Raiment (Hastings' Dictionary)

The early suhst. 'arrnymcnt' was often in inidrlle Eng. spelt ' araiment)' and the a dropping oU left 'raiment/ which is found as early as Piers Plowman. Raiment, being treated as a mere synonym of 'apparel, is used in AV to translate many Heb. and Gr. words, which are often plu. (as rd l/idna, Mt 17= 27"', Mk 9», Lk 7" 23, Jn 195^^ etc.), the word having a collective force. Occasionally, however, it was used in the singular and in the plural : thus, Ezk 9' Cov. ' Tliere was one amongst them, that had on him a lynninge rayment'; Ps 109" Pr. Bk. 'He clothed him self with cursyng lyke as with a rayment.' Also Ex 39^' Tind. 'His sonnes ray- mentes to ministre in'; Hull, Works, \. 818, 'He sends varietie of costly rayments to his Father.' See Dress. J. Hastings. RAIN (lOD is the usual Heb. term. rnV [in Jl 2" Ps 84' n-iic] 'the early rain,' falling Oct.-Nov., is opposed to cipi"? 'the latter rain,' from March to April, Dt 1 1", Jer 5'-^, Hos 6'. c;i-,, a burst of rain, is sometimes used, esp. of the he.i\'y winter rains [cf. Driver on Am 4'; G. A. Smith, HGHL 64]. The NT terms are verbs and ,3poxi5 [only Mt l'^-^']). — In the beautiful passage Is 55"'- '' we have an exjiression of the blessing accompanying rain in Eastern countries, not so much appreciated in our own humid- clunes. In Palestine the fruit- fulness of the soil, the supply of the springs and rivers, the pasturage for the flocks and herds, indeed life itself, is dependent on the fall of the ' former and the latter ' rain. The descent of rain is used as an illustration of tlio blessings following upon the spread of the kingdom of Christ (Ps 72'- ') ; while the presence of clouds and wind without rain is likened to a man ' who boasteth himself of his gifts falsely ' (Pr 25" RV). Rain in han'est time was regarded as phenomenal and portentous (1 S 12", Pr 20'). In Palestine nearly the whole of the rainfall of tlie year occurs in the \vinter months, or from November to March inclusive ; during tlie re- maining months the rain is slight and intermittent. In the rainy season the falls are usuallj' heavy, and are accompanied by thunder and lightning, while the wind comes from the \V. or S.W. Northerly and easterly winds are generally dry.t Snow falls on the tableland of we-stem Palestine and of Moab, and to a greater depth in the Lebanon, but is almost unknown along the seaboard of Philistia and the plain of Sharon ; on Sunday night, 20th January 1884, snow fell to a depth of 2 ft. and upwards around Jerusalem ; J this is mentioned only in order to dispel the general belief that snow never falls on the Holy City. Conder disputes the view that the seasons in Palestine have changed since OT times. § He says, ' As regards the seasons and the character and distribution of the water-sujjply, natural or arti- ficial, there is, apparently, no reason to suppose that any chanj^e has occurred ; and with respect to the annual rainfall (as observed for the last ten years II) it is only necessary to note that, were the old cisterns cleaned and mended, and the beautiful tanks and a()ucducts repaired, the ordinary fall would be quite suHiciunt for the wants of the inhabitants and for irrigation. 'IT While this is doubtless true, there can be no question that • Ab the AV translators varied their language as much afl posBible, we find three different renderings of the one word tfSy,( in Ja 2'-^S: 'in (goodly apparel' (i» wth.ii XaiM^pi), in vile raiuienl' (i pt^tcea ieOr.Ti), and 'the ^'ay clothing ' (r^, ir^r T,, >.Kfj.9fioLi,). RV has " clothing' throughout here. t The connexion of the rainfall and direction of the wind la not very well Icnown, though undoubtedly the S.W. wind is the most humid. t ilounl Scir, Sinai, eta 170 (1885). il Tent-Work in J'alettine, ch. xxiv. 334. I From 187O-l|iS0. ^1 /6. p. sue. On the otherhand, Tristram appenratOoonBidet that the rainfall ha« diioiulflhcd tinco the time of the Onuoderv. Land <i/ Itrael', aia. 196 KAINBOW EAKEM Jurin^ the ' Pluvial period,' which extended from the riiocene down throujjh the Glacial into the commencement of the present or ' Recent' epoch, the rainfall must have been greater and the climate colder and more humid than at the present day. 8now now falls on the summits of Jebel MOsa and Jebel Katarina in the Sinaitio peninsula, giving rise to the perennial streams which descend from the former of these mountains. The following is a table of the rainfall at Jerusalem during 20 yeais : — Taule of the RirarUiL iT Jerusaiem fbom 1861 to 18S0. Year. Fall in Inches. Tear. FftU in Inches. 1 861 27-30 1871 23-57 lhU2 21-86 1872 22-26 1S«3 20-54 1873 22-72 lsi'4 15-61 1874 29-76 lsit.i 18-19 1875 27-01 1»U6 18-65 1876 14-41 lSli7 29-42 1877 20-00 isr.8 2910 1878 32-21 IS.M 18-61 1879 18-04 1S70 13-39 1880 32-11 The above observations, taken by Chaplin, show how extremely variable is the rainfall in this part of Palestine ; t the amount varying between 13-39 inches in 1870 and 32-21 inches in 1878 ; the average for these 20 years is about 20 inches ; and the number of days on which rain fell varied from 30 in 1864 to 68 in 1868. The results are not dissimilar to those of the eastern counties of England north of the Thames. These results may be considered as the mean between those of the Lebanon on the north and of tlxe Sinaitic peninsula on the south, the rainfall being greater in the former region than in the latter. Between these two Jerusalem occupies a nearly central position ; and the amount of rain is consequently of an intermediate character. E. Hull.