Bible Dictionary
CANALS
Canals were the smaller, slower channels connected with the Nile’s irrigation system. In the account of the plagues, the term distinguishes these sluggish waterways from the main flowing streams of Egypt.
Definition
Canals are the smaller, sluggish channels of the Nile’s extensive irrigation system. The term distinguishes these waterways from the main channels, which had more current and are described as flowing streams.
Biblical Usage
In the account of the Egyptian plagues, the word describes the various waters of Egypt that were affected. It is also used in other passages where the Nile and its ramifications are in view.
Historical Background
The Hebrew term derives from an Egyptian designation for the Nile and came to include the river’s branches and irrigation waters. Because the smaller channels were relatively sluggish, “canals” appropriately conveys the meaning in the cited passages.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>ka-nalz' (ye'orim): The word "canals" occurs in several places in the Revised Version, margin (Ex 7:19; 8:5; Isa 19:6; Na 3:8). ye'or is an Egyptian word, the designation of the Nile (Brugsch, Geogr, I, 8, 78). The proper name of the Nile as a god was Hapi. There were several common designations of the Nile, but the usual one was ye'or, Hebrew plural ye'orim. The primary meaning of ye'or in Egyptian is not certain, but its significance in use for the Nile is plain enough. All the waters in Egypt were of the Nile and this word ye'or was used to denote all of them, the Nile and all its ramifications through the whole irrigating system. Thus ye'orim, Niles, came to be used. As only the main channels of the Nile had much current, the ye'orim came naturally to convey the idea of sluggishness. In the account of the plagues (Ex 7:19), names are used descriptively to designate the different waters of Egypt: neharoth, "flowing streams," for the main channels of the river, and ye'orim for other streams, which by contrast must mean, as it should according to its use by the Egyptians, "the sluggish streams," i.e. "canals," as it is rendered by the Revisers. This meaning of the word being thus clearly established, it is appropriately used in the Revised Version, margin in the other instances of its occurrence in like circumstances.</p><p>M. G. Kyle</p>