Lead

Lead - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

LEAD, n. led.

1. A metal of a dull white color, with a cast of blue. It is the least elastic and sonorous of all the metals, and at the same time it is soft and easily fusible. It is found native in small masses, but generally mineralized by sulphur, and sometimes by other substances. Lead fused in a strong heat, throws off vapors which are unwholesome.

2. A plummet or mass of lead, used in sounding at sea.

3. Leads, a flat roof covered with lead.

White lead, the oxyd of lead, ground with one third part of chalk.

LEAD, v.t. led. To cover with lead; to fit with lead.

LEAD, v.t. pret. and pp. led.

1. To guide by the hand; as, to lead a child. It often includes the sense of drawing as well as of directing.

2. To guide or conduct by showing the way; to direct; as, the Israelites were led by a pillar of a cloud by day, and by a pillar of fire by night.

3. To conduct to any place.

He leadeth me beside the still waters. Psa 23.

4. To conduct, as a chief or commander, implying authority; to direct and govern; as, a general leads his troops to battle and to victory.

Christ took not on him flesh and blood, that he might conquer and rule nations, lead armies.

5. To precede; to introduce by going first.

As Hesperus that leads the sun his way.

6. To guide; to show the method of attaining an object. Self-examination may lead us to a knowledge of ourselves.

7. To draw; to entice; to allure. The love of pleasure leads men into vices which degrade and impoverish them.

8. To induce; to prevail on; to influence.

He was driven by the necessities of the times more than led by his own disposition to any rigor of actions.

9. To pass; to spend, that is, to draw out; as, to lead a life of gayety, or a solitary life.

That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 1 Tim 2.

To lead astray, to guide in a wrong way or into error; to seduce from truth or rectitude.

To lead captive, to carry into captivity.

LEAD, v.i.

1. To go before and show the way.

I will lead on softly. Gen 33.

2. To conduct, as a chief or commander. Let the troops follow, where their general leads.

3. To draw; to have a tendency to. Gaming leads to other vices.

4. To exercise dominion.

To lead off or out, to go first; to begin.

LEAD, n. Precedence; a going before; guidance. Let the general take the lead. [A colloquial word in reputable use.]

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.

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).

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.

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).

See METALS; REFINER.

James A. Patch