Meaning
Channel chan'-el ('aphiq (root 'aphaq, "to hold or contain," "to be strong"; compare Arabic 'afaq "to overcome" and 'afiq, "preeminent"); shibboleth (shabhal, "to go," "to go up or grow," "to flow"; compare Arabic 'asbal, "to flow," "to rain," "to put forth ears"; sabalat, "an ear of grain"; sabil, "a road," "a public fountain")): In Job 12:21, Job 40:18, Job 41:15 we have 'aphiq in the sense of "strong" (but compare 40:18, the Revised Version (British and American) "tubes" (of brass)). Elsewhere it is translated "river," "brook," "stream," "channel" or "watercourse." Shibboleth (in the dialect of Ephraim cibboleth (Jud 12:6)) means "an ear of grain" (Ge 41:5 ff; Rth 2:2, Isa 17:5) or "a flood of water" (Psa 69:2, Psa 69:15, Isa 27:12). In 2Sa 22:16 (compare Ps 18:15) we have: "Then the channels of the sea appeared, The foundations of the world were laid bare, by the rebuke of Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils." This is reminiscent of "fountains of the deep" (Gen 7:11, Gen 8:2, Pro 8:28). It is a question how far we should attribute to these ancient writers a share in modern notions of oceanography, but the idea seems to be that of a withdrawal of the water of the ocean, and the laying bare of submarine declivities and channels such as we know to exist as the result of erosion during a previous period of elevation, when the given portion of ocean floor was dry land.
The fact that many streams of Palestine flow only during the rainy season seems to be referred to in Job 6:15; and perhaps also in Ps 126:4.
See BROOK; RIVER.
Alfred Ely Day
