Lead (P'lSS', ophe'reth, from its duslij color, in pause r"lEr,Exod;xv, 10; Numb. xxxi,22; Jobxix,24; Jer. vi,29; Ezek.xxii,18,20; xxvii,]2; Zech.v,7,8; Sept. I^6\i[iooc),a well-known metal, generally found in veins of rocks, though seldom in a metallic state, and most commonly in combination with sulphur. Although the metal itself was well known to the ancients and to the Hebrews, yet the earlj' uses of lead in the East seem to have been comparatively few, nor are they now nu- merous. One may travel far in Western Asia without discovering a trace of this metal in any of the numer- ous usefid applications which it is made to serve in Eu- ropean countries. We are not aware that any native lead has been yet found within the limits of Palestine. But ancient lead mines, in some of which the ore has been exhausted by working, have been discovered by Mr. Burton in the mountains between the Red Sea and the Nile ; and lead is also said to exist at a place called Sheff, near Mount Sinai (Kitto, P/ii/s. Bisf. Pal. p. Ixxiii).
The ancient Egyptians employed lead for a variety of purposes, but chietly as an alloy with more precious metals. On the breasts of mummies that have been unrolled there is frequently found in soft lead, thin and quite tlexiblc, the figure of a hawk, with extended wings, emblematical of Re, or Phra, the sun. Specimens of lead have also been discovered among the Assyrian ruins (Layard's Kin. and Bab. p. 357),- and a bronze lion is found attached to its stone base by means of this metal (Bonomi, Nineveh, p. 325).
The first scriptural notice of this metal occurs in the triumphal song in which Moses celebrates the overthrow of T'haraoh, whose host is there said to have " sunk like lead'' in the waters of the Red Sea (Exod. xv, 10). That it was common in Palestine is shown by the expression in Ecclus. xlvii, 18, where it is said, in apostrophizing Solomon, "Thou didst multiply silver as lead;" the WTit- er having in view the hyperbolical description of Solo- mon's wealth in 1 Kings x, 27: "The king made the silver to be in Jerusalem as .^tone.^." It was among the spoils of the Midianites which the children of Israel brought with them to the ])lains of Moab, after their re- turn from the slaughter of the tribe (Numb, xxxi, 22). The shijis of Tarshish supplied the market of Tyre with lead, as with other metals (Ezek. xxvii, 12). Its heavi- ness, to which allusion is made in Exod. xv, 10, and Ecclns. xxii, 14, caused it to be used for weights, which were cither in the form of a round flat cake (Zech. v, 7), or a. rough unfashioned lump or "stone" (ver. 8) ; stones having in ancient times served the purpose of weights (comp. Prov. xvi, 11). This fact may perhaps explain the substitution of " lead'' for " stones" in the passage of Ecclesiasticus above quoted ; the commonest use of the che.ipest metal being present to the mind of the writ- er. If Gesenius is correct in rendering ~3N, and/:, by
"lead," in Amos vii, 7, 8, we have another instance of the purposes to which this metal was applied in forming the ball or bob of the plumb-line. See Plumb-line. Its use for weighting fishing-lines was known in the time of Homer (//. xxiv, 80). In Acts xxvii, 28, a plummet {lioXir, in the form j3oXi4w, to heave the lead) for taking soundings at sea is mentioned, and this was, of course, of lead.
But, in addition to these more obvious uses of this metal, the Hebrews were acquainted with another meth- od of employing it, which indicates some advance in the arts at an early period. Job (xix, 24) utters a WMsh that his words, "with a pen of iron and lead, were graven in the rock forever." The allusion is supposed to be to the practice of carving inscriptions upon stone, and pour- ing molten lead into the cavities of the letters, to render them legible, and at the same time preserve them from the action of the air. Frecpient references to the use of leaden tablets for inscriptions are found in ancient writ- ers. Pausanias (ix, 31) saw Ilesiod's Worls and Days graven on lead, but almost illegible with age. Public proclamations, according to Pliny (xiii, 21), were written on lead, and tlie name of Germanicus was carved on leaden tablets (Tacitus, Ann, ii, 69). Eutychius {Ann. A lex. p. 390) relates that the history of the Seven Sleep- ers was engraved on lead by the cadi. The translator of Rosenmiiller (in Bib. Cab. xxvii, ()4) thinks, howeve.'-, that the poetical force of the scriptural passage has been overlooked by interpreters; "Job seems not to have drawn his image from anything he had actually seen executed : he only wishes to express in the strongest possible language the durability due to his words; and accordingly he says, 'IMay the pen be iron, and the ink of lead, with which they are written on an everlasting- rock,' i. e. Let them not be written with ordinary per- ishable materials." The above usual explanation seems to be suggested by that of the Septuagint, " that they were sculptured by an iron pen and lead, or hewn into rocks." See Pen.
Oxide of lead is employed largely in modern pottery for the formation of glazes, and its presence has been discovered in analyzing the articles of earthen-ware found in Egypt and Nineveh, proving that the ancients were acquainted with its use for the same purpose. The A. V. of Ecclus. xxxviii, 30 assumes that the usage was known to the Hebrews, though the original is not ex- plicit upon the point. Speaking of the potter's art ni finishing off his work, " he applieth himself to lead it over," is the rendering of what in the Greek is simply "he giveth his heart to complete the smearing," the material employed for the purpose not bemg indicated. See PoTTEiiY.