Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 15:12
Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
12. Also very difficult. No satisfactory emendation has been proposed. If, which is very doubtful, the v. is to be retained as it stands, the speaker is either ( a) Jehovah, declaring that the Chaldaean foe shall prevail, or ( b) better, Jeremiah, as mg. Can iron break iron from, etc., i.e. can my strength be a match for the overwhelming force of my enemies? “The point of reference to iron from the North is that the best and hardest iron came from the Black Sea.” Pe.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The steel – brass, i. e., bronze. By the iron is meant Jeremiahs intercession; but this cannot alter the divine purpose to send Judah into exile, which is firm as steel and brass. For brass see Exo 25:3 note. The alloy of copper and zinc now called brass was entirely unknown to the ancients.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 15:12
Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
The northern iron and steel
In order to achieve a purpose there must be sufficient force. The weaker cannot overcome the stronger. In a general clash the firmest will win. You cannot cut granite with a pen knife, nor drill a hole in a rock with an anger of silk. We shall apply this proverb–
I. To the people of God individually.
1. Many Christians are subjected to great temptations and persecutions; mocked, ridiculed, called by evil names. Persecuted one, will you deny the faith? If so, you are not made of the same stuff as the true disciple of Jesus Christ; for when the grace of God is in them, if the world be iron, they are northern iron and steel.
2. We are frequently called to serve God amid great difficulties. Will you say, there is no converting these dark and obdurate souls? Is the iron to break the northern iron and steel? Look at Mont Cenis Tunnel, made through one of the hardest rocks; with a sharp tool, edged with diamond, they have pierced the Alps. As St. Bernard says: Is thy work hard? set a harder resolution against it; for there is nothing so hard that cannot be cut with something harder still.
3. To labour with non-success, and to wait, is hard work. It is a grand thing for a Christian to continue patiently in well-doing.
II. Applicable to the cause of God in the world–to the Church. What power, however like to iron, shall suffice to break the kingdom of Jesus, which is comparable to steel?
1. We hear it said that Romanism will again vanquish England; that the Gospel light, which Latimer helped to kindle, will be extinguished. Atrocious nonsense, if not partial blasphemy. If this thing were of men, it would come to nought; but if it be of God, who shall overthrow it?
2. Others foretell the triumph of infidelity. That the gates of hell are to prevail against the Church; that the pleasure of the Lord is not to prosper in His hand. Who but a lying spirit would thus lay low the faith and confidence of Gods people?
III. Apply the principle to the self-righteous efforts which men make for their own salvation.
1. The bonds of guilt are not to be snapped by a merely human power.
2. Yet that were an easy task compared with a man renewing his own heart.
3. Do you think you can force your way to heaven by ceremony? Come, sinner, with thy fetters; lay thy wrist at the cross foot, where Christ can break the iron at once.
IV. Applicable to all persons who are making self-reliant efforts for the good of others.
1. Our preaching–we try to make it forcible–how powerless it is of itself! We plead, reason, seek goodly words, etc., but the northern iron and steel remain immovable. Though all the apostles reasoned with them, they would turn a deaf ear.
2. The best adapted means cannot succeed. A mothers tears, as she spoke to you of Jesus; the pleadings of a grey-headed father over you–no power to change your heart! The Gospel, though put to you very tenderly by those you love best, leaves you unsaved still! You have been sick, near death, within an inch of doom; yet even the judgments of God have not aroused you.
