HAMMER:
The following designations for "hammer" are found in the Hebrew Bible:
- 1. "Maḳḳabah" ("maḳḳebet"): A tool or implement used by the stone-cutter for hewing stone (I Kings vi. 7); by the smith in fashioning iron (Isa. xliv. 12), or in fastening an idol "that it move not" (Jer. x. 4); and by the Bedouin to drive his tent-pin into the ground (Judges iv. 21).
- 2. "Paṭṭish": This word manifestly signifies a larger implement than the maḳḳabah. It was used to smooth gold plates (Isa. xli. 7) and to break rocks in pieces (Jer. xxiii. 29). In Jer. 1. 23 Nebuchadnezzar is called "the hammer ["paṭṭish"] of the whole earth."
- 3. "Halmut 'amelim": A term occurring in Judges v. 26, and of which the meaning is very doubtful. "Halmut" is usually translated "hammer," but the grammatical construction of the word makes a concrete meaning improbable. It is also little likely that "'amelim," which accompanies it, is a derisivedesignation for "workmen." Probably there is a mistake in the text; but it is difficult to see how it might be improved.
- 4. "Kelappah": A designation found in Ps. lxxiv. 6. It is perhaps synonymous with the Assyrian "kalabah" and "kalapati," and seems to designate a kind of ax or hatchet rather than a hammer.
