resent identified being (beginning at the N.) Dingo (a little S.E. of Lydda), Aijalon, Gedérah, Eshtaol, Zor'ah, Beth-shemesh, ‘En-gannim, Za- noah, Jarmuth, Socoh, ‘Adullam, Maréshah, ‘Eglon and Lachish (W.S.W. of Maréshah), and Beth- tappuah (a little W. of Hebron): Adida (included in it in 1 Mac 12%) is a little N. of Gimzo (Had- itheh); Emmaus (id, 3") is very near Aijalon ; and Timnah (2 Ch 2818) is close to ‘En-gannim. All these cities are between the high central range of Judah on the E. and the Philistine plain on the W. The W. limit of the ‘Shephélah’ has, however, been disputed. It has generally (e.g. by Dillm. on Jos 1533) been held to include the Philistine plain, and the Phil. cities are certainly enumer- ated after those of Judah in Jos 15*-47; on the other hand, Ob 13, Zec 77, and 2Ch 28% imply that it was outside the Phil. territory. Hence G. A. Smith insists strongly that though the term may sometimes have been used more widely, it was limited more properly to the intermediate region indicated above, consisting of a mass of ‘low hills,’ varied often by stretches of ‘flat valley land,’ which, as viewed from the Phil. plain and the sea, appear ‘buttressing the central range all the way
ong,’ but which are separated from it in fact by a well-defined series of valleys, running from Aijalon to near Beer-sheba' (HGHL 49, 211 ff.; ef. Buhl’s criticism, Geogr. 104, with Smith’s reply, Expositor, Dec. 1896, pp. 404-406). This ‘maze’ of hills ‘curves round the Phil. plain from Jaffa to Gaza like an amphitheatre’: it is pierced by five important valleys running up from the plain into the heart of Judah: viz. (1) the road from Joppa and Lydda, through the hollow Vale (ppy) of Aijalon, and then up through the hills, past the two Beth-horons, to Gibe‘on and Michmash ; (2) the Wady es-Surar, or valley (5n3) of Sorek, up past Beth-shemesh and Kiriath-je'arim, to Jerusalem (the course taken by the modern railway from Jaffa) ; (3) the Wady es-Sunt, leading up from Tell es-Safi, through the Vale (p>y) of Elah, past Socoh, and then either τὸ the Wady el-Jindy to Beth- lehem, or (turning 8.) along the Wad es-Sur, past ‘Adullam, to Keilah ; (4) the Wady el-Afranj lead- ing up from Ashdod, past Eleutheropolis, to Beth- tappuah and Hebron; and (5) the V yady el-Hesy, starting a little N. of Gaza, passing Lachish, and leading up to a point 6 miles S.W. of Hebron. The historical and strategical importance of these valleys is well drawn out in HGHL 209-236: the first, especially, is a route along which have passed many times the hosts of both invading and de- feated foes.
8. τόπος πεδινός, Lk 617; RV ‘a level place.’
Of the words rendered ‘ plain,’ even in RV (Nos. 8, 4, 5, 6), each, it will now be seen, has a definite and distinctive meaning of its own: the environs of Jericho are indeed described (from different points of view) as a kikkar, a bik'ah, and ‘draboth; but
PLAY
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the mishdr, for instance, could never have been called a bik'ah, nor could a bik'dh, speaking generally, have been called an ᾿ἄγαδαλ; and the ‘plain’ (mishdér) inhabited by the Moabites (Jer 488) was geogra nicely quite distinct from the ‘plains’ (arabat 1) of Moab. The only term which really corresponds completely to our ‘plain’ is mishor. S. R. DRIVER.
PLAIN.—The only unfamiliar occurrence of the adj. is in Gn 2557 ‘Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.’ As RVm (‘or quiet or harmless, Heb. perfect’) shows, the Heb. (of) is the epithet so frequently applied to Job and tr® ‘ perfect’ (Job 11-8 23 830 90.21; of, 92, Ps 3797 644). The idea ex- pressed by the word is completeness or flawless- ness. ‘In the present context,’ says Dillmann, ‘it can neither mean morally blameless nor ἄπλαστος, ἁπλοῦς, simplex, simple, unsophisticated ; for Jacob, in what follows, appears always, on the contrary, as sly and cunning.’ He compares the German fromm (pious), and considers the meaning to be ἥμερος, ‘quiet’ or ‘ peaceful,’ in antithesis to ‘ wild.’ The tr. ‘plain’ is from the Geneva Bible, which has the marg. alternative ‘simple and innocent. ‘Simple’ is Tindale’s word, and the marg. note in Matthew’s Bible reads, ‘ He is simple that is with- out craft and decept and contynueth in bele and executynge of godes wyll.’ J. HASTINGS.
PLANE TREE.—Gn 30%, Ezk 318, AV ‘chest- nut,’ Sir 2444, See CHESTNUT.
PLANT, PLANTS.—See NATURAL History.
PLAY.— The verb to play had a wider use formerly than now. Tindale has: Ex 1° ‘Come
on, let us _playe wisely with them, lest they aR x 5° ‘Beholde, there is much people in the londe, and ye make them playe and let
their worke stonde’; Ex 10? ‘the pagiantes which I have played in Egipte, and the miracles which I have done amonge them.’ And in AV to ‘ play - is used in the sense of to ‘sport,’ not only of ‘boys and girls’ (Zee 85) or a ‘sucking child’ (Is 118), but of men and women in worship. Thus Ex 325 ‘The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play’ (pns),* quoted in 1 Co 108 παίζειν) ; 1 5. 187 ‘The women answered one another as they played’ (nipnvo7,t RV ‘in their play’); 2S 6 And David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instru- ments made of fir wood [or, better, ‘ with all their might, even with songs,’ reading, with parallel passage in 1 Ch, ona; th->>2 instead of *yy->2a owin3], even on harps,’ ete. (the playing here is not playing on the instruments as AV, but sporting and dancing to the accompaniment of the music on the instruments, as shown in 1 Ch 138; RV ‘with all manner of instruments’). See GAMES. The phrase ‘play the man’ occurs in 2S 1013 ‘Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people’ (p:nn3) pin, LXX ἀνδρίζου καὶ κραταιω- θῶμεν), a phrase which comes fom the Douay Bible, where, however, it is the tr. of the first