Bible Dictionary
BOLT
A wooden or iron fastening used to secure doors, gates, and prison entrances. Some bolts were drawn from within, while others could be opened from outside with a key.
Definition
A bolt is a wooden or iron fastening used to secure doors, city gates, prison doors, and other entrances. Some bolts were moved from within, while others could be opened from outside with a key.
Biblical Usage
Scripture mentions bolts securing houses, city gates, and prison doors. In Habakkuk, “fiery bolts” refers to a poetic image associated with flame and divine pestilence or fever.
Historical Background
Bolts were among the principal forms of locks known to the ancient Hebrews. They could be pushed back internally or operated externally by a key.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>bolt (na`al, "to bind up"): The ancient Hebrews had fastenings of wood or iron for the doors of houses (2Sa 13:17,18; So 5:5), city gates (Ne 3:3,6,13-15), prison doors, etc. (Isa 45:2), which were in the form of bolts. These were sometimes pushed back from within; but there were others which, by means of a key, could be unfastened and pushed back from without (Jud 3:23 ff). These were almost the only form of locks known.</p><p>See BAR; LOCKS.</p><p>In Hab 3:5, resheph (a poetic word for "flame") is rendered "fiery bolts" (the King James Version "burning coals"). It seems to denote "the fiery bolts, by which Yahweh was imagined to produce pestilence or fever" (Driver, Deuteronomy, 367).</p><p>M. O. Evans</p>