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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMcClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Hammer
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an indispensable tool designated by several Heb. terms:
1. Patiish' ( ôִּèַּåùׁ , connected etymologically with ðáôÜóóù , to strike), which was used by the gold-beater (Isa_41:7, Sept. óöῦñá ) to overlay with silver and “smooth” the surface of the image, as well as by the quarryman (Jer_23:29, Sept. ðÝëõæ ); metaphorically of Babylon as a destructive agent (Jeremiah 1, 23, Sept. óöῦñá ). This seems to have been the heaviest instrument of the kind for hard blows.
2. Makkabah' ( îִ÷ָּáָç ), properly a tool for hollowing, hence a stonecutter's mallet (1Ki_6:7), and generally any workman's hammer (Jdg_4:21 [where the form is îִ÷ֶּáֶú Smakke'beth]; Isa_44:12; Jer_10:4). In Isaiah the Sept. uses ôἐñåôñïí , a gimlet, in all the rest óöῦñá ; Vulg. malleus. SEE MACCABAEUS.
3. Halmuth' ( äִìַîåּú ); used only in Jdg_5:26; Sept. óöῦñá , Vulg. mallei [q. d. äìîåֹú ]; and then with the addition of the word “workmen's” by way of explanation, as this is a poetical word, used instead of the preceding more prosaic term. The pins of the tent of the Bedouin are generally of wood, and are driven into the ground by a mallet, which is probably the “hammer” referred to in this passage (Thomson, Land and Book, 2, 149). Dr. Hackett observes (Amer. ed. of Smith's Dict. s.v.) that “it is spoken of as ‘the hammer,' being the one kept for that purpose;” but the Hebrew term used in Judges 5, 26 (to which he refers) is without the art., which is employed, however, with that found in Jdg_4:21. SEE NAIL.
4. A kind of hammer, named mappets' ( îִôֵּåֹ ), Jer_51:20 (A.V. “battle-axe”), or mephits' ( îֵôַéåֹ ), Pro_25:18 (A.V. “maul”), was used as a weapon of war.
5. Only in the plur. ( ëֵּéìִôּåֹú , keylappoth', Sept. ëáîõôήñéá Vulg. ascice), a poetic term equivalent to the preceding (Psa_74:6). SEE HANDICRAFT.