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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMcClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Flint
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( çִìָּîִåùׁ , challassish', from its smoothness, Psa_104:8; Isa_50:7; "rock," Job_28:9; frequently with the accompaniment öåּø , a rock, Deu_8:15; Deu_32:13; once for öø itself, Eze_3:9; "sharp stone," Exo_4:25), 'any hard stone, especially of a silicious character, as quartz or granite; but in mineralogical science it is applied only to silicious nodules. In the three passages first cited above the reference is to God's bringing water and oil out of the naturally barren rocks of the wilderness for the sake of his people. In Isaiah the word is used metaphorically to signify the firmness of the prophet is resistance to his persecutors. So also in, Isa_5:28 we have like flsnt, in reference to the hoofs of horses. In 1 Mace. 10:73, êü÷ëáî is translated flint, and in Wis_11:4 the expression ἐê ðÝôñáò ἀêñïôüìïõ is adopted from Deu_8:15 (Sept.). SEE ROCK. 'Flints abound in nearly' all the plains and valleys through which the Hebrews marched during thee forty years of wandering.' In the northward desert, low hills' of chalk occur, as well as frequent tracts of chalky soil, for the most part overspread with flints. In the western desert Burckheardt saw some large pieces of flint perfectly oval three to four feet in length, and about a foot and a half in breadth. This desert presents to the traveller's view its immense expanse of dreary country, covered with black flints, with here and there some hilly chains rising fromthe plain. SEE DESERT.