Bible dictionaries

Bellows

What Bible dictionaries say about “Bellows”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Bellows - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

Occurs only in Jer. 6:29, in relation to the casting of metal. Probably they consisted of leather bags similar to those common in Egypt.

Bellows - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

BEL'LOWS, n. sing.and plu.[L.bulga] An instrument, utensil or machine for blowing fire, either in private dwellings or in forges, furnaces and shops. It is so formed as by being dilated and contracted, to inhale air by a lateral orifice which is opened and closed with a valve, and to propel it through a tube upon the fire.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

bel'-oz, bel'-us: The word occurs once only in English Versions of the Bible, in Jer 6:29, where the prophet is predicting the coming of the destroyer (verse 26), "a great nation" from "the north country" (verse 22), down upon Israel, because "all of them deal corruptly" (verse 28). "The bellows blow fiercely; the leads is of the fire." Here the imagery is drawn from the refiner's art, and the "bellows" are those used to make the refiner's fires burn fiercely.

See CRAFTS, II, 10.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915

Smith’s Bible Dictionary

The word occurs only in (Jeremiah 6:29) where it denotes an instrument to heat a smelting furnace. Wilkinson in "Ancient Egypt," iii. 338, says, "They consisted of a leather, secured and fitted into a frame, from which a long pipe extended for carrying the wind to the fire. They were worked by the feet, the operator standing upon them, with one under each foot, and pressing them alternately, while he pulled up each exhausted skin with a string he held in his hand."

William Smith; revised by F. N. Peloubet and M. A. Peloubet; CrossWire SWORD module Smith 1.3

The article in Smith