Nail

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

1.  Deuteronomy 21:12, "pare her (a captive woman's) nails," namely, in order that she might lay aside all belonging to her condition as an alien, to become a wife among the covenant people. Margin: "suffer to grow," the opposite sense, will refer to her seclusion a month in mourning with shaven head and unpared nails. The former seems preferable, answering to her "putting the raiment of her captivity from her."

2. Μismerim , masmerim , masmerot .  Isaiah 41:7; "fastened (the idol) with nails" to keep it steady in its place!  Jeremiah 10:4;  1 Chronicles 22:3;  2 Chronicles 3:9, where the "fifty shekels of gold" were to gild the nails fastening the sheet gold on the wainscoting;  Ecclesiastes 12:11, "words of the wise are as nails fastened (by) the master of assemblies," rather "the masters" or "associates in the collection (of the canonical Scriptures), i.e. authors of the individual books, are as nails driven in." (Hengstenberg).

Scripture has a power penetrating as a nail the depths of the soul, worldly literature reaches only the surface. So  Revelation 1:16;  Hebrews 4:12; though the associated sacred writers are many, yet they "are given from One Shepherd," Jesus ( Ephesians 4:11), the Inspirer of the word, from whom comes all their penetrating power ( 2 Timothy 3:16). A canon whereby to judge sermons: they are worth nothing unless, like Scripture, they resemble goads and nails. The hearers too, instead of being vexed, should feel thankful when by the word they are "pricked in their heart" ( Acts 2:37;  Ephesians 6:17;  Psalms 45:3).

3. The large pin ( Judges 4:21-22;  Judges 5:26) by which the tent cords were fastened, giving shape and security to the tent. Jael drove it into Sisera's temples. The tabernacle curtains were fastened with brass pins ( Exodus 27:19). In  Zechariah 10:4, "out of him (Judah) shall come forth the nail," namely, the large peg inside the Eastern tent, on which is hung most of its valuable furniture. Judah shall be under a native ruler, not a foreigner; the Maccabees primarily, Judah's deliverers from the oppressor Antiochus Epiphanes: antitypically Messiah of the tribe of Judah.

On Messiah hang all the glory and hope of His people. The "nail," as expressing firmness, stands for a secure abode ( Ezra 9:8), "grace hath been showed from the Lord ... to give us a nail in His holy place" So  Isaiah 22:23-25, "I will fasten him (Eliakim) as a nail in a sure place ... and they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue (high and low), all vessels of small quantity ... cups ... flagons (compare  Song of Solomon 4:4;  1 Kings 10:16-17;  1 Kings 10:21). The nail fastened in the sure place (Shebna) shall be ... cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off," i.e. all Shebna's offspring and dependants and all his emoluments and honours shall fall with himself, as the ornaments hanging upon a peg fall when it falls.

Vessels of glory hanging on Christ vary in capacity; but each shall be filled as full of bliss as the respective capacity admits ( Luke 19:17;  Luke 19:19). The print of the nails in Jesus' hands and feet were Thomas' test of the reality of the resurrection ( John 20:25). In Christ's person "nailed to the cross," the law ( Romans 3:21;  Romans 7:2-6;  Colossians 2:14) and the old serpent ( John 3:14;  John 12:31-32) were nailed to it. A mode of canceling bonds in Asia was by striking a nail through the writing (Grotius).

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

It is worth while to consider the Scripture sense and meaning of the word Nail; seeing God the Holy Ghost hath thought proper to describe the Lord Jesus by this figure. Ezra had an eye to Christ, no doubt, when he said, "The Lord God had given the church a nail in his holy place!" ( Ezra 9:8) And the prophet Isaiah was commissioned to tell the church, that Jehovah would fasten him "as a nail in a sure place," when describing Jesus under the type of Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah. That all that is here said of Eliakim hath respect to Christ is evident, because Jesus himself so explains a portion of it,  Revelation 3:7. And Ezra, who lived after the prophet Isaiah between two and three hundred years, evidently had an eye to what Isaiah had said in respect to Christ, in this beautiful description. (See  Isaiah 22:20-25)

It is a delightful view of the Lord Jesus. He is a nail in a sure place, so that neither the nail, nor the place can give way. And it is Jehovah that hath fastened him. In his person, in his work, in his offices, characters, relations, what he is in the eye of God the Father; what he is in himself; what he is to his people in all things, and for all causes in time and in eternity; for all purposes, temporal, spiritual, and eternal; Christ is fixed to be the nail on which shall hang both his people's safety and welfare, "and all the glory of his Father's house." And what tends to endear this view of Christ still more is, that not only all, and every thing relating to the kingdoms of nature, providence, grace, and glory to the church at large, is so, but to every individual of that church, "the vessels of small quantity," meaning the lowest, the humblest, the least, and most inconsiderable of his people, all shall hang upon Jesus alike, "from the vessel of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons." Sweet thought to the humble timid believer!

