Battle-ax

The battle-ax appears once as a figure for an instrument of judgment in the hand of Yahweh.

Yahweh's Weapon of War

In the oracle against Babylon, Yahweh addresses an agent of his judgment: "You are my battle-ax and weapons of war: and with you I will break in pieces the nations; and with you I will destroy kingdoms" (Jer 51:20). The battle-ax stands here for an instrument wielded by Yahweh himself, the means by which nations and kingdoms are shattered in the working out of his sentence.