Blade

Blade in the Authorized Version refers primarily to the flat, cutting portion of a sword or other edged weapon, as distinct from the handle or hilt. The word appears in the account of Ehud's assassination of Eglon king of Moab, where the blade of Ehud's double-edged dagger—a cubit long—disappeared completely into the king's body, hilt and all, because of the king's great girth. The same Hebrew word is used in Job 39:23 for the glittering point of a spear and in Nahum 3:3 for the flashing sword of attacking cavalry.

In a different sense, blade is used in Matthew 13:26 in the parable of the wheat and tares, where the blade refers to the sprouting of grain—the first appearance of the shoots before the head develops. Jesus uses this stage of plant growth to describe the simultaneous appearance of the weeds among the wheat, a situation the householder addresses with the instruction to let both grow together until the harvest. The word's agricultural usage in the New Testament parable stands in sharp contrast to its predominantly military uses in the Old Testament, reflecting the range of the English word blade across both natural and combat contexts.