(7.) Hebrews shephelah, “low ground,” “low hill-land,” rendered “vale” or
“valley” in Authorized Version (Joshua 9:1; 10:40; 11:2; 12:8; Judges 1:9;
1 Kings 10:27). In Authorized Version (1 Chronicles 27:28; 2 Chronicles
26:10) it is also rendered “low country.” In Jeremiah 17:26, Obad. 1:19,
Zechariah 7:7, “plain.” The Revised Version renders it uniformly “low
land.” When it is preceded by the article, as in Deuteronomy 1:7, Joshua
11:16; 15:33, Jeremiah 32:44; 33:13, Zechariah 7:7, “the shephelah,” it
denotes the plain along the Mediterranean from Joppa to Gaza, “the plain
of the Philistines.” (See VALLEY.)
- PLAIN OF MAMRE (Genesis 13:18; 14:13; R.V., “oaks of Mamre;”
marg., “terebinths”). (See MAMRE; TEIL-TREE.) - PLANE TREE Hebrews ‘armon (Genesis 30:37; Ezekiel 31:8), rendered
“chesnut” in the Authorized Version, but correctly “plane tree” in the
Revised Version and the LXX. This tree is frequently found in Palestine,
both on the coast and in the north. It usually sheds its outer bark, and
hence its Hebrew name, which means “naked.” (See CHESTNUT.) - PLEDGE See LOAN.
- PLEIADES Hebrews kimah, “a cluster” (Job 9:9; 38:31; Amos 5:8, A.V.,
“seven stars;” R.V., “Pleiades”), a name given to the cluster of stars seen in
the shoulder of the constellation Taurus. - PLOUGH first referred to in Genesis 45:6, where the Authorized Version
has “earing,” but the Revised Version “ploughing;” next in Exodus 34:21
and Deuteronomy 21:4. The plough was originally drawn by oxen, but
sometimes also by asses and by men. (See AGRICULTURE.) - POETRY has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.”
Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s
relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon, redemption,
repentance are the awful themes of this heaven-born poetry.”
In the Hebrew scriptures there are found three distinct kinds of poetry, (1)
that of the Book of Job and the Song of Solomon, which is dramatic; (2)
that of the Book of Psalms, which is lyrical; and (3) that of the Book of
Ecclesiastes, which is didactic and sententious.
Hebrew poetry has nothing akin to that of Western nations. It has neither
metre nor rhyme. Its great peculiarity consists in the mutual