Hebrew word · H3979

מַאֲכֶ֫לֶת

hama'akhelet

knife

A knife, specifically a large knife for slaughtering or carving. It comes from the root ʾ-k-l, 'to eat', so it is literally an 'eating-instrument'. It appears only four times: Gen 22:6, 10; Judg 19:29; Prov 30:14.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament.

What it means

knife

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Proverbs 30:14

Range of meaning

A knife, specifically a large knife for slaughtering or carving. It comes from the root ʾ-k-l, 'to eat', so it is literally an 'eating-instrument'. It appears only four times: Gen 22:6, 10; Judg 19:29; Prov 30:14.

Against the English

'Knives' is accurate. English cannot show that the word for knife and the verb 'to eat' share a root, and that is the verse's wordplay: the 'eaters' (knives) exist 'to eat' (le'ekhol) people.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Gen 22 it is the knife for sacrifice and in Judg 19 the knife for dismembering a body. Both are knives that cut flesh, not tools for everyday use.

Similar words

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 22:6 הַֽמַּאֲכֶ֑לֶת the knife

    Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac. He himself carried the fire and the sacrificial knife, and the two of them walked on together.

  2. Genesis 22:10 הַֽמַּאֲכֶ֑לֶת the knife

    Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 19:29 הַֽמַּאֲכֶ֙לֶת֙ the knife

    When he reached his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her limb by limb into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel.

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 30:14 וּֽמַאֲכָל֪וֹת and [are] knives

    there is a generation whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are knives, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from among men.

    Here: A butcher's knife, built from the verb 'to eat': literally an 'eating-thing'. It is the knife Abraham lifted over Isaac (Gen 22:6, 10) and the knife the Levite used to cut up his concubine (Judg 19:29), so it is a knife for slaughtering and carving meat. It sets up a pun with 'to eat' later in the verse.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.