Sword
The sword
went through a somewhat similar evolution over time. Earlier on, swords were
shaped rather like a harvesting sickle (Fig. 4.2—left) and thus were called
“sickle-swords.” Unlike harvesting sickles with the sharp edge on the inside
for cutting grain, sickle-swords had their sharp edge on the outside for
slashing an opponent. The biblical expression of striking “with the edge of the
sword” (Josh. 6:21, ESV; etc.) probably comes from the use of this type of
sword. Sickle-swords started with a relatively long shaft and shorter cutting
blade but changed to a much shorter shaft and a relatively long cutting blade
(Fig. 4.2—left). Reliefs during the New Kingdom often portray the pharaoh with
a sickle-sword, suggesting that it had replaced the mace as the pharaoh’s
weapon of authority. Toward the end of the New Kingdom, Egyptians began using
straight, tapered swords as well (Fig. 4.2, 4.3, 4.11—on ladder). The straight
swords first appear in reliefs in the hands of Sea Peoples (Fig. 5.11),
suggesting that the Philistines and related peoples may well have brought this
design to the region. (Boyd Seevers, Warfare in the Old
Testament [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications], 2013], 121)
Here
are figures 4.2 and 4.3 that are relevant to the above:
