Jeremiah 6:28

They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28) Grievous revolters . . .—Literally, rebels of rebels, as a Hebraism for the worst type of rebellion.

Walking with slanders.—The phrase was a common one (Leviticus 19:16; Proverbs 11:13; Proverbs 20:19), and pointed to the restless eagerness of the tale-bearer to spread his falsehoods. (Comp. 1Timothy 5:13, “wandering about . . . idle tattlers.”)

Brass and iron.—Base metals serving for vile uses, no gold or silver in them. The imagery, which carries on the thought of the previous verse, had been made familiar by Isaiah (Isaiah 1:22; Isaiah 1:25), and was reproduced afterwards by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 22:18-22) and Malachi (Malachi 3:3).

Corrupters.—Better, workers of destruction.

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 6:28-29. They are all grievous revolters — Obstinate and refractory; walking with slanders — Making it their business to detract from thee and the other prophets. Blaney translates the clause, They are all of them the dross of revolters, passing with a fraudulent currency; an interpretation for which he assigns plausible reasons. They are brass and iron — They have basely degenerated. It appears, upon trial, that they have nothing in them of the purity of silver or gold, but their impudence resembles brass, and their obstinacy iron. They are all corrupters — Hebrew, משׁחיתים, corrupting, or adulterating; or, as Blaney renders it, instruments of adulteration, alluding to brass and iron, or any base metals, being used to adulterate the pure silver. The bellows are burned, &c. — All methods to purify and amend them are ineffectual. All the expressions to the end of the chapter are metaphorical. The lead is consumed of the fire — Before the use of quicksilver was known, the refiners used lead to separate the silver from the other substances mixed with it. Thus Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. 31. sec. 31, “Excoqui (argentum) non potest, nisi cum plumbo nigro, aut cum vena plumbi.” The founder melteth in vain — Or, as Houbigant reads it, heapeth up fire in vain. For the wicked are not plucked away — Or rather, The dross of iniquity is not purged away. The word רעים, meaning here, it seems, the base ingredients among the metals; that is, the bad principles and habits, which prevailed so much, and adhered so closely, that all endeavours and pains used to purge them away and get clear of them proved ineffectual; so that, as it follows in the next verse, nothing remained but to throw them aside, as metal disallowed, and cried down by authority; counterfeiting silver, but not capable of being brought to the sterling standard. See Blaney. In other words: As base money is refused by every one, because it cannot bear the touchstone; so should these hypocrites and evil-doers be rejected both by God and man.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:18-30 God rejects their outward services, as worthless to atone for their sins. Sacrifice and incense were to direct them to a Mediator; but when offered to purchase a license to go on in sin, they provoke God. The sins of God's professing people make them an easy prey to their enemies. They dare not show themselves. Saints may rejoice in hope of God's mercies, though they see them only in the promise: sinners must mourn for fear of God's judgments, though they see them only in the threatenings. They are the worst of revolters, and are all corrupters. Sinners soon become tempters. They are compared to ore supposed to have good metal in it, but which proves all dross. Nothing will prevail to part between them and their sins. Reprobate silver shall they be called, useless and worthless. When warnings, corrections, rebukes, and all means of grace, leave men unrenewed, they will be left, as rejected of God, to everlasting misery. Let us pray, then, that we may be refined by the Lord, as silver is refined.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Render it:

I have set thee among My people as a prover of ore,

And thou shalt know and try their way.

They are all of them rebels of rebels (i. e., utter rebels):

Slander-walkers, were copper and iron,

Corrupters all of them.

The bellows glow: from their fire lead only!

In vain hath the smelter smelted,

And the wicked are not separated.

Refuse-silver have men called them:

For Yahweh hath refused them.

The intermixture throughout of moral words and metallurgical terms is remarkable.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

28. grievous revolters—literally, "contumacious of the contumacious," that is, most contumacious, the Hebrew mode of expressing a superlative. So "the strong among the mighty," that is, the strongest (Eze 32:21). See Jer 5:23; Ho 4:16.

walking with slanders—(Jer 9:4). "Going about for the purpose of slandering" [Maurer].

brass, &c.—that is, copper. It and "iron" being the baser and harder metals express the debased and obdurate character of the Jews (Isa 48:4; 60:17).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Grievous revolters; obstinate and refractory, Isaiah 31:6 Jeremiah 5:3,23.

Walking with slanders; being their main business to detract from thee and the other prophets, Jeremiah 18:18 20:10; a sin expressly forbidden, Leviticus 19:16.

They are brass and iron: this to the end of the chapter is all metaphorical; either they are impudent, as brass doth sometimes signify, or they are obstinate and inflexible, as iron notes: see both Isaiah 48:4: or it signifies their corrupt estate; they are not pure metal, as silver or gold, but base and mean, as brass and iron mixed together, Ezekiel 22:18.

They are all corrupters: this relates to their manners; they propagate their corruption, Isaiah 1:4; they strengthen one another in wickedness.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They are all grievous revolters,.... From the right way of God and his worship: or,

they are all revolters of revolters (e); of all, the greatest revolters, the greatest sinners and transgressors, the most stubborn and disobedient; or sons of revolters; fathers and children are alike. The Targum, is,

"all their princes rebel;''

and so the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions: "walking with slanders": of one another; or with deceit, as the Targum; in a hypocritical and fraudulent manner; playing the hypocrite with God, or tricking and deceiving their neighbours. They are "brass and iron"; as vile and mean as those metals, and not as gold and silver; or as hard and inflexible as they are; or they deal as insincerely

"as he that mixes brass with iron;''

so the Targum:

they are all corrupters; as such that mix metals are; they are corrupters of themselves and of others, of the doctrines and manners of men, and of the ways and worship of God.

(e) "refractarii refractariorum", Schmidt; "contumacium contumacissimi", Junius & Tremellius.

Geneva Study Bible

They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28. grievous revolters] Heb. revolters of revolters, one of the ways of expressing the superlative. Cp. Genesis 9:25; Ezekiel 32:21 (see note in C. B.).

they are brass and iron] an awkward expression in this place, and perhaps a later insertion, suggested by Ezekiel 22:18-22.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 28. - Grievous revolters; literally, rebels of rebels. Walking; rather, going about, as a peddler with his wares (so Proverbs 11:13; Proverbs 20:19; Leviticus 19:16). Jeremiah had good reason to specify this characteristic of his enemies (see Jeremiah 18:18). Brass and Iron; rather, copper and iron, in short, base metal, Jeremiah 6:28

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jeremiah 6:28 gives a statement as to the moral character of the people. "Revolters of revolters" is a kind of superlative, and סרי is to be derived from סרר, not from סוּר, perverse of perverse; or, as Hitz., imitating the Heb. phrase, rebels of the rebellious. Going about as slanderers, see on Leviticus 19:16, in order to bring others into difficulties; cf. Ezekiel 22:9. To this is subjoined the figurative expression: brass and iron, i.e., ignoble metal as contrasted with gold and silver, cf. Ezekiel 22:18; and to this, again, the unfigurative statement: they are all dealing corruptingly. משׁחיתים, cf. Isaiah 1:4; Deuteronomy 31:29. There is no sufficient reason for joining כּלּם with the preceding: brass and iron, as Hitz. and Graf do in defiance of the accents.