River

VIEW:28 DATA:01-04-2020
RIVER.—For the meaning and use of ’âphîq, ye’ôr, and nachal, sometimes rendered ‘river,’ see art. Brook. yûbal (Jer_17:8), ’ûbal (Dan_8:2-3; Dan_8:6), are from the root yâbal, ‘to flow.’ peleg, ‘division,’ signifies an artificial water-channel, used for irrigation (Psa_1:3 etc.), by which the water from cistern or stream is led to the various parts of field, garden, or orchard requiring moisture. It is used poetically of the stream bringing the rain from the great storehouses on high (Psa_65:9). te‘âlâh (Eze_31:4) is properly a ‘channel’ or ‘conduit’ (so 2Ki_18:17; 2Ki_20:20, Isa_7:3; Isa_36:2, also Job_38:25 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). The usual word for river in OT is nâhâr (Job_40:23, Psa_46:4 etc.). It is often used of rivers that are named: e.g. the rivers of Eden (Gen_2:10 etc.), the Euphrates (Gen_15:18 etc.), the rivers of Damascus (2Ki_5:12). The Euphrates is called ‘the river’ (Gen_31:21 etc.), and ‘the great river’ (Gen_15:18, Deu_1:7), a title given also to the Tigris (Dan_10:4). Aram-naharaim (Psa_60:1-12 [title], also Heb. Gen_24:10, Deu_23:4), ‘Aram [Note: ram Aramaic.] of the two rivers,’ is Mesopotamia. The word appears to have been used like the Arab [Note: Arabic.] , nahr, only of perennial streams. It is applied, indeed, to the Chebar (Eze_1:1) and the Ahava (Ezr_8:21), while in Psa_137:1, Nah_2:7, Exo_7:19; Exo_8:5, canals seem to be intended. But in all these cases they were probably not mere temporary conduits, but had become established as permanent sources of supply, so that, as with Chebar and Ahava, they might have names of their own. The NT word is potamos (Mar_1:5 etc.).
In the fig. language of Scripture the rising of a river in flood signifies the furious advance of invading armies (Jer_46:7 f., Jer_47:2, Isa_8:7). The trials of affliction are like the passage of dangerous fords (Isa_43:2). The river is significant of abundance (Job_29:6 etc.), and of the favour of God (Psa_46:4). To the obedient peace is exhaustless as a river (Isa_48:18; Isa_30:28). Prevailing righteousness becomes resistless as an overflowing stream (Amo_5:24).
Palestine is not rich in rivers in our sense of the term. The Jordan is perhaps the only stream to which we should apply the name. Apart from the larger streams, the wâdy of the mountain is sometimes the nahr of the plain, before it reaches the sea, if in the lower reaches it is perennial. Bearing the name nahr in modern Palestine, there are: in the Philistine plain, the Sukreir and the Rûbîn; to the N. of Jaffa, el-‘Aujâ, el-Fâlik, Eskanderûneh, el-Mefjir, ez-Zerkâ, and ed-Difleh; to the N. of Carmel, el-Muqatta’ (the ancient Kishon), Na‘mein (the Belus), and Mefsûh. The streams that unite to form the Jordan in the N. are Nahr el-Hasbâni, Nahr el-Leddân, and Nahr Bâniâs. The only nahr flowing into the Jordan from the west is the Jalûd, near Beisân. From the east Nahr Yarmûk drains the Jaulân and Haurân, and at its confluence with the Jordan is almost of equal volume. Nahr ez-Zerkâ is also an important stream, draining a wide region.
The rivers are crossed to-day, as in ancient times, almost entirely by fords. When the rivers are in flood, tragedies at the fords are not infrequent. The rivers that open into the Mediterranean have their main fords at the mouth. The sand washed up by the waves forms a broad bank, over which the water of the stream spreads, making a wide shallow.
W. Ewing.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


