copper or bronze: the metal itself, its products, and what its hardness symbolizes
The word covers the full range from the raw ore to finished objects and symbolic use. Ancient Israel worked with copper and copper-tin alloy (bronze), and the text does not always distinguish the two; English translations have long used "brass" (a copper-zinc alloy unknown in the biblical period) as well as "bronze" and "copper," creating a misleading patchwork. The underlying reality is always the same reddish hard metal.
Its dominant use is as a building and craft material: the Tabernacle fittings in Exodus call for it in quantities alongside gold and silver, and the Temple construction in Kings and Chronicles uses it for pillars, sea, and vessels. Soldiers wear it as armor, craftsmen work it, and trading nations export it. At the same time the very hardness that made it useful in construction gave it a natural life as a figure of speech: skies that will not give rain are "bronze," a prophet's resolve before adversaries is a "bronze wall," and the gleam of divine or angelic figures in visions is described as polished bronze.
The dual form (literally "two bronzes") functions almost as a fixed idiom for bronze fetters or shackles, used whenever the text records the binding of a notable prisoner. This is still the material, restraints made of bronze, but the usage is so distinct and consistent that it functions as its own recognizable sense.
Nuances
Disputed
Ezekiel 16:36 (נחשׁתך) is tagged in some lexical systems as H5178B "lust" rather than H5178A "bronze," implying a second, otherwise unattested homonym. The verse reads "because your [something] was poured out." Whether this is a distinct root meaning "filth" or "lustful outpouring," a textual error, or an unusual metaphorical use of the bronze-word is unresolved.
- minorityA separate rare word meaning "lust" or "lewdness" occurs here, distinct from the metal word.; BDB, s.v. נְחֹשֶׁת II
- contestedThe word in 16:36 is a textual corruption or an unusual form that cannot reliably establish a separate lexeme; the verse should be emended or the word read differently.; HALOT, s.v. נְחֹשֶׁת; Zimmerli, Ezekiel 1 (Hermeneia), ad loc.