River
RIVER
This word answers in our Bible to various Hebrew terms, of which the principal are the following:1. Yeor, an Egyptian word signifying river. It is always applied to the Nile and its various canals, except in Job 28:10 Dan 12:5,6,7 2. Nahar, applied, like our word river, to constantly flowing streams, such as the Euphrates. In our version this word is sometimes rendered “flood,” Jos 24:2,3, etc.3. Nahal, a torrent-bed, or valley through which water flows in the rainy season only, Num 34:5, etc; frequently rendered “brook,” Num 13:28 Job 6:15, etc. Such streams are to the orientals striking emblems of inconstancy and faithlessness. Flowing only in the rainy season, and drying up when the summer heat sets in-and some of them in desert places failing prematurely-they sadly disappoint the thirsty and perhaps perishing traveller who has looked forward to them with longing and with hope, Job 6:15-20 Jer 15:18 .In some passages in our Bible the word “rivers” seems to denote rivulets or canals, to conduct hither and thither small streams of water from a tank or fountain, Eze 31:4 . Such conduits were easily turned by moulding the soil with the foot; and some think this is the idea in Deu 11:10 ; “where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs.” See also Pro 21:1 .
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
River
(, Act 16:13, 2Co 11:26, Rev 8:10; Rev 9:14; Rev 12:15; Rev 16:4; Rev 16:12; Rev 22:1-2; the references to rivers in the Gospels are even fewer [cf. Mat 7:25, Mar 1:5, Luk 6:48 Joh 7:38])
The Jordan is the only river in Palestine proper, worthy of the name. It is rightly called the Jordan, which probably means the Descender, as it falls some 2,000 ft. in a distance of 100 miles. Among the other streams and mountain torrents in Palestine there are the Kishon, which drains Galilee westward; the Yarmuk and the Jabbok, which carry the waters of Bashan and Gilead into the Jordan; the Leontes and Orontes, which rise in CCEle-Syria and drain the great basin between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and the Euphrates, greatest of All, forming the boundary of Palestine on the N.E.
The rivers mentioned in apostolic history carry us beyond Palestine. Certain references to rivers, indeed, are but figures of speech. That alluded to in Act 16:13 is best identified with the Gangitis, a tributary of the Strymon near Philippi. On its banks St. Paul and his companions found a place of prayer, with a small building possibly in connexion with it. According to Josephus (Ant. XIV. x. 23), the decree of Halicarnassus allowed the Jews to make their places of prayer by the seashore, according to the custom of their fathers. Tertullian (ad Nat. i. 13) also, about a.d. 200, mentions prayers on the shore as characteristic of the Jews (cf. Act 21:5). The Jews in Philippi at that time were probably too few in number to possess a synagogue. This place of prayer, being situated by a river, was convenient for ceremonial washings. In another passage (2Co 11:26), St. Paul, in illustration of his unflinching Christian endurance, recounts the perils he had suffered in his missionary journeys from swollen and turbulent rivers, which had been treacherous to ford or swim. Doubtless he had had many hazardous experiences of this character. When the rivers of Asia Minor and Palestine are in flood, to ford them is little less than a tragedy. The rains and melting snows keep most of them bridgeless.
Two references in the Book of Revelation are of similar import and may be considered together. In the first (Rev 8:10), when the third angel sounds, there falls from heaven a great star, burning as a torch, upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. The star is called wormwood, a bitter drug, typical of Divine punishment, and regarded as a mortal poison. In the second passage (Rev 16:4), the third angel pours out his bowl into the rivers and fountains of waters, and they become blood. In consequence, there is no more drinking water. All nature is in convulsion, the special object of the Apostle being to announce the doom of Rome and of the worshippers of the Emperor.
