Description and usage
The irrigation canal was a small channel cut into the rock or dug into the ground to transfer water from a larger source such as a river into a cultivated plot of ground. The reference in SIR 24:30 gives a good description of its function: “an irrigation canal bringing water from a river into a garden” (GNT). Gardens could be watered by a system of smaller channels running off a larger channel and feeding into all parts of the garden, using gravity to deliver the water.
Translation
The Hebrew word y’or normally refers to the Nile River. However, most translations agree that in EXO 7:19 and EXO 8:5 (1) it means “irrigation canal.” Similarly, the Hebrew word nahar normally means “river,” but in ISA 19:6, where it is plural in Hebrew, most translation render it “canals” (RSV) or “channels” (NJPSV).