Armour, Arms
Armour, Arms
ARMOUR, ARMS.The soldiers arms, offensive and defensive, are never so termed in our EV [Note: English Version.] ; armour, whole armour (Eph 6:11 [Gr. panoplia], the harness of 2Ma 15:28, RV [Note: Revised Version.] full armour), and more frequently weapons of war are the terms employed. In RV [Note: Revised Version.] harness in this sense has in most cases given place to armour.
1. Offensive arms.In a familiar representation from an Egyptian tomb of date c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 1895, a band of Semitic nomads are depicted with the primitive arms of their racethe short spear, the bow, and the throw-stickthe last perhaps the handstaves of Eze 39:9. In OT the principal arms of attack are the sword, the spear, the javelin, the bow, and the sling. (a) The spear claims precedence as an older weapon than the sword. The normal Hebrew form, the chanith, had a stout wooden shaft with a flint, bronze, or iron (1Sa 13:19) head, according to the period. Like the spear of the modern Bedouin sheikh, it figures as a symbol of leadership in the case of Saul (1Sa 22:6; 1Sa 26:7; cf. 1Sa 18:10 ff. RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). The rmach appears to have been a lighter form of spear, a lance, and to have largely supplanted the heavier spear or pike in later times (Neh 4:13; Neh 4:16, Joe 3:10). Both are rendered spear in EV [Note: English Version.] . (b) The kdn was shorter and lighter than either of the above, and was used as a missile, and may be rendered javelin (Jos 8:18; Jos 8:26 RV [Note: Revised Version.] , Job 41:29 RV [Note: Revised Version.] the rushing of the javelin) or dart. The latter term is used as the rendering of several missile weapons, of which the precise nature is uncertain.
(c) The sword had a comparatively short, straight blade of iron (1Sa 13:21, Isa 2:4), and was occasionally two-edged (Psa 149:6, Heb 4:12). Ehuds weapon, only 18 inches long, was rather a dagger (Jdg 3:16 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , RV [Note: Revised Version.] sword). The sword was worn on the left side in a leather or metal sheath (1Sa 17:51), attached to a waist-belt or girdle (1Sa 17:51; 1Sa 25:13, 2Sa 20:8 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). It occurs frequently in symbol and metaphor in both OT and NT. It is appropriately the symbol of war, as the plough-share is of peace (Isa 2:4, Mic 4:3, Joe 3:10). In NT the word of God is described as a two-edged sword (Heb 4:12), and by St. Paul as the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17).
(d) The bow is common to civil (Gen 21:20) and military life, and vies in antiquity with the spear. It was made of tough, elastic wood, sometimes mounted with bronze (Psa 18:34 RV [Note: Revised Version.] , Job 20:24). Horn also was used for bows in ancient times, and those with the double curve seem to have been modelled on the horns of oxen. The bowstring was usually of ox-gut, the arrows of reed or light wood tipped with flint, bronze, or iron. The battle bows (Zec 9:10; Zec 10:4), at least, must have been of considerable sizethe Egyptian bow measured about 5 ft.since they were strung by pressing the foot on the lower end, while the upper end was bent down to receive the string into a notch. Hence the Heb. expressions to tread (= string) the bow, and bow-treaders for archers (Jer 50:14; Jer 50:29). The arrows, the sons of the quiver (Lam 3:13, RV [Note: Revised Version.] shafts), were carried in the quiver, which was either placed on the back or slung on the left side by a belt over the right shoulder.
(e) The sling was the shepherds defence against wild beasts (1Sa 17:40), as well as a military weapon (2Ki 3:25 and often). The Hebrew sling, like those of the Egyptians and Assyrians, doubtless consisted of a long narrow strip of leather, widening in the middle to receive the stone, and tapering to both ends. At one end was a loop by which the sling was held as the slinger swung it round his head, while the other end was released as the stone was thrown. The Benjamites were specially noted for the accuracy of their aim (Jdg 20:16).
