2639. [As to what] "knives of iron" 1are, spoken of in the same passage, 2 Sam. 12:31, by them are meant tools that similar hellish spirits also in the same place use by fantasy, the knives being wide like that of executioners; and they do not amputate or kill the person, but open up the belly and pull out the intestines, using the wide iron knife to take them out and twist them around, pulling them out until every piece of intestine has been extracted.
Footnotes:
1. NKJV has "iron picks."
2639. (Moreover there [were] axes of iron, concerning which [it is spoken] in the same place, 2 Sam. 12:31. By the axes of iron are understood instruments, which similar infernal [spirits] also in the same place make use of through phantasy. The axes are like the broad [ones] employed by executioners), and they do not amputate or kill man, but open him in the belly, and draw out his intestines, and take them out with the broad axe of iron, and roll them about, and so draw them out until every intestine has been extracted.
2639. [Quid] porro "secures ferri," de quibus eodem loco II Sam. XII: 31, per secures ferri intelliguntur instrumenta, quibus infernales similes etiam eodem loco per phantasiam, utuntur, secures sunt sicut carnificum latae, et hominem non amputant seu occidunt, sed aperiunt quoad ventrem, extrahuntque intestina, et securi ferri lata eximunt, et circumvolvunt, et sic extrahunt, usque dum intestina singula extracta sint.