hammer Summary and Overview

(1.) Heb. pattish, used by gold-beaters (Isa. 41:7) and by quarry-men (Jer. 23:29). Metaphorically of Babylon (Jer. 50:23) or Nebuchadnezzar. (2.) Heb. makabah, a stone-cutter's mallet (1 Kings 6:7), or of any workman (Judg. 4:21; Isa. 44:12). (3.) Heb. halmuth, a poetical word for a workman's hammer, found only in Judg. 5:26, where it denotes the mallet with which the pins of the tent of the nomad are driven into the ground. (4.) Heb. mappets, rendered "battle-axe" in Jer. 51:20. This was properly a "mace," which is thus described by Rawlinson: "The Assyrian mace was a short, thin weapon, and must either have been made of a very tough wood or (and this is more probable) of metal. It had an ornamented head, which was sometimes very beautifully modelled, and generally a strap or string at the lower end by which it could be grasped with greater firmness."

HAM'MER , the English translation of four different Hebrew words. The hammers mentioned by Isaiah, Is 44:12 "seem to have been the heaviest instruments of the kind for hard blows." Jael's hammer, Jud 4:21, was properly a mallet, such as the Bedouin use at the present day to drive the wooden tent-pins into the ground. The "battle-axe," Jer 51:20, and the "maul," Prov 25:18, were species of hammers used for warlike purposes. The tool probably resembled that of the present day. The word "hammer" is also used symbolically for mighty force. Jer 23:29; Jer 50:23.

Besides its ordinary sense, used for any overwhelming power, earthly (Jeremiah 50:23, "the hammer of the whole earth," Babylon, as Martel, "little hammer," was a title of the Frank king) or spiritual (Jeremiah 23:29, "is not My word like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?".) Compare Nahum 2:1 margin