Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(skilled product). The ballista for throwing spears, arrows, stones (2 Chron. 26:15); the catapult (Ezek. 26:9); battering ram (Ezek. 4:2; 21:22).
“Engines” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
Machines for discharging missiles (2 Chron. 26:15). See ARMS. ENGINES OF WAR were battering rams (Ezek. 26:9).
“Inventions” From Concise Bible Dictionary:
God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions (Eccl. 7:29) or devices: the same word is translated “engines” in 2 Chronicles 26:15. Cain went out from the presence of God and built a city, and his descendants made harps and organs. Men made themselves as happy as they could without God, as in the days of Uzziah (Amos 6:5). In Psalm 99:8 and Psalm 106:29,39, the word signifies “doings.”
In natural things inventions have much increased since early days. There is no harm in the things themselves; but if they foster the pride of man, and divert him from God, they become the instruments of Satan. Many things also are found in Christendom of which there is not the least mention in scripture. WITTY INVENTIONS in Proverbs 8:12 is the same word as that translated “discretion” in Proverbs 1:4 and Proverbs 2:11, and others. Fürst gives for Proverbs 8:12, “knowledge of intelligent counsels.”
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Transliteration:
chishshabown
Meaning:
from 2803; a contrivance, i.e. actual (a warlike machine) or mental (a machination)
KJV Usage:
engine, invention
From Manners and Customs of the Bible:
2 Chronicles 26:15. He made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal.
The invention of these engines of war marks an era in warfare, since by their use the power of an army was greatly increased whether for attack or defense. They were simply machine bows and slings, which, by the application of mechanical principles, were made to throw heavier projectiles than the smaller weapons which were held in the hand. We have here doubtless the origin of the balistae and catapult which afterward became so famous in Roman warfare. The balista was used to shoot stones; the catapults projected darts. Historians mention three sizes of balista, which were graded according to the weight of the stones they threw, namely: a half hundred weight, a whole hundred weight, and three hundred weight. Occasionally there were some used which threw stones as light as two pounds. Several balls of limestone, which were found in the excavations in Jerusalem in 1869, are thought to have been used as missiles and hurled from a balista. Catapultae were denominated according to the length of the darts thrown from them. No exact idea can now be had of the forms of these engines. The Romans classified them under the generic title of tormentum, because of the twisting of the hairs, thongs, and vegetable fibers from which the elastic string was made which gave impetus to the projectile. See Smith's Dict. Class. Antiq., s. v. Tormentum. These engines were often used from the top of a “mount” or inclined plane. See note on Ezekiel 4:2 (#565).