Steel
Steel
In all cases where the word steel occurs in the A.V. the true rendering of the Hebrew is copper. , nechushah, except in 2Sa 22:35; Job 20:24; Psa 18:34 [35], is always translated brass; as is the case with the cognate word , nechosheth, with the two exceptions of Jer 15:12 (A.V. steel) and Ezr 8:27 (A.V. copper). Whether the ancient Hebrews were acquainted with steel is not perfectly certain. It has been inferred from a passage in Jeremiah (Jer 15:12) that the iron from the north there spoken of denoted a superior kind of metal, hardened in an unusual manner, like the steel obtained from the Chalybes of the Pontus, the ironsmiths of the ancient world. The hardening of iron for cutting instruments was practiced in Pontus, Lydia, and Laconia (Eustath. 2, 2, 294, 6R, quoted in Muller, Hand. d. Arch. u. d. Kunst, 307, n. 4). Justin (44, 3, 8) mentions two rivers in Spain, the Bilbilis (the Salo, or Xalon, a tributary of the Ebro) and the Chalybs, the water of which was used for hardening iron (comp. Pliny, 34, 41). The same practice is alluded to both by Homer (Od. 9, 393) and Sophocles (Aj. 650). The Celtiberians; according to Diodorus Siculus (5, 33), had a singular custom. They buried sheets of iron in the earth till the weak part, as Diodorus calls it, was consumed by rust, and what was hardest remained. This firmer portion was then converted into weapons of different kinds. The same practice is said by Beckmann (Hist. of Inv. 2, 328, ed. Bohn) to prevail in Japan., The last-mentioned writer is of opinion that of the two methods of making steel, by fusion either from iron stone or raw iron, and by cementation, the ancients were acquainted only with the former. SEE COPPER. There is, however, a word in Hebrew, , paldah, which occurs only in Nah 2:3 [4], and is there rendered torches, but which most probably denotes steel or hardened iron, and refers to the flashing scythes of the Assyrian chariots. In Syriac and Arabic the cognate words (poldo, faludh, fuladh) signify a kind of iron of excellent quality, and especially steel; SEE METAL.
Steel appears to have been known to the Egyptians. The steel weapons in the tomb of Rameses III, says Wilkinson, are painted blue, the bronze red (Anc. Eg. 2, 154). SEE IRON.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Steel
The “bow of steel” in (A.V.) 2 Sam. 22:35; Job 20:24; Ps. 18:34 is in the Revised Version “bow of brass” (Heb. kesheth-nehushah). In Jer. 15:12 the same word is used, and is also rendered in the Revised Version “brass.” But more correctly it is copper (q.v.), as brass in the ordinary sense of the word (an alloy of copper and zinc) was not known to the ancients.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Steel
Jer 15:12. Rather copper, which being mixed with “iron” by the Chalybes near the Euxine Pontus formed the hardest metal, “the northern iron and the steel.” “Shall (ordinary) iron break” this? No more can the Jews break the hardier Chaldees of the N. So in Job 20:24; Psa 18:34, translated “brass” or “copper.” Bronze was anciently used for strengthening arms.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Steel
STEEL.See Mining and Metals.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Steel
stel: the Revised Version (British and American) substitutes brass for steel in 2Sa 22:35; Job 20:24; Psa 18:34; Jer 15:12, and steel for torches in Nah 2:3. See BRASS.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Steel
The words are nechosheth or nechushah, and are often translated ‘brass.’ Either copper, or some alloy is most probable, not what is now known as steel, though in the first three passages it is ‘a bow of steel.’ 2Sa 22:35; Job 20:24; Psa 18:34; Jer 15:12.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Steel
Sometimes called »Brass«
Bows of
2Sa 22:35; Job 20:24; Psa 18:34
Strength of
Jer 15:12
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Steel
Steel. In all cases where the word “steel” occurs in the Authorized Version, the true rendering of the Hebrew is “copper.” Whether the ancient Hebrews were acquainted with steel is not perfectly certain. It has been inferred from a passage in Jer 15:12, that the “iron from the north” there spoken of denoted a superior kind of metal, hardened in an unusual manner, like the steel obtained from the Chalybes of the Pontus, the iron smiths of the ancient world.
The hardening of iron for cutting instruments was practiced in Pontus, Lydia and Laconia. There is, however, a word in Hebrew, paldah, which occurs only in Nah 2:3, and is there rendered “torches,” but which most probably denotes steel or hardened iron, and refers to the flashing scythes of the Assyrian chariots. Steel appears to have been known to the Egyptians. The steel weapons in the tomb of Rameses III, says Wilkinson, were painted blue, while the bronze weapons were painted red.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Steel
Jer 15:12 (b) This is a type of the great strength and power of the northern kingdom.