Flax

How Nave’s arranged it

• In EgyptExodus 9:31
• In PalestineJoshua 2:6
• Linen made fromProverbs 31:13Isaiah 19:6Hosea 2:5Hosea 2:9
• Robes made ofEsther 1:16Ezekiel 40:3
• See Linen
• FIGURATIVE
• Smoking flax not quenchedIsaiah 42:3Matthew 12:20

The passages, in Bible order (10)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 10 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Exodus 9:31

   (Now the flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was ripe and the flax was in bloom;

   ›Commentary on Exodus 9:311 voice

   “And the flax and the barley was smitten,....

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2. Joshua 2:6

   (But Rahab had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had laid out there.)

   ›Commentary on Joshua 2:62 voices

   "I will be mindful of Rahab," of Rahab, that harlot who lodged Jesus' [Joshua's] secret agents, who lived in Jericho where Jesus [Joshua] had come and had dispatched the two spies. Jericho, that collapsed in seven days, is a type of this world, and as such is determined to kill the secret agents. Because, therefore, Jericho is bent upon killing the spies, Rahab, the harlot, alone received them, lodged them not on the ground floor but in the upper story of the roof—or, in other words, in the sublimity of her faith.

   “But she had brought them up to the roof of the house,....

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3. Esther 1:16

   And in the presence of the king and his princes, Memucan replied, “Queen Vashti has wronged not only the king, but all the princes and the peoples in all the provinces of King Xerxes.

   ›Commentary on Esther 1:162 voices

   “And Memucan answered before the king and the princes,....

   “The advice which King Ahasuerus asks of his seven sages who were, according to royal custom always by his side, concerning the insolent Vashti—as well as the sentence he orders them to pass concerning her—undoubtedly signifies the sentence our Savior passes against the arrogance of …

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4. Proverbs 31:13

   She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.

   ›Commentary on Proverbs 31:131 voice

   “There is a threefold operation, namely to discern rightly, to choose well, and to pursue readily. Therefore it says: 'She has worked by the counsel of her hands.' She not only decreed and chose, but carried it through. It does not suffice to have a …

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5. Isaiah 19:6

   The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither.

   ›Commentary on Isaiah 19:62 voices

   “(Verset 5 et suiv.) And the sea water will dry up, and the river will be deserted and dried up, and the rivers will fail, and the streams of the embankments will be thin and dry up. The reed and the rush will wither, the bed of the river will be exposed from its source, and all irrigated crops will dry up. It will dry up and cease to exist.

   “And the rivers, other rivers: I will make the channels of the rivers dry (Ezek 30:12). Second, he sets out the sign of the drought: the reed and the bulrush, which are raised in the water, below: shall rise up the verdure of the reed …

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6. Isaiah 42:3

   A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.

   ›Commentary on Isaiah 42:31 voice

   “The prophets, therefore, did not openly behold the actual face of God, but [they saw] the dispensations and the mysteries through which man should afterwards see God. As was also said to Elias: "Thou shalt go forth tomorrow, and stand in the presence of the Lord; and, behold, a wind great and strong, which shall rend the mountains, and break the rocks in pieces before the Lord.

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7. Ezekiel 40:3

   So He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze. He was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand.

   ›Commentary on Ezekiel 40:32 voices

   “This man spoke to the prophet, in whose hand was a cord, and whose appearance was like bronze, and he held a reed in his hand. He spoke to Ezekiel, a true architect, whom Paul the apostle imitated, saying: Like a wise architect, I have laid the foundation. But he calls him the wise architect, to distinguish him from the foolish one, who is called an unworthy shepherd in Zechariah.

   “And he brought me thither,....

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8. Hosea 2:5

   For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’

   ›Commentary on Hosea 2:52 voices

   “For their mother hath played the harlot,.... Or committed idolatry; which is the reason why she is to be pleaded with, and why the Lord will not own her as his wife, or be a husband to her; and why she is to be exhorted to put away her whoredoms from her; and was in danger of all the above evils coming upon her, continuing in the same practice; and why her children were children of whoredoms.

   "And I will not have pity on her sons, for they are the sons of fornication, because their mother has committed fornication: she is confounded that conceived them, because she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me bread, and water, and clothes, and oil, and drink." LXX: "And I will not have mercy on her sons, because they are the children of fornication. For their mother has committed fornication.

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9. Hosea 2:9

   Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness.

   ›Commentary on Hosea 2:92 voices

   "Therefore, I will return and take my grain in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will free my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace." LXX: "Therefore I will return and take my wheat in its time, and my wine in its time, and I will take away my garments, and my coverings, not to cover her nakedness." A heavier punishment is when, in the time of harvest and the expected vintage, the crops are taken and the wine, and in a sense the tried ones are taken from the hands.

   “Therefore will I return, and take away,....

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10. Matthew 12:20

    A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish, till He leads justice to victory.

    ›Commentary on Matthew 12:202 voices

    “(Ep. 121.2.) Or, the reverse, He calls the Jews a bruised reed, whom tossed by the wind and shaken from one another, the Lord did not immediately condemn, but patiently endured; and the smoking flax He calls the people gathered out of the Gentiles, who, having extinguished the light of the natural law, were involved in the wandering mazes of thick darkness of smoke, bitter and hurtful to the eyes; this He not only did not extinguish, by reducing them to ashes, but on the contrary from a small spark and one almost dead He raised a mighty flame.

    “What does it mean that it is written in Matthew: 'A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench' (Matthew 12:20). For the explanation of this passage, the whole testimony that Matthew takes from the Prophet Isaiah must be set forth, even the words of Isaiah (Isaiah 42): according to the Septuagint interpreters and the Hebrew itself, to which Theodotus, Aquila, and Symmachus agree. Thus of the four Evangelists, only Matthew relates: "And Jesus knowing it, retired from thence: and many followed him, and he healed them all.

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