toolz: In the Bible, references to the handicrafts are almost entirely incidental, and not many tools are named. The following article aims to give a list of those mentioned, together with those that must have existed also. For detailed description and the Hebrew and Greek terms employed, see the separate articles.
(1) The percussion tool was the hammer, used for splitting or trimming stone, beating metals, and in wood-carving, as well as for driving nails, tent pins, etc. Several words are translated "hammer," but the distinction between them is very vague and in some cases the propriety of the translation is dubious. Certainly no such distinction is made as that between "hammer" and "mallet," nor were separate names given to the different hammers used in the various crafts (compare, e.g.,Jud 4:21;1Ki 6:7;Isa 44:12;Jer 10:4--all for maqqabhah).
SeeHAMMER.
(2) Of cutting tools, the simplest was of course the knife. InEx 20:25, however, the knife ("sword," English Versions of the Bible "tool") appears as a stone-cutter's implement and is without doubt a chisel. But the hatchet ofPs 74:6may be a knife.
For ax, again, various words are employed in a way that is quite obscure to us and apparently with meanings that are not fixed. So garzen inDe 20:19is certainly an ax, but in the Siloam Inscription (ll 2,4) it is a pickax (see MATTOCK). The various words translated "ax" (the Revised Version (British and American) "axe") must also somewhere include the word for adz, but the specific term, if there were any such (ma'atsadh(?)), is unknown. But the adz is a very ancient tool and must certainly have existed in Palestine.
See AX (AXE), AX-HEAD.
The saw was used both for wood and for stone (1Ki 7:9), in the latter case being employed in connection with water and sand. But sawing stone was a very laborious process, and this was one reason why the ancients preferred stone in large blocks. These were quarried by the use of heavy hammers and wedges.
SeeSAW.
The plane (maqtso`ah) ofIsa 44:13should be translated chisel. Chisels, of course, are almost as old as humanity, and were used on both wood and stone and doubtless also on metals. In particular, with a broad chisel and an adz the surface of wood may be finished very smoothly, and these two implements took the place of the plane. For wood-carving the concave chisel (gouge) may have been invented.
The pencil ofIsa 44:13is probably a stylus, for engraving as well as for marking out lines. For engraving on gems (Ex 28:9, etc.) particularly delicate instruments of this kind must have been used.
(3) Among the boring tools, only the awl appears (Ex 21:6;De 15:17), an instrument primarily for the use of workers in leather. Holes in wood or stone were made by a drill, often worked with the aid of a drawn bow, through the string of which the drill was passed.
SeeAWL.
(4) Blunted tools were of course sharpened on stones, as everywhere. In1Sa 13:21English Versions of the Bible speaks of sharpening with a file, but the text of the verse is hopelessly corrupt and the translation mere guesswork. But files of some sort (stone?) must of course have been used by metal-workers.
SeeFILE.
(5) Measuring tools were the line and the rod (see REED), and the latter must also have been used as a straight-edge. The compasses ofIsa 44:13were for drawing circles, but doubtless served for measuring also. SeeCOMPASSES. Plumb-line ('anakh inAm 7:7f, a symbol of the searching moral investigation which would be followed by a precise and exact judgment; compare mishkoleth, "plummet,"2Ki 21:13;Isa 28:17) and plummet ('ebhen bedhil, "a stone of tin,"Zec 4:10, used by Zerubbabel in testing the completed walls) were likewise necessities and had existed from a very early period. Tools of some sort must have been used in addition by builders in drawing plans, but their nature is unknown.
SeeLINE.
(6) The tools for holding and handling work (vises, tongs, pincers, etc.) are never alluded to (the King James Version inIsa 44:12is wrong; see TONGS). For moving larger objects no use was made of cranes, and lifting was done by the aid of inclined planes and rollers; but blocks of stone weighing hundreds of tons could be handled in this way.
The material of the Hebrew tools was either iron or bronze. The former was introduced at least by the time of David (2Sa 12:31), but the mention of iron as a material is often made in such a way (Am 1:3, etc.) as to show that it was not to be taken for granted. In fact, iron was hard to work and expensive, and bronze probably persisted for a while as a cheaper material. Stone tools would be used only by the very poor or as occasional makeshifts or for sacred purposes (Jos 5:2).
For the agricultural tools seeAGRICULTURE.
See also CARPENTER; CRAFTS; POTTER; SMITH, etc.
Burton Scott Easton