4. 53:0 (Yhdcil) is fmnd only in Jer. xvii. 8 ; He shall be as a tree . . . that spreadeth out her roots by the river.' The word is radically identical with 2•Iti (No. 1), and its meaning is the same.
.5. 1r17 Wahar). This word is from the root VD, which signifies to flow ; ' and it may be garded as the proper Hebrew equivalent for our word river.' The cognate Arabic has the same meaning. It is always applied to a perennial stream. It is often followed by the genitives of countries, as the river of Egypt' (Gen. xv. 18), that is the Nile ; 'the river of Gozan' (2 Kings xvii. ; the rivers of Ethiopia' (Is. xviii. r) ; the rivers of Damascus' (z Kings v. 12).
With the article, von, the word is applied em phatically to the Euphrates ; thus in Gen. xxxi. 21, He rose up, and passed over the river ;' and Exod. xxiii. 31, I will set thy 'bounds .
from the desert unto the river.' The Euphrates is also called the great river' (Gen. xv. 18 ; Deut. i. 7, etc.) In one passage this word, without the article, evidently signifies the Nile (Is. xix. 3) ; though in poetry, when thus used, the Euphrates is meant (Is. vii. 20 • Ps. lxxii. ; Zech. ix. to). In a few passages the word is tmnslated 'flood' (Josh. xxiv. 2 ; Job xiv. 11 ; Ps. lxvi. 6) ; but the ordinary rendering is river.' 6. (Nakkal) is derived from the root 1-13, which signifies to receive' or to possess.' Its usual meaning is a valley,' probably from the fact of its receiving the surface-water after rains, and affording a bed for a stream. Sometimes it is ap plied to a valley or glen, apart altogether from the idea of a stream. Thus in Gen. xxvi. 17, Abraham pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar. As many of the valleys of Palestine were the beds of winter streams, the word was sometimes applied to the strearn itself, as in Lev. xi. 9, to • and is rendered in the A. V. river' or 'brook' .(Gen. mil. 23). Sometimes, however, the rendering is incorrect, and conveys a very wrong impression. In Num. xiii. 23, the brook Eshcol' should manifestly be the valley of Eshcol ;' and in Dent. ill. 16 the same word is rendered in two ways unto the river Arnon half the valley.' Vallg is the correct trans
lation in both cases (cf. Josh. xii. 2). Again, in Josh. xiii. 6 the sacred writer is represented as speaking of a city that is in the midst of the river -' it means of course valley (cf. 2 Sam. xxiv. Frequent mention is made of the brook Kidron' (2 Kings xxiii. 6, I2 ; 2 Chron. xv. 16 ; xxix. 16 ; xxx. 14) ; but valley is the true meaning. In Ps. lxxviii. 20 is the following He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams over flowed.' It ought to be 'the valleys overflowed.' This word is also translated flood' m 2 Sam. midi. 5 ; job xxviii. 4, etc.
The frequent use of the word Nakhal in Scrip ture, and the clear distinction drawn between it and Nahar by the sacred writers, are indicative of the physical character of Palestine—. a land of hills and valleys ;' a land in which nearly all the valleys are dty in summer and the beds of torrents during the winter rains. 'The Arabic word wady is the modern equivalent of the Hebrew nakhal. It means a valley, glen, or ravine of any kind, whether the bed of a perennial stream, or of a winter torrent, or permanently dry. Like its Hebrew equivalent it is also sometimes applied to the river or stream which flows in the valley ; but not so commonly as nakhal. In reading the Hebrew Scriptures the context alone enables us to decide the meaning attached by the writer in each passag,e to the word nakhal. In a few instances it appears to be used in two senses in the very sarne sentence (cf. Kings xvii. 3-7, etc.) 7. )0 (Pele"). The root of this word appears to be the same as that of (Mew, q5Xtleu, feo, /size°, and the English ji'arv; its meaning is to gusb' or flow over.' Peleg is equivalent to the Arabic „GAL', 'a stream,' and is always given to something flowl'ag. Thus in Job xxix. 6, The rock poured me out rivers of oil ;' and Lam. iii. 48, Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water.' In the Bible it is used ten times, and is translated rivers, except in Ps. xlvi. 4, where it is rendered streams.—J. L. P.