Jeremiah 15:12

12 (No one can break 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'm so miserable! Why did my mother give birth to me? I am a man who argues and quarrels with the whole earth. I have never lent or borrowed anything. Yet, everyone curses me.

11 The LORD said, "I will certainly rescue you for a good reason. I will certainly make your enemies plead with you in times of disaster and in times of distress.

12 (No one can break iron, iron from the north, or bronze.)

13 I will give away your wealth and treasures as loot as the price for all the sins that you have committed throughout your territory.

14 I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you haven't heard of, because my anger has started a fire. It will burn you."