the east, nor is it from the west, nor yet from the mountainous desert [that help cometh]."
But the ellipse of the main idea is improbable. The address is to the enemies who threaten Israel, "Lift not up your horns—speak not proudly—for exaltation comes not from any earthly quarter—east, west, north, or south" ("north" being omitted, as sufficiently implied in the others); it is God alone who gives it, and he is not likely to give it to you."