V. This text has a very solemn application to all those who are rebels against God. Fight against God, would you? Measure your adversary, I charge you. The wax is about to wrestle with the flame, the tow to contend with the fire. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Nothing more to be done
It is impossible to explain these words to the satisfaction of all. The general explanation, according to a large consensus of opinion, is that the prayer of the prophet cannot break the inflexible purpose of Jehovah. Jeremiah is still concerned for his countrymen, and he will still pray, though he has been told that if the mightiest intercessors that ever lived were to lift up their heads in devoutest argument they would not be listened to, for heaven was offended, and mighty in just indignation. Now the question is put, not by Jeremiah, but by another: Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? Is there any iron in the south that can stand against the iron of the north? Has not the iron of the north been proved in a thousand controversies, and has it ever failed t Who will smite that northern iron with straw? Who will break it with a weapon of wood? Who will set his own frail hand against an instrument so tremendous? The argument, then, would seem to be–Why pray to me for these people? It is as iron applied to the iron of the north, which has been seen to fail in innumerable instances: all the prayers that can now be offered to heaven would be broken upon the threshold of that sanctuary and fall back in fragments upon the weary intercessor; the day has closed, the door is shut, the offended angel of grace has flown away on eagle pinions, and the sister angel of mercy can no longer be found: pray no more for Jerusalem. Thus the Lord dramatically represents Himself; and in all this dramatic reply to the interrogations and pleadings of earth there is a great principle indicated; that principle is that the day closes–My Spirit shall not always strive with men. These are awful words. If a man had invented them, we should have denied their truthfulness and their force; but when we hear them as from above we confirm them, we say, It is right, we do not deserve to be heard; if we had to assign ourselves to a fate, we dare not plant ha the wilderness of our solitude one single flower; we have done the things we ought not to have done, we have left undone the things we ought to have done; all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?] Shall our weak forces be able to oppose and overcome the powers of the Chaldeans? nechasheth, which we here translate steel, property signifies brass or copper united with tin, which gives it much hardness, and enables it to bear a good edge.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
There is a great variety among interpreters as to this verse also, some interpreting this as a prophecy that none should break the prophet, whom God would make
as the northern iron and steel, which was the hardest of all iron, the Chalybes (from whom steel had its name Chalybs) being northern people, and the most famous of any then known in the world for tempering iron to make it hard and tough; others interpreting it, as denying that there should ever be an agreement betwixt the Jews and the Chaldeans: but to me the words of the next verse seem to give us the sense, that the Jews should certainly be overrun and conquered by the Babylonians; for as the northern iron and steel is the hardest, and no iron could break that, so God having edged and hardened their enemies the Chaldeans, all their opposition to them would signify nothing.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. steelrather, brassor copper, which mixed with “iron” (by the Chalybesnear the Euxine Pontus, far north of Palestine), formed the hardestmetal, like our steel. Can the Jews, hardy like commoniron though they be, break the still hardier Chaldees of thenorth (Jer 1:14), who resemblethe Chalybian iron hardened with copper? Certainly not [CALVIN].HENDERSON translates. “Canone break iron, (even) the northern iron, and brass,” onthe ground that English Version makes ordinary iron notso hard as brass. But it is not brass, but a particular mixture ofiron and brass, which is represented as harder than commoniron, which was probably then of inferior texture, owing toignorance of modern modes of preparation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?] Can iron break iron, especially that which comes from the north, which was harder than the common iron; or steel, the hardest of all? though the Jews were hard as iron, they could not prevail against and overcome Jeremiah, who was made an iron pillar and brasen walls against them, Jer 1:18, and so these words are spoken for his comfort and encouragement: or they may respect the Jews and the Chaldeans; and the sense be, that the Jews, as mighty and as strong as they fancied themselves to be, and boasted that they were, they could not find themselves a match for the Chaldean army, which came out of the north; and may be said to be as hard as the northern iron, which came from the Chalybes, a people in the north, near Pontus, from whom steel has its name in the Latin tongue; and this sense agrees with what follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This verse also has been taken in different ways by interpreters: some take the word iron, when repeated in a different case, “Will iron break iron?” but others think the subject wanting in the clause, and consider people to be understood, “Will the Jews break the iron, even the iron from the north, and not only the iron but the brass also, or, the the brass mixed with iron?” There is in reality no difference, but in words only. If we read, “Will the iron break the iron from the north?” the meaning will be, “Though there be great hardness in you, can it yet break that which is in the Assyrians? but ye are not equal to them: make your strength as great as you please, still the Chaldeans will be harder to break you; for if ye are iron, they are brass or steel, and so it will not be possible for you to sustain their violent attacks.”
As the meaning of the Prophet is sufficiently evident, I will not insist on words, though the rendering I most approve is this, “Will iron break the iron (the repetition is emphatical) from the north and the brass?”
We here also see that the design of the holy man was, to divest the Jews of that false confidence in which they boasted: for how was it, that they were so refractory, except that they did not dread any misfortune? As then they were secure, predictions had but little weight with them. Hence the Prophet, in order to beat down this ferocity, says, that there would be greater hardness in the Chaldeans, for they would be like iron, yea, and steel also. (141) It follows —
(141) If we consider what is said to the Prophet in Jer 1:18, and in the twentieth verse of this chapter (Jer 15:20), we shall see the meaning of this verse: he was no doubt the iron and the brass: and the opinion of Blayney is probable, that the “enemy” in the previous verse (which is a poetical singular for the plural enemies) is the nominative case to the verb “break.” God, having before refered to what he had done for the Prophet, now says, —
Can he break the iron, The iron from the north and the brass?
