- FISH-POOLS (Cant. 7:4) should be simply “pools,” as in the Revised
Version. The reservoirs near Heshbon (q.v.) were probably stocked with
fish (2 Samuel 2:13; 4:12; Isaiah 7:3; 22:9, 11). - FITCHES (Isaiah 28:25, 27), the rendering of the Hebrew ketsah,
“without doubt the Nigella sativa, a small annual of the order
Ranunculacece, which grows wild in the Mediterranean countries, and is
cultivated in Egypt and Syria for its seed.” It is rendered in margin of the
Revised Version “black cummin.” The seeds are used as a condiment.
In Ezekiel 4:9 this word is the rendering of the Hebrew kussemeth
(incorrectly rendered “rye” in the Authorized Version of Exodus 9:32 and
Isaiah 28:25, but “spelt” in the Revised Version). The reading “fitches”
here is an error; it should be “spelt.”
- FLAG (Hebrews , or rather Egyptian, ahu, Job 8:11), rendered “meadow”
in Genesis 41:2, 18; probably the Cyperus esculentus, a species of rush
eaten by cattle, the Nile reed. It also grows in Palestine.
In Exodus 2:3, 5, Isaiah 19:6, it is the rendering of the Hebrew suph, a
word which occurs frequently in connection with yam; as yam suph, to
denote the “Red Sea” (q.v.) or the sea of weeds (as this word is rendered,
Jonah 2:5). It denotes some kind of sedge or reed which grows in marshy
places. (See PAPER, REED.)
- FLAGON Hebrews ashishah, (2 Samuel 6:19; 1 Chronicles 16:3; Cant.
2:5; Hos. 3:1), meaning properly “a cake of pressed raisins.” “Flagons of
wine” of the Authorized Version should be, as in the Revised Version,
“cakes of raisins” in all these passages. In Isaiah 22:24 it is the rendering of
the Hebrew nebel, which properly means a bottle or vessel of skin.
(Comp. 1 Samuel 1:24; 10:3; 25:18; 2 Samuel 16:1, where the same
Hebrew word is used.) - FLAME OF FIRE is the chosen symbol of the holiness of God (Exodus
3:2; Revelation 2:18), as indicating “the intense, all-consuming operation of
his holiness in relation to sin.” - FLAX (Hebrews pishtah, i.e., “peeled”, in allusion to the fact that the
stalks of flax when dried were first split or peeled before being steeped in
water for the purpose of destroying the pulp). This plant was cultivated
from earliest times. The flax of Egypt was destroyed by the plague of hail
when it “was bolled”, i.e., was forming pods for seed (Exodus 9:31). It was