FLAG. A word that appears in the KJV of the Bible three times, but not in the RSV. In Exodus 2:3, 5 it is said that the mother of Moses laid the ark of bulrushes “in the flags by the river’s bank,” and that Pharaoh’s daughter saw “the ark among the flags” (RSV “reeds”); in Isaiah 19:6 (KJV) the prophet predicts that in the divine judgment that will come upon Egypt the Nile will dry up and “the reeds and flags (RSV ‘rushes’) shall wither.” In both passages the Heb. word is סוּפ֮, H6068, a general term denoting sedgy plants such as grow along the Nile and its canals today. The Red Sea (Exod 10:19) is literally the “Sea of Reeds” (יַמ־ס֔וּף). The third appearance of the word is in Job 8:11 (KJV), where Bildad asks a rhetorical question, “Can the flag (RSV ‘reeds’) grow without water?” The Heb. word here is אָ֥חוּ, a generic word for marsh grasses or reeds. The KJV trs. the same Heb. word “meadow” in Genesis 41:2, 18, where it is said that the seven well-favored kine (RSV “cows”) of Pharaoh’s dream came out of the river and “fed in the meadow” (RSV “reed grass”).