Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Jeremiah 15:12-14
But Jeremiah Is To Recognise That His Prayers Will Not Alter What Must Inevitably Happen And The Total Desolation Of Judah (Jeremiah 15:12).
“Can one break iron,
Even iron from the north, and bronze?”
But their supplication to Jeremiah would be in vain, because the future was already determined and would not be altered. Nothing could break the iron coming from the north accompanied by its bronze allies. They were powerful, unbreakable, invincible, and relentless, and they were coming at YHWH's behest. Iron was seen as the strongest of metals, especially in warfare, while bronze was somewhat inferior but was also regularly used in warfare. Both were difficult to break. Thus the reference is to the power of Babylon and its slightly inferior allies. There may also be a reference here (‘iron from the north') to a special type of iron of particularly strong quality known to have been produced in the Black Sea area. But as ‘the north' is constantly used in describing the source of the future invasion (Babylon) that would appear to give the most satisfactory interpretation.
“Your substance and your treasures,
Will I give for a spoil without price,
And that for all your sins,
Even in all your borders.”
The words are spoken to Jeremiah as representative of the people of Judah. The iron (Babylon) coming from the north would take Judah's substance and their treasure for spoil, at no cost to themselves. It would not be by trading or negotiation, but by expropriation. And that would be because of Judah's widespread sins, sins committed all over Judah ‘within all her borders'. Judah had on the whole ceased to be the people of God. We have descriptions of the fulfilment of this in the carrying off of Temple treasures (and the treasures of the king's house) in Jeremiah 52:15 ff.; 2 Kings 20:17; 2Ki 24:13; 2 Kings 25:13 ff.; 2 Chronicles 35:7; 2 Chronicles 36:18.
The emphasis on ‘without price' is intended to bring out the ignominy of their defeat, and in order to emphasise that they will be unable to do anything about it. They will be helpless in the hands of their enemies. We can compare Isaiah 52:3, another instance in which Israel had been ‘sold for nought'. But there it was with their redemption in mind, a totally different situation to this.
“And I will make them to pass with your enemies,
Into a land which you do not know,
For a fire is kindled in my anger,
Which will burn on you.”
For all their treasures, including the Ark of the covenant of YHWH, as well as they themselves, will ‘pass over' with their enemies into a land which is strange to them, an unknown land, and this was because YHWH's anger had caused the kindling of a fire which will burn on them and their land (compare Deuteronomy 32:22). There is possibly a deliberate contrast here with the way in which Israel ‘passed over' Jordan with the Ark of the covenant and with all their treasures when they first entered the land. Then it had been in triumph. Now that was being reversed. Judah would be passing out of the land along with the Ark of the Covenant and their other treasures. It would be to a land ‘which they do not know'. And this time they would have no Redeemer going with them (at least in the short term).