Swell
Swell
in music, a set of pipes in an organ with a separate key-board, and forming a separate department, which are capable of being increased or diminished in intensity of sound by the action of a pedal on a series of shades or shutters overlapping each other like Venetian window-blinds, within which the pipes in question are enclosed. On a well-constructed swell a practiced performer can imitate not only a gradual crescendo and diminuendo, but also a forzando, a very small opening sufficing to make an immediate burst upon the ear; while, when the shutters are closed, an imitation of an echo is produced.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Swell
swel (, cabhah): In the ordeal of the Water of Jealousy described in Nu 5:11-31 (P), the effect on the unfaithful wife ot the drinking of the holy water was to cause the thigh to fall away (Revised Version) or rot (the King James Version) and the abdomen to swell. This ceremonial was a direct appeal to the judgment of God, for there was nothing in the holy water (taken from the laver) or the dust of the temple which was mixed with it to produce this effect. In the Talmudic tract Sotah there are given many rabbinical opinions and particulars as to the procedure in later times. Apparently from the passage in Numbers, the judgment speedily followed the appeal, but according to Sotah, iii. 4, it might be postponed even for four years, and in v. 1, it is said to have produced the same effect on the adulterer as on the unfaithful wife. We have no details as to the nature or permanency of the swelling.
Swell as the translation of another word, bacek, is used in the sense of blistering of the feet from long tramping. Both in Deu 8:4 and Neh 9:21 it is said that in spite of their long wilderness marches the feet of the Israelites did not swell. This was a token of divine protection. See SWOLLEN.