There are three other passages in the Apocalypse which may very appropriately be discussed by themselves. In the first (Rev 9:14), the sixth angel with the trumpet is bidden to loose the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates, that they may lead forth a mighty army to the sad disaster of Rome. The Euphrates, which in the olden time had been the ideal eastern boundary of Israels territory, is here conceived of as the frontier between Rome and her enemies the Parthians. In a parallel passage (Rev 16:12) the sixth angel pours out his bowl on the Euphrates, and its waters are dried up that the way may be ready for the kings (of Parthia) to cross over (cf. Rev 17:12; Rev 17:16). Both predictions have to do with the Roman Empire and its fate. In the remaining passage (Rev 12:15) the dragon casts water out of his mouth as a river that the Imperial mistress (Rome) may be carried away as by a deluge. In all these passages the Seer is attempting to picture the marvellous deliverance of Gods people from their Roman enemies. For the Roman armies under Nero threatened to sweep away Christianity in the wreck of the Jewish nation.
The most beautiful reference to rivers in the whole Bible is yet to be discussed. It is found in Rev 22:1-2, And he shewed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. To the Seer of Patmos, the New Jerusalem would not be complete without the river of water of life. The original Paradise (Gen 2:10) possessed a river, and Paradise Regained must possess one too. Rivers, in the East especially, have the power to turn a wilderness into a garden of beauty and fertility; hence the river is here an apt symbol of life. Its waters are living waters (Jer 2:13) and healing (Eze 47:1-12), making glad the city of God (Psa 46:4). In Ezekiel the life-giving stream issued from the Temple; now, inasmuch as the city is all temple, the rivers ultimate source is from the presence of the king. The river and the street run side by side through the city, as the Barada and the street upon its left bank do to-day in the city of Damascus. Trees of life are placed in rows on either side of the intervening space. Both river and trees are within reach of every one. The river is no longer a mere boundary (Num 34:5) or a highway for navigation (Isa 18:2), nor are its banks even a place of prayer (Act 16:13); it is rather a source of spiritual irrigation to immortals. Thus John uses the realistic though archaic language of Jewish piety to delineate the bliss of the Redeemed in a future state. In his picture the river becomes the symbol of the spiritual happiness of the followers of the Lamb; thus heaven is to possess all that Judaism had ever claimed or craved.
George L. Robinson.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
River
In the sense in which we employ the word, viz. for a perennial stream of considerable size, a river is a much rarer object in the East than in the West. SEE WATER. The majority of the inhabitants of Palestine at the present day have probably never seen one. With the exception of the Jordan and the Litany, the streams of the Holy Land are either entirely dried up in the summer months, and 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 cause of this is twofold: on the one hand, the hilly nature of the country –a central mass of highland descending on each side to a lower level and on the other the extreme heat of the climate during the summer. There is little doubt that in ancient times the country was more wooded than it now is, and that, in consequence, the evaporation was less, and the streams more frequent; yet this cannot have made any very material difference in the permanence of the water in the thousands of valleys which divide the hills of Palestine.
River is the rendering in the A.V. of seven distinct Hebrew words. These are not synonymous. Most 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.
1. (or ), ubal, used only in three passages of Daniel (Dan 8:2-3; Dan 8:6). I was by the river of Ulai. It comes from the root , which, like the corresponding Arabic, signifies to flow copiously. Its derivative, , is the Hebrew term for deluge.
2. , aphik, from , 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 2Sa 22:16, The channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered (comp. Psa 18:15). 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, O Lord, as the channels in the Negeb. The beauty of this passage is marred by the present translation, streams in the south (Psa 126:4). The word is rightly translated channels in Isa 8:7. It ought to be rendered in the same way in Eze 32:6 : And the channels (rivers) shall be full of thee. But the most striking example of a wrong rendering is in Joe 3:18 : And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters. SEE APHIK.
3. (or ), yeor, is an Egyptian word, which is applied originally, and almost exclusively, to the river Nile, and, in the plural, to the canals by which the Nile water was distributed throughout Egypt, or to streams having a connection with that country. It properly denotes a fosse or river (it was expressed by ioro in the dialect of Memphis, and by iero in that of Thebes, while it appears as ior in the Rosetta inscription). 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 41:1; comp. ver. 2, 3, 17, etc.): Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river (Exo 1:22). The Nile was emphatically the river of Egypt. Subsequent writers, when speaking of the river of Egypt, generally borrow the same word (Isa 7:18; Isa 19:6; Jer 46:7; Eze 29:3; Amo 8:8, 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 Isa 23:10 : Pass through the land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish (comp. 33:21). The usual rendering of this word in the A.V. is river; but it is translated streams in Isa 33:21; flood in Jer 46:7-8; Amo 8:8, etc.; and brooks in Isa 19:6-8, where reference is manifestly made to the canals which convey the water of the Nile to different parts of Egypt. SEE NILE.