(f) The battle axe (Jer 51:20, RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] maul; cf. Pro 25:18), lit. shatterer (no doubt identical with the weapon of his shattering, Eze 9:2 [RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] battle axe]), was probably, as the etymology suggests, a club or mace of hard wood, studded with iron spikes, such as was carried by the Assyrians in the army of Xerxes (Herod. vii. 63). See Rich, Dict. of Ant., s.v. Clava.
2. Defensive arms.(a) First among the arms of defence must be placed the shield, of which two main varieties are common to all periods, the small shield or buckler (mgn), and the large shield (zinnah), the target of 1Ki 10:16 ff. The distinction between these is rarely preserved in our EV [Note: English Version.] (e.g. Jer 47:3in Psa 35:2, Eze 23:24 they are reversed), but the relative sizes of the two kinds may be seen in the passage of 1Kings just cited, where the targets or large shields each required four times as much gold as the smaller buckler. These, however, were only for state processions and the like (1Ki 14:28, but cf. 1Ma 6:39). The mgn was the ordinary light round shield of the ancient world, the Roman clypeus; the zinnah was the scutum or large oblong shield which more effectively protected its bearer against the risks of battle. The normal type of both was most probably made of layers of leather stretched on a frame of wood or wickerwork, since both the shields and the bucklers might be burned (Eze 39:9). The shield, as a figure of Gods protecting care, is a favourite with the religious poets of Israel (Psalms, passim). St. Paul also in his great military allegory introduces the large Grco-Roman shield (Eph 6:16).
(b) Of the shapes of the Hebrew helmets we have no information. Kings and other notables wore helmets of bronze (1Sa 17:5; 1Sa 17:38), but those prepared by Uzziah for all the host (2Ch 26:14 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ) were more probably of leather, such as the monuments show to have been worn by the rank and file of other armies until supplanted in the Greek age by bronze, for the lite of the infantry at least (1Ma 6:35).
(c) The same difference of materialbronze for the leaders, leather for the common soldierholds good for the cuirass or coat of mail (1Sa 17:5; 1Sa 17:38). The latter term takes the place in RV [Note: Revised Version.] of the antiquated habergeon (2Ch 26:14, Neh 4:16), and brigandine (Jer 46:4; Jer 51:3). The cuirass, which protected both back and front, is also intended by the breastplate of Isa 59:17 (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] coat of mail), 1Ma 3:3, 1Th 5:8, Eph 6:14. Goliaths coat of mail was composed of scales of bronze, and probably resembled the Egyptian style of cuirass described and illustrated by Wilkinson (Anc. Egyp. [1878] i. 219 ff.). This detail is not given for Sauls cuirass (1Sa 17:38). Ahabs harness consisted of a cuirass which ended in tassels or flaps, the lower armour of 1Ki 22:34 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] . The Syrian war-elephants were protected by breastplates (1Ma 6:43), and probably also the horses of the Egyptian cavalry (Jer 46:4).
(d) Greaves of hronze to protect the legs are mentioned only in connexion with Goliath (1Sa 17:6). The military boot is perhaps referred to in Isa 9:5 (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ).
The armourbearer is met with as early as the time of Abimelech (Jdg 9:54), and later in connexion with Jonathan, Saul, and Goliath, and with Joab, who had several (2Sa 18:15). This office was held by a young man, like the squire of medival knighthood, who carried the shield (1Sa 17:7), cuirass, the reserve of darts (2Sa 18:14), and other weapons of his chief, and gave the coup de grace to those whom the latter had struck down (1Sa 14:13).
An armoury for the storage of material of war is mentioned by Nehemiah (Neh 3:19), but that this was built by David can scarcely be inferred from the difficult text of Son 4:4. Solomons armoury was the house of the forest of Lebanon (1Ki 10:17, Isa 22:8). The Temple also seems to have been used for this purpose (2Ki 11:10). See further the articles Army, Fortification and Siegecraft, War.
A. R. S. Kennedy.