Axe

Axes in the biblical world served both as woodcutting tools and as weapons of war, made first of stone and later of iron. Several Hebrew and Greek words are rendered axe in English translations. Notable references include: the law prohibiting its use in dressing stones for the altar (Deuteronomy 19:5; 1 Kings 6:7); Abimelech's men cutting branches with axes (Judges 9:48); Elisha's recovery of a borrowed iron axe-head that floated after prayer (2 Kings 6:5–7); and Isaiah's parable of the axe boasting over the one who wields it (Isaiah 10:15). John the Baptist famously uses the axe at the root of the tree as a metaphor for imminent divine judgment (Matthew 3:10; Luke 3:9).