But the prophet, in the close of this relation, saith, "that in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in a sure place be removed, and be cut down and fall." What is here meant? Not, surely, that what is fastened in a sure place shall lose his hold-fast, or the vessels that are hanging upon him lose their safety; but, on the contrary,"by the removal and the cutting down," secure the everlasting safety of all that hang upon him. For it should be observed, that there is nothing said of the vessels hanging upon this nail in a sure place being separated from the nail, or being injured by the nail's removal and the nail's being cut off, for the prophet adds, "that the burden that was upon it shall be cut off;" and what is this burden but the sins of Christ's people, "which he bore in his own body on the tree when he died, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God!" ( 1 Peter 3:18) "He was wounded for their transgressions, and was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of my people (saith the Holy Ghost by this same prophet) was he stricken." ( Isaiah 53:8)

I hope the reader will be enabled to make a nice and just distinction in what is here said, and he will then discover that so far is the close of this chapter, in the removal of this nail in a sure place, and the cutting of it down, any objection to this doctrine, that it tends to confirm it still more. Jesus is the nail on which his people hang their all, their persons, life, and salvation; so that between him and them there never can be a separation, for he saith himself: "Because I live, ye shall live also." ( John 14:19) But while their persons, and their present and eternal all are secured in him, he is himself cut off and removed when bearing their sins, and consequently their sins are cut off never more to arise against them; "for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it;" while he himself riseth again as the nail fastened in a sure place, that he may appear with all his people, whose sins he hath borne, whose persons he hath redeemed, and who are enabled by his grace to hang all their high hopes of mercy and salvation upon him as the Lord their righteousness.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

The nail of Jael's tent with which she killed Sisera, is called יתד ; it was formed for penetrating earth, or other hard substances, when driven by sufficient force, as with a hammer, &c; it includes the idea of strength. The orientals, in fitting up their houses, were by no means inattentive to the comfort and satisfaction arising from order and method. Their furniture was scanty and plain; but they were careful to arrange the few household utensils they needed, so as not to encumber the apartments to which they belonged. Their devices for this purpose, which, like every part of the structure, bore the character of remarkable simplicity, may not correspond with our ideas of neatness and propriety; but they accorded with their taste, and sufficiently answered their design. One of these consisted in a set of spikes, nails, or large pegs fixed in the walls of the house, upon which they hung up the movables and utensils in common use that belonged to the room. These nails they do not drive into the walls with a hammer or mallet, but fix them there when the house is building; for if the walls are of brick, they are too hard, or if they consist of clay, too soft and mouldering, to admit the action of the hammer. The spikes, which are so contrived as to strengthen the walls, by binding the parts together, as well as to serve for convenience, are large, with square heads like dice, and bent at the ends so as to make them cramp irons. They commonly place them at the windows and doors, in order to hang upon them, when they choose, veils and curtains, although they place them in other parts of the room, to hang up other things of various kinds. The care with which they fixed these nails, may be inferred, as well from the important purposes they were meant to serve, as from the promise of the Lord to Eliakim: "And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place,"  Isaiah 22:23 . It is evident from the words of the prophet, that it was common in his time to suspend upon them the utensils belonging to the apartment: "Will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?"  Ezekiel 15:3 . The word used in Isaiah for a nail of this sort, is the same which denotes the stake, or large pin of iron, which fastened down to the ground the cords of their tents. These nails, therefore, were of necessary and common use, and of no small importance in all their apartments; and if they seem to us mean and insignificant, it is because they are unknown to us, and inconsistent with our notions of propriety, and because we have no name for them but what conveys to our ear a low and contemptible idea. It is evident from the frequent allusions in Scripture to these instruments, that they were not regarded with contempt or indifference by the natives of Palestine. "Grace has been shown from the Lord our God," said Ezra, "to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place,"  Ezra 9:8; or, as explained in the margin, a constant and sure abode. The dignity and propriety of the metaphor appear from the use which the Prophet Zechariah makes of it: "Out of him cometh forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together,"  Zechariah 10:4 . The whole frame of government, both in church and state, which the chosen people of God enjoyed, was the contrivance of his wisdom and the gift of his bounty; the foundations upon which it rested, the bonds which kept the several parts together, its means of defence, its officers and executors, were all the fruits of distinguishing goodness: even the oppressors of his people were a rod of correction in the hand of Jehovah, to convince them of sin, and restore them to his service.

