Jeremiah 15:12

12 Can a person shatter iron, iron from the north, or bronze?

Jeremiah 15:12 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 15:12

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, ( Jeremiah 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.

Jeremiah 15:12 In-Context

10 I wish I had never been born! I have become a source of conflict and dissension in my own country. Even though I haven't lent or borrowed, still everyone curses me.

11 The LORD said: Haven't I taken care of you? Haven't I helped you with your enemies in time of trouble and distress?

12 Can a person shatter iron, iron from the north, or bronze?

13 Your wealth and belongings I will deliver as plunder, without a fee, because of all your sins throughout your territory.

14 I will make you serve your enemies in a land you don't know, for my anger blazes like a fire that won't go out.