Blacksmith/Copper/Brass

Sample Script for Copper and Brass

Copper……Brass…….Copper pots, brass trays, utensils for cooking, ladles for your soup. 

Copper…….Brass……You’ll find no finer metal work in all of Bethlehem.  We have the finest ores that we have melted down in our melting pots and we have pounded it out to make the wonderful shapes that you see here.  Wonderful Copper…..Brass.  

Come buy so that we may pay our taxes.  Come……..sample…….lift this pot.  It is a heavy duty pot and it will serve you well.  Look at this pitcher; it’s a fine pitcher it pours so nicely.

Copper……Brass……Come and buy.  Copper......Brass……It will serve you and your family for generations.  Copper……Brass.  Copper……Brass.

Job Description and Background

Blacksmiths. In the days of King Saul the Philistines put a ban on Hebrew blacksmiths. "Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears" (I Samuel 13:19). The Philistines required the Hebrews to bring their coulters and mattocks to the vicinity of Ramle to be sharpened, and this district in the Valley of Ajalon for many years afterward came to be known as the Valley of Smiths.

But Jewish blacksmiths were active in the days of Isaiah, for he said: "The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers" (Isaiah 44:12). Isaiah refers to the blacksmith's anvil (Isaiah 41:7), and Jeremiah makes mention of his bellows (Jeremiah 6:29).  The primitive type of anvil that has been in use for centuries is simply a cube of iron that has been inserted in a block of oak log. The old type of bellows, which is worked by hand, is made of the skin either of a goat or of a cow with the hair left on it.

METAL WORKERS

A study of working with metal would need to begin with "Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron" (Genesis 4:22). That is, he was the forger of every cutting instrument of brass [copper] and iron. The Orientals who lived three to four thousand years ago were very advanced in the mechanical arts. Some of the work of those skilled ancient workmen, as brought to light by archaeologists is superior to anything the world has produced since.

Coppersmiths. Moses described the land of Canaan as being "a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass [copper]" (Deuteronomy 8:9). Deposits of copper and iron have been discovered along the length of Wadi Araba which leads to the Gulf of Akaba. An excavation at Tel el Kheleifeh, which is the site of ancient Ezion-geber, King Solomon's port city, has revealed that some of Solomon's copper and iron refineries were located there. The builders of the smelters at Ezion-geber faced their furnaces toward the prevailing wind which was northwest. Winds that continued steadily blew through flue holes and kept the fire in the furnace rooms burning. Thus in those days the same principle essentially was employed as that of the Bessemer blast furnace of modern times.

Solomon must have carried on a thriving business in copper. Scripture says: "And the pots, and the shovels, and the basons: and all these vessels, which Hiram made to King Solomon for the house of the Lord, were of bright brass [i.e., burnished copper]" (I Kings 7:45).

Generic lines:

Shalom, welcome weary travelers.  Have you journeyed far?

Do not forget to pay your takes.  I have seen the Roman soldiers carrying off those who refused to pay their taxes.  Beware of the Roman soldiers they are in a foul mood this night. 

Keep your valuables and children close to you.  There are rumors that the Romans sell small children to the Phoenicians as slaves.

Shop Specific Lines:

We hammer and pound the copper and brass sheets to form bowls and trays.

The ore comes from mines in the hillsides.

We barter and trade for specialty items from the passing caravans.