Maul

The maul is a heavy striking weapon — a war-club or hammer — named once in scripture, in a proverb that pairs it with two other instruments of harm to describe the destructive force of false testimony.

A Weapon of False Witness

A single proverb places the maul in scripture, ranking the witness who lies against his neighbor among weapons that wound and kill at close and at distance:

"A man who bears false witness against his fellow man / Is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow." (Pr 25:18).

The image gathers three different ways of striking — the bludgeon, the blade, and the arrow — and applies them all to a single act of speech. False witness is treated as bodily violence, not a lesser sin of the tongue.