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

'''A — 1: ἧλος (Strong'S #2247 — Noun Masculine — helos — hay'-los )

occurs in the remarks of Thomas regarding the print of the nails used in Christ's crucifixion,  John 20:25 .

'''B — 1: προσηλόω (Strong'S #4338 — Verb — proseloo — pros-ay-lo'-o )

"to nail to" (pros, "to," and a verbal form of A), is used in  Colossians 2:14 , in which the figure of a bond (ordinances of the Law) is first described as cancelled, and then removed; the idea in the verb itself is not that of the cancellation, to which the taking out of the way was subsequent, but of nailing up the removed thing in triumph to the cross. The death of Christ not only rendered the Law useless as a means of salvation, but gave public demonstration that it was so.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Masmer, a "point," the usual word for a nail. The words of the wise are compared to "nails fastened by the masters of assemblies" ( Ecclesiastes 12:11 , A.V.). The Revised Version reads, "as nails well fastened are the words of the masters," etc. Others (as Plumptre) read, "as nails fastened are the masters of assemblies" (Compare  Isaiah 22:23;  Ezra 9:8 ). David prepared nails for the temple ( 1 Chronicles 22:3;  2 Chronicles 3:9 ). The nails by which our Lord was fixed to the cross are mentioned ( John 20:25;  Colossians 2:14 ).

Nail of the finger (Heb. tsipporen, "scraping"). To "pare the nails" is in  Deuteronomy 21:12 (marg., "make," or "dress," or "suffer to grow") one of the signs of purification, separation from former heathenism (Compare   Leviticus 14:8;  Numbers 8:7 ). In  Jeremiah 17:1 this word is rendered "point."

Copyright Statement These dictionary topics are from M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain.

Bibliography Information Easton, Matthew George. Entry for 'Nail'. Easton's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ebd/n/nail.html. 1897.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Nail. 1 . Among the ancient Arabs it was the custom for a widow to allow her nails to grow during her term of mourning. To pare them was a formal indication that this period was at an end. From   Deuteronomy 21:12 and   2 Samuel 19:24 (Lxx [Note: Septuagint.] ) it may be inferred that such was also the custom among the Hebrews. The former passage, however, refers only to the case of a foreign captive whom a Hebrew might take to wife after a month’s seclusion, during which the care of the person was neglected in token of mourning for the captive’s condition. The latter passage in its better Gr. form (see Cent. Bible, in loc .) tells us that Mephibosheth showed his sympathy with David by, inter alia , omitting to trim his ‘toe-nails and his finger-nails’ during the latter’s absence from Jerusalem.

2 . The Heb. word most frequently rendered ‘nail’ is properly a tent-peg, or, as   Judges 4:21 Rv [Note: Revised Version.] , tent-pin . This is also the better rendering in   Zechariah 10:4 , where it is synonymous with ‘corner-stone,’ both terms signifying the princes or leading men of the State as its supports. The figure of   Isaiah 22:23;   Isaiah 22:25 , on the other hand, is derived from the custom of driving a nail into the house-wall upon which to hang (  Isaiah 22:22 ) domestic utensils or the like.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types

 2 Chronicles 3:9 (c) The fact that the weight of the nails is given may be taken as a picture of the value God puts on unseen acts and deeds. He knows that which is done in obscurity, privately and without publicity. He weighs our words and deeds as they are used for His glory.

 Ezra 9:8 (b) This represents the fixed and permanent position of the people of Israel when God returns them to their own land.

 Ecclesiastes 12:11 (a) Wise words fasten themselves in the heart and the mind. They remain there for a blessing in days to come.

 Isaiah 22:23 (a) By this picture we see the permanent and secure position of Christ, the Messiah, as He sits on the throne of His kingdom. Temporarily the nail and the place have been removed, but He is still Lord, and will resume His position as the King of Israel in the day of His power.

