va'-per: (1) edh: "For he draweth up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor" (Job 36:27); "There went up a mist ['edh] from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground" (Genesis 2:6). (2) nasi', "vapor," i.e. that which rises, from nasa', "to lift": "Who causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth" (Psalms 135:7; compare Jeremiah 10:13; 51:16); also translated "clouds": "as clouds and wind without rain" (Proverbs 25:14). (3) In Job 36:33, the King James Version has "vapour" ("concerning the vapour") for `alah, alah, "to go up," where the Revised Version (British and American) reads "concerning the storm that cometh up." (4) qiTor: "fire and hail, snow and vapor" (Psalms 148:8); elsewhere, "smoke": "The smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace" (Genesis 19:28); "I am become like a wineskin in the smoke" (Psalms 119:83).

(5) atmis: "blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke" (Acts 2:19); "For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14). The first two of the preceding quotations are interesting as indicating the knowledge that vapor of water from the earth or sea is the source of the rain. Visible vapor, i.e. mist or fog, is much less common in Palestine than in many other countries. In the mountains, however, especially in Lebanon, mists are of frequent occurrence, appearing to those below as clouds clinging to the mountains.

Alfred Ely Day

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

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