Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron.
Parallel Translations
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Your sky that is over your head will be bronze, and the earth that is under you will be iron.
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And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
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And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Science (1)
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Deuteronomy 28:23 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Leviticus 26:19 I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like bronze.
- Jeremiah 14:1-6 This is Yahweh’s word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought. “Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of Jerusalem goes up. Their nobles send their little ones to the waters. They come to the cisterns, and find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads. Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed. They cover their heads. Yes, the doe in the field also calves and forsakes her young, because there is no grass. The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no vegetation.
- 1 Kings 17:1 Elijah the Tishbite, who was one of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”
- 1 Kings 18:2 Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria.
- Amos 4:7 “I also have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city. One place was rained on, and the piece where it didn’t rain withered.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain It shall give thee no more moisture than if…
It shall give thee no more moisture than if it were of brass.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Deu 28:23 And thy heaven that [is] over thy…
Deu 28:23 And thy heaven that [is] over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee [shall be] iron.
Ver. 23. See on Lev 26:19.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Be brass, i.e. like brass, hard and dry, and…
Be brass, i.e. like brass, hard and dry, and shut up from giving rain. See Lev 26:19.
Be iron, hard, and chapt, and barren.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls…
And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth,.... Which was always reckoned a very grievous calamity, have no other burial than in the bowels of beasts and birds; and was the case of many of the Jews in the Antiochian persecution, Psa 79:2; and in a treatise of theirs (h), which relates their many afflictions and sufferings in their present captivity, speaking of a persecution of them in Spain, in the Jewish year 5172, it is reported, how that those that fled to avoid punishment were killed in the fields, where their carcasses lying unburied became a prey to beasts:
and no man shall fray them away; the fowls and the beasts; none of their friends being left to do it, and their enemies would not show so much respect to them, and care of them.
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(h) Shebat Judahm sive Hist. Jud. a Gentio, sect. 46. p. 312.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Brass - Like brass, hard and dry, and shut…
Brass - Like brass, hard and dry, and shut up from giving rain. Iron - Hard and chapt and barren.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 23. Thy heaven - shall be brass, and…
Verse 23. Thy heaven - shall be brass, and the earth - iron.] The atmosphere should not be replenished with aqueous vapours, in consequence of which they should have neither the early nor the latter rain; hence the earth - the ground, must be wholly intractable, and, through its hardness, incapable of cultivation. God shows them by this that he is Lord of nature; and that drought and sterility are not casualties, but proceed from the immediate appointment of the Lord.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Of brass, and yield no rain. (Menochius) --- Pindar…
Of brass, and yield no rain. (Menochius) --- Pindar says, (Pyth. x.) "The heaven of brass they never can ascend." See Leviticus xxvi. 19.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain heaven . . . brass . . . earth…
heaven . . . brass . . . earth . . . iron--strong Oriental figures used to describe the effects of long-continued drought. This want of regular and seasonable rain is allowed by the most intelligent observers to be one great cause of the present sterility of Palestine.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 23. Thy heaven… brass — There are, at certain…
23. Thy heaven… brass — There are, at certain seasons, places in the land where the traveller to-day appreciates the full significance of this curse.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 23. Cp. Lev_26:19 : heaven as iron, earth as…
23. Cp. Lev_26:19 : heaven as iron, earth as brass.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (23) Thy heaven . . . shall be brass,…
(23) Thy heaven . . . shall be brass, and the earth . . . iron.—Not only in respect of the drought, but of God’s refusal to remove it. See Jeremiah 14, 15 for a most pathetic intercession for Israel under this misery, answered by the order, “Pray not for this people for their good” (Jer_14:11). Only grief is permitted (Deu_28:17). Relief is not given (Deu_15:1).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 23, 24. Terrible drought is hero threatened; no…
Vers. 23, 24. Terrible drought is hero threatened; no rain should fall; (cf. Lev_26:19) but instead thereof dust, both light as powder and heavy as sand, should fall upon them. The allusion is probably to those clouds of dust and sand which often fill the air in Palestine, when the heat is intense and there has been no rain for a season; the wind then becomes a vehement sirocco, and the air is filled with sand and dust, and is like the glowing heat at the mouth of a furnace (Robinson, "Bib. Res.," 2:123; Thomson, "Land and the Book," 2:311).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Moses speaks to the Israelites as if they were one man, so the words "you" and "your" here are singular. (See: Forms of You)
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skies ... will be bronze
Moses speaks of the skies being like bronze because there will be no rain. AT: "skies ... will give no rain" (See: Metaphor)
the earth ... will be iron
Moses speaks of the earth being like iron because no crops will grow. AT: "nothing will grow from the ground" (See: Metaphor)
Yahweh will make the rain of your land into powder and dust
"instead of rain, Yahweh will send sandstorms"
until you are destroyed
This can be stated in active form. AT: "until it destroys you" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
heaven
bronze
earth
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 28:23 In this graphic picture of drought and famine,…
28:23 In this graphic picture of drought and famine, the sky dams up the rain, making the earth hard and unfruitful.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.