The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your sky that is over your head will be brass, and the earth that is under you will be iron.
- KJV And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be 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 down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,
- Jer 14:1–6This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
- 1 Kgs 18:2So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria,
- 1 Kgs 17:1Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD lives—the God of Israel before whom I stand—there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
- Amos 4:7“I also withheld the rain from you when the harvest was three months away. I sent rain on one city but withheld it from another. One field received rain; another without rain withered.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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.