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Bible Dictionaries
Brook
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or BROOK . The Heb. words thus rendered are 1 . ‘Aphîq , meaning the actual bed of the stream ( Psalms 42:1 ), tr. [Note: translate or translation.] also by ‘stream’ and ‘river.’ 2 . Ye’ôr almost always used of the Nile and water-trenches of Egypt. It is tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘brook’ only in Isaiah 19:6-8 . Once it is used for the water-channel ( Job 28:10 ); once ( Isaiah 33:21 ) it is rendered ‘stream’; while in Daniel 12:1-13 it stands for the Tigris. 3 . Mîkhal ( 2 Samuel 17:20 ), a word of uncertain derivation and meaning. 4 . Nachal is the most usual word for EV [Note: English Version.] ‘brook.’ It is the exact equivalent of the Arab wâdy , which means a valley containing a stream of water. It may be applied to the valley ( Numbers 21:12 etc.), or to the water-course alone ( Deuteronomy 9:21 etc.), which is still ‘the wady,’ even after it has escaped from the valley.
The slopes of the mountain range of Western Palestine are deeply furrowed by a succession of great wadys. The sides of the mountains that dip into the Jordan Valley are far steeper than those to the W., and the streams flowing eastward plunge down through awful chasms, worn deep with the lapse of ages. In the longer descent westward the valleys frequently open into beautiful and fertile glades. For the most part the brooks, fed only by the rain, dry up in the summertime, and the mills along their banks fall silent, waking to fresh activity again only with the music of the rushing storm. There are, however, streams fed by perennial springs, such as el-‘Aujeh and the Kishon, W. of Jordan, and the Yarmuk and the Jabbok on the east.
W. Ewing.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Brook'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/b/brook.html. 1909.
