מַעְיָן
ma.yan
spring
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Ma'yan (Spring): A Water Source in Biblical Geography The Hebrew word *ma'yan* (מַעְיָן) refers to a spring—a natural source of water that flows from the earth. With 23 occurrences across the biblical text, this term appears frequently enough to indicate it held practical significance in the daily life and geography of ancient Israel. The word's consistent usage across multiple biblical books suggests it was a standard term for this common natural feature. Springs were essential resources in the arid and semi-arid landscape of the ancient Near East, making *ma'yan* a word rooted in the material realities of survival and settlement. The frequency of its appearance in scripture reflects how integral water sources were to biblical communities—they determined where people could live, travel, and sustain themselves. Beyond mere physical description, springs represented life-giving resources and appear in contexts ranging from geographical descriptions to symbolic or metaphorical usage, though such deeper meanings cannot be confirmed without examining the specific passages themselves.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
23 total occurrences across the text
So, many people gathered together and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the middle of the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find abundant water?”
Psalms 74:15You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
Psalms 84:6Passing through the valley of Weeping, they make it a place of springs. Yes, the autumn rain covers it with blessings.
Psalms 87:7Those who sing as well as those who dance say, “All my springs are in you.”
Psalms 104:10He sends springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains.
Psalms 114:8who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.
Proverbs 5:16Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
Proverbs 8:24When there were no depths, I was born, when there were no springs abounding with water.
Proverbs 25:26Like a muddied spring and a polluted well, so is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.
Song of Solomon 4:12My sister, my bride, is a locked up garden; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain.
Song of Solomon 4:15a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon.
Isaiah 12:3Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation.
Isaiah 41:18I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
Hosea 13:15Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness; and his spring will become dry, and his fountain will be dried up. He will plunder the storehouse of treasure.
Joel 3:18It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters, and a fountain will flow out from Yahweh’s house, and will water the valley of Shittim.
Genesis 7:11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened.
Genesis 8:2The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained.
Leviticus 11:36Nevertheless a spring or a cistern in which water is gathered shall be clean, but that which touches their carcass shall be unclean.
Joshua 15:9The border extended from the top of the mountain to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah, and went out to the cities of Mount Ephron; and the border extended to Baalah (also called Kiriath Jearim);
Joshua 18:15The south quarter was from the farthest part of Kiriath Jearim. The border went out westward, and went out to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah.
1 Kings 18:5Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land, to all the springs of water, and to all the brooks. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, that we not lose all the animals.”
2 Kings 3:19You shall strike every fortified city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all springs of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.’ ”
2 Kings 3:25They beat down the cities; and on every good piece of land each man cast his stone, and filled it. They also stopped all the springs of water, and cut down all the good trees, until in Kir Hareseth all they left was its stones; however the men armed with slings went around it, and attacked it.