gay · valley

What it means

gay (גַּיְא) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “valley”.

Narrow valley, a ravine between high slopes.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. A narrow hollow between hills, sometimes a place of darkness or death.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Valley: a hollow between mountains, narrower than the broad valley (עֵמֶק, H6010). Many bear a proper name: the valley of Ben-hinnom, the Valley of Salt.

• The valley between two armies 1 Samuel 17:3
• “The valley of the shadow of death” Psalms 23:4
• The valley of Ben-hinnom 2 Kings 23:10Jeremiah 7:32Joshua 15:8
• Moses buried in a valley Deuteronomy 34:6
• “Every valley will be lifted up” Isaiah 40:4Zechariah 14:4

Historical and cultural background

In the valley of Ben-hinnom was the Topheth, where sons and daughters were made to pass through the fire for Molech; Josiah made it unclean (2 Kings 23:10), and Jeremiah announced that it would be called “the valley of Slaughter” (Jeremiah 7:32).

How we translate it

“Valley” 52 times and “valleys” 8. The names are fixed: “the Valley of Salt”, “the valley of Ben-hinnom”, “the Valley of Hinnom”. In Nehemiah it appears as the name of a gate, “the Valley Gate” (Nehemiah 2:13).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• valley ×52
• valleys ×8

Where it appears

• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×3
• Joshua×7
• 1 Samuel×3
• 2 Samuel×1
• 2 Kings×3
• 1 Chronicles×3
• 2 Chronicles×5
• Nehemiah×5
• Psalms×2
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×8
• Ezekiel×10
• Micah×1
• Zechariah×3

• Numbers 21:20

  and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the country of Moab, at the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the wasteland.

• Deuteronomy 3:29

  So we stayed in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

• Deuteronomy 4:46

  beyond the Jordan, in the valley opposite Beth-peor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, whom Moses and the sons of Israel struck when they came out of Egypt.

• Deuteronomy 34:6

  And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; and no man has known his burial place to this day.

• Joshua 8:11

  And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near and came in front of the city and camped on the north of Ai, with the valley between him and Ai.

• Joshua 15:8

  and the border went up by the Valley of Ben-hinnom to the slope of the Jebusite on the south (that is Jerusalem); and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lies over against the Valley of Hinnom to the west, which is at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim;

• Joshua 18:16

  and the border went down to the end of the mountain that lies over against the Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is in the Valley of Rephaim to the north; and it went down by the Valley of Hinnom to the slope of the Jebusite on the south, and went down to En-rogel;

• Joshua 19:14

  and the border turned around it on the north to Hannathon, and its ends were at the Valley of Iphtah-el;

• Joshua 19:27

  and it turned back toward the sunrise to Beth-dagon, and touched Zebulun and the Valley of Iphtah-el to the north, Beth-emek and Neiel, and went out to Cabul on the left,

• 1 Samuel 13:18

  another group turned toward the road to Beth-horon; and another group turned toward the road of the border that looks down on the valley of Zeboim, toward the wilderness.

• 1 Samuel 17:3

  The Philistines were standing on the mountain on one side, and Israel was standing on the mountain on the other side, and the valley was between them.

• 1 Samuel 17:52

  The men of Israel and of Judah rose and shouted and pursued the Philistines as far as the entrance of the valley and as far as the gates of Ekron. And the dead of the Philistines fell on the road of Shaaraim, as far as Gath and as far as Ekron.

• 2 Samuel 8:13

  David made a name for himself when he returned from striking Aram in the Valley of Salt: eighteen thousand.

• 2 Kings 2:16

  They said to him, “Look, please, there are with your servants fifty men, valiant men. Please let them go and search for your master, in case the spirit of YHWH has lifted him up and thrown him on one of the mountains or in one of the valleys.” He said, “Do not send them.”

• 2 Kings 14:7

  He struck Edom in the Valley of Salt, ten thousand, and seized Sela in battle, and called its name Joktheel, to this day.

• 2 Kings 23:10

  He made unclean the Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech.

• 1 Chronicles 4:14

  And Meonothai fathered Ophrah; and Seraiah fathered Joab, the father of the Valley of Craftsmen, for they were craftsmen.

• 1 Chronicles 4:39

  And they went to the entrance of Gedor, as far as the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks.

• 1 Chronicles 18:12

  And Abishai son of Zeruiah struck Edom in the Valley of Salt: eighteen thousand.

• 2 Chronicles 14:10

  Asa went out before him, and they drew up battle in the valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.

• 2 Chronicles 25:11

  Amaziah strengthened himself and led his people and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck the sons of Seir, ten thousand.

• 2 Chronicles 26:9

  Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem on the Corner Gate and on the Valley Gate and on the angle, and fortified them.

• 2 Chronicles 28:3

  He burned incense in the Valley of Ben-hinnom and burned his sons in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom YHWH had dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

• 2 Chronicles 33:6

  He made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, read omens, practiced sorcery, and appointed those who call up the dead and spiritists; he multiplied doing evil in the eyes of YHWH, provoking him to anger.

• Nehemiah 2:13

  And I went out by the Valley Gate at night, toward the Dragon Fountain and to the Dung Gate, and I was examining the walls of Jerusalem, which were full of breaches, and its gates, consumed by fire.

• Nehemiah 2:15

  And I was going up by the ravine at night, and I was examining the wall; and I turned back and came in by the Valley Gate, and returned.

• Nehemiah 3:13

  The Valley Gate Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired; they built it and set up its doors, its locks, and its bars, and a thousand cubits of the wall, as far as the Dung Gate.

• Nehemiah 11:30

  Zanoah, Adullam and their villages, Lachish and its fields, Azekah and its settlements. So they encamped from Beersheba to the valley of Hinnom.

• Nehemiah 11:35

  Lod and Ono, the valley of the Craftsmen.

• Psalms 23:4

  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

• Psalms 60:1

  For the director. On The Lily of the Testimony. A Miktam of David, for teaching, when he fought against Aram-naharaim and against Aram of Zobah, and Joab returned and struck Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand. Elohim, you have rejected us, you have broken through us; you have been angry; restore us.

• Isaiah 22:1

  The burden of the valley of Vision. What is the matter with you now, that you have gone up, all of you, to the rooftops,

• Isaiah 22:5

  For it is a day of panic and of trampling and of confusion from Adonai YHWH Tsevaot in the valley of Vision, a battering down of the wall and a cry to the mountain.

• Isaiah 28:1

  Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower, the adornment of its beauty, which is on the head of the valley of fatness of those struck down by wine!

• Isaiah 28:4

  And the fading flower, the adornment of its beauty, which is on the head of the valley of fatness, will be like an early fig before the summer, which the one who sees sees it, and while it is still in his hand he swallows it.

• Isaiah 40:4

  Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be made low; and the crooked will become a plain, and the rough places a broad valley.

• Jeremiah 2:23

  How can you say, ‘I have not defiled myself; after the Baals I have not gone’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done, a young camel, swift, entangling her ways,

• Jeremiah 7:31

  And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into my heart.

• Jeremiah 7:32

  Therefore look, days are coming, declares YHWH, when it will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but the valley of Slaughter; and they will bury in Topheth for lack of room.

• Jeremiah 19:2

  and go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is at the entrance of the gate of the Potsherds, and proclaim there the words that I speak to you;

And 20 more times.