LEAD

One of the heavier metallic elements, having the specific gravity 11.34. With understanding, therefore, Moses poetically sang in triumph that the Egyptians “sank like lead” in the Red Sea. (Ex. 15:10) The dull-gray metal was useful as weight on fishlines and nets and as heavy lids or covers. The Hebrew word translated “plummet” in Amos 7:7, 8 may mean “lead” or “tin.” The Greek word for “sounding” at Acts 27:28 is from a root meaning “to heave the lead.” For permanency and legibility liquid lead was sometimes poured into engravings on stone—a practice dating at least to Job’s day. (Job 19:23, 24) “Soldering” (Heb., deʹveq) is mentioned at Isaiah 41:7 in connection with the making of idols, but whether the solder was made of lead and tin, as today, is not known.

The most common source of lead was galena, a lead sulfide ore. It was mined in the Arabah between the S end of the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqabah. Tarshish (Spain) was another source of supply. (Ezek. 27:12) Lead ore had to be smelted in a furnace like the ores of other metals. (Jer. 6:29; Ezek. 22:18-20; compare Numbers 31:22, 23.) The first step in the refining process converted lead sulfide to lead oxide, which was itself sometimes used as a pottery glaze, as evidenced in the ruins of Egypt and Nineveh.—See REFINE, REFINER.