empties into the Mediterranean Sea ninety miles (145 kilometers) E of Port Said. (See EGYPT, TORRENT VALLEY OF.) At 1 Chronicles 13:5 certain translations read “river [shi·hhohrʹ] of Egypt” (NW, La, AS), and this reference also may be to Wadi el-ʽArish. However, another possibility is that both texts refer to a branch of the Nile.—See SHIHOR.

RIZIA

(Ri·ziʹa).

A warrior and family head in the tribe of Asher; son of Ulla.—1 Chron. 7:39, 40.

RIZPAH

(Rizʹpah) [glowing coal].

A concubine of King Saul; daughter of Aiah. (2 Sam. 3:7; 21:11) After Saul’s death, his son Ish-bosheth alienated General Abner by calling him to account for having relations with Rizpah, an act he construed as intimating seizure of the throne. As a consequence, Abner defected to David.—2 Sam. 3:7-21.

Rizpah had given birth to two sons by Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth. Long after Saul’s death, David took these two sons of Rizpah along with five other descendants of Saul and handed them over to the Gibeonites to slay, in order to remove bloodguilt from the land. The seven were exposed on a mountain, where Rizpah guarded their bodies from the birds and wild beasts “from the start of harvest until water poured down upon them from the heavens.” (2 Sam. 21:1-10) This indefinite period of time may have been five or six months, unless, as some suggest, there was an exceptional out-of-season downpour. Such a heavy rain before October would have been most unusual. (1 Sam. 12:17, 18; Prov. 26:1) David finally heard of the matter and relieved Rizpah of her vigil by having the bodies buried.—2 Sam. 21:11-14.

ROAD

See HIGHWAY, ROAD.

ROBE

See DRESS.

ROCK

The Hebrew word tsur means a rock or a large piece of rock. It is not always distinguished by translators from another Hebrew word, seʹlaʽ, which means a crag. Both terms are used literally and figuratively in the Scriptures. The two are found in parallel at 2 Samuel 22:2, 3 and Psalm 18:2: “Jehovah is my crag . . . My God is my rock.”

The Bible preserves the names of certain crags and rocks, for example, the crag of Etam, where Samson lived for a time (Judg. 15:8), and the tooth-like crags of Bozez and Seneh, where Jonathan and his armor-bearer attacked an outpost of the Philistines. (1 Sam. 14:4, 5) The Midianite prince Oreb was killed by Gideon’s men at a rock called Oreb, evidently so named because of this incident. (Judg. 7:25; Isa. 10:26) It was at Meribah, a crag in the vicinity of Kadesh (there was another Meribah near Rephidim in the mountainous region of Horeb [Ex. 17:7]), that Moses and Aaron were aggravated to the point of failing to sanctify Jehovah in bringing water out of the crag for the assembly.—Num. 20:11-13; Ps. 106:32, 33; see MASSAH; MERIBAH.

FIGURATIVE USE

In a figurative sense “rock” describes the qualities of Jehovah as the Father of Israel (Deut. 32:18), as a stronghold (2 Sam. 22:32, 33; Isa. 17:10), as the secure height and refuge of his people (Ps. 62:7; 94:22), and as their salvation. (Deut. 32:15; Ps. 95:1) Some have looked to false gods as their “rock.” (Deut. 32:37) There are other examples in which “rock” symbolizes in a general way a place of safety, protection, security and refuge. (Isa. 2:10, 19, 21) In Isaiah 8:14 Christ Jesus is alluded to as “a rock” over which “both the houses of Israel” stumbled.—Compare Matthew 21:42-44.

In Jesus’ illustration of the sower, the Greek adjective pe·troʹdes (related to the noun peʹtros) is used to describe the rocky places upon which some of the seed fell. (Matt. 13:3-5, 20) Peʹtros is used as a proper name, “Peter.” (John 1:42) On the meaning of this term An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, by W. E. Vine (1962), Volume IV, page 76, remarks: “Petros denotes a piece of a rock, a detached stone or boulder, in contrast to petra, a mass of rock.” Word Studies in the New Testament, by M. R. Vincent (1957), Volume I, page 91, says about peʹtros: “In classical Greek the word means a piece of rock, as in Homer, of Ajax throwing a stone at Hector . . . or of Patroclus grasping and hiding in his hand a jagged stone.”

The Greek word tra·khysʹ means “rough.” (Luke 3:5) It refers to jagged, uneven reefy rocks at Acts 27:29.

Another Greek word, spi·lasʹ, has reference to a rock or reef that is hidden beneath the water and is used by Jude to illustrate certain men who had slipped into the Christian congregation with corrupt motives. As hidden rocks were a menace to ships, so these men constituted a real danger to others in the congregation. He says of such men: “These are the rocks hidden below water in your love feasts while they feast with you.”—Jude 12.

For a discussion of Matthew 16:18, see ROCK-MASS.

ROCK BADGER

This translates the Hebrew word sha·phanʹ, also rendered “hyrax” (JB) and “coney.” (AV) The rock badger somewhat resembles a large rabbit, but has short, rounded ears, short legs and is virtually tailless. Its feet are furnished with underpads that can be drawn up at the center to form vacuum cups, so enabling the animal to negotiate almost perpendicular surfaces. The rock badger dwells in rocky areas, where it finds holes and crevices to which it can quickly retire at the least sign of danger. Although very shy by nature, this creature can inflict savage bites with its incisors when cornered in a hole. In its diet the animal is a vegetarian.

Some have taken issue with its classification in Scripture as a creature that chews the cud but does not split the hoof. (Lev. 11:5; Deut. 14:7) However, zoologist Hubert Hendrichs, in observing rock badgers at the Hellabrunn Zoological Gardens near Munich, Germany, noticed that these creatures made peculiar chewing and swallowing movements. He found that rock badgers actually do chew the cud from twenty-five to fifty minutes a day, usually during the night. The German newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung of March 12, 1966, commented on the discovery: “Although this fact was previously unknown to accepted zoology, it is not new. In the eleventh chapter of Leviticus . . . you can find it.”

The claim has also been made that the hoofed toes of the rock badger are doubly cloven. However, it could hardly be said that the rock badger’s front feet, each having four toes terminating in hooflike endings, and the hind feet, each equipped with three toes and a corresponding number of miniature hoofs or nails, resemble the foot member of a ‘splitter of the hoof’ such as a cow.

The Scriptures speak of the instinctive wisdom of this little creature. Although not “mighty,” the rock badger makes up for its seeming defenselessness by dwelling in inaccessible rocky places.—Ps. 104:18; Prov. 30:26.

ROCK-MASS

This translates the Greek word peʹtra (feminine gender), which designates a mass of rock (Matt. 7:24, 25; 27:51, 60; Luke 6:48; 8:6, 13; Rev. 6:15, 16) and therefore differs from peʹtros (masculine gender and employed as a proper name, Peter), meaning a ‘separate stone’ or ‘boulder.’ This distinction makes it clear that, when saying to Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock-mass I will build my congregation,” Jesus was not using synonymous terms. (Matt. 16:18) Even in the Aramaic (Syriac) version the distinction is apparent from a difference in the gender of the particle preceding the word kipha, used for both “Peter” and “rock.” The masculine verbal pronoun (hu) precedes “Peter,” but “rock” is preceded by the feminine demonstrative adjective (hade).