A river in our sense is seen by few in Palestine.
(1) Nahar, "a continuous and full river", as Jordan, and especially "the river" Euphrates. The streams are dried up wholly in summer, or hid by dense shrubs covering a deeply sunk streamlet. When the country was wooded the evaporation was less.
(2) Nahal, "a winter torrent," flowing with force during the rainy season, but leaving only a dry channel or bed in the wady in summer. "Brook" in the KJV has too much the idea of placidity. "Valley" or wady (Num_32:9), e.g. "the bed" (or, in winter, "the torrent") of Arnon, Jabbok, Kishon. Some of these are abrupt chasms in the rocky hills, rugged and gloomy, unlike our English "brook." Translated Job_6:15, "deceitfully as a winter torrent and as the stream in ravines which passes away," namely, in the summer drought, and which disappoint the caravan hoping to find water there. The Arab proverb for a treacherous friend is "I trust not in thy torrent." The fullness and noise of those temporary streams answer to the past large and loud professions; their dryness when wanted answers to the failure of friends to make good their professions in time of need (compare Isa_58:11; margin Jer_15:18).
(3) 'Aphik, from a root "to contain"; so "the channels" or "deep rock-walled ravines that hold the waters" (2Sa_22:16); so for "rivers" (Eze_32:6) translated "channels."
(4) Yeor, "the river Nile" (Gen_41:1-2; Exo_1:22; Exo_2:3; Exo_2:5). In Jer_46:7-8; Amo_8:8; Amo_9:5, translated "the river of Egypt" for "flood." The word is Egyptian, "great river" or "canal." The Nile's sacred name was Hapi, i.e. Apis. The profane name was Aur with the epithet act "great." Zec_10:11, "all the deeps of the river shall dry up," namely, the Nile or else the Euphrates. Thus the Red "sea" and the Euphrates "river" in the former part of the verse answer to "Assyria." and "Egypt" in the latter.
(5) Peleg (compare Greek pelagos), from a root "divide," "waters divided", i.e. streams distributed through a land. Psa_1:3, "a tree planted by the divisions of water," namely, the water from the well or cistern divided into rivulets running along the rows of trees (See REUBEN on Jdg_5:15-16, where "divisions" mean "waters divided for irrigation"); but Gesenius from the root to flow out or bubble up.
(6) Yubal, "a full flowing stream" (Jer_17:8).
(7) "A conduit" or "watercourse" (2Ki_18:17); tealah.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


River. In the sense in which we employ the word, namely, for a perennial stream of considerable size, a river is a much rarer object in the East than in the West. With the exception of the Jordan and the Litany, the streams of the Holy Land are either entirely dried up in the summer months, converted into hot lanes of glaring stones, or else, reduced to very small streamlets, deeply sunk in a narrow bed, and concealed from view by a dense growth of shrubs. The perennial river is called nahar by the Hebrews. With the definite article, "the river", it signifies, invariably, the Euphrates. Gen_31:21; Exo_23:31; Num_24:6; 2Sa_10:16; etc.
It is never applied to the fleeting fugitive torrents of Palestine. The term for these is nachal, for which our translators have used promiscuously, and sometimes almost alternately, "valley" "brook" and "river". No one of these words expresses the thing intended; but the term "brook" is peculiarly unhappy. Many of the wadys of Palestine are deep, abrupt chasms, or rents in the solid rock of-the hills, and have a savage, gloomy aspect, far removed from that of an English brook. Unfortunately, our language does not contain any single word which has both the meanings of the Hebrew, nachal, and its Arabic equivalent, wady, which can be used, at once, for a dry valley, and for the stream which occasionally flows through it.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


The Hebrews give the name of “the river,” without any addition, sometimes to the Nile, sometimes to the Euphrates, and sometimes to Jordan. It is the tenor of the discourse that must determine the sense of this vague and uncertain way of speaking. They give also the name of river to brooks and rivulets that are not considerable. The name of river is sometimes given to the sea, Hab_3:8; Psa_78:16. It is also used as a symbol for plenty, Job_29:6; Psa_36:8.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


