Genesis 49:5
| 1354 | Strong’s #4380, mekerot. Plural. Obscure word occurs only once. Debated for centuries. Gesenius and most others point to the root karah #3738, to dig. They “extend” this to mean swords or weapons. Rendering this “weapons of violence are their swords” ruins the cryptic nature of the text. James Strong wrote, “Probably from the same as kuwr #3564 in the sense of stabbing. A kuwr is a dug pit for smelting, i.e. the fiery furnace that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego “fell into the middle” of. “The crucible is for the Silver-one, and the furnace-pit is for the Gold-one, and he-who-tests hearts is Yahweh.” Prov. 17:3 literal “…in a hot-one I caused אֶת-them to go out from the earth of Dual-Siege, from the furnace-pit of the Iron-one…” Jer. 11:4 literal |