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PLAIN.—This word is given by the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] as the equivalent of 8 different terms, 7 Heb_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 Gen_11:2, Neh_6:2, Isa_40:4, Eze_3:22-23; Eze_8:4, Dan_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,’ Jos_11:17; Jos_12:7), and the plain of Esdraelon (‘the valley of Megiddo,’ 2Ch_35:22, Zee 12:11).
(2) mîshôr is usually translated by ‘plain’ or ‘plain country,’ sometimes accompanied by the mg. ‘table land’ (Deu_3:10, Jos_13:9, 1Ki_20:23 etc.); but in the poetical and prophetical books by ‘even place’ (Psa_26:12) or ‘straight’ (Isa_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) ‘ãr âbâh is ordinarily rendered in the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] by ‘plain’ (‘plains’) and ‘desert’ (or ‘wilderness’), but in Jos_18:18 it is transliterated ‘Arabah.’ The RV [Note: Revised Version.] also sometimes translates by ‘plain (s)’ and ‘desert’ (Jos_4:13, Isa_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 Gen_13:10) Cf. next article. In Neh_3:22; Neh_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 (Deu_1:7, Jos_10:40 etc.). Of the remaining two, one (’âbçl) is transliterated in the RV [Note: Revised Version.] (Jdg_11:38), and the other (’çlôn) is rendered by ‘oak’ (mg. ‘terebinth’) (Gen_12:8; Gen_13:18 etc.).
(6) The only passage where the word ‘plain’ is employed in the NT occurs in St. Luke’s account (Luk_6:17) of one of our Lord’s discourses, which, ace. to St. Matthew, was delivered on a mountain (Mat_5:1); the RV [Note: Revised Version.] substitutes ‘a level place.’
G. W. Wade.