the Week of Proper 2 / Ordinary 7
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Bible Dictionaries
Steel
Smith's Bible Dictionary
or Steel. In all cases where the word "steel" occurs in the Authorized Version, the true rendering of the Hebrew is "copper." Whether the ancient Hebrews were acquainted with steel is not perfectly certain. It has been inferred from a passage in Jeremiah 15:12, that the "iron from the north" there spoken of denoted a superior kind of metal, hardened in an unusual manner, like the steel obtained from the Chalybes of the Pontus, the iron smiths of the ancient world.
The hardening of iron for cutting instruments was practiced in Pontus, Lydia and Laconia. There is, however, a word in Hebrew, paldah, which occurs only in Nahum 2:3, and is there rendered "torches," but which most probably denotes steel or hardened iron, and refers to the flashing scythes of the Assyrian chariots. Steel appears to have been known to the Egyptians. The steel weapons in the tomb of Rameses III, says Wilkinson, were painted blue, while the bronze weapons were painted red.
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Smith, William, Dr. Entry for 'Steel'. Smith's Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/sbd/s/steel.html. 1901.
