PLAIN. Numerous Heb. words are so tr., but in their original context they refer to a specific area of plain; i.e. they possessed a topographic meaning to the users. Most modern trs. pick these out and render them as topographic references so that they have become regional names to the geographer. Thus we have, e.g., עֲרָבָה֮, H6858, and שְׁפֵלָה, H9169, tr. by KJV simply as “plain,” but in fact identifying specific areas.

The mountains of southern Pal. are surrounded by plains on the E, W and N—on the E by the valley of the Jordan and the Arabah leading down to the Gulf of Aqaba; on the W by the Shephelah and the coastal plain; and on the N by the Plain of Esdraelon. Although there was no special designation of the last of these, the first and second can be identified in the Heb. text.

1. Arabah(“sterile” or “desert”), used either alone, as in Deuteronomy 1:1; 2:8, etc. or in compound terms, e.g., the Arabah (plains) of Moab (Num 22:1), or Arabah (plains) of Jericho (Josh 5:10), refers to the great Rift Valley, from the point where its floor becomes dry and barren S of Lake Galilee to its exit into the Gulf of Aqaba. In this case, the feature described does not have the characteristics of a plain in the usual sense, but rather is a broad, flat valley floor.

2. Shephelah(“sunken”), is tr. by KJV in 1 Chronicles 27:28 as “low plains.” As it happens, the Shephelah forms a feature for which it is very difficult to provide a descriptive term, and RSV and others, prob. wisely, prefer to use the Heb. word as a proper name. The Shephelah (see Palestine) consists of low hills intermediate between the mountains of Judea and the true coastal plain; however, as G. Adam Smith pointed out (1966), one must always bear in mind that the essentially Israelite viewpoint was one in the mountains looking downward, and from this angle the Shephelah appears as a fairly level and low-lying surface, if only by force of contrast. (For other references to the Shephelah, see Jer 17:26; Obad 19; Zech 7:7.)

3. Other Hebrew termstr. “plain” include כִּכָּר, H3971, (“circle” or “region”), which is often, although not exclusively, used for the Jordan valley lowland, as e.g., when Lot chose this area (Gen 13:10, 11) in preference to the hills; בִּקְעָה, H1326, (split), usually a broad valley (see Vale, Valley) but rendered as “plain” by RSV in Gen 11:2, and מִישׁﯴר, H4793, (“even,” “level”), for which RSV chooses “tableland” in Deuteronomy 3:10, the reference here being to the high but generally level surface E of the Jordan.

The Syrian view, expressed in 1 Kings 20:23, that Israel’s God was a God of the hills and not of the plains may well serve as a commentary on the fact that, throughout the nation’s history, her people seldom, and only after great efforts, secured a firm grip on the lowland areas of Pal., although these formed part of the land of promise: Israel remained a hill people, the plains around their home more often than not occupied by their enemies.

Bibliography G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land (ed. of 1966), 52-62.