חַלָּמִישׁ

From the study of Isaiah 50:7

Range of meaning

Flint, very hard rock. It occurs only five times: Deut 8:15 (water from "the flinty rock"), Deut 32:13 ("oil from the flinty rock"), Ps 114:8, Job 28:9 (miners attacking "the flint"), and here. In every case it stands for the hardest, most unyielding stone.

Against the English

Most versions say "like (a) flint". A modern reader may hear "flinty face" as cold, expressionless or hard-hearted. In Hebrew the hardness belongs to endurance and resolve, not to emotional coldness.

How it drifted

In English, "stony-faced" and "flinty" have come to describe emotional coldness. The Hebrew image is a face that does not give way.

Used elsewhere in the period

The closest parallel is Ezek 3:8–9. God makes the prophet's forehead "like emery, harder than flint (tsor)" so that he will not be afraid of a hard-faced people. Jer 1:18 ("a fortified city, an iron pillar") is similar. Jer 5:3 uses the opposite image: Israel "made their faces harder than rock" in refusing to repent. The Septuagint has "like a solid rock" (hōs sterean petran). The Vulgate has "like the hardest rock" (ut petram durissimam).

From the study of Deuteronomy 8:15

Range of meaning

Flint or chert: very hard, glassy stone common in the limestone of Sinai and the Negev, used for knives (Josh 5:2 uses a different word). Proverbial for hardness and immovability (Isa 50:7 "I set my face like flint"; compare Ezek 3:9). Also Job 28:9, Ps 114:8, Deut 32:13.

Against the English

KJV/WEB/NASB-type "rock of flint" and ESV "flinty rock" are accurate. NIV "hard rock" keeps the hardness but drops the specific stone. NLT drops it entirely ("from the rock").

Used elsewhere in the period

Ps 114:8: God "turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water." Deut 32:13: "honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock" (the reverse order, ḥallāmîš ṣûr). The Septuagint here has petra akrotomos, "sheer, hard-cut rock."

From the study of Psalm 114:8

Range of meaning

Flint or similar very hard stone; proverbially the hardest substance (Isaiah 50:7, 'I set my face like flint'; Job 28:9, miners 'put their hand to the flint').

Against the English

'Flint' is right. Modern readers may think of the spark-striking stone, but the image here is hardness and total dryness.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deuteronomy 8:15, 'who brought you water out of the flint rock'. Deuteronomy 32:13, 'oil out of the flinty rock'. The LXX usually renders it akrotomos, 'sheer, cut-off rock'.