Sickle

See HARVEST. SEA. See under WATERS.

SICKLE (δρέπανον).—The crops in Palestine are, to this day, reaped almost entirely with the sickle (Mar 4:29). The scythe is seldom seen save in the hands of a foreigner, and the whirr of the reaping machine is still unknown. δρέπανον is the LXX Septuagint equivalent of two Heb. words חֶרְמֵשׁ and מַגָּל which seem to have been two names for the same thing. The Palestinian sickle is a little longer than our common shearing-hook; the blade describes a somewhat wider curve, and the point, instead of terminating sharply, is slightly turned backward. Sometimes the edge is toothed like a saw, but oftener it is plain and sharp like our own hook. The total length of handle and blade is from 18 to 24 inches.

W. Ewing.

SICKLE.—The Hebrew sickles (Deu 16:9; Deu 23:25 etc.) or reaping-hooks were successively of flint, bronze, and iron, and set in handles of bone or wood. In Palestine the flint sickle goes back to the later Stone age (Vincent, Canaan d’après t’exploration récente, 388 ff. with illust.); a specimen was found by Bliss at Lachish. Similar flint sickles, with bone hafts, have been found in Egypt. The ancient sickles were of two kinds, according as the cutting edge was plain or toothed; the modern Palestinian reaping-hook is of the latter kind and somewhat elaborately curved (illust. Benzinger, Heb. Arch.² 141). In Jer 50:16 the reaper is described as ‘he that handleth the sickle’ (maggâl, AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] ‘scythe,’ which is also wrongly given as an alternative in AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] of Isa 2:4, Mic 4:3 for ‘pruning hooks’). The same word is rendered ‘sickle’ in Joe 3:18 ‘put ye in the sickle, for the vintage is ripe’ (RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ), where the context, the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] rendering, and the same figure in Rev 14:19-20 all show that the reference is to the smaller but similarly shaped grape-knife, expressly named maggâl in the Mishna, with which the grape-gatherer cut off the bunches of ripe grapes.

A. R. S. Kennedy.

sik´’l (חרנשׁ, ḥermēsh (Deu 16:9; Deu 23:25), מגּל, maggāl; compare Arabic minjal (Jer 50:16; Joe 3:13); δρέανον, drépanon (Mar 4:29; Rev 14:14-19)): Although the ancients pulled much of their grain by hand, we know that they also used sickles. The form of this instrument varied, as is evidenced by the Egyptian sculptures. The earliest sickle was probably of wood, shaped like the modern scythe, although much smaller, with the cutting edge made of sharp flints set into the wood. Sickle flints were found at Tel el-Ḥesy. Crescent-shaped iron sickles were found in the same mound. In Palestine and Syria the sickle varies in size. It is usually made wholly of iron or steel and shaped much like the instrument used in western lands. The smaller-sized sickles are used both for pruning and for reaping.

(äñÝðáíïí)

In the NT the sickle is referred to only in St. Mark’s Gospel (Mar_4:29) and in the Apocalypse (Rev_14:14-19). In the latter passage the victorious Christ comes with a sharp sickle in His hand to gather in the fruits of His triumph. For the simile cf. Joe_3:13, Jer_51:33. In the earliest times sickles were made of flint. They had only one cutting edge, which was generally slightly concave and serrated. As a rule the back edge was quite thick. The bone or wooden handle in which they were set followed approximately the curve of the flint edges. The flints projected from the hafts about half an inch or less. Flint sickles continued to be used throughout the Bronze Age. The reason probably was that they were on the one hand comparatively inexpensive, and on the other hand quite as efficacious as sickles made of bronze. It was not until iron came into general use in the Fourth Semitic period that flint sickles were entirely superseded. Iron sickles are confined to the Fourth Semitic and the Hellenistic periods. The breadth of the blade varies from ¾ to 2½ ins., the commonest breadth being from about 1 to 1¼ in. The handle sometimes consisted of two hafting plates secured by thongs or metal pins; occasionally, however, the butt-end of the sickle was tanged, while socketed sickles also sometimes occur. See, further, Harvest.

Literature.-R. A. S. Macalister, The Excavation of Gezer, 3 vols., London, 1912, i. 335, 342, ii. 32-34, 124, 127; F. J. Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities, do., 1894, pp. 105, 107 (with fig. 210), 108, 123; H. Vincent, Canaan, d’après l’exploration récente, Paris, 1907, p. 388 f.; C. Steuernagel, Tell el-mutesellim, Leipzig, 1908, plate xxvii.; H. B. Swete, The Apocalypse of St. John 2, London, 1907, pp. 188-191; Hastings’ Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible , pp. 852-853; P. S. P. Handcock, The Archaeology of the Holy Land, London, 1916, pp. 148-149, 188, 208.

P. S. P. Handcock.

Joe 3:13 (b) The sickle is used as a type of GOD’s judging and avenging wrath. The time came when He would endure Israel’s rebellion no more. He exercised the same punishment upon the nations that persecuted Israel. One day He will cut down all the wicked nations of the earth, as we read in Rev 14:14. GOD permits sinners to run their course, produce their evil fruit, and then He cuts them off, and the day of grace is ended.

A tool with a curved blade for

harvesting grain and other crops.