Tools

Implements used for agricultural or mechanical purposes. Early tools were of wood, flint or stone. The development of ironworking brought iron-bladed tools and farm implements into common use. Axes were used to fell trees; hammers, chisels and saws were used by both carpenters and masons. Assyria and Babylon are depicted as tools in God's hand.

Tools made from iron and bronze

General references

Genesis 4:22 See also 2 Samuel 12:31 parallel 1 Chronicles 20:3 saws, iron picks and axes; 2 Samuel 23:7 iron tools

And Zillah gave birth to Tubal-cain, a forger of every implement of bronze and iron. And the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

Iron axe-heads

2 Kings 6:4–5 Axes comprised an iron head fitted to a wooden shaft. See also Deuteronomy 19:5

So Elisha went with them, and when they came to the Jordan, they began to cut down some trees. 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!”

Sharpening iron tools

1 Samuel 13:19–21 A ploughshare is the cutting blade of a plough. A mattock is a large pick with a flat edge used for loosening soil and cutting. See also Ecclesiastes 10:10

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 charge was a pim for sharpening a plowshare or mattock, a third of a shekel for sharpening a pitchfork or an axe, and a third of a shekel for repointing an oxgoad.

Tools used in specific tasks

Axes used for felling trees

Judges 9:48 See also Deuteronomy 20:19–20; Psalm 74:5–6Matthew 3:10 parallel Luke 3:9 Felling trees with an axe as a symbol of judgment. See also Jeremiah 46:22–23

he and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took his axe in his hand and cut a branch from the trees, which he lifted to his shoulder, saying to his men, “Hurry and do what you have seen me do.”

The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Woodworking tools

Isaiah 44:13 See also Exodus 21:6 parallel Deuteronomy 15:17 awl; Jeremiah 10:3–4 chisel, hammer and nails

The woodworker extends a measuring line; he marks it out with a stylus; he shapes it with chisels and outlines it with a compass. He fashions it in the likeness of man, like man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.

Metalworking tools

Job 19:24 See also Exodus 28:36 parallel Exodus 39:30; Jeremiah 17:1Isaiah 41:7 See also Exodus 32:4; Isaiah 44:12; Jeremiah 10:9

by an iron stylus on lead, or chiseled in stone forever.

The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who wields the hammer cheers him who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, “It is good.” He nails it down so it will not be toppled.

Stoneworking tools

1 Kings 6:7, 1 Kings 7:9 Saws were used in both carpentry and stonemasonry. See also Exodus 34:1; Deuteronomy 10:3; Isaiah 22:16; Jeremiah 23:29EXO Jeremiah 20:25; Deuteronomy 27:5; Joshua 8:31

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.

All these buildings were constructed with costly stones, cut to size and trimmed with saws inside and out from the foundation to the eaves, and from the outside to the great courtyard.

Agricultural tools

Isaiah 2:4 parallel Micah 4:3 A pruning hook is a curved blade used in pruning. See also Joel 3:10; Isaiah 18:5 pruning knives; Isaiah 30:24 fork and shovelJeremiah 15:7; Matthew 3:12 parallel Luke 3:17

Then He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war.

The nations as tools in God's hand

Isaiah 10:15 Assyria is used by God to punish his people. See also Isaiah 10:5; Jeremiah 50:23 Babylon is a hammer in God's hand.

Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood!