Verse 2
2. Iron… earth Iron and brass are both alluded to in the final address of Moses as abounding in the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 8:9. The Jews do not seem to have worked these mines to any great extent, though it is now known that they were worked by the early Canaanitish races. (ROUGEMONT, L’Age du Bronze, 188.) Iron was certainly found in Lebanon, and Josephus speaks of an “iron mountain that runs in length as far as Moab.” Wars, Job 4:8 ; Job 4:2. Pliny (xxxiv, 14) says, mines of iron are to be found almost everywhere.
Brass… stone And stone is molten into copper. Brass, as is well known, is an alloy of copper and zinc. At Punon, between Petra and Zoar, were copper mines, to which, during the persecutions of the Roman emperors, many Christians were banished that they might fall victims to the excessive sufferings connected with mining. The numerous remains of smelting furnaces, which may still be seen, show that mining operations for copper were once carried on upon a very large scale in the outlying districts of Sinai, near Jebel Habashi. These operations probably antedated those of Magharah or Sarabit. See PALMER’S Desert of the Exodus, 234, 256.
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