MEADOW (עָרֹ֥ות, אָֽחוּ prob. reed grass, marshy vegetation; אָבֵל֮, H64, prob. meadow, moist area; מַ֫עַר, H5113, perhaps open, treeless space).

Defined as lush pastures, meadows are scarcely characteristic of hot, dry Pal., and the term, which occurs in only two passages in the KJV, is eliminated from the RSV. Thus the “meadows” of Gibeah (Judg 20:33), given slight textual emendation, means either “west of” (RSV) or “the cave of.” It is “reed grass” (Gen 41:2, 18) or “papyrus” which feeds the cattle by the Nile, and similar vegetation is alluded to in Job 8:11; Hosea 13:15 (RSV), and perhaps Isaiah 19:6.

Grassy meadows also occur in rainier uplands as in Galilee and Lebanon, and in moist patches near springs, wells, streams and irrigation channels. The presence of the latter often is indicated by the occurrence of “Abel” in place names such as Abel-meholah, the “meadow of the dance” (Judg 7:22), and such “meadows,” occurring sporadically throughout the E, are naturally the most typical of Bible lands.