Deuteronomy 8:9

Deu 8:9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any [thing] in it; a land whose stones [are] iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

Ver. 9. Thou shalt not lack anything in it.] Of the Island of Cyprus it is said, that it sendeth forth great abundance of commodities to other countries, of whom it craveth no help again. {a} It was anciently called Macaria, the Blessed. Marcellinus, to show the fertility of it, saith that Cyprus aboundeth with such plenty of all things, that without the help of any other foreign country, it is, of itself, able to build a tall ship from the keel to the topsail, and so put it to sea, furnished of all things needful. Of Egypt also it is reported, that it is so fruitful a country, Ut cunctos mortales pascere, deos ipsos excipere hospitio salva re posse gloriaretur. It was anciently called publicum orbis horreum, the world’s great barn; as some foreign writers have termed our country the court of Queen Ceres, the granary of the western world, the Fortunate Island, the Paradise of Pleasure, and Garden of God. The worst is, that as Aristotle was wont to tax his Athenians, that whereas they were famous for two things, the best land, and the best laws, frumentis uterentur, legibus nequaquam, they abused their plenty, and lived lawlessly; {b} so it may be said of us, that we live in God’s good land, but not by God’s good laws.

{a} Turk. Hist.

{b} Laert, lib. v. cap. 1.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:9 Iron was not widely used in this period of the Bronze Age because the process of smelting and working it was known to only a few cultures (see 1 Sam 13:19-21). The time would come when Israel would exploit this vastly superior metal (see Josh 17:16-18; 1 Kgs 6:7; 2 Kgs 6:5; 1 Chr 22:3).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Where there are mines of metal.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

a land whose stones are iron--The abundance of this metal in Palestine, especially among the mountains of Lebanon, those of Kesraoun, and elsewhere, is attested not only by JOSEPHUS, but by Volney, Buckingham, and other travellers.

brass--not the alloy brass, but the ore of copper. Although the mines may now be exhausted or neglected, they yielded plenty of those metals anciently (Ch1 22:3; Ch1 29:2-7; Isa 60:17).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. A land whose stones are iron] Not only meaning that there were iron mines throughout the land, but that the loose stones were strongly impregnated with iron, ores of this metal (the most useful of all the products of the mineral kingdom) being every where in great plenty.

Out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.] As there is no such thing in nature as a brass mine, the word נחשת nechosheth should be translated copper; of which, by the addition of the lapis calaminaris, brass is made. See Clarke on Ex 25:3.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(9) Whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.—We do not hear of mining operations in Palestine from sacred history. “Brass,” i.e., copper; and so in all passages.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. without scarceness] The noun is found only here, and its adj. thrice only in the late Ecc_4:13; Ecc_9:15 f.; cp. Isa_40:20. Scarcity of bread is a great curse of the desert nomads: some tribes taste it but once a month, others not so often, and it is regarded as a luxury (Robinson, Bib. Res. ii. 497, cp. i. 197 f., Musil, Arabia Petr. iii. ‘Ethnolog. Reisebericht,’ 148). Their hunger for it is a frequent cause of their raids on the fellahin (for an instance see von Oppenheim, Vom Mittelmeer zum Pers. Golf, i. 269).

whose stones are iron] Whether iron here means basalt as in Deu_3:11 (q.v.) is doubtful, for basalt is not confined to fertile lands, but is also found in the desert. More probably it is iron proper: not introduced to Palestine till the arrival of Israel or perhaps later. Like copper it came from the North (Jer_15:12), where the Phoenicians and Arameans seem to have moulded and worked it in the Lebanons (Ramman-Nirari III of Assyria records it as tribute from Aram-Damascus; and Idrisi, see ZDPV, viii. 134, mentions a mine above Beyrout). Josephus speaks of the Iron Mountain running as far as Moabitis (IV. B.J. Deu_8:2) and the Letter of Aristeas says that both iron and copper were brought before the Persian period from the Mts of Arabia. ‘Some have denied that the promise to Israel of iron in the rocks of their own land is justified by the geological facts. But ancient sources of the ore have been discovered at Ikzim on Mt Carmel, and near Burme, N. of the Jabbok’ (Jerus. i. 332). Some of the hot springs of Palestine are impregnated with iron (Driver quoting Burckhardt, 33 f.). The excess of the references to iron and to furnaces in Jer. and Deut. over those in previous writers points to an increase of the metal in Israel before 650 b.c.

