Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Christopher,

> Three contemporary commercial translations give three quite different
> renderings:
> NRSV Can iron and bronze break iron from the north?
> NIV  Can a man break iron--iron from the north--or bronze?
> JPS  Can iron break iron and bronze?
>
> It's clear what each translation is doing ... But it's not clear to me which
> one, if any of these, is correct, and why. Your thoughts?

HH: The first and third don't make much sense to me, so I favor the 
second. Israel wasn't particularly iron at this point. Presumably, if 
all Israel was against Jeremiah (Jer 15:10), then Josiah had already 
died. So Israel had become a pawn of Egypt and Assyria.  A lot of 
iron from ancient days was made in the north, up in Hittite country. 
But whichever of the three one chooses, the implied answer to the 
question is "No."

                                        Yours,
                                        Harold Holmyard