BRASS is an alloy of copper and zinc, the general use of which is comparatively modern. In ancient times its place was supplied by bronze , an alloy of copper and tin. Where ‘brass’ occurs in EV [Note: English Version.] , we must understand either bronze or copper itself. In some of the references, such as those to mining ( Deuteronomy 8:9 ‘out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass’) and smelting ( Job 28:2 ‘Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone’), it is clear that only copper can be meant, and RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] adopts this rendering everywhere (see on Genesis 4:22 ). Copper is not found in Palestine proper, but in the Lebanon and Hermon (possibly the ‘mountains of brass’ of Zechariah 6:1 ). Weapons of copper have been found at Tell el-Hesy (dating from c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 1500). From very early times copper was largely worked by the Egyptians in the Sinaitic peninsula, where traces of the mining and smelting are still to be seen. A full account of these operations and their remains is given in Flinders Petrie’s Researches in Sinai .

James Patrick.