This term denotes a large cooking pot or caldron used for boiling meat and preparing meals. In 1 Samuel it appears among the vessels into which worshippers thrust their forks at Shiloh's sacrificial meals, while Micah uses it metaphorically for the pot in which Jerusalem's inhabitants are boiled like meat. The word possibly derives from an Egyptian loan-word, reflecting cultural exchange in domestic technology. It represents substantial cookware, larger than ordinary pots, suitable for communal cooking or processing sacrificial portions.