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Bible Dictionaries
Copper
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or נהשה . Anciently, copper was employed for all the purposes for which we now use iron. Arms, and tools for husbandry and the mechanic arts, were all of this metal for many ages. Job speaks of bows of copper, Job 20:24; and when the Philistines had Samson in their power, they bound him with fetters of copper. Our translators, indeed say "brass;" but under that article their mistake is pointed out. In Ezra 8:27 , are mentioned "two vessels of copper, precious as gold." The Septuagint renders it σκευη χαλκου στιλβοντος; the Vulgate and Castellio, following the Arabic, "vasa aeris fulgentis;" and the Syriac, "vases of Corinthian brass." It is more probable, however, that this brass was not from Corinth, but a metal from Persia or India, which Aristotle describes in these terms: "It is said that there is in India a brass so shining, so pure, so free from tarnish, that its colour differs nothing from that of gold. It is even said that among the vessels of Darius there were some respecting which the sense of smelling might determine whether they were gold or brass." Bochart is of opinion that this is the
chasmal of Ezekiel 1:27 , the χαλκολιβανον of Revelation 1:15 , and the electrum of the ancients.
Mr. Harmer quotes from the manuscript notes of Sir John Chardin a reference to a mixed metal in the east, and highly esteemed there; and suggests that this composition might have been as old as the time of Ezra, and be brought from those more remote countries into Persia, where these two basins were given to be conveyed to Jerusalem. Ezekiel 27:13 , speaks of the merchants of Javan, Jubal, and Meshech, as bringing vessels of nehesh (copper) to the markets of Tyre. According to Bochart and Michaelis, these were people situated toward Mount Caucasus, where copper mines are worked at this day. See BRASS .
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Copper'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/c/copper.html. 1831-2.
