RIVER. No less than seven distinct Hebrew words are rendered in the A. V. by the common term river.' These words are not synonymous. hlost of them have definite significations, and were used by the sacred writers to set forth certain physical peculiarities. When these are overlooked, the full force and meaning of the Scriptures cannot be understood ; and important points of physical geography and topography fail to be apprehended. It is intended in this article briefly to define the meaning of the several Hebrew terms translated river, and to explain, as far as possible, the reasons of their use in particular instances.
In this country 'a river' always means a river— that is, a body of water flowing through a defined channel. Several of the words rendered river ' in the English Bible have not that meaning, and consequently the word river conveys to us a wrong impression. Again, we distinguish carefully be tween rivers, streams, winter-torrents, and valleys ; so also do the sacred writers ; but in the English Bible the distinction is too often overlooked by a mistranslation of the Hebrew words.
From the very frequent use of the term river ' in the A. V. ordinary readers are apt to form a wrong idea of Palestine. They suppose it to be a country, like Britain, abounding in noble rivers and perennial streams. Such is far from being the case. The Hebrew scholar knows that the word, in a vast majority of instances, means valley,' 'ravine,' or 'winter torrent.' It is unfortunate, too, that the Hebrew words are not translated with any regard to uniformity. Sometimes the same word is rendered in four or five different ways. The following are the Hebrew words translated river ' in the A. V.— I. 31t.% (4111bal), used only in three passages of Daniel (viii. 2, 3, 6). I was by the river of It comes frop the root 2.1, which, like the Arabic signifies to flow copiously." River ' is therefore a proper translation of the word. Its derivative, 913n, is the Hebrew term for de/rege.
2. p+pk, (Aphg). This word is derived from (MN, to hold ' or restrain.' It thus comes to signify a channel,' from the fact of its holding,' or restraining ' within its banks a river. It is said
in Sam. xxii. 16, The channels of the sea ap peared, the foundations of the world were dis covered' (cf. Ps. xviii. IS). The Psalmist gives it very appropriately to the glens of the Negeb (south), which are dry during a great part of the year ; Turn again our captivity, 0 Lord, as the channels in the Negeb.' The beauty of this passage is marred by the present translation, streams in the south ' (Ps. cxxvi. 4). The word is rightly translated channels' in Is. viii. 7. It ought to be rendered in the same way in Ezek. xxxii. 6 ; And the channels (rivers) shall be full of thee.' But the most striking example of a wrong rendering is in Joel iii. 18 ; And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters.' It ought to be channels ' instead of rivers.' In all the places, in fact, in which the word occurs, channels ' is the proper meaning.
3. -fIR'1. (Yelr) is an Egyptian word, which is applied originally, and almost exclusively, to the river Nile. It was introduced into the Hebrew language by Moses, and is used more frequently in the Pentateuch than in all the rest of the Bible. As employed by him it has the definiteness of a proper name. Thus, Pharaoh stood by the river' (Gen. xli. ; cf. ver. 2, 3, 17, etc.) ; Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river' (Exod. 22). The Nile was emphatically the river of Egypt. Subsequent writers when spealcing of the river of Egypt, generally borrow the same word (Is. vii. 18 ; xix. 6 ; Jer. xlvi. 7 ; Ezek. xxix. 3 ; Amos viii. 8, etc.) In a few places it is employed to denote a large and mighty river, not like the rivulets or winter-torrents of Palestine. Thus in Is. xxiii. ro : Pass through the land as a river, 0 daughter of Tarshish' (cf. xxxiii. 21). The usual renderinm of this word in the A. V. is river ;' but it is tranlated ' streams ' in Is. xxxiii. 21 ; flood ' in Jer. xlvi. 7, 8 ; Amos viii. 8, etc. ; and brooks in Is. xix. 6, 7, 8, where reference is manifestly made to the canals' which convey the water of the Nile to different parts of Egypt.