Deut. 8:9 brass, bronze or copper?
Brass or Copper in Deuteronomy 8:9?
Objection raised by a Bible critic
At the end of Deuteronomy 8:9, the KJV reads: "Out of whose hills thou mayst dig brass." The NKJV reads: "out of whose hills you can dig copper."
Which is the more accurate or better rendering of the Hebrew at this verse: "dig brass" or "dig copper?" Can "brass" be found naturally so that it can be dug out of hills? Since the KJV translators themselves translated the same Hebrew word here translated "brass" as "copper" at another verse, is there any compelling reasons for objecting to the rendering "dig copper" at Deut. 8:9?
Those who claim that the KJV is a perfect translation are under obligation to show that "dig brass" is the most accurate rendering at Deut. 8:9. Trying to claim that it is a possible or possibly acceptable rendering is clearly not the same thing showing that is the more accurate rendering. Is the KJV's rendering "dig brass" more accurate or less accurate than "dig copper" at this verse?
Answer to objection.
There is nothing wrong with the King James rendering of "brass" in Deuteronomy 8:9. All that is being said here is that the material for making brass is dug out of the hills. You can't just dig in the hills and come out with copper pipes fully formed either. There is a necessary process of purification.
The Hebrew word is usually translated as brass, but it also can be translated as copper, steel, chains and fetters. The NASB translates this word as "brass, bronze, copper (one time), chain, and fetters."
The NIV translates this same word as "bronze 128 times, copper 4 times, chains, wealth, and bronze shackles 5 times.
Not only does the King James Bible translate this word as "brass" in Deuteronomy 8:9 but so also do the Jewish translations of the 1917 JPS (Jewish Publication Society), and the 1936 Hebrew Publishing Company, New York. It is rendered as "brass" in Coverdale's translation 1535, the Bishop's Bible 1568, the Geneva Bible 1599, Webster's 1833 translation, the Revised Version 1881, Young's literal translation, Lamsa's translation of the Syriac Peshitta 1933, the Douay version 1950, the Lockman Foundation's New Life Version 1987, the KJV 21st Century Version, and the Third Millenium Bible.
John Gill comments on Deut. 8:9 "and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass; both which are taken out of the earth and the stones of it, Job 28:2 "Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone".
Matthew Henry notes: "Even the bowels of its earth were very rich,...they had plenty of those more serviceable metals, iron and brass. Iron-stone and mines of brass were found in their hills. See Job 28:2."
As for this person's objection that "brass" cannot "naturally be found" in the hills, we would ask then if these verses in the NKJV, NIV, NASB, and all the other bible versions are to be taken literally as well.
Deut. 28:23 "And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be BRASS, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron."
Deut. 33:25 "Thy shoes shall be iron and BRASS."
Isaiah 48:4 "Because I knew that thou are obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow BRASS."
Jeremiah 6:28 "They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are BRASS and iron; they are all corrupters."
Zechariah 6:1 "And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of BRASS." Can mountains of brass "naturally be found"?
This criticism of Deuteronomy 8:9 in the KJB is a silly objection raised by someone who is straining at gnats to find something wrong with God's pure words. This person does not believe any Bible or any text is the complete, infallible, inspired words of God. He has exalted his own mind as the final authority, and yet, there are many other Bible translators and commentators who agree with the King James reading in Deuteronomy 8:9 and all the others, and who see no problem at all with the word "brass".
Will Kinney
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