HELVE

helv (`ets "wood," "tree"): The handle or wooden part of an ax. "The head (margin "iron") slippeth from the helve" (margin "tree," Deuteronomy 19:5). The marginal reading suggests that "the ax is supposed to glance off the tree it is working on."

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.