Jeremiah 15:12
New International Version
“Can a man break iron— iron from the north—or bronze?

New Living Translation
Can a man break a bar of iron from the north, or a bar of bronze?

English Standard Version
Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze?

Berean Standard Bible
Can anyone smash iron—iron from the north—or bronze?

King James Bible
Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?

New King James Version
Can anyone break iron, The northern iron and the bronze?

New American Standard Bible
“Can anyone smash iron, Iron from the north, or bronze?

NASB 1995
“Can anyone smash iron, Iron from the north, or bronze?

NASB 1977
“Can anyone smash iron, Iron from the north, or bronze?

Legacy Standard Bible
“Can anyone smash iron, Iron from the north, or bronze?

Amplified Bible
“Can anyone crush iron, The iron from the north, or bronze?

Christian Standard Bible
Can anyone smash iron, iron from the north, or bronze?

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Can anyone smash iron, iron from the north, or bronze?

American Standard Version
Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Who is as hard as iron and like brass

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Will iron be known? whereas thy strength is a brazen covering.

Contemporary English Version
People of Judah, just as you can't break iron mixed with bronze, you can't defeat the enemies that will attack from the north.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Shall iron be allied with the iron from the north, and the brass?

English Revised Version
Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?

GOD'S WORD® Translation
(No one can break iron, iron from the north, or bronze.)

Good News Translation
No one can break iron, especially the iron from the north that is mixed with bronze.)

International Standard Version
"Can anyone break iron— iron from the north—or bronze?

JPS Tanakh 1917
Can iron break iron from the north and brass?

Literal Standard Version
Does one break iron, | Northern iron and bronze?

Majority Standard Bible
Can anyone smash iron—iron from the north—or bronze?

New American Bible
Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze?

NET Bible
Can you people who are like iron and bronze break that iron fist from the north?

New Revised Standard Version
Can iron and bronze break iron from the north?

New Heart English Bible
Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze?

Webster's Bible Translation
Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?

World English Bible
Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze?

Young's Literal Translation
Doth one break iron -- northern iron, and brass?

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Jeremiah's Woe
11The LORD said: “Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will intercede with your enemy in your time of trouble, in your time of distress. 12Can anyone smash iron— iron from the north— or bronze? 13Your wealth and your treasures I will give up as plunder, without charge for all your sins within all your borders.…

Cross References
Numbers 34:7
Your northern border will run from the Great Sea directly to Mount Hor,

Jeremiah 28:14
For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will serve him. I have even given him control of the beasts of the field.'"


Treasury of Scripture

Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?

Shall iron.

Jeremiah 1:18,19
For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land…

Jeremiah 21:4,5
Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city…

Job 40:9
Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?

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Jeremiah 15
1. The utter rejection and manifold judgments of the people.
10. Jeremiah, complaining of their spite, receives a promise for himself;
12. and a threatening for them.
15. He prays;
19. and receives a gracious promise.














(12) Shall iron break . . .?--The abruptness of the question and the boldness of the imagery make the interpretation difficult. That which most harmonises with the context (assuming this verse to carry on the thought of Jeremiah 15:1-9, after the interruption, possibly the interpolation, of Jeremiah 15:10-11) is, that the prayer of the prophet, strong though it may be, cannot change the inflexible purpose of Jehovah to chastise His people's sins. Some have, however, taken the words as declaring (1) the powerlessness of Judah to resist the titanic strength of the Chaldaeans, or (2) the impotence of the prophet's enemies to deter him from his work, or (3) the prophet's want of power against the obdurate evil of the people, or (4) the weakness of Pharaoh-nechoh as compared with Nebuchadnezzar. Of these (3) has a show of plausibility from Jeremiah 1:18; Jeremiah 15:20, but does not harmonise so well with what precedes and follows. The "northern iron" is probably that of the Chalybes of Pontus, mentioned as the "artificers in iron" by 'schylus (Prom. Bound, 733), as the coast of the Euxine is called by him the land which is "the mother of iron" (Ibid. 309), famous for being harder than all others. For "steel" we should read bronze. The word is commonly translated "brass," but that compound, in its modern sense, was unknown to the metallurgy of Israel.

Verse 12. - Shall iron break, etc.? Again an enigmatical saying. The rendering of the Authorized Version assumes that by the northern iron Jeremiah means the Babylonian empire. But the "breaking" of the Babylonian empire was not a subject which lay within the thoughts of the prophet. It was not the fate of Babylon, but his own troubled existence, and the possibility that his foes would ultimately succeed in crushing him, which disquieted this conscientious but timid spokesman of Jehovah. The Divine interlocutor has reminded him in the preceding verse of the mercy which has been already extended to him, and now recalls to his recollection the encouraging assurances given him in his inaugural vision (Jeremiah h 18, 19). Render, therefore, Can one break iron, northern iron, and bronze? The steel of the Authorized Version is evidently a slip. The Hebrew word is n'khosheth, which means sometimes (e.g. Jeremiah 6:28; Deuteronomy 8:9; Deuteronomy 33:25; Job 28:2) copper, but more commonly bronze, since "copper unalloyed seems to have been but rarely used after its alloys with tin became known" (Professor Maskelyne). "Steel" would have been more fitly introduced as the second of the three names of metals. "Northern iron" at once suggests the Chalybes, famous in antiquity for their skill in hardening iron, and, according to classical authors (e.g. Stephanus the geographer), the neighbors of the Tibareni, in the country adjoining the Euxine Sea, the Tibareni being, of course, the people of Tubal, whom Ezekiel mentions (Ezekiel 27:13) as trafficking in vessels of bronze. Any Jew, familiar with the wares of the bazaar, would at once appreciate the force of such a question as this. Even if iron could be broken, yet surely not steel nor bronze. Thus the verse simply reaffirms the original promises to Jeremiah, and prepares the way for Vers. 20, 21.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Can anyone smash
הֲיָרֹ֨עַ (hă·yā·rō·a‘)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 7489: To spoil, to make, good for, nothing, bad

iron—
בַּרְזֶ֧ל ׀ (bar·zel)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1270: Iron, an iron implement

iron
בַּרְזֶ֛ל (bar·zel)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1270: Iron, an iron implement

from the north—
מִצָּפ֖וֹן (miṣ·ṣā·p̄ō·wn)
Preposition-m | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 6828: Hidden, dark, the north as a, quarter

or bronze?
וּנְחֹֽשֶׁת׃ (ū·nə·ḥō·šeṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 5178: Copper, something made of that metal, coin, a fetter, base


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OT Prophets: Jeremiah 15:12 Can one break iron even iron (Jer.)
Jeremiah 15:11
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