BROOK. The usual Heb. word for “brook” is נַ֫חַל֒, H5707, and it occurs c. 130 times. Sometimes the word is rendered “valley” and this seems best in view of the places so named. Hence, there is the valley of Gerar (Gen 26:17), the Valley of Eshcol (Num 13:23), the Valley of Zared (21:12) and the valley of Sorek (Judg 16:4). The more famous brooks of the Bible are the Arnon (Deut 2:24), the Jabbok (2:37), the “river” of Egypt (Josh 15:47 KJV), the river Kishon (Judg 4:7, 13 RSV), the Cherith (1 Kings 17:5), and the brook Besor (1 Sam 30:9, 10, 21). Although some of these are called rivers in Eng., they are not derived from the similar sounding Heb. word for river (נָהָר, H5643).

Today some of these brooks are called wadis in Arab. The Arnon is Wadi Mojib, Cherith may be Wadi Yabis, Besor is Wadi Ghazzeh, and the “river” of Egypt is perhaps the Wadi el-’Arish although some think it is the Nile. The word wadi is more accurate since some brooks are nothing more than dry washes except during flood season. This is illustrated well in 2 Kings 3:16f. The Spanish arroyo describes the same thing in the SW United States. The fact that the valley between Jerusalem and the Mt. of Olives is called the Brook Kidron is ample evidence that it may refer to a gully in which water rarely or never runs. Even though water is only occasionally present in some brooks, the dry bed is often the best place to dig for water or to plant. Only one other word in Heb. is rendered “brook” in the RSV and that is the hapax legomenon of 2 Samuel 17:20 (מִיכַ֣ל).