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Lancelot, Dom. Claude

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• רֹמַח

(רֹמִח, ro'mach, from its piercing, 1 Kings 18:28, elsewhere usually "spear"), the iron point or head of a lance. (See ARMOR). The incisive implements of the most ancient Hebrews, as of other peoples, were of stone (Exodus 4:25; Joshua 5:2; compare Abicht, De cultis saxeis, Lipsiae, 1712; and generally Creuzer, Comment. Herod. 1:22. The testa samia with which the priests of Cybele emasculated themselves [Pliny, 35:461, and the stone knives of the Egyptian embalmers [Herod. 2:86], are parallel cases). The Hebrews used no knives at table (although one term for knife, מִאֲכֶלֶת is so named from eating), since the meat was brought on ready cut into pieces, and the bread was so thin as to be easily broken with the fingers. (See EATING). The same is the case at present in the East, even in princely feasts. (See MEAL). Knives were regularly employed by mechanics (q.v.), and in slaughtering animals (Genesis 22:6; Genesis 22:10; comp. Judges 19:29; see Philo, Opp. 2:570), and for preparing food (Josephus, War, 1:33, 7; Ant. 17:71, etc.). The sacrificial knife, in particular, was called מִחֲלָ Š(Ezra 1:9), and a room in the (second) Temple was appropriated to such cutlery (בית מחליפות, Mishna, Middoth, 6:7). A penknife was called תִּעִר (Jeremiah 26:23; Ezekiel 5:1), originally in Aramaean מִסְפֵּר, which in the Talmud (Chelim, 13:1) likewise denotes a razor. The pruning-knife was מִזְמֵרָה (Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 18:5, etc.). (See KNIFE).