God had made him an “iron pillar, and a wall of brass:” and he asks now, was it possible for his enemies to destroy him whom God had thus made. The hardest iron came from the north of Judea. The future tense is to be read here potentially. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Shall iron break . . .?The abruptness of the question and the boldness of the imagery make the interpretation difficult. That which most harmonises with the context (assuming this verse to carry on the thought of Jer. 15:1-9, after the interruption, possibly the interpolation, of Jer. 15:10-11) is, that the prayer of the prophet, strong though it may be, cannot change the inflexible purpose of Jehovah to chastise His peoples sins. Some have, however, taken the words as declaring (1) the powerlessness of Judah to resist the titanic strength of the Chaldaeans, or (2) the impotence of the prophets enemies to deter him from his work, or (3) the prophets want of power against the obdurate evil of the people, or (4) the weakness of Pharaoh-nechoh as compared with Nebuchadnezzar. Of these (3) has a show of plausibility from Jer. 1:18; Jer. 15:20, but does not harmonise so well with what precedes and follows. The northern iron is probably that of the Chalybes of Pontus, mentioned as the artificers in iron by schylus (Prom. Bound, 733), as the coast of the Euxine is called by him the land which is the mother of iron (Ibid. 309), famous for being harder than all others. For steel we should read bronze. The word is commonly translated brass, but that compound, in its modern sense, was unknown to the metallurgy of Israel.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Steel Rather, brass. Making this change, the Authorized Version, as to words, faithfully represents the original: but as to the meaning there have been different opinions. Taking the construction of the English Version, the question is: Can one kind of iron break another? Can the iron of Jeremiah’s intercession break the iron of Jehovah’s purpose to send his people into exile? But this does not satisfactorily explain the phrase northern iron. To refer the epithet “northern” to Jehovah’s purpose to send his people into the north country is harsh in the extreme, not to say puerile. Better is it to regard northern iron as a mere repetition for the purpose of identification of the term iron, and break as intransitive. The meaning, then, will be: Shall iron break northern iron and brass? Is there any probability or possibility that the power of the north country will break, any more than that iron itself will break?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
But Jeremiah Is To Recognise That His Prayers Will Not Alter What Must Inevitably Happen And The Total Desolation Of Judah ( Jer 15:12-14 ).
Jer 15:12
“Can one break iron,
Even iron from the north, and bronze?”
But their supplication to Jeremiah would be in vain, because the future was already determined and would not be altered. Nothing could break the iron coming from the north accompanied by its bronze allies. They were powerful, unbreakable, invincible, and relentless, and they were coming at YHWH’s behest. Iron was seen as the strongest of metals, especially in warfare, while bronze was somewhat inferior but was also regularly used in warfare. Both were difficult to break. Thus the reference is to the power of Babylon and its slightly inferior allies. There may also be a reference here (‘iron from the north’) to a special type of iron of particularly strong quality known to have been produced in the Black Sea area. But as ‘the north’ is constantly used in describing the source of the future invasion (Babylon) that would appear to give the most satisfactory interpretation.
Jer 15:13
“Your substance and your treasures,
Will I give for a spoil without price,
And that for all your sins,
Even in all your borders.”
The words are spoken to Jeremiah as representative of the people of Judah. The iron (Babylon) coming from the north would take Judah’s substance and their treasure for spoil, at no cost to themselves. It would not be by trading or negotiation, but by expropriation. And that would be because of Judah’s widespread sins, sins committed all over Judah ‘within all her borders’. Judah had on the whole ceased to be the people of God. We have descriptions of the fulfilment of this in the carrying off of Temple treasures (and the treasures of the king’s house) in Jer 52:15 ff.; 2Ki 20:17; 2Ki 24:13 ; 2Ki 25:13 ff.; 2Ch 35:7; 2Ch 36:18.
The emphasis on ‘without price’ is intended to bring out the ignominy of their defeat, and in order to emphasise that they will be unable to do anything about it. They will be helpless in the hands of their enemies. We can compare Isa 52:3-5, another instance in which Israel had been ‘sold for nought’. But there it was with their redemption in mind, a totally different situation to this.
Jer 15:14
“And I will make them to pass with your enemies,
Into a land which you do not know,
For a fire is kindled in my anger,
Which will burn on you.”
For all their treasures, including the Ark of the covenant of YHWH, as well as they themselves, will ‘pass over’ with their enemies into a land which is strange to them, an unknown land, and this was because YHWH’s anger had caused the kindling of a fire which will burn on them and their land (compare Deu 32:22). There is possibly a deliberate contrast here with the way in which Israel ‘passed over’ Jordan with the Ark of the covenant and with all their treasures when they first entered the land. Then it had been in triumph. Now that was being reversed. Judah would be passing out of the land along with the Ark of the Covenant and their other treasures. It would be to a land ‘which they do not know’. And this time they would have no Redeemer going with them (at least in the short term).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 15:12. Shall iron break the northern iron Houbigant renders the verse, I will raise up iron from the north, iron and brass; which seems to give the best interpretation of this difficult verse. Others understand it in a different manner, thus: The Lord, to comfort Jeremiah, promises him in the 11th verse, that he will cause his enemies at the end to treat him well: but he adds in this verse, “What do you fear from the Jews? What can they do against you? Though they were as hard as iron or as steel, they cannot hurt you. I will give you the solidity of brass, the force of northern iron: thou shalt be as a brazen wall, against which all their attacks shall be in vain.” See Jer 15:20 and ch. Jer 1:17-18.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 15:12 Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
Ver. 12. Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? ] That is, say some, shall these hardhearted Jews be too hard for me? or, for thee, Jeremiah, whom I have made an “iron pillar and brazen walls” against the whole land Jer 1:18 Never think it. Brighten thee they may, but not break thee. The northern iron is noted for the best and toughest.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 15:12-14
12Can anyone smash iron,
Iron from the north, or bronze?
