Bellows
Bellows
(, mappu’ach, blower; Sept. ) only occurs in Jer 6:29, and with reference to the casting of metal. As fires in the East are always of wood or charcoal, a sufficient heat for ordinary purposes is soon raised by the help of fans, and the use of bellows is confined to the workers in metal. Such was the case anciently; and in the mural paintings of Egypt we observe no bellows but such as are used for the forge or furnace. They occur as early as the time of Moses, being represented in a tomb at Thebes which bears the name of Thothmes III. They consisted of a leathern bag 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. In one instance, it is observed from the painting that when the man left the bellows they were raised as if filled with air, and this would imply a knowledge of the valve. The earliest specimens seem to have been simply of reed, tipped with a metal point to resist the action of the fire (Wilkinson’s Anc. Egyptians, 3, 338). Bellows of an analogous kind were early known to the Greeks and Romans. Homer (II. 18, 470) speaks of 20 in the forge of Hephaestus, and they are mentioned frequently by ancient authors (Smith’s Dict. of Class. Ant. s.v. Follis). The ordinary hand-bellows now used for small fires in Egypt are a sort of bag made of the skin of a kid, with an opening at one end (like the mouth of a common carpet bag), where the skin is sewed upon two pieces of wood; and these being pulled apart by the hands and closed again, the bag is pressed down, and the air thus forced through the pipe at the other end.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Bellows
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.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Bellows
Jer 6:29; “the bellows are burned,” so intense a heat is made that the very bellows are almost set on fire; “the lead is consumed of the fire.” Used in heating a furnace for smelting metals, not required for the wood fires which were the ancient fuel, and were commonly blown with a fan. The Egyptian bellows, as represented in paintings of the time of Thothmes III, contemporary with Moses, were worked by the feet alternately pressing upon two inflated skins sending the air through reed tubes tipped with iron into the furnace; as each skin became exhausted the blower raised it by a cord in the hand to admit a fresh supply of air.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Bellows
BELLOWS.See Arts and Crafts, 2.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Bellows
beloz, belus: 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 (Jer 6:26), a great nation from the north country (Jer 6:22), down upon Israel, because all of them deal corruptly (Jer 6:28). 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.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Bellows
Fig. 92Egyptian forge or furnace
This word only occurs in Jer 6:29, and is there used with reference to the casting of metal. As fires in the East are always of wood or charcoal, a sufficient heat for ordinary purposes is soon raised by the help of fans, and the use of bellows is confined to the workers in metal. Such was the case anciently; and in the mural paintings of Egypt we observe no bellows but such as are used for the forge or furnace. They thus occur as early as the time of Moses, being represented in a tomb at Thebes which bears the name of Thothmes III. They consisted of a leathern bag, 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. In one instance it is observed from the painting, that when the man left the bellows they were raised as if filled with air, and this would imply a knowledge of the valve.
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Bellows
Instead of ‘the bellows are burned,’ some prefer to translate ‘the bellows puff, or blow, and the lead is consumed in the fire,’ lead being formerly used to purify silver. Jer 6:29. The allusion is that Israel had not been refined by means of judgement: “reprobate silver shall men call them.” Jer 6:30. Bellows are seen on the monuments of Egypt, having two bags on which a man stands; by lifting up each foot alternately, and pulling a string, each bag is inflated, and the wind is forced to the fire as the foot descends.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Bellows
Used with the furnace of the founder.
Jer 6:29
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Bellows
Bellows. The word occurs only in Jer 6:29, where it denotes an instrument to heat a smelting furnace. Wilkinson in “Ancient Egypt,” iii. 338, says, “They consisted of a leather bellows, 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.”