brass] ‘In the O.T. this never refers to the alloy of zinc to which the term is now confined’ (J. H. Gladstone, PEFQ, 1898, 253 n.) but means either bronze, copper with alloy of tin, or pure copper. In W. Asia no source of tin has been certainly identified. But in a paper on ‘Copper and its Alloys in Antiquity’ (reported in Athenaeum, Feb. 3, 1906) the President of the Anthropological Institute gives his opinion that bronze was made directly from a copper ore containing tin long before the two metals were artificially mixed. The sources of copper for Palestine were Cyprus, the Lebanons (‘the land of Nuḥashshi’ or bronze), Edom, and N. Arabia (Tell-el-Amarna Letters (Winckler’s ed.), 25, 27, 31 ff.; see the present writer’s article ‘Trade, etc.’ in Enc. Bibl. § 7; and for the copper-mines and smelting furnaces of N. Edom at Fênân, the Phainôn of antiquity, see Musil, Edom, i. 156 f., 287, 298, 323, ii. 7 f.).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God,.... For as the Lord would furnish them with plenty of food, they might eat of it liberally, provided they did not indulge to intemperance, as everyone may whom God has blessed with a fulness of good things; and this shows that we are to return thanks to God for a plentiful meal, as well as to ask a blessing on it:

for the good land which he hath given thee; which supplied them with such plenty, that they enjoyed full meals every day.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Iron, equal in hardness, and used to cut things, in the same manner as we use iron or steel, Isaias lx. 17. --- Brass. There were mines of both in Mount Libanus; and David collected great quantities of such metals from Cœlosyria, 3 Kings xviii. 8., and 1 Paralipomenon xxii. 3, 14. Sidon was noted for its brass. (Homer, Odyssey xv. 425.) Sarepta probably took its name from the "foundry" established there. Dan and Aser had abundance of iron and brass, chap. xxxiii. 25., and Ezechiel xxvii. 19. Cadmus brought from this country the art of melting gold, &c., into Greece. (Pliny, [Natural History?] vii. 56. In latter ages, many Christians were condemned to work in the mines of Palestine. (Eusebius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Where are mines of iron in a manner as plentiful as stones, and upon which travellers must tread, as in other parts they do upon stones;

and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass, to wit, in great plenty. These are mentioned, because they had none such in Egypt whence they came.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

A land whose stones are iron. Minerals do not abound in Palestine; the hills are for the most part calcareous; but by the side of the limestone in the north of Canaan ferruginous basalt appears in largo masses, and on Lebanon ironstone abounds. Near Tiberius are springs largely impregnated with iron, as are also those at Has-beija, on the Hermon range, as well as the soil around that place. Traces of extinct copper works are also to be found on Lebanon (cf. art. "Metals," in Kitto and Smith; Ritter, "Geography of Palestine," 1:248). The Israelites, however, do not seem to have carried on mining operations themselves, but to have been content to obtain supplies of the useful metals from their neighbors. (2Sa_8:8; 1Ch_18:8 1Ch_22:3, 1Ch_22:14)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whose stones are iron - Where are mines of iron in a manner as plentiful as stones, and upon which travelers must tread, as in other parts they do upon stones.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

Moses continues to speak to the Israelites as if they are one person. (See: Forms of You)

a land in which you will eat bread without lack

This litotes can be translated positively. AT: "a land where there will be plenty of food for you" (See: Litotes)

where you will not go without anything

This can be stated in positive form. AT: "where you will have everything you need" (See: Double Negatives)

stones are made of iron

The stones are full of iron ore. Iron is a very hard metal useful for swords and plows.

dig copper

"mine copper." Copper is a soft metal useful for making household utensils.

You will eat and be full

"You will have enough food to eat until you are full"

you will bless

"you will praise" or "you will give thanks to"

translationWords

bread

bless

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

A LAND WHOSE STONES ARE IRON. The meaning thereof is that in the place where you expect stones, you will find iron, for it will be mined from the dust thereof. He thus brought them the joyful message that in the Land of Israel there is a quarry of copper and iron which are a great necessity for the inhabitants of the Land, and thou shalt not lack any thing in it. But [the absence of] a source of silver and gold, Verse 1. is no deficiency in a land. And in the Targum Yerushalmi I have seen it rendered: “a Land whose stones are as bright as iron,” meaning to say that Scripture is praising the Land because in it there will be found quarries of great stones, costly stones, hewn stones with which to build houses, walls, and towers, unlike the land of Egypt and many lands where people dwell in houses of clay and their houses may become their graves [from excessive rains].

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.