5. In our next example the epithet Eahah is applied to Egypt, Is 30' •"!<-;5 ]z) niy; pni "jjn Dns-! icy D.T 3rn niii; ; LXX A/7i>jrTiot iiAToia koX Ktvb. itptX^ffovffiv i/fMS' aTiyyitKov avroU 5ti fiaraia ij rapd- itXTjiris i)iu>i> airrri : RV ' for Egypt hclpeth in vain and to no purpose ; therefore liave I called her Rahab that sitteth still ' [lit. (Ges. S 141 c) ' Rahab, they are a sitting still ']. Driver {Isaiah ', ' Men of the Bible' series, p. 59 n.) takes Rahab as a poetical title expressing ' the idea of inflation and pride.' So Cheyne (Prophecies of Isaiah^, i. p. 172) speaks of it as expressing the ' boisterousness ' or ' arrogance ' of the Egyptians as a people ; he cites Pliny's description ot them as ' ventosa et insolcns natio.' Isaiali declares that the name Bahnb had better be changed to 67K'ie<A (' sitting still,' 'inaction'); Egypt is a blustering do-nothing, prompt with high-sounding promises, but utterly incapable of carrying these out. If this passage belongs to Isaiah, and if the MT be correct (but see Cheyne, SBOT, ' Isaiah ' ad loc, and Intro, to la. p. 253 ; Budde on Job 9" ; and Gunkel, Scliop- fung und Chaon, p. 39), it is probable that no mythological allusion underlies the passafre, but that n.Tj simply means ' boastfulness' thougli with allusion to liahab as a name of Egypt. 6. Either through the influence of this passage, or more prolmbly owing to a conception of Egypt as akin to the mythological sea monster, because lying ensconced amidst its rivers and canals (cf. Ezk 29^), Jialiab appears as a designation of Egypt in Ps 87* '??' 3Cn ■''5'¥ ; LXX inyriaOi^aoiULi, 'Paifi Kal Ba;3uXui'os ; AVand RV 'I will make mention of Rahab (RVm 'or Egi/pt ') and Babylon as those that know me.'
Guiikfl {Schopf. u. Chaos, 40) finds an allusion to Rahab al.so in Ps 40° (*» ' Happy is the man that maketh the Lor.D hb trust, and respecteth not the proud (rihablm).'
LrrFRATnm.— The Comm, on the above cited Scripture pa«- MKeii, esp. Dlllmann, Davitlson, Budde, and Dutim on Jub, ])ill- mann, I>clitx8<-h. and Cheyne on Isaiah, und DtlitZHch and Duhm on Vsalma; Chcvne, Job and Solomon, p. 76 f., ' I^uiah ' \aSDOT, lO'Jf., riJ V.ai., 2nr,t., and his art. ' Dragon ' in linq/e. BibL ; Gunkel, Schop/ung und Chaog, pattim, esp. p. 30 (T.
J. A. SKi.niK. RAHAM (Drn ; B 'Pd^tf, A 'Pdf/i, Luc "Pda/i).— A descendant of Caleb, 1 Ch 2".
RAHEL.— See Ractiei,.
RAIMENT — The early suhst. 'arrnymcnt' was often in inidrlle Eng. spelt ' araiment)' and the a dropping oU left 'raiment/ which is found as early
as Piers Plowman. Raiment, being treated as a mere synonym of 'apparel, * is used in AV to translate many Heb. and Gr. words, which are often plu. (as rd l/idna, Mt 17= 27"', Mk 9», Lk 7" 23**, Jn 195^^ etc.), the word having a collective force. Occasionally, however, it was used in the singular and in the plural : thus, Ezk 9' Cov. ' Tliere was one amongst them, that had on him a lynninge rayment'; Ps 109" Pr. Bk. 'He clothed him self with cursyng lyke as with a rayment.' Also Ex 39^' Tind. 'His sonnes ray- mentes to ministre in'; Hull, Works, \. 818, 'He sends varietie of costly rayments to his Father.' See Dress. J. Hastings.
RAIN (lOD is the usual Heb. term. rnV [in Jl 2" Ps 84' n-iic] 'the early rain,' falling Oct.-Nov., is opposed to cipi"? 'the latter rain,' from March to April, Dt 1 1", Jer 5'-^, Hos 6'. c;i-,, a burst of rain, is sometimes used, esp. of the he.i\'y winter rains [cf. Driver on Am 4'; G. A. Smith, HGHL 64]. The NT terms are verbs and ,3poxi5 [only Mt l'^-^']). — In the beautiful passage Is 55"'- '' we have an exjiression of the blessing accompanying rain in Eastern countries, not so much appreciated in our own humid- clunes. In Palestine the fruit- fulness of the soil, the supply of the springs and rivers, the pasturage for the flocks and herds, indeed life itself, is dependent on the fall of the ' former and the latter ' rain. The descent of rain is used as an illustration of tlio blessings following upon the spread of the kingdom of Christ (Ps 72'- ') ; while the presence of clouds and wind without rain is likened to a man ' who boasteth himself of his gifts falsely ' (Pr 25" RV). Rain in han'est time was regarded as phenomenal and portentous (1 S 12", Pr 20').
In Palestine nearly the whole of the rainfall of tlie year occurs in the \vinter months, or from November to March inclusive ; during tlie re- maining months the rain is slight and intermittent. In the rainy season the falls are usuallj' heavy, and are accompanied by thunder and lightning, while the wind comes from the \V. or S.W. Northerly and easterly winds are generally dry.t Snow falls on the tableland of we-stem Palestine and of Moab, and to a greater depth in the Lebanon, but is almost unknown along the seaboard of Philistia and the plain of Sharon ; on Sunday night, 20th January 1884, snow fell to a depth of 2 ft. and upwards around Jerusalem ; J this is mentioned only in order to dispel the general belief that snow never falls on the Holy City.