4. , yubal, is found only in Jer 17:8 : He shall be as a tree … that spreadeth out her roots by the river. The word is radically identical with (No. 1), and its meaning is the same.
5. , nahar, from the root , which signifies to flow; and it may be regarded as the proper Hebrew equivalent for our word river. The cognate Arabic nahr has the same meaning, in which language also, as in Hebrew, it includes canals, as the Naharawan of Khuzistan; and the Scripture must mean the Euphrates and its canals, where it speaks of the rivers (naharoth) of Babylon (Psa 137:1). It is always applied to a perennial stream. It is possibly used of the Jordan in Psa 66:6; Psa 74:15; of the great Mesopotamian and Egyptian rivers generally in Gen 2:10; Exo 7:19; 2Ki 17:6; Eze 3:15, etc. It is often followed by the genitives of countries, as the river of Egypt (Gen 15:18), that is, the Nile; the river of Gozan (2Ki 17:6); the rivers of Ethiopia (Isa 18:1); the rivers of Damascus (2Ki 5:12). With the article, , han-nahar, the word is applied emphatically to the Euphrates; thus in Gen 31:21, He rose up, and passed over the river; and Exo 23:31, I will set thy bounds … from the desert unto the river (Num 24:6; 2Sa 10:16, etc.). The Euphrates is also called the great river (Gen 15:18; Deu 1:7, etc.). In one passage this word, without the article, evidently signifies the Nile (Isa 19:5); though in poetry, when thus used, the Euphrates is meant (7:20; Psa 72:8; Zec 9:10). In a few passages the word is translated flood (Jos 24:2; Job 14:11; Psa 66:6); but with a few exceptions (Jos 1:4; Jos 24:2; Jos 24:14-15; Isa 59:19; Eze 31:15), nahar is uniformly rendered river in our version, and accurately, since it is never applied to the fleeting fugitive torrents of Palestine. SEE TOPOGRAPHICAL TERMS.
6. , nachal, is derived from the root , 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 applied to a valley or glen, apart altogether from the idea of a stream. Thus in Gen 26:17, 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 stream itself, as in Lev 11:9-10; the valley, the brook, and the river Zered (Num 21:12; Deu 2:13; Amo 6:14); the brook and the river of Jabbok (Gen 32:23; Deu 2:37), of Kishon (Jdg 4:7; 1Ki 18:40). Comp. also Deu 3:16, etc. Jerome, in his Quoestiones in Genesim, 26, 19, draws the following curious distinction between a valley and a torrent: Et hic pro valle torrens scriptus est, nunquam enim in valle invenitur puteus aquae vivae. Sometimes, however, the rendering is incorrect, and conveys a very wrong impression. In Num 13:23 the brook Eshcol should manifestly be the valley of Eshcol; and in Deu 3:16 the same word is rendered in two ways unto the river Arnon half the valley (comp. Jos 12:2). Again, in Jos 13:6 the sacred writer is represented as speaking of a city that is in the midst of the river; it means, of course, valley (comp. 2Sa 24:5). Frequent mention is made of the brook Kidron (2Ki 23:6; 2Ki 23:12; 2Ch 15:16; 2Ch 29:16; 2Ch 30:14); but valley is the true meaning. In Psa 78:20 is the following: He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed.
