I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,
Parallel translations
- WEB I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like brass.
- KJV And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
- NKJV I will break the pride of your power; I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.
- NASB I will also break down your pride of power; and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.
- NLT I will break your proud spirit by making the skies as unyielding as iron and the earth as hard as bronze.
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
God will break Israel's proud strength and make the sky like iron and soil like brass. Pride and drought follow continued rebellion.
Overview
Breaking 'the pride of your power' targets the self-reliance that idolatry breeds. A sky like iron and ground like bronze vividly picture withheld rain and barren land—the reversal of the promised fruitfulness. The judgment exposes the emptiness of trusting in human strength rather than the God who gives the increase.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Deut 28:23The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.
- 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!”
- Isa 25:11He will spread out his hands within it, as a swimmer spreads his arms to swim. His pride will be brought low, despite the skill of his hands.
- Luke 4:25But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all the land.
- 1 Sam 4:11The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
- Zeph 3:11On that day you will not be put to shame for any of the deeds by which you have transgressed against Me. For then I will remove from among you those who rejoice in their pride, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain.
- Jer 13:9“This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
- Dan 4:37Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all His works are true and all His ways are just. And He is able to humble those who walk in pride.
- Jer 14:1–6This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
- Ezek 30:6For this is what the LORD says: The allies of Egypt will fall, and her proud strength will collapse. From Migdol to Syene they will fall by the sword within her, declares the Lord GOD.
- Isa 26:5For He has humbled those who dwell on high; He lays the lofty city low. He brings it down to the ground; He casts it into the dust.
- Ezek 7:24So I will bring the most wicked of nations to take possession of their houses. I will end the pride of the mighty, and their holy places will be profaned.
- 1 Sam 4:3When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why has the LORD brought defeat on us before the Philistines today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to save us from the hand of our enemies.”
- Isa 2:12For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted—it will be humbled—
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Christ at the center
Every sacrifice, every priest, and every day of atonement points beyond itself to the one perfect offering and the great High Priest who, by his own blood, makes the unclean holy once for all.
How Leviticus 26:19 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
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