Knife

Knives in the biblical world served multiple practical, ritual, and symbolic functions. The Hebrew ḥereb (literally the waster) typically denotes a sharp instrument and is used for both sword and knife, while maʾākelet (from a root meaning to consume or eat) denotes a sacrificial or slaughter knife specifically. Stone knives (flint) were explicitly used for circumcision even into the Iron Age, as in Exodus 4:25 (Zipporah's flint knife) and Joshua 5:2–3 (stone knives for the mass circumcision at Gilgal)—a remarkable retention of Neolithic technology for sacred rites long after metal had become standard.

The knife appears in some of Scripture's most dramatic moments: Abraham raised a knife to sacrifice Isaac before the angel stopped him (Genesis 22:6, 10); the concubine's body was cut in twelve pieces with a knife in the terrible episode of Judges 19:29. Levitical law specified how sacrificial animals were to be slaughtered, and the priests' knife-work at the altar was governed by detailed regulations. In Ezra 1:9, knives are listed among the temple vessels returned by Cyrus—the sacrificial equipment whose return signaled the resumption of proper temple worship.