Jeremiah 15:12

New Living Translation

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

Parallel Translations

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

Hebrew Names Version
Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?

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

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

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

New Century Version
No one can smash a piece of iron or bronze that comes from the north.

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

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

Geneva Bible (1587)
Shall the yron breake the yron, and the brasse that commeth from the North?

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

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

Contemporary English Version
The Lord told me to say: 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.

Complete Jewish Bible
"Can iron break iron and bronze from the north?

Darby Translation
Will iron break? iron from the north? and bronze?

Easy-to-Read Version
"Jeremiah, you know that no one can shatter a piece of iron. I mean the kind of iron that is from the north. And no one can shatter a piece of bronze either.

George Lamsa Translation
For he is hard as iron and as brass.

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

Lexham English Bible
Can anyone break iron, iron from the north, or bronze?

Literal Translation
Can one break iron, iron or bronze from the north?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Doth one yron hurte another, or one metall that cometh from the north, another?

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

Bible in Basic English
Is it possible for iron to be broken; even iron from the north, and brass?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Can iron break iron from the north and brass?

King James Version (1611)
Shall yron breake the Northren yron, and the steele?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Doth one iron hurt another? or one metall that commeth from the north another?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Will iron be known? whereas thy strength is a brazen covering.

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

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether yrun and metal schal be ioyned bi pees to irun fro the north?

Update Bible Version
Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze?

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

New English Translation
Can you people who are like iron and bronze break that iron fist from the north?

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

New Life Bible
"Can anyone crush iron, iron from the north, or brass?

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

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Shall iron crush the iron from the North and the bronze?

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

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

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

THE MESSAGE
"O Israel, O Judah, what are your chances against the iron juggernaut from the north? In punishment for your sins, I'm giving away everything you've got, giving it away for nothing. I'll make you slaves to your enemies in a strange and far-off land. My anger is blazing and fierce, burning in hot judgment against you."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Can anyone smash iron, Iron from the north, or bronze?

Contextual Overview

¹⁰ Then I said, "What sorrow is mine, my mother. Oh, that I had died at birth! I am hated everywhere I go. I am neither a lender who threatens to foreclose nor a borrower who refuses to pay— yet they all curse me." ¹¹ The Lord replied, "I will take care of you, Jeremiah. Your enemies will ask you to plead on their behalf in times of trouble and distress. ¹² Can a man break a bar of iron from the north, or a bar of bronze? ¹³ At no cost to them, I will hand over your wealth and treasures as plunder to your enemies, for sin runs rampant in your land. ¹⁴ I will tell your enemies to take you as captives to a foreign land. For my anger blazes like a fire that will burn forever."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Shall iron: Jeremiah 1:18, Jeremiah 1:19, Jeremiah 21:4, Jeremiah 21:5, Job 40:9, Isaiah 45:9, Habakkuk 1:5-10

Reciprocal: Daniel 2:40 - forasmuch 1 John 5:15 - if

Cross-References

Genesis 2:21
So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man's ribs and closed up the opening.

Genesis 15:3
You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir."

Genesis 15:5
Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, "Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That's how many descendants you will have!"

Genesis 15:8
But Abram replied, "O Sovereign Lord , how can I be sure that I will actually possess it?"

Genesis 15:9
The Lord told him, "Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."

Genesis 15:13
Then the Lord said to Abram, "You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.

Genesis 15:14
But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.

1 Samuel 26:12
So David took the spear and jug of water that were near Saul's head. Then he and Abishai got away without anyone seeing them or even waking up, because the Lord had put Saul's men into a deep sleep.

Job 33:15
He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.

Acts 20:9
As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The steel - “brass,” i. e., bronze. By the “iron” is meant Jeremiah’s intercession; but this cannot alter the divine purpose to send Judah into exile, which is firm as steel and brass. For “brass” see Exodus 25:3 note. The alloy of copper and zinc now called brass was entirely unknown to the ancients.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 15:12. Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? — Shall our weak forces be able to oppose and overcome the powers of the Chaldeans? נחשת nechasheth, which we here translate steel, property signifies brass or copper united with tin, which gives it much hardness, and enables it to bear a good edge.