Dew (Hastings' Dictionary)

i. The atmosphere is capable of holding in suspension a certain amount of aqueous vapour proportionate to its temperature under a fiven pressure. The greatest amount is taken up uring the daytime ; but on the approach of sunset, when the temperature is lowered, part of the vapour is precipitated in the form of dew, till the dew-point is reached.

This process 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 par- ticularly 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 tlie life of many plants which would otherwise peri.

sh during the rainless season ; or even, as in the case of Gideon, to saturate a fleece of wool (Jg 6^). When the sky is clouded, radiation is retarded, and rain may fall.

Thus rain and dew alternately benefit the vegetation ; and to the latter agent may possibly be ascribed the presence of a beauteous, though dwarfed, flora amongst the waterless valleys of the Sinaitic Peninsula, which in the early mom sparkles in the sunshine, owing to the multitudes of dewdrops which have settled on the leaves and stems of the plants during the cool hours of the night. ii. Thus 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 in his distress at the tidings of the death of Saul and Jonathan (2 S 1-') ; and in the curse pronounced on Ahab and his kingdom by Elijah (1 K 17') ; a^ also by the prophet Haggai on the Jews after the Restoration (Hag I'") owing to their unwillingness to rebuild the temple. iii.

In the Book of Job the formation of dew is pointed to as one of the mysteries of nature insoluble by man (Job 38^) ; but in Pr it is ascribed to the omniscience and power of the Lord (Pr 3^). iv. Dew is a favourite emblem in Scripture ; the following are examples : (a) Richness and Fertility, ' God give thee of the dew of heaven (Gn 27^, Dt 33*). (6) Refreshing and ViWfying effects, 'My speech shall distil as the dew' (Dt 32^); •Like a cloud of dew in the heat of summer' (Is 18).

(c) Stealth, ' We will liglit upon hira as the dew falleth on the ground' (2 S 17'-). (d) Incon- stancy; the goodness of Judah is 'as the early dew, it goeth away' (Hos G<); Ephraim . . shall be 'as the early dew that pnsseth away' (ch. 13'). (e) The ysung warriors of the Messianic king. with flashing weapons like dewdrops, ' Thou hast the dew of thy youth ' (Ps 110»). E. HtTLL.