Neither of these words expresses the thing intended; but the term brook is peculiarly unhappy, since the pastoral idea which it conveys is quite at variance with the general character of the wadys of Palestine. Many of these 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 ordinary brook. For example, the Arnon forces its way through a ravine several hundred feet deep and about two miles wide across the top. The Wady Zerka, probably the Jabbok, which Jacob was so anxious to interpose between his family and Esau, is equally unlike the quiet meadowy brook with which we are familiar. And those which are not so abrupt and savage are in their width, their irregularity, their forlorn arid look when the torrent has subsided, utterly unlike brooks. 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. Ainsworth, in his Annotations (on Num 13:23), says that bourne has both meanings; but bourne is now obsolete in English, though still in use in Scotland, where, owing to the mountainous nature of the country, the burns partake of the nature of the wadys of Palestine in the irregularity of their flow. Burton (Geog. Journ. 24, 209) adopts the Italian fiumana. Others have proposed the Indian term nullah. The double application of the Hebrew nachal is evident in 1Ki 17:3, where Elijah is commanded to hide himself in (not by) the nachal Cherith, and to drink of the nachal. This word is also translated flood in 2Sa 22:5; Job 28:4, etc. SEE BROOK.
The frequent use of the word nachal in Scripture, 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 dry in summer, and the beds of torrents during the winter rains. The Arabic word wady is the modern equivalent of the Hebrew nachal. 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 nachal. In reading the Hebrew Scriptures the context alone enables us to decide the meaning attached by the writer in each passage to the word nachal. In a few instances it appears to be used in two senses in the very same sentence (comp. 1Ki 17:3-7, etc.). See a picturesque allusion to such brooks in Job 6:15. When the word stands alone it seems to denote a mere winter torrent, a permanent stream being indicated by the addition of the word , perennial, as in Psa 74:15; Deu 31:4; Amo 5:24. SEE VALLEY.
A few brooks are specially designated (in addition to the above), as the Brook of Willows (Isa 15:7), a stream on the east of the Dead Sea, probably the present Wady el-Ahsy, which descends from the eastern mountains and enters the eastern end of the Dead Sea; the Besor (the cold), a torrent emptying itself into the Mediterranean near Gaza (1Sa 30:9-10; 1Sa 30:21); and the Kanah, a stream on the borders of Ephraim and Manasseh (Jos 17:9). The brook of Egypt, mentioned in Num 34:5; Jos 15:4; Jos 15:47; 1Ki 8:65; 2Ki 24:7; Isa 27:12, which is also called simply the brook (Eze 47:19; Eze 48:28), and described as on the confines of Palestine and Egypt, is unquestionably the Wady el-Arish, near the village of that name, which was anciently called Rhinocorura. The river (yeor) of Egypt is, however, the Nile; and it is unfortunate that the two are riot so well distinguished in the A.V. as in the original. Other examples are the valley of Gerar (Gen 26:17 ) and the valley of Sorek (Jdg 16:4), so called probably from its vineyards, which Eusebius and Jerome place north of Eleutheropolis and near to Zorah. The valley of Shittim (acacias) was in Moab, on the borders of Palestine (Joel 4:18; comp. Num 25:1; Jos 2:1; Jos 3:1; Mic 6:5). See each name in its place.
7. , peleg. The root of this word appears to be the same as that of , , fleo, fluo, pluo, and the English flow; its meaning is to gush or flow over. Peleg is equivalent to the Arabic palg, a stream, and is always given to something flowing. Thus in Job 29:6, The rock poured me out rivers of oil; and Lam 3:48, Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water. In the Bible it is used ten times, and is translated rivers, except in Psa 46:4, where it is rendered streams, and in Jdg 5:15-16, divisions, where the allusion is probably to the artificial streams with which the pastoral and agricultural country of Reuben was irrigated (Ewald, Dichter, 1, 129; Gesen. Thesaur. col. 1103 b); or perhaps to the gullies that intersect that high table land. SEE MOAB.
8. What is commonly rendered conduit (2Ki 18:17; 2Ki 20:20; Isa 7:3; Isa 36:2), once a watercourse (Job 28:25), is in one verse transformed into little rivers, but with conduits on the margin (Eze 31:4). The word is , tealah, and means simply a channel or conduit for the conveying of rain or water of any sort. SEE CONDUIT.
