Hooks
Hooks appear in the UPDV in three concrete settings — the metalwork of the tabernacle and its court, the ritual vessels of the bronze altar, and the visionary temple of Ezekiel — and in two figurative settings, the pruning-hooks of agricultural and eschatological imagery, and the hooks driven into the jaws of nations Yahweh leads to judgment.
Gold Hooks of the Tabernacle
Inside the tabernacle proper, the hooks that suspend the curtains and screens are made of gold. The veil dividing the holy place from the most holy is hung "on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold; their hooks [will be] of gold, on four sockets of silver" (Ex 26:32). The screen at the entrance to the tent is supported by "five pillars of acacia, and overlay them with gold: their hooks will be of gold" (Ex 26:37). When the work is executed, Bezalel makes "four pillars of acacia, and overlaid them with gold: their hooks were of gold" (Ex 36:36). Gold hooks belong to the inner structures.
Silver Hooks of the Court
The surrounding court uses silver. The south side of the court has "twenty [pillars], and their sockets twenty, of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets [will be] of silver" (Ex 27:10). The execution narrative repeats the pattern for each side: "the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver" on the south, "the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver" on the north, "the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver" on the west (Ex 38:10-12). The summary verse states it of the whole court: "the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver; and the overlaying of their capitals, of silver; and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver" (Ex 38:17). The four pillars of the court gate likewise have "their hooks of silver" (Ex 38:19). The metal grades the space — gold inside, silver around the perimeter, bronze in the sockets that meet the ground.
Flesh-Hooks for the Altar
A different kind of hook serves the bronze altar. Among the altar's vessels are "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). When Bezalel executes the work, "he made all the vessels of the altar, 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 "will put on it all its vessels, with which they minister about it, the firepans, the flesh-hooks, and the shovels, and the basins, all the vessels of the altar" (Nu 4:14). Flesh-hooks are bronze, paired with firepans and shovels, used in the practical work of handling sacrificial meat at the altar.
Hooks in Ezekiel's Temple
Ezekiel's vision of the future temple includes a slaughter chamber whose walls carry hooks: "the hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened inside round about: and the flesh of the oblation [was brought] to the tables" (Eze 40:43). The ritual line from the bronze altar to the visionary temple is unbroken — hooks are the fixtures by which sacrificial flesh is handled.
Pruning-Hooks: Peace and War
Pruning-hooks appear in three oracles where they are paired with their warlike counterparts. In Isaiah's vision of the nations streaming to Zion, "they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore" (Isa 2:4). The same instrument also serves judgment: in Yahweh's threat against the cushite power, "before the harvest, when the blossom is over, and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning-hooks, and the spreading branches he will take away [and] cut down" (Isa 18:5). Joel inverts the Isaianic image for the day of Yahweh's reckoning with the nations: "Beat your⁺ plowshares into swords, and your⁺ pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong" (Joel 3:10). The pruning-hook moves between the vineyard, the eschaton of peace, and the muster for war.
Hooks in the Jaws
The most figurative use is the hook driven through the jaws of a beast Yahweh hauls out for judgment. Against Pharaoh, pictured as the great river-monster: "I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales; and I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales" (Eze 29:4). The same image is turned against Gog: "I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords" (Eze 38:4). Whether the catch is a Nile-creature or an army from the north, the hook is Yahweh's, and the fish or the host is led out where he chooses.