Reference: Hammer

(1.) Heb pattish, used by gold-beaters (Isa 41:7) and by quarry-men (Jer 23:29). Metaphorically of Babylon (Jer 50:23) or Nebuchadnezzar.

(2.) Heb makabah, a stone-cutter's mallet (1Ki 6:7), or of any workman (Jg 4:21; Isa 44:12).

(3.) Heb halmuth, a poetical word for a workman's hammer, found only in Jg 5:26, where it denotes the mallet with which the pins of the tent of the nomad are driven into the ground.

(4.) Heb mappets, rendered "battle-axe" in Jer 51:20. This was properly a "mace," which is thus described by Rawlinson: "The Assyrian mace was a short, thin weapon, and must either have been made of a very tough wood or (and this is more probable) of metal. It had an ornamented head, which was sometimes very beautifully modelled, and generally a strap or string at the lower end by which it could be grasped with greater firmness."

Besides its ordinary sense, used for any overwhelming power, earthly (Jer 50:23, "the hammer of the whole earth," Babylon, as Martel, "little hammer," was a title of the Frank king) or spiritual (Jer 23:29, "is not My word like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?".) Compare Na 2:1 margin