Your sky that is over your head will be brass, and the earth that is under you will be iron.
Parallel translations
- KJV And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
- BSB The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.
- NKJV And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron.
- NASB The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you, iron.
- NLT The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The sky will be like bronze and the ground like iron, picturing drought and barren soil.
Overview
Heaven that yields no rain and earth that yields no crops portray devastating drought. This reverses the blessing of rain in verse 12. The vivid imagery shows creation itself turning against a people who have turned from God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Lev 26:19I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like brass.
- Jer 14:1–6This is Yahweh’s word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.
- 1 Kgs 18:2Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria.
- 1 Kgs 17:1Elijah 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.”
- 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.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Moses promised a Prophet like himself to whom Israel must listen (18:15); Jesus is that Prophet, the one who keeps the covenant we broke and becomes the curse for us by hanging on a tree (Gal 3:13).
How Deuteronomy 28:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.