Isaiah 42:3. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench.
Lamp-wicks were made of linen, and the allusion is to a wick that is burning with feeble flame from absence of oil, and just ready to expire. The readiness with which the light of such a wick can be put out is referred to in Isaiah 43:17, “They are quenched as tow”; where pishtah, “tow,” is the same word that is rendered “flax” in the text.