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Thompson Chain Reference
• Plainness of Speech
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American Church Dictionary
• Plain Song
American Tract Society
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• Esdraelon, Plain of
Easton's Bible Dictionary
• Plain of Mamre
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Fausset Bible Dictionary
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• Vineyards, Plain of
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Holman Bible Dictionary
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• Sharon, Plain of
• Sea of the Plain
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Hastings' BibleDictionary
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• Plain
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King James Dictionary
• Plainness
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Morrish Bible Dictionary
• Moreh, Plain of
• Jericho, Plains of
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
• Plain Chant
• Chant, Plain
Smith Bible Dictionary
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• Tabor The Plain of
• Plains
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Vines' Expository Dictionary
• Plain, Plainly, Plainness
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Webster Dictionary
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• Plained
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Encyclopedias
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Flood Plain
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International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
• Asochis, Plain of
• Cities of the Plain; Ciccar
• Esdraelon, Plain of
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Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia
• Esdraelon Plain of
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Bectileth, the Plain of
• Moab, Plains of
• Nasor, the Plain of
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The Nuttall Encyclopedia
• Abraham, the Plains of
• Cities of the Plain
• Plain, the
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The Catholic Encyclopedia
• Plain Chant
Lexicons
• ܚܽܘܪܒ݁ܳܐ
• ܦ݁ܩܰܥܬ݂ܳܐ
• ܦ݁ܫܺܝܩܳܐ
• ἔνδειγμα
• ὀρθῶς
• πεδινός
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• אָבֵל
• אָבֵל כְּרָמִים
• אֵלוֹן
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PLAIN . This word is given by the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] as the equivalent of 8 different terms, 7 Hebrews 1:1-14 Greek; but is retained by the RV [Note: Revised Version.] in the case of 4 only, all Hebrew.

(1) biq‘âh is translated in the RV [Note: Revised Version.] by ‘plain’ in Genesis 11:2 , Nehemiah 6:2 , Isaiah 40:4 , Ezekiel 3:22-23; Ezekiel 8:4 , Daniel 3:1 but elsewhere by ‘ valley .’ It generally designates a broad vale between hills; among the localities to which it was applied the most notable are the pass between Lebanon and Hermon (‘the valley of Lebanon,’ Joshua 11:17; Joshua 12:7 ), and the plain of Esdraelon (‘the valley of Megiddo,’ 2 Chronicles 35:22 , Zee 12:11).

(2) mîshôr is usually translated by ‘plain’ or ‘plain country,’ sometimes accompanied by the mg. ‘table land’ ( Deuteronomy 3:10 , Joshua 13:9 , 1 Kings 20:23 etc.); but in the poetical and prophetical books by ‘even place’ ( Psalms 26:12 ) or ‘straight’ ( Isaiah 40:4 ). Its primary sense is level land; and the word, with the article, was specifically used of the high plateau on the E. of the Dead Sea.

(3) ‘ăr âbâh is ordinarily rendered in the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] by ‘plain’ (‘plains’) and ‘desert’ (or ‘wilderness’), but in Joshua 18:18 it is transliterated ‘Arabah.’ The RV [Note: Revised Version.] also sometimes translates by ‘plain (s)’ and ‘desert’ ( Joshua 4:13 , Isaiah 33:9 etc.), but retains the Heb. expression wherever it denotes the deep valley running N. and S. of the Dead Sea. The distinctive sense of the word is that of a bare, sterile plain, or (if between hills) an unfertile floor.

(4) kikkâr , unlike the preceding, characterizes not the surface of the locality to which it is applied, but its shape. It is used specifically of the lower part of the bed of the Jordan, where it flows into the Dead Sea, and possibly also of the depression S. of the same sea; and should be rendered by ‘ circle ’ rather than by ‘plain’ (as in RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] in Genesis 13:10 ) Cf. next article. In Nehemiah 3:22; Nehemiah 12:28 it seems to refer to a district around Jerusalem, and is translated in RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] by ‘circuit.’

(5) Of the other Heb. words sometimes rendered in the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] by ‘plain,’ one ( shephçlah ) is uniformly translated in the RV [Note: Revised Version.] by ‘ lowland ,’ and designates a group of ‘low hills’ on the E. of the Maritime Plain, which are separated from the hills of Judæa and Ephraim by a series of valleys ( Deuteronomy 1:7 , Joshua 10:40 etc.). Of the remaining two, one ( ’âbçl ) is transliterated in the RV [Note: Revised Version.] ( Judges 11:38 ), and the other ( ’çlôn ) is rendered by ‘oak’ (mg. ‘terebinth’) ( Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:18 etc.).

(6) The only passage where the word ‘plain’ is employed in the NT occurs in St. Luke’s account (Luke 6:17 ) of one of our Lord’s discourses, which, ace. to St. Matthew, was delivered on a mountain ( Matthew 5:1 ); the RV [Note: Revised Version.] substitutes ‘a level place.’

G. W. Wade.