Your shoes shall be iron and bronze; and as your days, so shall your strength be.
All Commentaries on Deuteronomy 33:25 Go To Deuteronomy 33
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Iron and brass, to denote the warlike disposition of this tribe. Goliah, and the heroes before Troy, wore boots of brass, 1 Kings xvii. 6. (Homer)
The greatest part of the army of Antiochus had even golden nails in their shoe soles, (Val. Max.) while the Romans contented themselves with iron. (Josephus, Jewish Wars vii. 3.)
But this custom was not peculiar to the soldiers. People of all descriptions did the like, either for ornament, or to make their sandals last longer. Empedocles wore brass at the bottom of his sandals; (Laert. viii.) and as one of them was thrown out from the top of Mount Etna, it was discovered that he had destroyed himself in that volcano, to make people suppose (Calmet) that he was a god, and had gone up to heaven. (Haydock)
St. Clement of Alexandria (Poed. ii.) complains, that some wore such gaudy ornaments in his days. (Calmet)
This passage is interpreted in a figurative sense by some, as if Aser would trample under his feet and despise the instruments of war, (Jansenius) and would turn those metals to the purposes of agriculture. Others render the Hebrew, "Thy bars shall be of iron and brass, and thy reputation (strength, repose, or sorrow,) shall endure as long as thy life; or May they", in the form of a wish. Moses desires that Aser may be secure against his enemies, as if he had a mind to insinuate, that this tribe would be led captive among the first by Teglathphalasar, 4 Kings xv. 29. Many of the cities of this tribe were strongly fortified. (Josephus)
If we adopt thy sorrow shall, we must observe, that the neighbourhood of Phoenicians exposed the people to continual incursions, (Calmet) and the king of Assyria at last came to complete their ruin. (Haydock)
