Lead

King James Dictionary

LEAD, n. led.

1. A metal of a dull white color, with a cast of blue. It is the least elastic and sonorous of all the metals, and at the same time it is soft and easily fusible. It is found native in small masses, but generally mineralized by sulphur, and sometimes by other substances. Lead fused in a strong heat, throws off vapors which are unwholesome. 2. A plummet or mass of lead, used in sounding at sea. 3. Leads, a flat roof covered with lead.

White lead, the oxyd of lead, ground with one third part of chalk.

LEAD, led. To cover with lead to fit with lead.

LEAD, pret. and pp. led.

1. To guide by the hand as, to lead a child. It often includes the sense of drawing as well as of directing. 2. To guide or conduct by showing the way to direct as, the Israelites were led by a pillar of a cloud by day, and by a pillar of fire by night. 3. To conduct to any place.

He leadeth me beside the still waters.  Psalms 23 .

4. To conduct, as a chief or commander, implying authority to direct and govern as, a general leads his troops to battle and to victory.

Christ took not on him flesh and blood, that he might conquer and rule nations, lead armies.

5. To precede to introduce by going first.

As Hesperus that leads the sun his way.

6. To guide to show the method of attaining an object. Self-examination may lead us to a knowledge of ourselves. 7. To draw to entice to allure. The love of pleasure leads men into vices which degrade and impoverish them. 8. To induce to prevail on to influence.

He was driven by the necessities of the times more than led by his own disposition to any rigor of actions.

9. To pass to spend, that is, to draw out as, to lead a life of gayety, or a solitary life.

That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.  1 Timothy 2 .

To lead astray, to guide in a wrong way or into error to seduce from truth or rectitude.

To lead captive, to carry into captivity.

LEAD,

1. To go before and show the way.

I will lead on softly.  Genesis 33 .

2. To conduct, as a chief or commander. Let the troops follow, where their general leads. 3. To draw to have a tendency to. Gaming leads to other vices. 4. To exercise dominion.

To lead off or out, to go first to begin.

LEAD, n. Precedence a going before guidance. Let the general take the lead. A colloquial word in reputable use.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

 Exodus 15:10, "they sank as lead," heavily falling down in their panoply, helpless and motionless, the waters closing over them. Used for the plumb line ( Amos 7:7).  Zechariah 5:7-8, "the weight of lead" upon the ephah's mouth, covering personified wickedness, implies the impossibility of her escape from beneath the ponderous load weighing her down.  Job 19:24 "Oh that my words were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever." The lead was poured into the graven characters to make them better seen and (Which Is Job'S Thought) more durable; not leaden plates, for it was "in the rock" they were to be engraved..

May my pen be of iron, and the ink lead poured into the writing on the everlasting rock! Perhaps the hammer was of "lead," as sculptors find more delicate incisions are made by it.  Jeremiah 6:28-30 accords exactly with scientific fact; lead applied to purify in the furnace "silver" alloyed with "iron" and "copper" ("brass") fails to do so, in the absence of the purifying blast blowing upon the silver. So Jehovah's casting of the Jews into fiery affliction avails not to purify them without the breath of God's Holy Spirit (compare  Ezekiel 22:18-22). Remains of ancient lead mines have been found in the mountains E. of the Nile toward the Red Sea. It was among the spoil taken from Midian ( Numbers 31:22). Tyre got it from Tarshish ( Ezekiel 27:12).

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

עפרת ,  Exodus 15:10;  Numbers 31:22;  Job 19:24;  Jeremiah 6:29;  Ezekiel 22:18;  Ezekiel 27:12;  Zechariah 5:7-8; a mineral of a bluish white colour. It is the softest next to gold, but has no great tenacity, and is not in the least sonorous. It is mentioned with five other species of metal,  Numbers 31:22; and there is no doubt but that this is the meaning of the word; so the Septuagint render it throughout, μολιβδος or μολιβος .

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

There are early allusions to this well-known metal in Scripture. The Egyptians "sank as lead" in the Red Sea,  Exodus 15:10;  Numbers 31:22;  Ezekiel 27:12 . Job refers to its use in preserving a permanent record of events, by being melted and poured into letters deeply cut in a rock,  Job 19:24 . Leaden tablets also were used by the ancients for similar records. This metal was employed, before the use of quicksilver was known, in purifying silver; and the process by which these metals are purged from their dross, illustrates God's discipline of his people,  Jeremiah 6:29,30;  Ezekiel 22:17-22 .

