IRON (STEEL)
One of the oldest metals known to man. Today it is rated the most abundant, most useful and cheapest of all metals. It is the fourth-most plentiful element in the crust of the earth, while the earth’s core is said to be nearly 90 percent iron. Nevertheless, pure iron in commerce is uncommon. Pig iron contains about 3 percent carbon plus small amounts of other elements. Wrought iron has much less carbon. (Job 40:18) The many varieties of steel are simply iron alloyed with carbon and other additives to give them special characteristics. “Steel” in the Authorized Version, however, is a mistranslation for “copper.” (2 Sam. 22:35; Job 20:24; Ps. 18:34; Jer. 15:12) Due to the crude furnaces and smelting methods, the iron in Bible times was never totally purified, but was an alloy of carbon and other elements. Tubal-cain of the fourth millennium B.C.E. was the first known to forge and work with iron. (Gen. 4:22) In view of how easily iron oxidizes and corrodes, it is remarkable that iron objects have been found dating back a thousand years or more before the Common Era. Some ancient articles of steel have also been found.—See ARCHAEOLOGY, pp. 108, 111.
Meteoric iron was one type used at an early time by man. In Egyptian tombs iron beads have been found that proved to be meteoric in composition. But man was not limited to that source of supply. He mined iron oxides and sulfides and smelted the same, notwithstanding the high temperatures needed to melt iron. (Job 28:2; Ezek. 22:20; see REFINE, REFINER.) Its use was quite limited compared with copper and bronze, which could be worked cold. Nevertheless, iron doubtless was especially valued because of its great strength and utility. At Daniel 2:32, 33 it is listed with other valuable metals, including gold, silver and copper. (Compare Isaiah 60:17.) Iron was included among the spoils of war highly esteemed by the Israelites. (Num. 31:22; Josh. 6:19, 24; 22:8) But more than captured iron was to be their portion. Moses promised that upon reaching Palestine they would find iron deposits, and so it proved to be. (Deut. 8:9) Other sources of iron mentioned in the Bible were Tarshish, Dan, Javan and Uzal.—Ezek. 27:12, 19.
In their conquest of the Promised Land the Israelites were confronted with war chariots equipped with iron scythes. (Josh. 17:16, 18; Judg. 1:19) At one point during the period of the judges, “there was not a smith [metalworker] to be found in all the land of Israel.” Due to a ban imposed by the Philistines in the days of Saul, only the king and his son Jonathan had a sword; Israel was forced to take all metal tools down to the Philistines to have them sharpened. (1 Sam. 13:19-22) Later, however, King David gathered together huge quantities of iron for use in the temple construction. Under Solomon’s reign there was contributed “iron worth a hundred thousand talents,” or, according to many translations, “a hundred thousand talents of iron.” (1 Chron. 22:14, 16; 29:2, 7) If the reference is to the value of the iron, and if the talents were silver, then the iron was worth about $142,359,000. If the reference is to the weight of the iron, then it amounted to about 3,770 tons (c. 3,433 metric tons).
Iron served a variety of purposes: tools (Num. 35:16; Deut. 27:5; 2 Sam. 12:31; 1 Ki. 6:7; 1 Chron. 20:3; Isa. 10:34; Amos 1:3; 1 Tim. 4:2); nails (1 Chron. 22:3); griddles (Ezek. 4:3); writing styli (Job 19:24; Jer. 17:1); gates (Acts 12:10); weapons and armor (Judg. 4:3, 13; 1 Sam. 17:7; 2 Sam. 23:7; Job 20:24); prison bars and fetters (Ps. 105:18; 107:10, 16; 149:8, Isa. 45:2); false gods.—Dan. 5:4.
The iron furnace is a symbol of hard and hot oppression (Deut. 4:20; 1 Ki. 8:51; Jer. 11:4); iron yokes, unbreakable bondage. (Deut. 28:48; Jer. 28:13, 14) In a figurative sense iron symbolizes hardness (Lev. 26:19; Deut. 28:23), stubbornness (Isa. 48:4; Jer. 6:28), strength (Jer. 1:18; Dan. 7:7; Rev. 9:9), kingly power and judicial authority.—Ps. 2:9; Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15.