Meadow

VIEW:24 DATA:01-04-2020

MEADOW.—This word disappears from RV [Note: Revised Version.] in the only two places where it is found in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] (Gen_41:2; Gen_41:18, Jdg_20:33). In the former passages the Heb. reads âchû, an Egyptian word which probably means ‘reed grass’ (RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), and may possibly cover the natural pasture lands of old Egypt. It occurs again in Job_8:11 (EV [Note: English Version.] ‘rush,’ RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘papyrus’). In Jdg_20:33, where RV [Note: Revised Version.] simply transliterates ‘Maareh-geba,’ it is practically certain that we should read ma’arab, and translate ‘from the west of Gibeah’; see Gibeah, No. 2. In RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘meadows’ stands for ‘ârôth (Isa_19:7, AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘paper reeds’), where it is possible that ‘ârôth may be a misreading for âchôth.
W. Ewing.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Gen_41:2. Achu; an Egyptian word, akh akh, "verdant," translated therefore rather "in the reed grass." So Job_8:11 "rush," the paper reed or papyrus of the Nile; "can the achu grow without water?" The fat kine fed on the reed grass which in the plenteous years grew to the very margin of the water, but the lean stood on the dry "brink" (Gen_41:2-3). "Out of the meadows of Gibeah" (Jdg_20:38): ma'areeh; rather, "from the naked (from 'arah 'to strip of trees) plains of Gibeah." Not that the treeless plain was the hiding place of the ambush, but when the men broke from the ambush they came "from the treeless plain toward the town." The Peshito Syriac, reads the vowel points slightly different, me'arah, "the cave."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Meadow.
1. In Gen_41:2; Gen_41:18, meadow appears to be an Egyptian term meaning some kind of flag or waterplant, as its use in Job_8:11, (Authorized Version, "flag"), seems to show.
2. In Jdg_20:33, the sense of the Hebrew word translated meadow is doubly uncertain. The most plausible interpretation is that of the Peshito-Syriac, which by a slight difference in the vowel-points makes the word mearah, "the cave".
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

med?ō: (1) ערות, ‛ārōth, ?the meadows (the King James Version ?paper reeds?) by the Nile? (Isa_19:7); מערה־גּבע, ma‛ărēh-gābha‛, the King James Version ?meadows of Gibeah,? the Revised Version (British and American) ?Maareh-geba,? the Revised Version margin ?the meadow of Geba, or Gibeah? (Jdg_20:33); from ערה, ‛ārāh, ?to be naked?; compare Arabic ariya, ?to be naked,? ‛ara'â', ?a bare tract of land.? ‛Ārōth and ma‛ărēh signify tracts bare of trees. (2) אחוּ, 'āḥū, in Pharaoh's dream of the kine, the King James Version ?meadow,? the Revised Version (British and American) ?reed grass? (Gen_41:2, Gen_41:18). 'Āḥū is found also in Job_8:11, the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) ?flag,? the Revised Version margin ?reed-grass.? According to Gesenius, 'āḥū is an Egyptian word denoting the vegetation of marshy ground. (3) כּרמים אבל, 'ābhēl kerāmı̄m, ?Abel-cheramim,? the Revised Version margin ?The meadow of vineyards,? the King James Version ?the plain (the King James Version margin, ?Abel?) of the vineyards? (Jdg_11:33); ?Abel-beth-maacah? (1Ki_15:20; 2Ki_15:29; compare 2Sa_20:14, 2Sa_20:15, 2Sa_20:18); ?Abel-shittim? (Num_33:49; compare Num_25:1; Jos_2:1; Jos_3:1; Jdg_7:22; Joe_3:18; Mic_6:5); ?Abel-meholah? (Jdg_7:22; 1Ki_4:12; 1Ki_19:16); ?Abel-maim? (2Ch_16:4); ?Abel-mizraim? (Gen_50:11); ?stone,? the King James Version ?Abel,? the Revised Version margin ?Abel,? that is ?a meadow? (1Sa_6:18); compare Arabic 'abal, ?green grass,? and 'abalat, ?unhealthy marshy ground,? from wabal, ?to rain.?

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

Meadow
a term used in the A. V. as the translation of two Hebrews words, neither of which seems to have this meaning, although terms otherwise rendered doubtless have. SEE ABEL.
1. Gen_41:2; Gen_41:18. Here the word in the original is הָאָחוּ(with the definite article), ha-Achu. It appears to be an Egyptian term, literally transferred into the Hebrew text, as it is also into that of the Alexandrian translators, who give it as' τῷ ῎Αχει. (This is the reading- of Codex A. Codex B, if we may accept the edition of Mai, has ἕλος; so also the rendering of Aquila and Symmachus, and of Josephus [Ant. 2:5, 5]. Another version, quoted in the fragments of the Hexapla, attempts to reconcile sound and sense by ὄχθη. The Veneto-Greek has λειμών.) The same form is retained. by the Coptic version. Its use in Job_8:11(A.V. “flag”)-where it occurs as a parallel to gome (A.V. “rush”), a word used in Exo_2:3 for the “bulrushes” of which Moses's ark was composed- seems to show that it is not a “ meadow,” but some kind of reed or water plant. This the Sept. supports, both by rendering in. the latter passage βούτομον, and also by introducing ῎Αχι as the equivalent of the word rendered “paper reeds” in Isa_19:7. Jerome, in his commentary on the passage, also confirms this meaning. He states that he was informed by learned Egyptians that the word achi denoted in their tongue any green thing that grew in a marsh-omne quod in palude virens nascitur. But, as during high inundations of the Nile-such inundation's as are the cause of fruitful years-the whole of the land on either side is a marsh, and as the cultivation extends up to the very lip of the river, is it not possible that Achu may denote the herbage of the growing crops? The fact that the cows of Pharaoh's vision were feeding there would seem to be as strong a figure as could be presented to an Egyptian of the extreme fruitfulness of the season: so luxuriant was the growth on either side of the stream, that the very cows fed among it unmolested. The lean kine on the other hand, merely stand on the dry brink. SEE NILE, No one appears yet to -have attempted to discover on the spot what the Signification of the term is. SEE REED.
2. Jdg_20:33 only: “the meadows of Gibeah.” Here the word is מִעֲרֶה, Maareh', which occurs nowhere else with the same vowels attached to it. The sense is thus doubly uncertain. “Meadows” around Gibeah can certainly never have existed: the nearest approach to that sense would be to take maareh as meaning an open plain. This is the dictum of Gesenius (Thesaur. p. 1069), on the authority of the Targum. It is also adopted by De Wette (“ Die Plane von G.”). But, if an open plain, where could the ambush have concealed itself? SEE PLAIN.
The Sept., according to the Alex. MS. (the Vatican Codex transfers the word literally- Μαρααγαβέ), read a different Hebrew word— מִעֲרָב— ”from the west of Gibeah.” Tremellius, taking the root of the word in a figurative sense, reads “ after Gibeah had been left open,” i.e. by the quitting of its inhabitants-post denudationem Gibhoe. This is adopted by Bertheau (Kurzgef. Handb. ad loc.). But the most plausible interpretation is that of the Peshito-Syriac, which by a slight difference in the vowel- points makes the word מְעָרָת, “ the cave;” a suggestion quite in keeping with the locality, which is very suitable for caves, and also with the requirements of the ambush. The only thing that can be said against this is that the liers-in-wait were “set round about” Gibeah, as if not in one spot, but several. SEE GIBEAH.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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