COMPASS

An instrument used by a carpenter or another craftsman to mark or inscribe a circle or an arc on wood or some other material. The only Biblical reference to a compass is at Isaiah 44:13. There the idolatrous wood-carver is said to use the measuring line, red chalk, and a wood scraper to fashion an idol. And, “with a compass he keeps tracing it out [evidently to make sure it is well proportioned], and gradually he makes it like the representation of a man, like the beauty of mankind, to sit in a house.” The Hebrew word for “compass” (mechu·ghahʹ) is related to chugh (circle).​—Pr 8:27; Isa 40:22.