Your shoes shall be iron and bronze; and as your days, so shall your strength be.
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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 w...
Moses says this with regard to the holy church. Shoe in Holy Scripture means the office of preaching, as is written, “Feet have been shod in preparation for the gospel of peace.” Since iron means virtue and bronze means perseverance, a man’s shoes are said to be iron and bronze when his preaching is strengthened with incisiveness and persistence. With iron he penetrates opposing evils, and with bronze he preserves the good he had patiently proposed. Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Deuteronomy
