Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 28:23
The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the assembled Israelites on the plains of Moab, delivering covenant curses that will follow their entry into the land. The declaration occurs within a broader list of agricultural and environmental judgments for breaking the covenant.
The words — נְחֹשֶׁת (ne·ḥō·šeṯ) literally means bronze, and אֶרֶץ (’e-reṣ) means ground or earth. The text uses these metals to describe the hardened, unyielding state of the sky and soil.
The thread — Leviticus 26:19 reverses the materials, declaring the sky like iron and the land like bronze. Jeremiah 14:1 and 1 Kings 17:1 connect this imagery to prolonged drought judgments.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that covenant disobedience removes natural provision, leaving creation hostile rather than sustaining. It calls the reader to understand that environmental collapse is a direct consequence of broken covenant loyalty.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 26:19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,
- Jeremiah 14:1 This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
- 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!”
- 1 Kings 18:2 So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria,
- 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.