Rivers were worshipped by many nations of antiquity (Spanheim, on Callim. Apol. 112; Cerer. 14; Voss, Idololat. 2, 79 sq.), and especially in the East. Comp. Herod. 1, 138; Strabo, 15, 732; Arnob. Adv. Gent. 6, 11. On the Persians, see Heliodor. AEth. 9, 9; so the Egyptians. Some trace of the reverence for them so generally felt has been supposed by some to have existed among the idolatrous Hebrews (from Isa 57:6; Bosseck, De Cultu Fluminum [Lips. 1740]; Van Speren, in Biblioth. Hag. 4, 1, 81 sq.), but without ground (see Rosenmller and Gesen. in Jes. ad loc.). The principal rivers mentioned in the Bible are the Euphrates, the Nile, and the Jordan (see each). See Swedie, Lakes and Rivers of the Bible (Lond. 1864). SEE PALESTINE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
River
(1.) Heb. ‘aphik, properly the channel or ravine that holds water (2 Sam. 22:16), translated “brook,” “river,” “stream,” but not necessarily a perennial stream (Ezek. 6:3; 31:12; 32:6; 34:13).
(2.) Heb. nahal, in winter a “torrent,” in summer a “wady” or valley (Gen. 32:23; Deut. 2:24; 3:16; Isa. 30:28; Lam. 2:18; Ezek. 47:9).
These winter torrents sometimes come down with great suddenness and with desolating force. A distinguished traveller thus describes his experience in this matter:, “I was encamped in Wady Feiran, near the base of Jebel Serbal, when a tremendous thunderstorm burst upon us. After little more than an hour’s rain, the water rose so rapidly in the previously dry wady that I had to run for my life, and with great difficulty succeeded in saving my tent and goods; my boots, which I had not time to pick up, were washed away. In less than two hours a dry desert wady upwards of 300 yards broad was turned into a foaming torrent from 8 to 10 feet deep, roaring and tearing down and bearing everything upon it, tangled masses of tamarisks, hundreds of beautiful palmtrees, scores of sheep and goats, camels and donkeys, and even men, women, and children, for a whole encampment of Arabs was washed away a few miles above me. The storm commenced at five in the evening; at half-past nine the waters were rapidly subsiding, and it was evident that the flood had spent its force.” (Comp. Matt. 7:27; Luke 6:49.)
(3.) Nahar, a “river” continuous and full, a perennial stream, as the Jordan, the Euphrates (Gen. 2:10; 15:18; Deut. 1:7; Ps. 66:6; Ezek. 10:15).
(4.) Tel’alah, a conduit, or water-course (1 Kings 18:32; 2 Kings 18:17; 20:20; Job 38:25; Ezek. 31:4).
(5.) Peleg, properly “waters divided”, i.e., streams divided, throughout the land (Ps. 1:3); “the rivers [i.e., ‘divisions’] of waters” (Job 20:17; 29:6; Prov. 5:16).
(6.) Ye’or, i.e., “great river”, probably from an Egyptian word (Aur), commonly applied to the Nile (Gen. 41:1-3), but also to other rivers (Job 28:10; Isa. 33:21).
(7.) Yubhal, “a river” (Jer. 17:8), a full flowing stream.
(8.) ‘Ubhal, “a river” (Dan. 8:2).
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
River
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.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
River
RIVER ().River (Mar 1:5 etc.), flood (Mat 7:25), stream (Luk 6:48), and waters (2Co 11:26) stand for the same Greek word . Stream in Luk 6:48 corresponds to flood in Mat 7:25.
The Jordan is the one true river in Palestine. The name occurs frequently in the Gospels, but only once connected with river (Mar 1:5). See Jordan.
The stream (Luk 6:48) or flood (Mat 7:25) is evidently the rushing torrent raised by wintry rains. From Rev 12:15-16 we gather that may signify any great volume of water rolling over the land. St. Pauls perils of rivers (1Co 11:26) were doubtless such as the Eastern traveller has perpetually to face in fording bridgeless streams in times of rain and melting snow.
