BELLOWS, appears only once in KJV and RSV in Jeremiah 6:29 for Heb. מַפֻּחַ, H5135, a maqtal participial substantive from the verb נָפַח, H5870, the common Sem. verb “to blow,” “to breathe.” The term appears in the Ugaritic text II AB (No. 4) lines 24, 25. The poem states “Hyn goes up to the bellows, in the hands of Hss (are) the tongs.” In the earliest smelting installations of the ancient Near E the furnaces were aligned to take advantage of the prevailing winds to fan the flame and increase the temperature. Small hand bellows of skins with wooden frames were apparently used for making bronze and the much harder iron. The art of metallurgy was passed from the peoples of Anatolia to the Semites of the fertile crescent. The word for “bellows,” however, indicates that the tools of the trade were known to the peoples of Syria-Pal. from at least 2000 b.c. The text of Jeremiah contains many such rare words found only in Ugaritic texts outside of the Bible. Such demonstrates that the true antagonists of the worship of Jehovah were resurgent followers of the Canaanite Ba’al and the cult’s elaborate rituals.