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Lead. A metal known to the ancients from a very early period, and alluded to in  Exodus 15:10 on account of its weight. It is mentioned several times in Scripture as entering into the process of purifying more precious metals,  Jeremiah 6:29;  Ezekiel 22:1-31;  Ezekiel 18:1-32;  Ezekiel 20:1-49; for which purpose quicksilver is now used. The words of  Job 19:24, "that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever," refer to the custom of pouring molten lead into letters carved in the rock in order to make them more striking to the eye.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Lead. This is one of the most common of metals, found generally in veins of rocks, though seldom in a metallic state, and most commonly in combination with sulphur. It was early known to the ancients, and the allusions to it in Scripture indicate that the Hebrews were well acquainted with its uses. The rocks in the neighborhood of Sinai yielded it in large quantities, and it was found in Egypt. In  Job 19:24, the allusion is supposed to be to the practice of carving inscriptions upon stone and pouring molten lead into the cavities of the letters, to render them legible and at the same time preserve them from the action of the air.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

ophereth. The well-known heavy metal. It is mentioned as early as  Exodus 15:10 , where its weight is alluded to. Job speaks of it, apparently, as being used for filling in the engravings on stones. It was no doubt also used for making solder.  Numbers 31:22;  Job 19:24;  Jeremiah 6:29;  Ezekiel 22:18,20;  Ezekiel 27:12;  Zechariah 5:7,8 .

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

LEAD. See Mining And Metals.

Webster's Dictionary

(n.) A live coal. See Gleed.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( עֹפֶרֶת , Ophe'Reth, from its Dusty color, in pause עֹפָרֶת ,  Exodus 15:10;  Numbers 31:22;  Job 19:24;  Jeremiah 6:29;  Ezekiel 22:18;  Ezekiel 22:20;  Ezekiel 27:12;  Zechariah 5:7-8; Sept. Μόλιβδος ) , a well-known metal, generally found in veins of rocks, though seldom in a metallic state, and most commonly in combination with sulphur. Although the metal itself was well known to the ancients and to the Hebrews, yet the early uses of lead in the East seem to have been comparatively few, nor are they now numerous. One may travel far in Western Asia without discovering a trace of this metal in any of the numerous useful applications which it is made to serve in European countries. We are not aware that any native lead has been yet found within the limits of Palestine. But ancient lead mines, in some of which the ore has been exhausted by working, have been discovered by Mr. Burton in the mountains between the Red Sea and the Nile; and lead is also said to exist at a place called Sheff, near Mount Sinai (Kitto, Phys. Hist. Pal. p. 73). The ancient Egyptians employed lead for a variety of purposes, but chiefly as an alloy with more precious metals. On the breasts of mummies that have been unrolled there is frequently found in soft lead, thin and quite flexible, the figure of a hawk, with extended wings, emblematical of Re, or Phra, the sun. Specimens of lead have also been discovered among the Assyrian ruins (Layard's Nin. and Bab. p. 357); and a bronze lion is found attached to its stone base by means of this metal (Bonomi, Nineveh, p. 325).

The first scriptural notice of this metal occurs in the triumphal song in which Moses celebrates the overthrow of Pharaoh, whose host is there said to have "sunk like lead" in the waters of the Red Sea ( Exodus 15:10). That it was common in Palestine is shown by the expression in  Sirach 47:18, where it is said, in apostrophizing Solomon, "Thou didst multiply silver as Lead;" the writer having in view the hyperbolical description of Solomon's wealth in  1 Kings 10:27 : "The king made the silver to be in Jerusalem as Stones." It was among the spoils of the Midianites which the children of Israel brought with them to the plains of Moab, after their return from the slaughter of the tribe ( Numbers 31:22). The ships of Tarshish supplied the market of Tyre with lead, as with other metals ( Ezekiel 27:12). Its heaviness, to which allusion is made in  Exodus 15:10, and  Sirach 22:14, caused it to be used for weights, which were either in the form of a round flat cake ( Zechariah 5:7), or a rough unfashioned lump or "stone" ( Zechariah 5:8); stones having in ancient times served the purpose of weights (comp.  Proverbs 16:11). This fact may perhaps explain the substitution of "lead" for "stones" in the passage of Ecclesiasticus above quoted; the commonest use of the cheapest metal being present to the mind of the writer. If Gesenius is correct in rendering אֲנָךְ , And, by "lead," in  Amos 7:7-8, we have another instance of the purposes to which this metal was applied in forming the ball or bob of the plumb-line. See Plumb-Line Its use for weighting fishing-lines was known in the time of Homer (Il. 24:80). In  Acts 27:28, a plummet ( Βολίς , in the form Βολίζω , to Heave The Lead ) for taking soundings at sea is mentioned, and this was, of course, of lead.

