Jeremiah 15:12

12 Can anyone 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 Woe to me, [O] my mother, that you gave birth to me, a man of contention and quarreling {to the whole land}. I have not lent out and {I have not borrowed}. All of them [are] cursing me.

11 Yahweh said, "{Surely} I will set you free {to be good} for you, {surely} I will cause the enemy to intercede with you in a time of trouble, and in a time of distress.

12 Can anyone break iron, iron from the north, or bronze?

13 I will give your wealth and your treasures as plunder without price, even because of all your sins, and throughout all your territories.

14 And I will make you serve your enemies in a land [that] you [do] not know, for a fire will kindle in my anger. Upon you it will be kindled."