13Your wealth and your treasures
I will give for booty without cost,
Even for all your sins
And within all your borders.
14Then I will cause your enemies to bring it
Into a land you do not know;
For a fire has been kindled in My anger,
It will burn upon you.
Jer 15:12-14 The NASB strophe describes the judgment of Judah by YHWH (notice the I will. . .). He is addressing Judah in Jer 15:12-14 (cf. Jer 17:3-4).
1. invasion from the north by a strong invader (iron)
2. wealth confiscated (i.e., because of their sin)
3. wealth taken out of the country (NASB, i.e., the temple treasures)
There is a problem with the first VERB of Jer 15:14.
1. cause to pass – BDB 716, KB 778, Hiphil PERFECT
a. NASB – then I will cause your enemies to bring it
b. NKJV – and I will make you cross over with your enemies
2. cause to serve – BDB 712, KB 773 (LXX, NRSV, TEV, NJB, REB, Net Bible, Peshitta, UBS’s Text Project gives this a C rating)
3. bring your enemies by way of a land you have not known (JPSOA)
Jer 15:13 without cost This phrase is difficult to interpret in this context. The LXX omits it, which makes the verse much easier to understand in the strophe. This is followed by TEV. The without cost refers to the invaders confiscating Judah’s wealth easily, without great loss to the invaders’ military.
Jer 15:14 The threat of exile was initially stated in the cursing and blessing section of Deuteronomy (i.e., Deu 28:36; Deu 28:64).
Lines 3 and 4 are related to Deu 33:22. Remember the prophets are covenant mediators. They hold Israel and Judah to the Mosaic legislation! If they obey abundance; if they disobey judgment (cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27-28).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
steel = bronze.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall iron: Jer 1:18, Jer 1:19, Jer 21:4, Jer 21:5, Job 40:9, Isa 45:9, Hab 1:5-10
Reciprocal: Dan 2:40 – forasmuch 1Jo 5:15 – if
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 15:12. Favorable and unfavorable predictions alternate in rapid succession through several verses. Through verse 10 the prediction of the captivity with its many painful experiences was made. Then verse 11 came in with an easement by predicting the kind treatment that Judah was to receive at the hand of the heathen. Now the prophet must resume the gloomy picture of the fate of this countrymen. The first iron refers to Babylon that was to come from tbe north, The verse
is in question form but the meaning is that Judah is not a strong enough piece of iron to break the greater and stronger piece to roll down from the north. For the explanation of this word see the historical quotation at Isa 14:31 in Vol. 3 of this Commentary.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 15:12. Shall iron break the northern iron? The northern iron is the hardest of any. It is here, says Blaney, justly supposed to denote, in a primary sense, that species of hardened iron, or steel, called in Greek , from the Chalybes, a people bordering on the Euxine sea, and consequently lying to the north of Judea, by whom the art of tempering steel is said to have been discovered. Strabo speaks of this people as known in former times by the name of Chalybes, but afterward called Chaldi, and mentions their iron mines, lib. 12. p. 549. These, however, were a different people from the Chaldeans who were united with the Babylonians. The words, if applied to Jeremiah, import thus much, that, as common iron cannot contend for hardness with the northern iron, or with steel, so the opposition which the Jews made against him should be easily vanquished and disappointed, because the Lord was with him to save him, Jer 15:20. If the words relate to the Jews, as the following verses plainly do, the sense is, that the Chaldeans coming from the north would be as much too hard for them to engage with, as the northern iron was superior in strength to the common metal of that kind. Lowth. But perhaps the expression is not merely metaphorical: it is not unlikely that the Babylonians had their armour from the Chalybes, and that therefore it was made of iron much harder, and of much better proof, than that of which the armour of the Jews was formed.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
15:12 Shall {n} iron break the northern iron and the steel?
(n) As for the people, though they seemed strong as iron, yet they would not be able to resist the hard iron of Babylon, but would be led captives.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The enemy from the north would be impossible to defeat, as strong as iron or bronze. What Jeremiah had been preaching would indeed come to pass.