But, in addition to these more obvious uses of this metal, the Hebrews were acquainted with another method of employing it, which indicates some advance in the arts at an early period. Job ( Job 19:24) utters a wish that his words, "with a pen of iron and lead, were graven in the rock forever." The allusion is supposed to be to the practice of carving inscriptions upon stone, and pouring molten lead into the cavities of the letters, to render them legible, and at the same time preserve them from the action of the air. Frequent references to the use of leaden tablets for inscriptions are found in ancient writers. Pausanias (9:31) saw Hesiod's Works and Days graven on lead, but almost illegible with age. Public proclamations, according to Pliny (13:21),were written on lead, and the name of Germanicus was carved on leaden tablets (Tacitus, Anni. 2:69). Eutychius (Ann. Alex. p. 390) relates that the history of the Seven Sleepers was engraved on lead by the cadi. The translator of Rosenm Ü ller (in Bib. Cath. 27:64) thinks, however, that the poetical force of the scriptural passage has been overlooked by interpreters. "Job seems not to have drawn his image from anything he had actually seen executed: he only wishes to express in the strongest possible language the durability due to his words; and accordingly he says, ‘ May the pen be iron, and the ink of lead, with which they are written on an everlasting rock,' i.e. Let them not be written with ordinary perishable materials." The above usual explanation seems to be suggested by that of the Septuagint, "that they were sculptured by an iron pen and lead, or hewn into rocks." (See Pen).

Oxide of lead is employed largely in modern pottery for the formation of glazes, and its presence has been discovered in analyzing the articles of earthen-ware found in Egypt and Nineveh, proving that the ancients were acquainted with its use for the same purpose. The A. V. of  Sirach 38:30 assumes that the usage was known to the Hebrews, though the original is not explicit upon the point. Speaking of the potter's art in finishing off his work, "he applieth himself to lead it over," is the rendering of what in the Greek is simply "he giveth his heart to complete the smearing," the material employed for the purpose not being indicated. (See Pottery).

In modern metallurgy lead is employed for the purpose of purifying silver from other mineral products, instead of the more expensive quicksilver. The alloy is mixed with lead, exposed to fusion upon an earthen vessel, and submitted to a blast of air. By this means the dross is consumed. This process is called the cupelling operation, with which the description in  Ezekiel 22:18-22, in the opinion of Mr. Napier ( Met. Of Bible, p. 20-24), accurately coincides. "The vessel containing the alloy is surrounded by the fire, or placed in the midst of it, and the blowing is not applied to the fire, but to the fused metals. . . . When this is done, nothing but the perfect metals, gold and silver, can resist the scorifying influence." In support of his conclusion he quotes  Jeremiah 6:28-30, adding, "This description is perfect. If we take silver having the impurities in it described in the text, namely, iron, copper, and tin, and mix it with lead, and place it in the fire upon a cupell, it soon melts; the lead will oxidize and form a thick coarse crust upon the surface, and thus consume away, but effecting no purifying influence. The alloy remains, if anything, worse than before...The silver is not refined, because ‘ the bellows were burned' — there existed nothing to blow upon it. Lead is the purifier, but only so in connection with a blast blowing upon the precious metals." An allusion to this use of lead is to be found in Theoghis ( Gnom. 1127 sq., ed.Welcker), and it is mentioned by Pliny (33:31) as indispensable to the purification of silver from alloy. Comp. also  Malachi 3:2-3. (See Metal).

