Hebrew word · H6360

פַּטִּישׁ

patish

hammer

A heavy hammer, such as a smith's forge hammer or a sledge for working stone. It occurs only three times in the Hebrew Bible.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

forge hammer, hammer

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 Jeremiah 23:29

Range of meaning

A heavy hammer, such as a smith's forge hammer or a sledge for working stone. It occurs only three times in the Hebrew Bible.

Against the English

English “hammer” suggests a household tool. Here the picture is a heavy sledge splitting stone.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 41:7: the craftsman who smooths metal with the hammer. Jer 50:23: Babylon, “the hammer of the whole earth,” is itself shattered (the same pairing of hammer and shattering, using a related root). The Septuagint here has pelyx, “axe.”

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 41:7 פַּטִּ֖ישׁ a hammer

    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.

Jeremiah · 2

  1. Jeremiah 23:29 וּכְפַטִּ֖ישׁ and like a hammer

    “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”

    Here: A heavy hammer of the kind used by smiths or quarrymen. The word is rare: a smith's hammer in Isa 41:7, and Babylon as “the hammer of the whole earth” in Jer 50:23. It is a tool of overwhelming, destructive force.

  2. Jeremiah 50:23 פַּטִּ֖ישׁ [the] hammer of

    How the hammer of the whole earth lies broken and shattered! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!

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