meadow Summary and Overview

(1.) Heb. ha'ahu (Gen. 41:2, 18), probably an Egyptain word transferred to the Hebrew; some kind of reed or water-plant. In the Revised Version it is rendered "reed-grass", i.e., the sedge or rank grass by the river side. (2.) Heb. ma'areh (Judg. 20:33), pl., "meadows of Gibeah" (R.V., after the LXX., "Maareh-geba"). Some have adopted the rendering "after Gibeah had been left open." The Vulgate translates the word "from the west."

1. In #Ge 41:2,18| meadow appears to be an Egyptian term meaning some kind of flag or waterplant, as its use in #Job 8:11| (Authorized Version "flag") seems to show. 2. In #Jud 20:33| the sense of the Hebrew word translated meadow is doubly uncertain. The most plausible interpretation is that of the Peshito-Syriac, which by a slight difference in the vowel-points makes the word mearah, "the cave."

Genesis 41:2. Achu; an Egyptian word, akh akh, "verdant," translated therefore rather "in the reed grass." So Job 8:11 "rush," the paper reed or papyrus of the Nile; "can the achu grow without water?" The fat kine fed on the reed grass which in the plenteous years grew to the very margin of the water, but the lean stood on the dry "brink" (Genesis 41:2-3). "Out of the meadows of Gibeah" (Judges 20:38): ma'areeh; rather, "from the naked (from 'arah 'to strip of trees) plains of Gibeah." Not that the treeless plain was the hiding place of the ambush, but when the men broke from the ambush they came "from the treeless plain toward the town." The Peshito Syriac, reads the vowel points slightly different, me'arah, "the cave."