 Zechariah 10:4 (b) This figure indicates that it is God Himself who has made Christ to be King and Sovereign. He establishes both Israel and the Church under His permanent and eventual rule.

 Colossians 2:14 (a) We have revealed to us in this picture the act of God in putting our sins on Jesus, so that He bore them "in His own body on the tree."

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) To fasten, as with a nail; to bind or hold, as to a bargain or to acquiescence in an argument or assertion; hence, to catch; to trap.

(2): ( n.) To spike, as a cannon.

(3): ( n.) To fasten with a nail or nails; to close up or secure by means of nails; as, to nail boards to the beams.

(4): ( n.) A slender, pointed piece of metal, usually with a head, used for fastening pieces of wood or other material together, by being driven into or through them.

(5): ( n.) The basal thickened portion of the anterior wings of certain hemiptera.

(6): ( a.) A measure of length, being two inches and a quarter, or the sixteenth of a yard.

(7): ( n.) To stud or boss with nails, or as with nails.

(8): ( n.) the horny scale of plate of epidermis at the end of the fingers and toes of man and many apes.

(9): ( n.) The terminal horny plate on the beak of ducks, and other allied birds.

King James Dictionary

Nail, n. If the word was originally applied to a claw or talon, the primary sense may be to catch, or it may be a shoot.

1. The claw or talon of a fowl or other animal. 2. The horny substance growing at the end of the human fingers and toes. 3. A small pointed piece of metal, usually with a head, to be driven into a board or other piece of timber, and serving to fasten it to other timber. The larger kinds of instruments of this sort are called spikes and a long thin kind with a flattish head, is called a brad. 4. A stud or boss a short nail with a large broad head. 5. A measure of length, being two inches and a quarter, or the 16th of a yard. 6. On the nail, in hand immediately without delay or time of credit as, to pay money on the nail. 7. To hit the nail on the head, to hit or touch the exact point.

Nail,

1. To fasten with nails to unite, close or make compact with nails. 2. To stud with nails. 3. To stop the vent of a cannon to spike.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The "nail" with which Jael killed Sisera was rather a tent-pin, such as is driven into the ground in order to fasten the cords of the tent,  Exodus 27:19   Judges 4:21-22 . Sometimes the Hebrew word is used for the wooden pins or iron spikes firmly inwrought into the walls of a building,  Ezra 9:8   Ezekiel 15:3 . The word implies fixedness,  Isaiah 22:23; and a firm support,  Zechariah 10:4 . Another Hebrew word describes the golden and ornamental nails of the temple, etc.,  2 Chronicles 3:9   Ecclesiastes 12:11   Isaiah 41:7   Jeremiah 10:4 .

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Nail.

1. Of finger. (a) A nail or claw of man or animal.

(b) A point or style, for example, for writing; See  Jeremiah 17:1.

2. For fastening. (a) A nail,  Isaiah 11:7, a stake,  Isaiah 33:20, also a tent-peg. Tent-pegs were usually of wood and of large size; but some times, as was the case with those used to fasten the curtains of the Tabernacle were of metal.  Exodus 27:19;  Exodus 38:20.

(b) A nail, primarily a point. We are told that David prepared iron for the nails to be used in the Temple; and as the Holy of Holies was plated with gold, the nails for fastening the plates, were probably of gold.

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Deuteronomy 21:12 2 1 Chronicles 22:3 2 Chronicles 3:9 Isaiah 41:7 Jeremiah 10:4 2 Chronicles 3:9 John 20:25 3 Exodus 35:18 Judges 4:21-22 Zechariah 10:4

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

Nail. —See Crucifixion, and Feet.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

[for fastening] is the rendering of two Heb. words in the A.V.

1.' יָתֵד , yathid (from piercing), which usually denotes a (wooden) peg, pin, or nail (of any material), as driven into a wall ( Ezekiel 15:3;  Isaiah 22:25); and more especially a tent-pin driven into the earth by a mallet to fasten the tent ( Exodus 27:19;  Exodus 35:18;  Exodus 38:31;  Isaiah 33:20;  Isaiah 54:2). It was one of these pins which Jael used in fastening to the ground the temples of Sisera ( Judges 4:21-22). Hence to drive a pin or to fasten a nail presents among the Hebrews an image of a fixed dwelling, a firm and stable abode ( Isaiah 22:23). This image is still frequent among the Arabs (see Marac. page 597; Beidav. Apud Salium, page 518). (See Tent).

