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lead metalin Bible times

Hebrew: עוֹפֶרֶת —transliteration: ophereth or ʿoferet —meaning: lead

Latin: plumbum

Occurrences in Scripture

The Hebrew word for lead appears 9 times in Scripture.

1. “They sank like lead in the mighty waters.” —Exodus 15:10 NASB
2. “Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, ‘This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded Moses: only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin and the lead, everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean, but it shall be purified with water for impurity.” —Numbers 31:22 NASB excerpt
3. “That with an iron stylus and lead
   They were engraved in the rock forever” —Job 19:24 NASB
4. “The bellows blow fiercely,
   The lead is consumed by the fire” —Jeremiah 6:29 NASB excerpt
5. Ezekiel 22:18
6. Ezekiel 22:20
7. Ezekiel 27:12
8. Zechariah 5:8

Uses for lead in Biblical times include

• weights for various uses, including fishing net sinkers, sounding lines (Acts 27:28), fish lines
• heavy cover for a tub (Zechariah 5:7-8)
• plumblines (plummet) (Amos 7:7-8)
• sheets of lead used as easily engraved writing tablets using an iron pen (see Mount Ebal curse tablet)
• inlaid inscriptions in rock (Job 19:24)
• fastening and binding stones or other masonry together
• sewage and aqueduct system lining / Even part of the Jordan River bed was lined with lead.
• plumbing (lead pipes) — King Herod’s palace had lead water pipes, as did many Roman communities.
• used for marking using a writing implements as graphite is today in pencils
• silver refining and smelting (Jeremiah 6:27-30; Ezekiel 22:20–22)
• also used in purifying gold (Jeremiah 6:29; 22:18-22; Malachi 3:2-3)
• cosmetics
• dyes
• pharmaceuticals
• glazes
• enamels
• lead paints / The lead ore minium has a wine red color.
• cast-lead sarcophagi and lead-sheet coffins
• serving dishes
• lead pots
• lining for copper kettles
• cooking utensils
• lining of wine pots by the Romans
• lead coins
• also, some higher value coins contained a percentage of lead
• statues
• ornaments
• lead sheets for building construction
• lead knuckles (cestus) used by some gladiators
• used by Romans as an ingredient in many recipes
• lead ingots (called “pigs”) made by pouring molten lead into clay moulds
• lead balls used as sling ammunition (“effective at a distance of between 100 and 150 meters”)
• used on weighing scales

Sources of lead in Biblical times

• Mount Hermon — lead ore (galena, a bluish gray mineral) is still found at the foot of this mountain today
• Sinai
• Syria
• Egypt
• mines of Laurion (Lavrion) south of Athens, Greece
• Aegean islands
• Asia Minor
• Tarshish (Spain) (Ezekiel 27:12) and other parts of the Iberian peninsula (Hispania)
• British Isles
• Central Europe
• the Balkans
• Anatolia

More information

• refiner
• brass
• bronze
• copper
• gold
• iron
• silver
• steel
• tin
• zinc —Pure zinc is too reactive to be produced by ancient metalworking techniques, but is commonly present in copper deposits and so forms a copper alloy (brass or bronze) when smelted.
• Weapons of the Bible