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Weapons and warfare
Sword and dagger
Hebrew cherev · Greek machaira · blades for cutting and thrusting
The sword was the weapon for close fighting. The early swords of the region were curved “sickle swords”, hilt and blade cast in one piece of bronze, that struck with the outer edge; a fine one was found at Gezer in a nobleman’s tomb of the 14th century BC. Later the straight blade, tapering to a point for thrusting, took over, and in the Iron Age it was often of iron. A dagger was simply a short sword: Ehud made himself a double-edged one “a cubit long” and strapped it to his right thigh (Judges 3:16).
In Saul’s day the Philistines kept the smith’s craft to themselves: Israel had no blacksmith, farmers went to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, and at the battle only Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear (1 Samuel 13:19–22). Swords hung in a sheath from the belt, and Nehemiah’s builders worked with swords strapped at their sides. The Greek machaira of the Gospels was a short sword, like the one Peter drew in Gethsemane.
Key verses
Now Ehud had made for himself a double-edged sword a cubit long. He strapped it to his right thigh under his cloakAnd 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.So on the day of battle not a sword or spear could be found in the hands of the troops with Saul and Jonathan; only Saul and his son Jonathan had weapons.David ran and stood over him. He grabbed the Philistine’s sword and pulled it from its sheath and killed him; and he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.And each of the builders worked with his sword strapped at his side. But the trumpeter stayed beside me.Then Simon Peter drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.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 — Armor and Weapons: Sword; Dagger
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.
