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Precious stones and metals
Iron
Hebrew barzel · Greek sidēros · in Canaan from about 1200 BC
Iron from meteorites was known very early, but smelting iron from its ore came later; by one view the Hittites of Asia Minor mastered it about 1400–1300 BC. In Canaan the Iron Age began about 1200 BC, in the days of the judges. Iron was first drawn from simple furnaces and hammered to drive out the slag; later, adding carbon gave an early form of steel. Genesis remembers Tubal-cain as “a forger of every implement of bronze and iron” (Genesis 4:22).
In Israel’s early wars the Canaanites of the plains had iron chariots (Judges 1:19), and the Philistines kept the craft to themselves: there was no blacksmith in Israel, and Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares and axes (1 Samuel 13:19–20). Goliath’s spear had an iron point weighing 600 shekels (1 Samuel 17:7). Before long Israel used iron widely, though no iron tool was heard at the building of Solomon’s temple, whose stones were cut at the quarry (1 Kings 6:7). Iron tools were valuable enough to borrow (2 Kings 6:5). By Roman times iron weapons were standard, and prisons had iron gates (Acts 12:10).
Key verses
And Zillah gave birth to Tubal-cain, a forger of every implement of bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.The LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plains because they had chariots of iron.And no blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “The Hebrews must not be allowed to make swords or spears.” Instead, all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles.The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. In addition, his shield bearer went before him.The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water. “Oh, my master,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!”Sources
Adapted and shortened from the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers · CC BY-SA 4.0 — Minerals* and Metals; Minerals* and Metals: Metallurgy and Metal Extraction; Minerals* and Metals: Specific Metals; Ironsmith*
Adapted from Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary: articles chosen, shortened and retold in our own words (history, nature and daily life only) and, in languages other than English, machine-translated. The original work by Tyndale House Publishers is available for free at tyndaleopenresources.com.
