Brass
“The shining metal; copper or bronze”
Summary
The biblical term translated 'brass' actually refers to copper or bronze, a metal extensively used in antiquity for tools, vessels, weapons, and religious articles, and employed symbolically for strength, judgment, and stubbornness.
☩The Metal Identified
Modern brass is an alloy of copper and zinc unknown to the ancients. The Hebrew 'nechosheth' refers to copper or bronze (copper and tin). Scripture describes it as a mineral dug from hills and smelted from stone, confirming it was a simple metal. Canaan was promised as a land 'out of whose hills you may dig copper,' and Asher's territory was particularly rich in mines.
☩Early Metalworking
The working of copper predates iron in human history. Tubal-cain is credited as 'the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron,' establishing metalworking in the antediluvian age. Copper's extreme ductility made it universally useful. Bronze, harder than pure copper, was ideal for weapons and tools—the Bronze Age preceded the Iron Age in Palestine's development.
☩Sacred and Secular Uses
Bronze articles pervaded both religious and daily life. The tabernacle's altar of burnt offering was covered with bronze; its laver was bronze; its hundred sockets were bronze. Solomon's temple required bronze in such abundance that its weight could not be calculated. Instruments of war—Goliath's armor, shields, fetters for prisoners—were commonly bronze.
☩Symbolic Meaning
Bronze symbolized strength and endurance: 'gates of brass' that cannot be breached, 'hoofs of brass' for trampling enemies, feet 'like burnished bronze' in the glorified Christ. It also represented righteousness and divine judgment—the bronze altar where sin was judged. Negatively, it symbolized stubborn hardness: a 'brow of brass' described obstinate sinners, and Israel as 'brass' indicated their worthlessness.
☩Prophetic Imagery
In Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the statue's bronze thighs represented Greece—fitting symbolism for the 'brazen-coated Greeks' whose bronze armor was proverbial. The mountains of bronze in Zechariah's vision represented God's immutable decrees. Heaven 'as iron' and earth 'as brass' pictured drought and famine—a sky yielding no rain, a ground producing no fruit.
Related Verses117 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Brass," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. I (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Brass; Brazen," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.George Morrish, "Brass," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).