Basic HTML Version
0
sometimes represents the “male sex organ”: “Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh [
NASB
, “body”],
because of his issue he is unclean” (Lev. 15:2).
The term “all flesh” has several meanings. It means “all mankind” in Deut. 5:26: “For
who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God …?” In another place,
this phrase refers to “all living creatures within the cosmos,” or all men and animals
(Gen. 6:17).
FLOCK
(
, 6629), “flock; small cattle; sheep; goats.” A similar word is found in
Akkadian, Aramaic, and Syriac, and in the Tel Amarna tablets. In Hebrew,
kept its
meaning in all stages of the development of the language. The word occurs 273 times in
the Hebrew Old Testament, with its first occurrence in Gen. 4:2. The word is not limited
to any period of Hebrew history or to any type of literature. The Book of Genesis, with
the narratives on the patriarchs in their pastoral setting, has the greatest frequency of
usage (about 60 times).
The primary meaning of
is “small cattle,” to be distinguished from
%
(“herd”). The word may refer to “sheep” only (1 Sam. 25:2) or to both “sheep and goats”:
“So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my
hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and
brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me” (Gen. 30:33). The “flock”
was an important economic factor in the ancient Near East. The animals were eaten (1
Sam. 14:32; cf. Ps. 44:11), shorn for their wool (Gen. 31:19), and milked (Deut. 32:14).
They were also offered as a sacrifice, as when Abel sacrificed a firstling of his “flock”
(Gen. 4:4).
In the metaphorical usage of
, the imagery of a “multitude” may apply to people:
“As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities
be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezek. 36:38). God
is viewed as the shepherd of His “flock,” God’s people: “Know ye that the Lord he is
God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of
his pasture” (Ps. 100:3; cf. Ps. 23; 79:13; Mic. 7:14). In a period of oppression, the
psalmist compared God’s people to “sheep for the slaughter” (Ps. 44:22) and prayed for
God’s deliverance.
People without a leader were compared to a “flock” without a shepherd (1 Kings
22:17; cf. Zech. 10:2; 13:7). Jeremiah viewed the Judeans as having been guided astray
by their shepherds, or leaders (Jer. 50:6). Similarly, Isaiah wrote: “All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).
The prophetic promise pertains to God’s renewed blessing on the remnant of the
“flock”: “And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have
driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and
increase” (Jer. 23:3). This would come to pass as the Messiah (“the Branch of David”)
will establish His rule over the people (vv. 5-6). This idea is also expressed by Ezekiel:
“And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant
David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their