MATTOCK. The mattock of Isaiah 7:25 is rather the hoe with which land inaccessible to the plough was hoed noun and verb being the same here, cf. Isaiah 5:6 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘hoed’ for AV [Note: Authorized Version.] ‘digged.’ For descriptions and illustrations of the triangular hoe and the mattock, or pick, of modern Palestine, see PEFSt [Note: Quarterly Statement of the same.] , 1901, p. 110 f., and Hastings’ DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] iii. 306. The passage 1 Samuel 13:20 f. is very corrupt, and in 1 Samuel 13:20 at least’ mattock’ should probably be ‘goad.’ The same applies to 2 Chronicles 34:6 , where AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] suggests ‘mauls,’ and RV [Note: Revised Version.] has ‘ruins.’
A. R. S. Kennedy.