Bible Encyclopedias
Mattock

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

an old English name for an agricultural implement like a pickaxe with a wide point, for grubbing up and digging out roots and stones, is the rendering adopted in the Auth. Vers. for three Hebrew words. מִעְדֵּר (mader', an instrument for dressing or pruning a vineyard; occurs only in Isaiah 7:25) denotes a weeding-hook or hoe; מִחֲרֵשָׁה (machareshah', 1 Samuel 13:20) and מִחֲרֶשֶׁת (machare'sheth, "share," 1 Samuel 13:20) are the names of two agricultural cutting instruments (for they needed sharpening by a smith), one of which is perhaps an ordinary hoe and the other a pick-axe (from הָרִשׁ, to scrape; but the plur. of one is מַחֲרֵשׁוֹת; machareshoth', "mattocks," 1 Samuel 13:21). (See PLOUGH). חֶרֶב (che'reb, 2 Chronicles 34:6; elsewhere usually a "sword") signifies any sharp instrument, as a knife, dagger, chisel; and possibly a spade in the passage in question (marg. "maul"). The tool used in Arabia for loosening the ground, described by Niebuhr (Descr. de l'Arabie, p. 137), answers generally to our mattock or grubbing-axe (London, Encyclop. of Gardening, p. 617; Hasselquist, Trav. p. 100), i.e. a single-headed pickaxe, the sarculus simplex, as opposed to bicornis, of Palladius (De Re Rust. 1:43). The ancient Egyptian hoe was of wood, a and answered for hoe, spade, and mattock. The blade was inserted in or through the handle and the two were attached about the center by a twisted rope, See Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 2:16, 18, abridgm.; comp, Her. 2:14. (See AGRICULTURE).