By modern artificers lead is used with tin in the composition of solder for fastening metals together. That the ancient Hebrews were acquainted with the use of solder is evident from the description given by the prophet Isaiah of the processes which accompanied the formation of an image for idolatrous worship. The method by which two pieces of metal were joined together was identical with that employed in modern times; the substances to be united being first clamped before being soldered. No hint is given as to the composition of the solder, but in all probability lead was one of the materials employed, its usage for such a purpose being of great antiquity. The ancient Egyptians used it for fastening stones together in the rough parts of a building. Mr. Napier (Metallurgy of the Bible, p. 130) conjectures that "the solder used in early times for lead, and termed lead, was the same as is now used — a mixture of lead and tin." See Solder

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

led ( עופרת , ‛ōphereth ): Lead was one of the first metals to be used in the free state, probably because it was so easily obtained from its ores. Lead was found in ancient times in Egypt and the Sinaitic peninsula. There is no lead found in Palestine proper, but in Northern Syria and Asia Minor it occurs in considerable quantities, usually associated with silver. These sources no doubt furnished an important supply in Bible times. It was also brought by the Phoenicians from Spain (Tarshish) (  Ezekiel 27:12 ) and the British Isles.

Lead was used, as it still is, all along the Mediterranean shores for sinkers. Pieces of Egyptian fishnets probably dating from 1200 Bc are now preserved in the British Museum, with their lead sinkers still attached. Since lead was the heaviest metal known to the ancients, gold excepted, it was generally used for fish-lines and sounding lines (compare  Acts 27:28 ), especially in the dense waters of the Mediterranean. Moses mentioned the sinking qualities of lead in the sea in his simile of the sinking of Pharaoh's hosts "as lead in the mighty waters" ( Exodus 15:10 ).

Lead was used by the ancients for binding stones together. In most of the ancient ruins of Syria the Arabs have dug holes at the seams between stones in walls and columns in order to remove the iron, bronze, or lead thus used. In the museum of the Syrian Protestant College, Beirut, there are several specimens of cast-lead sarcophagi dating from the time of Christ.

In  Job 19:23 ,  Job 19:14 , lead is mentioned as used in the engraving of permanent records. Two inferences might he drawn from this passage: either that the letters were cut with a chisel (pen) and then the cutting was filled with lead, or that sheets of lead were used as tablets on which to grave the record with an iron tool. Lead is frequently referred to along with iron, brass, silver and tin ( Numbers 31:22;  Ezekiel 22:18 ,  Ezekiel 22:20;  Ezekiel 27:12 ). The use of lead for plumblines is implied in  Amos 7:7 ,  Amos 7:8;  Zechariah 4:10; as a weight in  Zechariah 5:7 ,  Zechariah 5:8 . That Old Testament writers understood the use of lead for purifying gold is shown by  Jeremiah 6:29 and   Ezekiel 22:18-22 (compare   Malachi 3:2 ,  Malachi 3:3 ). See Metals; Refiner .

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Lead, a well-known metal, the first Scriptural notice of which occurs in the triumphal song in which Moses celebrates the overthrow of Pharaoh, whose host is there said to have 'sunk like lead' in the waters of the Red Sea .

Before the use of quicksilver was known, lead was used for the purpose of purifying silver, and separating it from other mineral substances. To this Jeremiah alludes where he figuratively describes the corrupt condition of the people: 'In their fire the lead is consumed (in the crucible); the smelting is in vain, for the evil is not separated' .

Job expresses a wish that his words were engraven 'with an iron pen and lead.' These words are commonly supposed to refer to engraving on a leaden tablet; and it is undeniable that such tablets were anciently used as a writing material. But our authorized translators, by rendering 'an iron pen and lead in the rock forever,' seem to have entertained the same view with Rosenmüller, who supposes that molten lead was to be poured into letters sculptured on stone with an iron chisel, in order to raise the inscription.

Although the Hebrew weights were usually of stone, and are indeed called 'stones,' a leaden weight denominated anach, which is the Arabic word for lead, occurs in . In , a plummet for taking soundings at sea is mentioned, and this was of course of lead.

The ancient uses of lead in the East seem to have been very few; nor are they now numerous. One may travel far in Western Asia without discovering any trace of this metal in any of the numerous useful applications which it is made to serve in European countries.

We are not aware that any trace of lead has been yet found within the limits of Palestine. But ancient lead-mines, in some of which the ore has been exhausted by working, have been discovered by Mr. Burton in the mountains between the Red Sea and the Nile; and lead is also said to exist at a place called Sheff, near Mount Sinai.