occurs only in Jer 6:29, in relation to the casting of metal. Probably they consisted of leather bags similar to those common in Egypt.

Jer 6:29; "the bellows are burned," so intense a heat is made that the very bellows are almost set on fire; "the lead is consumed of the fire." Used in heating a furnace for smelting metals, not required for the wood fires which were the ancient fuel, and were commonly blown with a fan. The Egyptian bellows, as represented in paintings of the time of Thothmes III, contemporary with Moses, were worked by the feet alternately pressing upon two inflated skins sending the air through reed tubes tipped with iron into the furnace; as each skin became exhausted the blower raised it by a cord in the hand to admit a fresh supply of air.

Instead of 'the bellows are burned,' some prefer to translate 'the bellows puff, or blow, and the lead is consumed in the fire,' lead being formerly used to purify silver. Jer 6:29. The allusion is that Israel had not been refined by means of judgement: "reprobate silver shall men call them." Jer 6:30. Bellows are seen on the monuments of Egypt, having two bags on which a man stands; by lifting up each foot alternately, and pulling a string, each bag is inflated, and the wind is forced to the fire as the foot descends.

Bellows.

The word occurs only in

Jer 6:29

where it denotes an instrument to heat a smelting furnace. Wilkinson in "Ancient Egypt," iii. 338, says, "They consisted of a leather, secured and fitted into a frame, from which a long pipe extended for carrying the wind to the fire. They were worked by the feet, the operator standing upon them, with one under each foot, and pressing them alternately, while he pulled up each exhausted skin with a string he held in his hand."