Bible Encyclopedias
Flake

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

flāk ( מפל , mappāl , a word of uncertain meaning): It is used in the sense of "refuse (husks) of the wheat" in Amos 8:6 . With regard to the body we find it used in Job 41:23 in the description of leviathan (the crocodile): "The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm upon him; they cannot be moved." Baethgen in Kautzsch's translation of the Old Testament translates " Wampen ," i.e. the collops or lateral folds of flesh and armored skin. A better translation would perhaps be: "the horny epidermic scales" of the body, differentiated from the bony dermal scutes of the back (Hebrew "channels of shields," "courses of scales"), which are mentioned in Job 41:15 margin.