Flag

The English word "flag" lives in two places in the UPDV. One is the marsh plant — the bulrush, the rush, the reed, the flag growing at the river's brink — and the other is the cloth-and-pole standard that marks an army's tribe, a city's alarm, or a nation's gathering. Around these two senses cluster the banners of triumph and love, the ensigns Yahweh lifts to summon the peoples, the measuring reed of Ezekiel and the Apocalypse, and the bruised reed of Egypt and of mocked kingship.

The Standard of the Camp

The wilderness camp arranges itself around tribal standards. "The sons of Israel will pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, according to their hosts" (Nu 1:52). The next chapter joins the two terms: "The sons of Israel will encamp every man by his own standard, with the ensigns of their fathers' houses: across from the tent of meeting they will encamp round about" (Nu 2:2). When the camp moves, the standards lead — Judah first, "And in the first [place] the standard of the camp of the sons of Judah set forward according to their hosts: and over his host was Nahshon the son of Amminadab" (Nu 10:14).

The Ensign Lifted to the Nations

In the prophets the ensign is Yahweh's signal, lifted on a mountain or a hill, that gathers or warns the peoples. "Set⁺ up an ensign on the bare mountain, lift up the voice to them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles" (Isa 13:2). The summons is universal: "All you⁺ inhabitants of the world, and you⁺ who stay on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, see⁺; and when the trumpet is blown, hear⁺" (Isa 18:3). It can call distant nations as instruments of judgment — "he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss for them from the end of the earth; and, look, they will come with speed swiftly" (Isa 5:26) — and it can collect Israel's exiles: "he will set up an ensign for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth" (Isa 11:12); "Look, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my ensign to the peoples; and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders" (Isa 49:22). The way is cleared for that gathering: "Go through, go through the gates; prepare⁺ the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up an ensign for the peoples" (Isa 62:10).

The ensign also names a person. "And it will come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, who stands for an ensign of the peoples, to him will the nations seek; and his resting-place will be glorious" (Isa 11:10).

The image can be inverted. To the rebellious, the ensign is reduced to a lone signpost of defeat: "A thousand together [will flee] at the threat of one; at the threat of five you⁺ will flee: until you⁺ are left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on a hill" (Isa 30:17). To Assyria's princes the ensign is terror — "his princes will be dismayed at the ensign, says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem" (Isa 31:9). And in the violated sanctuary the ensigns are the adversaries' own: "Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly; They have set up their ensigns for signs" (Ps 74:4).

The Standard as Alarm and Proclamation

Jeremiah's standards mark battle and the spread of news. The alarm goes up before the northern invader: "Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, don't stop; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction" (Jer 4:6). The prophet grieves its persistence — "How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?" (Jer 4:21). When Babylon falls, the standard publishes the news to the nations: "Declare⁺ among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and do not conceal: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed; her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed" (Jer 50:2); "Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Yahweh has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon" (Jer 51:12).

Banners of Triumph and of Love

Where the standard signals war, the banner can signal celebration. "We will triumph in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners: Yahweh fulfill all your petitions" (Ps 20:5). To the people who fear Yahweh a banner is given for display: "You have given a banner to those who fear you, That it may be displayed because of the bow. Selah" (Ps 60:4). In the Song of Songs the banner moves into the love-poem. "He brought me to the banqueting-house, And his banner over me was love" (SS 2:4). The beloved is "Terrible as an army with banners" (SS 6:4); and again, "Who is she who looks forth as the morning, Beautiful as the moon, Clear as the sun, Terrible as an army with banners?" (SS 6:10).

The Flag Plant by the River

The other sense of "flag" is botanical — a marsh plant beside the Nile or the Jordan, named in UPDV variously as bulrush, rush, reed, and flag. Moses is hidden among them: "she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and with pitch; and she put the child in it, and laid it in the flags by the river's brink" (Ex 2:3). The same plants surround Pharaoh's daughter: "she saw the ark among the flags, and sent her female slave to fetch it" (Ex 2:5). The plant cannot live without water — "Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water?" (Job 8:11) — and Egypt's collapse is pictured by their failure: "the rivers will become foul; the streams of Egypt will be diminished and dried up; the reeds and flags will wither away" (Isa 19:6). Cush sends ambassadors "in vessels of papyrus on the waters" (Isa 18:2). The desert reversal grows the same plants where there had been only dust — "in the habitation of the jackals' resting place, will be grass with reeds and rushes" (Isa 35:7). And rush imagery slides into critique of empty piety: "Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?" (Isa 58:5).

The Measuring Reed

The reed appears in Ezekiel's temple vision as a precise instrument. The bronze-man is introduced "with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed" (Eze 40:3), and the reed itself is six cubits long: "in the man's hand a measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and a handbreadth each: so he measured the thickness of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed" (Eze 40:5). The same standard governs the side-chambers — "the foundations of the side-chambers were a full reed of six great cubits" (Eze 41:8) — and the four sides of the outer perimeter, each "five hundred reeds with the measuring reed" (Eze 42:16-19). The holy portion of the land is given in the same unit: "the length will be the length of five and twenty thousand [reeds], and the width will be twenty thousand" (Eze 45:1).

The measuring reed carries into Revelation. "And there was given me a reed like a rod: and one said, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and the barrier within it" (Re 11:1). And the New Jerusalem is measured with one in gold: "he who spoke with me had for a measure a golden reed to measure the city, and her gates, and her wall. And the city lies foursquare, and her length is also as great as the width: and he measured the city with the reed, 1,380 miles: her length and width and height are equal" (Re 21:15-16).

The Bruised Reed

A reed in the figurative register is a thing that bends, splits, and pierces the hand that leans on it. The Rabshakeh's taunt to Hezekiah names Egypt: "Now, look, you trust on the staff of this bruised reed, even on Egypt; on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him" (2Ki 18:21). The same charge is repeated in Isaiah's parallel narrative (Isa 36:6) and through Ezekiel: "all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel" (Eze 29:6). Israel itself can be pictured the same way: "Yahweh will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers" (1Ki 14:15). And in the marshes around Babylon, "the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened" (Jer 51:32).

Against this background of fragility stands the servant's restraint: "A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench: he will bring forth justice in truth" (Isa 42:3).

The Reed in Mockery

In the Passion narrative the reed becomes an instrument of mock royalty and of blows. "And they struck his head with a reed, and spat on him, and bowing their knees worshiped him" (Mark 15:19).