Valley
(1.) Heb. bik’ah, a “cleft” of the mountains (Deut 8:7; Deut 11:11; Ps 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; Josh 12:7), and the valley of Megiddo (2 Chr 35:22).
(2.) ‘Emek, “deep;” “a long, low plain” (Job 39:10, Job 39:21; Ps 65:13; Song 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 (Ps 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 Kgs 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” (Ps 125:2; comp. also Jer 21:13, where Jerusalem is called a “valley”).
(4.) Heb. nahal, a wady or water-course (Gen 26:19; Song 6:11).
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