In the passages in Exodus these tabernaclepins are said to have been of copper (see Lightfoot. Spicil. in Exodus § 42; Joseph. Ant. 5:5, 4); in Judges the material is not mentioned; we should most naturallv think of some metal, yet the Sept. uses πάσσαλον, which suggests that it was a wooden pin. A pin or nail is also, by a further application of the metaphor, applied to a prince, on whom the care and welfare of the state depends (Zecheriah 10:4), where the term פַּנָּה, corner-stone, is applied to the same person denoted by the word "nail." So also  Ezra 9:8. All these allusions refer to large nails, or pins, or cramps, used in applications requiring great strength. See Thdmson, Land and Book, 3:149.

2. מִסְמֵר, masmer (a point, only in the plur.; also מִסְמְרוֹת,  Jeremiah 10:4; מַסְמְרַים,  1 Chronicles 22:3; מִסְמְרַים,  Isaiah 41:7), is applied to ordinary and ornamental nails. There is in  Ecclesiastes 12:11 a very significant proverbial application, "The words of the wise are as nails fastened," etc.; that is, "they sink deep into the heart of man." In this passage the figure is generally understood to refer to nails driven into a wall, but which Ginsburg understands of the tent-pins above mentioned, whose use for holding fast is contrasted with the use of goads for driving cattle forward, the entire verse in his opinion having reference to pastoral life. The golden nails of the Temple are denoted by this word. We are told that David prepared iron for the nails to be used in the Temple; and as the holy of holies was plated with gold, the nails also for fastening the plates were probably of gold. Their weight is said to have been fifty shekels, equal to twenty-five ounces, a weight obviously so much too small, unless mere gilding be supposed, for the total weight required, that the Sept. and Vulg. render it as expressing that of each nail, which is equally excessive. To remedly this difficulty, Thenius suggests reading five hundred for fifty shekels ( 1 Chronicles 22:3;  2 Chronicles 3:9; Bertheau, On Chronicles, in Kuazgef. Handb.).

"Nail," Vulg. palus, is the rendering of πάσσαλος in  Sirach 27:2. In the N.T. we have ἣλος and προσηλόω in speaking of the nails of the Cross ( John 20:25;  Colossians 2:14). (See Cross).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

nāl  : (1) As denoting the finger-nail, the Hebrew word is צפּרן , cippōren   Deuteronomy 21:12 , the captive woman "shall shave her head, and pare her nails." The latter was probably intended to prevent her from marring her beauty by scratching her face, an act of self-mutilation oriental women are repeatedly reported to have committed in the agony of their grief. Aramaic טפר , ṭephar ( Daniel 4:33 , "his nails like birds' claws"). (2) As pin or peg (for tents, or driven into the wall) the word is יתד , yāthēdh (in  Judges 4:21 the Revised Version (British and American), "tent-pin"); in   Isaiah 22:23 , "a nail in a sure place" is a peg firmly driven into the wall on which something is to be hung ( Isaiah 22:24 ); compare  Ecclesiastes 12:11 , where the word is masmerōth , cognate with maṣmēr below. (3) For nails of iron  1 Chronicles 22:3 and gold   2 Chronicles 3:9 , and in  Isaiah 41:7 and   Jeremiah 10:4 , the word is מסמר , masmēr . (4) In the New Testament the word is helos, used of the nails in Christ's hands  John 20:25 , and "to nail" in  Colossians 2:14 ("nailing it to the cross") is προσηλόω , prosēlóō .

In a figurative sense the word is used of the hard point of a stylus or engraving tool: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point (literally, "claw," "nail") of a diamond: it is graven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars"  Jeremiah 17:1 .

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

There are two Hebrew words thus translated in the Auth. Vers., which it may be well to distinguish.

Yathed, which usually denotes a peg, pin, or nail, as driven into a wall ; and more especially a tent-pin driven into the earth to fasten the tent (;;;;; ).

Mismeroth, which, with some variations of form, is applied to ordinary and ornamental nails. It always occurs in the plural, and is the word which we find in , :;; . The last of these texts involves a very significant proverbial application—'The words of the wise are as nails infixed,' etc.