Fork

Two fork-implements appear in scripture: the three-pronged agricultural fork and the bronze flesh-hook used at the altar. Both are domestic working tools — one for the field, one for the sanctuary.

The Three-Pronged Fork

The fork shows up once by name in Saul's day, in a passage describing how the Philistines kept Israel from forging iron. "Now there was no blacksmith found throughout all the land of Israel; for the Philistines said, Or else the Hebrews will make swords or spears: but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his plowshare, and his coulter, and his ax, and his mattock; yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the three-pronged fork, and for the axes, and to set the goads" (1 Sa 13:19-21). The fork sits among ordinary farm implements maintained by an Israelite hand-file, while battle-grade weapons remain off-limits — "in the day of battle... there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan" (1 Sa 13:22).

The Altar Flesh-Hooks

A different fork — the flesh-hook — belongs to the bronze-altar service. The tabernacle inventory pairs it with pots, shovels, basins, and firepans: "And you will make its pots to take away its ashes, and its shovels, and its basins, and its flesh-hooks, and its firepans. As for all its vessels, you will make them of bronze" (Ex 27:3). The Bezalel construction-account repeats the same list: "the pots, and the shovels, and the basins, the flesh-hooks, and the firepans: all its vessels he made of bronze" (Ex 38:3). When the camp moves, the Levites carry the same equipment together: "the firepans, the flesh-hooks, and the shovels, and the basins, all the vessels of the altar; and they will spread on it a covering of sealskin, and put in its poles" (Nu 4:14). The flesh-hook is altar-furniture, not weapon — a working tool of the sacrificial service.