bellows Summary and Overview

occurs only in Jer. 6:29, in relation to the casting of metal. Probably they consisted of leather bags similar to those common in Egypt.

The word occurs only in #Jer 6:29| where it denotes an instrument to heat a smelting furnace. Wilkinson in "Ancient Egypt," iii. 338, says, "They consisted of a leather, secured and fitted into a frame, from which a long pipe extended for carrying the wind to the fire. They were worked by the feet, the operator standing upon them, with one under each foot, and pressing them alternately, while he pulled up each exhausted skin with a string he held in his hand."

BEL'LOWS . The word occurs once only in the Authorized Version, Jer 6:29, but the article must have been known before Moses's day, since without them smelting ores would be impossible. It is probable that the Jews had bellows of the same general appearance as the Egyptians', which are thus described by Wilkinson: "They consisted of a leather bag secured and fitted into a frame, from which a long pipe extended for carrying the wind to the fire. They were worked by the feet, the operator standing upon them, with one under each foot, and pressing them alternately while he pulled up each exhausted skin with a string he held in his hand." The modern Palestinian bellows are even simpler, being a mere skin bag having a pipe fastened at one Egyptian Bellows. (After Cailliard.) end; it is pressed between two boards, and thus the air expelled.

Jeremiah 6:29; "the bellows are burned," so intense a heat is made that the very bellows are almost set on fire; "the lead is consumed of the fire." Used in heating a furnace for smelting metals, not required for the wood fires which were the ancient fuel, and were commonly blown with a fan. The Egyptian bellows, as represented in paintings of the time of Thothmes III, contemporary with Moses, were worked by the feet alternately pressing upon two inflated skins sending the air through reed tubes tipped with iron into the furnace; as each skin became exhausted the blower raised it by a cord in the hand to admit a fresh supply of air.