ROBOAM (ro-136'5.m), (Gr. 'PotlodA, hrob-d-am'), Grecized form (Matt. i:7) of King Rehoboam. See REHOBOAM.
ROCS (r6k), (Heb.11S', !soar, a cliff or sharp rock, a hill).
Indicative of large masses of stone, connected together, either above or below the surface of the ground. Rocks standing out above the surface of the earth, were very common in Canaan, and many of them were a shelter for the inhabitants in time of danger. In Scripture we find mentioned the rocks of Lebanon and Her mon, in the north; and the rocks of the hills by the river Arnon, on the east (Num. xxiii:9; Jer. xviii:t4) ; Oreb near Mount Tabor (Judg. vii :25) ; and Zoheleth, Bozez, Seneh, and Rimmon, in the tribe of Benjamin; and the rocks of Engedi, Adullam, Selah-hammalekoth, and Etam, in the tribe of Judah ; of the rock Jok theel in the land of Edom; and indeed the whole country abounded with rocks, as did Arabia the Rocky; though we read in Scripture of no more there but the rock of Horeb, and of Meribah in Rephidini, and of Kadesh. From these last two God supplied the Hebrews with water the most of the time they were in the desert. According to Thevenot, Shaw, Pocock, and other travelers of credit, the rock of Meribah, in Rephidim, seems to have been a cleft fallen off from the side of Sinai, and lies like a large loose stone in the midst of the valley. It is of red granite, of the hard ness of flint, and is, according to Shaw, about six yards square; though Pocock says it is fifteen feet long, twelve high, and ten broad; and there are twelve openings in it; Pocock says twelve on every side, whence the water issued out, for the thirty-nine years' supply of the Hebrews ; and the stone is worn where the water had run down.
Many doubts are now entertained whether the rock usually styled the rock of Moses be in real ity the rock in Rephidim. It appears to have been farther from Sinai than the now so-called rock of Moses (Exod. xvii :6).
Figurative. (i) God is called a rock, and a rock of ages; he is a high, firm, never-failing founda tion. hiding-place, and source of blessings to his people (Ps. xviii :2; Is. ii :to). (2) Jesus Christ is the rock on which his church and people are built ; he alone bears their weight and all their concerns; he is their refuge, their occasion of wide prospects in divine things, and the source of all purifying and refreshing to them (Is. xxxii :2: Matt. vii :25). (3) As rocks are barren and unfruitful places (Job xxix :6; Ps. xviii:i6), hard-hearted sinners, unfruitful in good works, are compared to rocks (Luke viii;t3) (4) As rock denotes a quarry out of which stones are digged, Abraham and Sarah, who were once likely to have no children, are likened to a rock and pit (Is. li ).