Bible Dictionary
Lead
Lead was a familiar ancient metal used for weights, sinkers, binding stones, and engraved records. Scripture also uses its heaviness to picture sinking in judgment and its use in refining and measuring.
Definition
Lead is a common, heavy metal obtained from ores and known in the ancient world. It was used for sinkers, sounding lines, weights, binding stones, sarcophagi, and engraved or inscribed records. It was also associated with the refining of precious metals.
Biblical Usage
Scripture uses lead’s heaviness to picture sinking in the sea, as with Pharaoh’s hosts. Lead is also associated with plumb lines, weights, engraved records, and the refining or purification of gold.
Historical Background
Lead was obtained in ancient Egypt, the Sinaitic peninsula, northern Syria, Asia Minor, and through Phoenician trade. It was especially useful because it was the heaviest metal known to the ancients apart from gold and could be obtained relatively easily from ores.
Scripture References
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
This is one of the most common of metals, found generally in veins of rocks, though seldom in a metallic state, and most commonly in combination with sulphur. It was early known to the ancients, and the allusions to it in Scripture indicate that the Hebrews were well acquainted with its uses. The rocks in the neighborhood of Sinai yielded it in large quantities, and it was found in Egypt. In (Job 19:24) the allusion is supposed to be to the practice of carving inscriptions upon stone and pouring molten lead into the cavities of the letters, to render them legible and at the same time preserve them from the action of the air.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>led (`ophereth): Lead was one of the first metals to be used in the free state, probably because it was so easily obtained from its ores. Lead was found in ancient times in Egypt and the Sinaitic peninsula. There is no lead found in Palestine proper, but in Northern Syria and Asia Minor it occurs in considerable quantities, usually associated with silver. These sources no doubt furnished an important supply in Bible times. It was also brought by the Phoenicians from Spain (Tarshish) (Eze 27:12) and the British Isles.</p><p>Lead was used, as it still is, all along the Mediterranean shores for sinkers. Pieces of Egyptian fishnets probably dating from 1200 BC are now preserved in the British Museum, with their lead sinkers still attached. Since lead was the heaviest metal known to the ancients, gold excepted, it was generally used for fish-lines and sounding lines (compare Ac 27:28), especially in the dense waters of the Mediterranean. Moses mentioned the sinking qualities of lead in the sea in his simile of the sinking of Pharaoh's hosts "as lead in the mighty waters" (Ex 15:10).</p><p>Lead was used by the ancients for binding stones together. In most of the ancient ruins of Syria the Arabs have dug holes at the seams between stones in walls and columns in order to remove the iron, bronze, or lead thus used. In the museum of the Syrian Protestant College, Beirut, there are several specimens of cast-lead sarcophagi dating from the time of Christ.</p><p>In Job 19:23,14, lead is mentioned as used in the engraving of permanent records. Two inferences might he drawn from this passage: either that the letters were cut with a chisel (pen) and then the cutting was filled with lead, or that sheets of lead were used as tablets on which to grave the record with an iron tool. Lead is frequently referred to along with iron, brass, silver and tin (Nu 31:22; Eze 22:18,20; 27:12). The use of lead for plumblines is implied in Am 7:7,8; Zec 4:10; as a weight in Zec 5:7,8. That Old Testament writers understood the use of lead for purifying gold is shown by Jer 6:29 and Eze 22:18-22 (compare Mal 3:2,3).</p><p>See METALS; REFINER.</p><p>James A. Patch</p>