Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, April 9th, 2026
Thursday in Easter Week
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Young's Literal Translation

Jeremiah 15:12

Doth one break iron -- northern iron, and brass?

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Backsliders;   Iron;   Israel, Prophecies Concerning;   Steel;   Scofield Reference Index - Remnant;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Iron;  

Dictionaries:

- Easton Bible Dictionary - Copper;   Steel;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Baruch;   Iron (2);   Metals;   Steel;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Jeremiah;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Mining and Metals;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Steel;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Metals;   Steel;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Iron;   Steel;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Iron;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Break;   Iron (1);   Steel;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Baal-Zephon;   Metals;   Symbol;  

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 Living Translation
Can a man break a bar of iron from the north, or a bar of 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?
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 Wo to me, my mother, For thou hast borne me a man of strife, And a man of contention to all the land, I have not lent on usury, Nor have they lent on usury to me -- All of them are reviling me. 11 Jehovah said, Did I not direct thee for good? Did not I intercede for thee in a time of evil, And in a time of adversity, with the enemy? 12 Doth one break iron -- northern iron, and brass? 13 Thy strength and thy treasures For a prey I do give -- not for price, Even for all thy sins, and in all thy borders. 14 And I have caused thine enemies To pass over into the land -- Thou hast not known, For a fire hath been kindled in Mine anger, Against you it doth burn.

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
And Jehovah God causeth a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he sleepeth, and He taketh one of his ribs, and closeth up flesh in its stead.
Genesis 15:3
And Abram saith, `Lo, to me Thou hast not given seed, and lo, a domestic doth heir me.'
Genesis 15:5
and He bringeth him out without, and saith, `Look attentively, I pray thee, towards the heavens, and count the stars, if thou art able to count them;' and He saith to him, `Thus is thy seed.'
Genesis 15:8
and he saith, `Lord Jehovah, whereby do I know that I possess it?'
Genesis 15:9
And He saith unto him, `Take for Me a heifer of three years, and a she-goat of three years, and a ram of three years, and a turtle-dove, and a young bird;'
Genesis 15:13
and He saith to Abram, `knowing -- know that thy seed is a sojourner in a land not theirs, and they have served them, and they have afflicted them four hundred years,
Genesis 15:14
and the nation also whom they serve I judge, and after this they go out with great substance;
1 Samuel 26:12
And David taketh the spear, and the cruse of water at the pillow of Saul, and they go away, and there is none seeing, and there is none knowing, and there is none awaking, for all of them are sleeping, for a deep sleep [from] Jehovah hath fallen upon them.
Job 33:15
In a dream -- a vision of night, In the falling of deep sleep on men, In slumberings on a bed.
Acts 20:9
and there was sitting a certain youth, by name Eutychus, upon the window -- being borne down by a deep sleep, Paul discoursing long -- he having sunk down from the sleep, fell down from the third story, and was lifted up dead.

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.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile