Eower and skill, it is said that the miner puts forth is hand upon the flinty rock, and overturns the mountains. The hoofs of the Assyrian horses are compared to flint (Is 5^), which is also an emblem of prophetic resoluteness (Is 50', Ezk 3').
I' lint is a form of silica, a mineral which occurs in its purest condition as quartz. Flint is found in bands and nodules in certain calcareous rocks, notably in chalk, in various parts of the world. It is exceedingly hard, and breaks with a glassy fracture and sharp edges. When pieces of it are struck together, or against steel, sparks are emitted, and this method of obtaining fire has been used from the earliest times. It is probably alluded to in 2 Mac 10^. Flints are often darl; coloured owing to impurities. Their origin is one of the problems of geology not yet completely solved, but it is supposed that the siliceous frame- work of certain marine organisms was dissolved, and afterwards deposited in cavities, or actuallj' substituted for the material of other organic remains.
A great part of Palestine and the Sinaitic penin- sula is composed of Cretaceous strata, which pass on the W. into Nunimulitic (Eocene) limestone. In both of these formations flints are found ; and in some of the strata, especially those which line the Jordan Valley, they are particularly abundant (Green, Physical Geology, 231-33 ; Hull, SWPGl).
James Patrick.
FLOCK. — Four Heb. words are tr^ flock : — 1. -n^ etlcr, irolfxyioi', aydXii. This word, when used alone (Gn 29'- «, Jg 5'«, I S 17*", Ps 78", Ca 1' etc. ), usually signifies a Jlock of sheep or goats, or both mingled. It corresponds to the Arab. kati'. The exception to this is m Gn 32"'- '", where it is tr"* drove, [tix -iij; (Gn 29-, Jl 1", Mic 5*) signifies jlocki of sheep, and 13? "t;;', in the same sentence in Jl, is herds of cattle, and c-iyn i^V (Ca 4' &") flock of goats. niiT iiy (Jer 13") is the /lock of ./", that i.s, God's people (cf. Zee 10'), and D'Sn-in Tiy (Ca 6") a flock of ewes. Tjy Vnp the tower of 'cder (the flock) (Gn 35^') is a place near Bethlehem, men- tioned again (Mic 4") as the 'hill' (luarg. 'Heb. Ophel ') of the daughter of Zion. Some suppose it to have been a tower on the hill Ophel at Jerusalem. If Ophel be Zion, the allusion would be perfect in its details. .See Hkrd.
2. IK'S zO'n. This word, which means sheep, is the original of most of the passages in OT tr"
flock. It corresponds to the Arab, ddn, but d/in refers to sheep as distinguished by having wool, from goats, which are Known by the name of ma':. Zij'n may include both, Gn 38" RV (cf. AV) 'I will send thee a kid of the goats from the flock' {:'i'n). In some cases the context makes it clear tliat it does not include both, as in 1 S '2.')' 'he had three thou.sand sheep (z6'n), and a thou- sand goats ('izzim), and he was shearing his sheep (?(5'«) in Carmel.' Where ifu'n and bdkar are men- tioned together, they are always tr' flocks and herds. It would be better, in every ca.se where the context does not clearly demand the rendering
flock, to translate z6'n sheep.
3. |Nsn njp? 7nikneh hazzO'n (Gn 47"), is tr* AV, RV 'flocks.' RVm 'cattle of flocks.' It would
16
FLOOD
FLOOD
have been better rendered possesion of sheep, and mikneh habbfikAr, in the same verse, possession of oxen (cf. Ec 2").
4. njijp mir^neh (Ps 78"), U tr* AV, RV 'flocks.' It is elsewhere generally rendered ' cattle ' ; once 'possessions' (Ec 2').
The NT words for flock are rol/wi] and rolityior, the latter of which is used exclusively in a fig. sense of the Church (Lk 12"^ Ac 20^, 1 P 5» etc.).
G. E. Post.
FLOOD (Gn 6-9").— A story connected with the early history of man, which tells how, in con- sequence of their sins, especiallv those of violence, God destroyed by a flood the whole race, excepting only Noah and his family and two (or seven) pairs of every animal. The.se were saved in a huge ark or chest, which Noah had been directed to make when first warned of the coming flood. As the waters were abating, Noah sent forth a raven which did not return, and afterwards a dove twice at a week's interval, in order to ascertain whether the ground was dry. This was shown to be so by the dove returning the second time with an olive leaf in her mouth. The ark finally settled on Mt. Ararat. On leaving the ark, Noah ofl'ered up a sacrifice which appeased God, who promised never again to destroy tlie earth with a flood.
Simple and uniform as this story appears, it is a fact admitting of no reasonable doubt that the account of Genesis is really composed of two Flood stories, which, whUe agreeing in general purport, difler considerably both in character and detail. One belongs to the early source of the Hexateuch known as J, the other to the post-exilic P. They •jir.V be clearly distinguished here by the names of Go^ and other well-known characteristics of these documents. The sections ascribed to J in Kautzsch's A T are 6^'^ 7*"*' ''***• ^^' i**^*'- 22-23 gsb-a^t. 6-13. ub. i-o-aa j^q