Flax

A wetland plant from which linen and linseed-oil are produced, mentioned about half a dozen times in the Bible.

Flax (Linum usitatissimum), one of the oldest domesticated plants (estimated at least 8,000 years ago), is herbaceous and grows to about 1m high, with slender stems and flowers that are usually blue or white. It makes great demand on the soil it grows in and, in many places, a second crop of flax is not grown on the same plot for another five-six years. The plant is harvested in ancient Israel in Mar/Apr. The stems are processed into fibres—first by drying, then soaking, followed by crushing and combing—sorted according to length and spun into threads. Those with longer fibres are usually kept for the more expensive items, short one are used as wicks for lamps. Oil is also pressed from the dried seeds.

The flax is identified with the Hebrew (probably loan-)word pishta or pishet, and occurs about 20x in the OT, though it is not always translated into English as such. NIV, e.g., translates it as 'flax' (6x) when the context suggests the plant is meant, and 'linen' when a processed item is suggested. Flax is mentioned for the first time when Egypt's crop of it (together with barley) became the subject of the seventh plague called upon the land by Moses (Exo 9:31). Forty-years later Rahab would save the scouts sent out to spy out the land by hiding them among the stalks of flax drying on her roof (Jos 2:6). While the iconic wife of Prov 31 "seeks wool and flax and works with eager hands" (v13), it was the responsibility of the husband to provide his wife with "wool and flax . . . to cover her nakedness" (Hos 2:9). The use of flax for making lamp wicks is reflected in Isa 42:3 ("A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out" and 43:17 ("his is what the Lord says—he who made a way through the sea, . . . who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick." The flax can, therefore, produce all the lighting needs of a family with its oil and wick.

While archaeological evidences suggest flax was grown in ancient Israel (probably in the Jordan Valley, where irrigation necessary for growing the crop is possible), the best flax in the ancient world came from Egypt.