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Bible Dictionaries
Dew
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or DEW . The process whereby dew is formed is enhanced in Eastern countries like Palestine, where the surface of the ground and the air in contact therewith are highly heated during the daytime, but where at night, and particularly under a cloudless sky, the heat of the ground is radiated into space and the air becomes rapidly cooled down. The excess of moisture in the air then gently ‘falls as dew on the tender herb,’ and sometimes so copiously as to sustain the life of many plants which would otherwise perish during the rainless season; or even, as in the case of Gideon, to saturate a fleece of wool ( Judges 6:38 ). Deprivation of dew, as well as of rain, becomes a terrible calamity in the East. On this account ‘dew and rain’ are associated in the imprecation called down by David on the mountains of Gilboa ( 2 Samuel 1:21 ); and in the curse pronounced on Ahab and his kingdom by Elijah ( 1 Kings 17:1 ), as also by the prophet Haggai on the Jews after the Restoration ( Haggai 1:10 ) owing to their unwillingness to rebuild the Temple. In the Book of Job the formation of dew is pointed to as one of the mysteries of nature insoluble by man ( Job 38:28 ); but in Pr. it is ascribed to the omniscience and power of the Lord ( Proverbs 3:20 ). Dew is a favourite emblem in Scripture: (a) richness and fertility ( Genesis 27:28 , Deuteronomy 33:13 ); (b) refreshing and vivifying effects ( Deuteronomy 32:2 , Isaiah 18:4 ); (c) stealth ( 2 Samuel 17:12 ); (d) inconstancy ( Hosea 6:4; Hosea 13:3 ); (e) the young warriors of the Messianic king ( Psalms 110:3 ).
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Dew'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/d/dew.html. 1909.
