Jeremiah 15:12

12 "Can anyone smash iron, ¹Iron 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, my mother, that you have borne me As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land! I have not lent, nor have men lent money to me, Yet everyone curses me.

11 The LORD said, "Surely I will set you free for purposes of good; Surely I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you In a time of disaster and a time of distress.

12 "Can anyone smash iron, Iron from the north, or bronze?

13 "Your wealth and your treasures I will give for booty without cost, Even for all your sins And within all your borders.

14 "Then 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."

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 28:14