To one reared in Palestine, where only water is required to turn the wilderness into a garden, a river, with its beautifying and fertilizing power, might well seem an apt symbol of life (Rev 22:1-2).
W. Ewing.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
River
RIVER.For the meaning and use of phq, yer, and nachal, sometimes rendered river, see art. Brook. ybal (Jer 17:8), bal (Dan 8:2-3; Dan 8:6), are from the root ybal, 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). telh (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 nhr (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 wdy 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 Rbn; to the N. of Jaffa, el-Auj, el-Flik, Eskanderneh, el-Mefjir, ez-Zerk, and ed-Difleh; to the N. of Carmel, el-Muqatta (the ancient Kishon), Namein (the Belus), and Mefsh. The streams that unite to form the Jordan in the N. are Nahr el-Hasbni, Nahr el-Leddn, and Nahr Bnis. The only nahr flowing into the Jordan from the west is the Jald, near Beisn. From the east Nahr Yarmk drains the Jauln and Haurn, and at its confluence with the Jordan is almost of equal volume. Nahr ez-Zerk 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.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
River
We read of the several rivers in Scripture, even from the garden of Eden. And as in those hot countries nothing was so highly valued, it is no wonder that the sacred writers made use of them so often figuratively. Hence we read of “the river of life, and the river of pleasures,” and the like. But the most striking are those expressions in which all the persons of the GODHEAD are described under this metaphor. “There is a river, (saith the psalmist) the streams thereof make glad the city of God.” (Psa 46:4) God the Father is thus described, Jer 2:13; Psa 65:9; God the Son is thus described, Son 4:15; Zec 13:1; and God the Holy Ghost, Joh 7:38 and Joh 4:14.
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
River
river:
(1) The usual word is , nahar (Aramaic , 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) , ye’or, according to BDB from Egyptian ‘iotr, ‘io’r, watercourse, often of the Nile (Exo 1:22, etc.). In Isa 19:6, for , ye’ore macor, 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’or, 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 , nahal. 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-Arsh (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 , nahalah, brook (the King James Version river) of Egypt (Eze 47:19; Eze 48:28). The torrent-valley (wady) is often meant.
(4) , pelegh, with feminine , pelaggah, 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) , ‘aphk, 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) , yubhal, English Versions of the Bible river (Jer 17:8). , ‘ubhal, and , ‘ubhal, English Versions of the Bible river (Dan 8:2, Dan 8:3, Dan 8:6).
(7) , potamos: 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.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
River
The three principal rivers referred to in scripture are the Nile, the Jordan, and the Euphrates. The word employed for the Nile is yeor, ‘a fosse or channel’; for the Jordan and the Euphrates the word used is nahar, ‘a river’ always supplied with water. The other streams in Palestine, though called ‘rivers,’ as the Arnon, are torrents running in valleys; for the most part they have water only in the winter, and are then often impassable: these are described by the word nachal. For the symbolical river that Ezekiel saw issuing from the house this latter word is used. Eze 47:5-12.
God will make His people drink of the river of His pleasures, Psa 36:8; here the word is nachal. In Psa 46:4 it is nahar. “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God.” It will never run dry.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
River
Figurative of salvation
Psa 36:8; Psa 46:4; Isa 32:2; Eze 47:1-12; Rev 22:1-2
Figurative of grief
Psa 119:136; Lam 3:48
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
River
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.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
River
denotes (a) “a stream,” Luk 6:48-49; (b) “a flood or floods,” Mat 7:25, Mat 7:27; (c) “a river,” natural, Mat 3:6, RV; Mar 1:5; Act 16:13; 2Co 11:26, RV (AV, “waters”); Rev 8:10; Rev 9:14; Rev 16:4, Rev 16:12; symbolical, Rev 12:15 (1st part), RV, “river” (AV, “flood”); so Rev 12:16; Rev 22:1-2 (cp. Gen 2:10; Ezek. 47); figuratively, Joh 7:38, “the effects of the operation of the Holy Spirit in and through the believer.” See FLOOD, WATER.
Note: For potamophoretos in Rev 12:15, see FLOOD, B.
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
River
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.
Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary
River
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.