VALLEY

(1.) Heb. bik'ah, a "cleft" of the mountains (Deut. 8:7;11:11; Psa 104:8; Isa. 41:18); also a low plain bounded by mountains, as the plain of Lebanon at the foot of Hermon around the sources of the Jordan (Josh. 11:17;12:7), and the valley of Megiddo (2-Chr 35:22).

(2.) 'Emek, "deep;" "a long, low plain" (Job 39:10, Job 39: 21; Psa 65:13; 2:1), such as the plain of Esdraelon; the "valley of giants" (Josh. 15:8), usually translated "valley of Rephaim" (2-Sam 5:18); of Elah (1-Sam 17:2), of Berachah (2-Chr 20:26); the king's "dale" (Gen. 14:17); of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:2, Joel 3: 12), of Achor (Josh. 7:24; Isa. 65:10), Succoth (Psa 60:6), Ajalon (Josh. 10:12), Jezreel (Hos. 1:5).

(3.) Ge, "a bursting," a "flowing together," a narrow glen or ravine, such as the valley of the children of Hinnom (2-Kings 23:10); of Eshcol (Deut. 1:24); of Sorek (Judg. 16:4), etc.

The "valley of vision" (Isa. 22:1) is usually regarded as denoting Jerusalem, which "may be so called," says Barnes (Com. on Isa.), "either (1) because there were several valleys within the city and adjacent to it, as the vale between Mount Zion and Moriah, the vale between Mount Moriah and Mount Ophel, between these and Mount Bezetha, and the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of the brook Kidron, etc., without the walls of the city; or (2) more probably it was called the valley in reference to its being compassed with hills rising to a considerable elevation above the city" (Psa 125:2; comp. also Jer. 21:13, Jer. 21: where Jerusalem is called a "valley").

(4.) Heb. nahal, a wady or water-course (Gen. 26:19; 6:11).