Champaign

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Champaign . This spelling in modern editions of Av [Note: Authorized Version.] has replaced champion (  Deuteronomy 11:30 , Jdt 5:1 ) and champion (  Ezekiel 37:2 marg.) of the 1611 edition of Av [Note: Authorized Version.] . The word means an open plain.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The word is arabah,  Deuteronomy 11:30 , and is elsewhere translated 'plain, desert, wilderness.' It is the wide valley in which the Jordan runs.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (a.) Flat; open; level.

(2): (n.) A flat, open country.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Deuteronomy 11:30Arabah

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sham -pān ´, sham´pān ( ערבה , ‛ărābhāh , בּקעה , biḳ‛āh ): A champaign is a flat open country, and the word occurs in  Deuteronomy 11:30 the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "the Arabah") as a translation of ‛ărābhāh , for which the King James Version has in most places "the plain," and the Revised Version (British and American) "the Arabah," when it is used with the article and denotes a definite region, i.e. the valley of the Jordan from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea ( Deuteronomy 2:8;  Deuteronomy 3:17;  Deuteronomy 4:4 :9;   Joshua 3:16;  Joshua 8:14;  Joshua 11:16;  Joshua 12:1 ,  Joshua 12:3 ,  Joshua 12:5;  2 Samuel 2:29;  2 Samuel 4:7;  2 Kings 14:25;  2 Kings 25:4;  Jeremiah 39:4;  Jeremiah 52:7 ), and also the valley running southward from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah ( Deuteronomy 1:1 ).  Ezekiel 47:8 has for hā - ‛ărābhāh "the desert," the King James Version margin"plain," the Revised Version (British and American) "the Arabah." The plural is used in  Joshua 5:10;  2 Kings 25:5 , "the plains of Jericho," and in  Numbers 22:1 and   Numbers 26:3 , "the plains of Moab." Elsewhere ‛ărābhāh is rendered in English Versions of the Bible "desert" or "wilderness" ( Job 24:5;  Job 39:6;  Isaiah 33:9;  Isaiah 35:1 ,  Isaiah 35:6;  Isaiah 40:3;  Isaiah 41:19;  Isaiah 51:3;  Jeremiah 2:6;  Jeremiah 17:6;  Jeremiah 50:12 ). At the present day, the Jordan va lley is called the Ghaur (compare Hebrew ‛ūr , "to dig," me‛ārāh , "cave," and Arabic maghārah , "cave"). This name is also applied to the deltas of streams flowing into the Dead Sea from the East, which are clothed with thickets of thorny trees and shrubs, i.e. Ghaur - ul - Mezra‛ah , at the mouths of Wādi - Kerak and Wādi - Beni - Ḥammād , Ghaur - uṣ - Ṣāfiyeh , at the mouth of Wādi - ul - Ḥisa . The name "Arabah" (Arabic al - ‛Arabah ) is now confined to the valley running southward from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah, separating the mountains of Edom from Sinai and the plateau of at - Tı̄h . See Arabah .

 Ezekiel 37:2 the King James Version margin has "champaign" for biḳ‛āh , which is elsewhere rendered "vale" or "valley." Biḳ‛āh seems to be applied to wide, open valleys, as: "the valley of Jericho" ( Deuteronomy 34:3 ), "the valley of Megiddo" ( 2 Chronicles 35:22;  Zechariah 12:11 ), "the valley of Lebanon" ( Joshua 11:17 ). If Baal-Gad be Ba‛albeḳ and "the valley of Lebanon" be Coele-syria, the present name of Coele-syria, al - Biḳā‛ (plural of buḳ‛ah , "a low, wet place or meadow"), may be regarded as a survival of the Hebre w biḳ‛āh ̌ .

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(עֲרָבָה, arabah´, desert), an open or uninhabited district ( Deuteronomy 11:30). (See Arabah).