COAST.Coast, now confined to the shore of the sea, was formerly used of the border between two countries, or the neighbourhood of any place. When St. Paul passed through the upper coasts (Act_19:1), he was in the interior of Asia Minor. Herod slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof (Mat_2:16).
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Coast. Border, with no more reference to lands bordering on the sea, than to any other bordering lands.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
kōst (גּבוּל, gebhūl, etc., ?boundary?; compare גּבל, gebhal, ?mountain? and Arabic jebel, ?mountain?; חבל, ḥebhel, literally, ?a rope?; compare Arabic ḥabl (Jos_19:29 the King James Version; Zep_2:5, Zep_2:6, Zep_2:7); חוף, ḥōph, literally, ?that which is washed?; compare Arabic ḥāffet (Jos_9:1 the King James Version; Eze_25:16); παράλιος, parálios, literally, ?by the sea? (Luk_6:17)): ?Coast? (from Latin costa, ?rib? or ?side?) in the sense of ?seacoast,? occurs but a few times in the Bible. In nearly all the many passages where the King James Version has ?coast,? the Revised Version (British and American) correctly has ?border,? i.e. ?boundary,? translating gebhūl, etc.; in Act_27:2 the American Standard Revised Version, ?coast? is the translation of τόπος, tópos, literally, ?place.? That the seacoast is but seldom mentioned arises naturally from the fact that, while the promised land extended to the sea, the coast was never effectively occupied by the Israelites.
RVm in a number of places renders 'ı̄, English Versions of the Bible ?isle? or ?island? (which see), by ?coastland,? e.g. Isa_11:11; Isa_23:6; Isa_24:15; Isa_59:18; Jer_25:22; Eze_39:6; Dan_11:18; Zep_2:11. In Isa_20:6, the King James Version has ?isle,? the King James Version margin?country,? and the Revised Version (British and American) ?coast-land.? In Jer_47:4, the King James Version has ?country,? the King James Version marginand the Revised Version (British and American) ?isle,? and the Revised Version, margin ?sea-coast.? See ISLE.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
Coast
an inaccurate rendering in the A. V. of various terms (usually גְּבוּל, חבֶל, etc., Gr. ὅριον) signifying border (q.v.), boundary, or extremity, except in the expression sea-coast (חוֹ, choph, Eze_25:16; παράλιος, Luk_6:17; παραθαλάσσιος, Mat_9:13). SEE SEA.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.