נַ֫חַל
na.chal
torrent: river
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word נַחַל (Nachal): Torrent and River The Hebrew word *nachal* refers to a watercourse, encompassing both permanent rivers and seasonal torrents. The dual definition—"torrent: river"—indicates the word's flexibility in describing flowing water across different hydrological conditions. This semantic range reflects the geography of ancient Israel, where waterways varied dramatically between wet seasons when violent flash floods occurred and dry seasons when many channels ran shallow or dry. The word could thus apply equally to the Jordan River, a significant permanent watercourse, or to wadis that filled dramatically during rains but otherwise remained dormant. With 70 occurrences in the biblical text, *nachal* appears frequently enough to suggest it was a standard term for describing Israel's landscape. The word's prevalence indicates that references to such waterways—whether as geographical markers, travel routes, or sources of water—were important to biblical narratives and poetry. The term's applicability to both permanent and temporary water features made it a practical vocabulary choice for a region where the distinction between these states was often seasonal and contextual rather than absolute.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
70 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
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?”
Job 6:15My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;
Job 6:15My brothers have dealt deceitfully as a brook, as the channel of brooks that pass away;
Job 20:17He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter.
Job 22:24Lay your treasure in the dust, the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks.
Job 28:4He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.
Job 30:6So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
Job 40:22The lotuses cover him with their shade. The willows of the brook surround him.
Psalms 18:4The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
Psalms 36:8They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
Psalms 74:15You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
Psalms 78:20Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide meat for his people?”
Psalms 83:9Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon;
Psalms 110:7He will drink of the brook on the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
Psalms 124:4then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;
Proverbs 18:4The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.
Ecclesiastes 1:7All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.
Ecclesiastes 1:7All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place where the rivers flow, there they flow again.
Isaiah 11:15Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.
Isaiah 30:28His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction. A bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.
Isaiah 30:33For his burning place has long been ready. Yes, for the king it is prepared. He has made its pyre deep and large with fire and much wood. Yahweh’s breath, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.
Isaiah 34:9Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch.
Isaiah 35:6Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing; for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
Isaiah 57:6Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They, they are your lot. You have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?
Isaiah 66:12For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you will nurse. You will be carried on her side, and will be dandled on her knees.
Jeremiah 31:9They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.
Jeremiah 47:2Yahweh says: “Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and will become an overflowing stream, and will overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein. The men will cry, and all the inhabitants of the land will wail.
Lamentations 2:18Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Don’t let the your eyes rest.
Ezekiel 47:5Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters had risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be walked through.
Ezekiel 47:5Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters had risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be walked through.
Ezekiel 47:6He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen?” Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the bank of the river.
Ezekiel 47:7Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.
Ezekiel 47:9It will happen, that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, will live. Then there will be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters have come there, and the waters of the sea will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river comes.
Ezekiel 47:9It will happen, that every living creature which swarms, in every place where the rivers come, will live. Then there will be a very great multitude of fish; for these waters have come there, and the waters of the sea will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river comes.
Ezekiel 47:12By the river on its bank, on this side and on that side, will grow every tree for food, whose leaf won’t wither, neither will its fruit fail. It will produce new fruit every month, because its waters issue out of the sanctuary. Its fruit will be for food, and its leaf for healing.”
Amos 5:24But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Micah 6:7Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
Genesis 32:23He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had.
Leviticus 11:9“ ‘These you may eat of all that are in the waters: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, that you may eat.
Leviticus 11:10All that don’t have fins and scales in the seas and rivers, all that move in the waters, and all the living creatures that are in the waters, they are an abomination to you,
Leviticus 23:40You shall take on the first day the fruit of majestic trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God seven days.
Deuteronomy 9:21I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire, and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that descended out of the mountain.
Deuteronomy 2:37Only to the land of the children of Ammon you didn’t come near: all the banks of the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill country, and wherever Yahweh our God forbade us.
Deuteronomy 3:16To the Reubenites and to the Gadites I gave from Gilead even to the valley of the Arnon, the middle of the valley, and its border, even to the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon;
Deuteronomy 8:7For Yahweh your God brings you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of springs, and underground water flowing into valleys and hills;
Deuteronomy 10:7From there they traveled to Gudgodah; and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water.
Joshua 12:2Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon, and the middle of the valley, and half Gilead, even to the river Jabbok, the border of the children of Ammon;
Joshua 16:8From Tappuah the border went along westward to the brook of Kanah; and ended at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim according to their families;
Joshua 17:9The border went down to the brook of Kanah, southward of the brook. These cities belonged to Ephraim among the cities of Manasseh. The border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook, and ended at the sea.
Joshua 17:9The border went down to the brook of Kanah, southward of the brook. These cities belonged to Ephraim among the cities of Manasseh. The border of Manasseh was on the north side of the brook, and ended at the sea.