Reference: River
American
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; Da 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, Nu 34:5, etc; frequently rendered "brook," Nu 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 De 11:10; "where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs." See also Pr 21:1.
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Nevertheless the people are strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
And the border shall turn from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the end of it shall be at the sea.
For the land, where you go in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from where you came out, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs:
And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the River in former times, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants, and gave him Isaac.
My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks that pass away;
My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks that pass away; Which are black by reason of the ice, and in which the snow is hid: read more. At what time they become warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they vanish out of their place. The paths of their way turn aside; they go nowhere, and perish. The caravans of Tema looked, the travelers of Sheba waited for them. They were disappointed because they had confidence; they came there, and were confused.
He cuts out rivers in the rocks; and his eye sees every precious thing.
The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will.
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you be altogether unto me as a deceitful brook, and as waters that fail?
The waters made it great, the deep set it up on high with its rivers running round about its plants, and sent out its little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood two others, the one on this bank of the river, and the other on that bank of the river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?
Easton
(1.) Heb 'aphik, properly the channel or ravine that holds water (2Sa 22:16), translated "brook," "river," "stream," but not necessarily a perennial stream (Eze 6:3; 31:12; 32:6; 34:13).
(2.) Heb nahal, in winter a "torrent," in summer a "wady" or valley (Ge 32:23; De 2:24; 3:16; Isa 30:28; La 2:18; Eze 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. Mt 7:27; Lu 6:49.)
(3.) Nahar, a "river" continuous and full, a perennial stream, as the Jordan, the Euphrates (Ge 2:10; 15:18; De 1:7; Ps 66:6; Eze 10:15).
(4.) Tel'alah, a conduit, or water-course (1Ki 18:32; 2Ki 18:17; 20:20; Job 38:25; Eze 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; Pr 5:16).
(6.) Ye'or, i.e., "great river", probably from an Egyptian word (Aur), commonly applied to the Nile (Ge 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" (Da 8:2).
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And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became four heads.
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto your descendants have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river. And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favored cows and fat; and they fed in a meadow. read more. And, behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ill favored and thin; and stood by the other cows upon the bank of the river.
Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places near there, in the plain, in the hills, and in the lowland, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.
And unto the Reubenites and unto the Gadites I gave from Gilead even unto the river Arnon half the valley, and the border even unto the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;
And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench around the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.
He shall not see the rivers, the brooks flowing with honey and butter.
He cuts out rivers in the rocks; and his eye sees every precious thing.
When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
Who has divided a channel for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.
He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.
Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets?
And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; in which shall go no galley with oars, neither shall majestic ships pass by.
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when the heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give yourself no relief; let not your eyes rest.
And say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.
And the cherubim were lifted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the river of Chebar.
The waters made it great, the deep set it up on high with its rivers running round about its plants, and sent out its little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
And strangers, the most terrible of the nations, have cut it off, and have left it: upon the mountains and in all the valleys its branches are fallen, and its boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth have gone down from its shadow, and have left it.
I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of you.
And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
And it shall come to pass, that everything that lives, which moves, wherever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come there: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live where the river comes.
And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
But he that hears, and does not, is like a man that without a foundation built a house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
Fausets
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 (Nu 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" (Ge 41:1-2; Ex 1:22; 2:3,5). In Jer 46:7-8; Am 8:8; 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. Ps 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 Jg 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.
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And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river. And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favored cows and fat; and they fed in a meadow.
And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.
And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with tar and with pitch, and put the child in it; and she laid it among the reeds by the river's bank.
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.
For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.
And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and also Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley. For the divisions of Reuben there were great resolves of heart. Why abode you among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.
And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which is on the highway of the fuller's field.
My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks that pass away;
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.
And the LORD shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones: and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you be altogether unto me as a deceitful brook, and as waters that fail?
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when the heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Who is this that comes up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers? Egypt rises up like a flood, and its waters are moved like the rivers; and he says, I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.
I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of you.
Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwells in it? and it shall rise up wholly as the river; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the river of Egypt.
And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that touches the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell in it shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like the river; and shall be drowned, as by the river of Egypt.
And he shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall strike the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the river shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away.
Hastings
For the meaning and use of '
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And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became four heads.
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto your descendants have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto your descendants have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.
So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead.
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take your rod, and stretch out your hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.
And the LORD spoke unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth your hand with your rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.
Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places near there, in the plain, in the hills, and in the lowland, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates.
Because they met you not with bread and with water in the way, when you came forth out of Egypt; and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor of Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which is on the highway of the fuller's field.
And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and an aqueduct, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our possessions.
When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
Who has divided a channel for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
Behold, though a river rages, he fears not: he is confident though the Jordan rushes into his mouth.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.
There is a river, the streams of which shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most High.
There is a river, the streams of which shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most High.
You visit the earth, and water it: you greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water: you prepare them grain, when you have so provided for it.
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller's field;
Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame scorch you.
O that you had hearkened to my commandments! then had your peace been as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea:
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when the heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Who is this that comes up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers?
Thus says the LORD; Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is in it; the city, and them that dwell in it: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
The waters made it great, the deep set it up on high with its rivers running round about its plants, and sent out its little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai. Then I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.
And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran at him in the fury of his power.
And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel;
But let justice run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
It is decreed: she shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maidens shall lead her as with the moaning of doves, beating upon their breasts.
And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Morish
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, Ps 36:8; here the word is nachal. In Ps 46:4 it is nahar. "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." It will never run dry.
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They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house; and you shall make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
There is a river, the streams of which shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most High.
Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. And he said unto me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the bank of the river. read more. Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then he said unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters of the sea shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that everything that lives, which moves, wherever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come there: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live where the river comes. And it shall come to pass, that the fishermen shall stand upon it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; there shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be the same kinds as the fish of the great sea, exceedingly many. But its swamps and its marshes shall not be healed; they shall be given over to salt. And by the river upon its bank, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for food, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall its fruit be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to its months, because the waters flowed out of the sanctuary: and its fruit shall be for food, and its leaf for medicine.
Smith
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. 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.
Ge 31:21; Ex 23:31; Nu 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.
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So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount Gilead.
And I will set your bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and you shall drive them out before you.
As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as aloes which the LORD has planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.
Watsons
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; Ps 78:16. It is also used as a symbol for plenty, Job 29:6; Ps 36:8.
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When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;
They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house; and you shall make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was your anger against the rivers? was your wrath against the sea, that you did ride upon your horses and your chariots of salvation?