Hebrew word · H2988
יָבָל
yivlei-
stream
Stream, watercourse. The root y-b-l means "to carry, conduct", so the word suggests water that is carried along: running streams or irrigation channels. It is rare and appears only here and in Isaiah 30:25 ("streams of water" on every high hill). A related form, yûbal, appears in Jeremiah 17:8.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) a stream, watercourse
1a) as irrigating
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Stream, watercourse. The root y-b-l means "to carry, conduct", so the word suggests water that is carried along: running streams or irrigation channels. It is rare and appears only here and in Isaiah 30:25 ("streams of water" on every high hill). A related form, yûbal, appears in Jeremiah 17:8.
- Against the English
"Water courses" (KJV, WEB), "flowing streams" (BSB, ESV), "streams of water" (YLT, NASB). All are fair. "Channels" would bring out the possibility of man-made canals.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Jeremiah 17:8 describes the one who trusts in the LORD as a tree that "sends out its roots by the stream (yûbal)". Psalm 1:3 uses a different word (palgê mayim, "channels of water") for the same picture. Babylonian farming depended on canals cut from the Tigris and Euphrates.
Where it appears
Isaiah · 2
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Isaiah 30:25 יִבְלֵי־ watercourses of
And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.
Here: Literally 'carriers' or 'conveyings' of water, from a root meaning 'to bring or carry'. It stands beside the previous word to restate it: 'channels, watercourses of water'.
-
Isaiah 44:4 יִבְלֵי־ watercourses of
They will sprout among the grass like willows by flowing streams.
Here: "Channels of." The word comes from a root meaning "to carry, bring", so it means water that is carried along: a stream, or a canal that brings water. The picture is a constant supply of water, not one rainfall.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.