riv?ẽr:
(1) The usual word is נהר, nāhār (Aramaic נהר, nehar (Ezr_4:10, etc.)), used of the rivers of Eden (Gen_2:10-14), often of the Euphrates (Gen_15:18, etc.), of Abana and Pharpar (2Ki_5:12), the river of Gozan (2Ki_17:6), the river Chebar (Eze_1:1), the rivers (canals?) of Babylon (Psa_137:1), the rivers of Ethiopia (Isa_18:1; Zep_3:10). Compare nahr, the common Arabic word for ?river.?
(2) יאור, ye'ōr, according to BDB from Egyptian 'iotr, 'io'r, ?watercourse,? often of the Nile (Exo_1:22, etc.). In Isa_19:6, for מצור יארי, ye'ōrē mācōr, the King James Version ?brooks of defense,? the Revised Version (British and American) has ?streams of Egypt.? In Isa_19:7, Isa_19:8, for ye'ōr, the King James Version ?brooks,? and Zec_10:11, the King James Version ?river,? the Revised Version (British and American) has ?Nile.? In Job_28:10, the King James Version ?He cutteth out rivers among the rocks,? the Revised Version (British and American) has ?channels,? the Revised Version margin ?passages.?
(3) There are nearly 100 references to נהל, naḥal. In about half of these the King James Version has ?brook? and in about half ?river.? the Revised Version (British and American) has more often ?brook? or ?valley.? But the Revised Version (British and American) has river in ?whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers? (Lev_11:9); ?the river Jabbok? (Deu_2:37; Jos_12:2); the stream issuing from the temple (Eze_47:5-12). the Revised Version (British and American) has ?brook of Egypt,? i.e. el-‛Arı̂sh (Num_34:5; Jos_15:47; 1Ki_8:65; 2Ki_24:7; 2Ch_7:8; Amo_6:14, ?of the Arabah?); ?brook (the King James Version ?river?) of Kanah? (Jos_16:8); ?valley (the King James Version ?river?) of the Arnon? (Deu_2:24). English Versions of the Bible has ?valley?: of Gerar (Gen_26:17), of Zered (Num_21:12), but ?brook Zered? (Deu_2:13), of Eschol (Num_32:9), of Sorek (Jdg_16:4), of Shittim (Joe_3:18). English Versions of the Bible has ?brook?: Besor (1Sa_30:10), Kidron (2Sa_15:23), Gaash, (2Sa_23:30), Cherith (1Ki_17:3); also the feminine נחלה, naḥălāh, ?brook (the King James Version ?river?) of Egypt? (Eze_47:19; Eze_48:28). The torrent-valley (wâdy) is often meant.
(4) פּלג, pelegh, with feminine פּלגּה, pelaggāh, the King James Version ?river,? is in the Revised Version (British and American) translated ?stream,? except English Versions of the Bible ?river of God? (Psa_65:9); ?streams of water? (Psa_1:3; Pro_5:16; Isa_32:2; Lam_3:48); ?streams of honey? (Job_20:17); ?streams of oil? (Job_29:6).
(5) אפיק, 'aphı̄ḳ, the King James Version ?river,? except English Versions of the Bible ?water brooks? (Psa_42:1), is in the Revised Version (British and American) ?watercourses? (Eze_6:3; Eze_31:12; Eze_32:6; Eze_34:13; Eze_35:8; Eze_36:4, Eze_36:6), ?water-brooks? (Son_5:12; Joe_1:20).
(6) יוּבל, yūbhal, English Versions of the Bible ?river? (Jer_17:8). אבל, 'ubhāl, and אוּבל, 'ūbhāl, English Versions of the Bible ?river? (Dan_8:2, Dan_8:3, Dan_8:6).
(7) ποταμός, potamós: of the Jordan (Mar_1:5); Euphrates (Rev_9:14); ?rivers of living water? (Joh_7:38); ?river of water of life? (Rev_22:1). So always in Greek for ?river? in the Revised Version (British and American) Apocrypha (1 Esdras 4:23, etc.). See BROOK; STREAM; VALLEY.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Psa_1:3 (a) The Holy Spirit is thus described. The child of GOD is planted in the soil for security, close by the water (the river), for inspiration, for refreshing and for the abundant life. (See also Jer_17:8). The river is the Holy Spirit.

Psa_36:8 (a) The blessings of GOD are so abundant, so liberal and so great that no other figure could properly express the value of them. The things that please GOD are revealed to us in His Word. We enter into those pleasures, and our joy is full.

Psa_46:4 (b) This type represents the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit in all His various activities. He brings joy and life more abundant wherever His ministry is given.

Psa_107:33 (a) This passage is reminding us of the fact that GOD is able to turn blessings into curses. He tells us this very plainly in Mal_2:2.

Isa_32:2 (a) In this beautiful way the Lord is telling us of the tremendous and constant blessings which flow to the soul from the living CHRIST on the Throne. There is no measuring of His goodness toward us. There is no limit to the supply. (See also Isa_33:21; Isa_41:18).

Isa_43:2 (a) Here we see a type of the great volume and avalanche of sorrow and trouble that sometimes overtakes GOD's people. The sorrows like sea billows roll. The flood of adversity overwhelms the heart. Then our Lord promises that we will not be submerged by it. He will preserve us and keep us always.

Isa_43:19 (a) This beautiful promise of our Lord is to inform us that He has an abundance of remedies for all of our barrenness and fruitlessness. He wants us to take advantage of His rich provisions for our lives, so that we will not be barren nor unfruitful. (See 2Pe_1:8).

Eze_47:5 (b) This is a type of the Holy Spirit issuing out from the door, which is CHRIST, and coming to the ankles, affecting our walk, then to the knees, affecting our prayer life and devotion, then to the loins, affecting our service, and then enveloping us completely so that we are wholly baptized into Him and He completely controls all of us. Where this river flows, there will be life more abundant. Fishermen will be there fishing for souls and there will be a great multitude of fish to be caught or souls to be saved. Also the salt places will be healed and there will be sweet and blessed experiences among GOD's people.

Joh_7:38 (a) Here is a type which represents the gracious spiritual ministry of those who drink in the Holy Spirit, make Him their Lord, and expect Him to fill the life.

Rev_22:1 (b) It is quite evident that this river represents the fullness of the rich blessings of GOD revealed in the fulfillment of His Word as it is ministered to the souls of the saved. It tells of refreshing, of life-giving power, of constant supply, and of sweet fruitfulness. All of these are enjoyed to the full when we are in Heaven.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.





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