Marsh
Marsh (גֶּבֶא, ge'be, a collection of waters, Eze 47:11; elsewhere a cistern or reservoir, rendered "pit," Isa 30:14; Jer 14:3), a swamp or wet piece of land. The passage in Ezekiel speaks of the future blessings of the Jews after their restoration under the figure of drainage of land useless by its dampness: "But the miry places thereof, and the marishes thereof, shall not be healed: they shall be given to salt" (47:11); that is, the part in question shall be reserved for the production of salt by the evaporation of the waters (see Henderson, Comment. ad loc.). It is supposed that the "valley of salt" in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea is here referred to, for there the Kedron, the course of which the prophet describes the holy waters as following, empties. This plain or valley has been traversed and described by captains Irby and Mangles in terms appropriate to the prophecy. Lieut. Lynch, in coasting around the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, found not only the Ghof to be an immense marshy flat, but the bottom of the lake itself a muddy shoal, scarcely allowing the boat to be rowed through it. The salt hills around presented a scene of unmitigated desolation (Expedition, p. 310).
