Tin

Tin - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

Heb. bedil (Num. 31:22; Ezek. 22:18, 20), a metal well known in ancient times. It is the general opinion that the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon obtained their supplies of tin from the British Isles. In Ezek. 27:12 it is said to have been brought from Tarshish, which was probably a commercial emporium supplied with commodities from other places. In Isa. 1:25 the word so rendered is generally understood of lead, the alloy with which the silver had become mixed (ver. 22). The fire of the Babylonish Captivity would be the means of purging out the idolatrous alloy that had corrupted the people.

Tin - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

TIN, n. [L. stannum; stagnum.]

1. A white metal, with a slight tinge of yellow. It is soft, non-elastic, very malleable, and when a bar of it is bent near the ear, distinguished by a crackling sound called the cry of tin. It is used for culinary vessels, being for this purpose usually combined with lead, forming pewter; and alloyed with small proportions of antimony, copper and bismuth, is formed into various wares resembling silver, under the names of block-tin, brittania, _c. Equal parts of tin and lead compose soder. Tin united with copper in different proportions, forms bronze, bell-metal, and speculum-metal.

2. Thin plates of iron covered with tin.

TIN, v.t. To cover with tin, or overlay with tinfoil.

tin (bedhil): Tin is mentioned with brass, iron and lead in Nu 31:22; Eze 22:18,20. Ezekiel mentions tin along with silver, iron and lead as being imported into Tyre from Tarshish (see METALS). The tin must have been brought in the form of ore and smelted in Syria. The writer has some slag dug from a deposit near Beirut which yielded nearly pure tin. It was probably the site of an ancient smelter's shop.

Alfred Ely Day