1. bronze, copper (metal) — A copper-based metal (bronze or copper) used for implements, fetters, and structural elements in ancient Israel. All occurrences refer to the same base metal regardless of prepositional framing (bare noun, simile 'like bronze'). Cross-lingual evidence is unanimous: Arabic نُحَاسٌ/نُحَاسٍ (nuhas), Swahili 'shaba' (copper/brass), Hindi पीतल (pital, brass) and काँसा (kaansa, bronze), Korean 동 (dong, copper), Spanish 'bronce.' The ancient Hebrew term did not distinguish copper from bronze alloy, as confirmed by the interchangeability of 'bronze' and 'copper' renderings across all target languages. 10×
AR["النُّحَاسَ.","كَ-النُّحَاسِ","نُحاساً","نُحَاسًا","نُحَاسٌ","نُحَاسٍ"]·ben["-পিতলের","তামা","তামার-মতো।","পিতল","পিতলের","ব্রোঞ্জ","ব্রোঞ্জের"]·DE["Bronze","[נחושה]","bronze","wie-Bronze"]·EN["bronze","copper","like-bronze"]·FR["[נחושה]","airain","bronze","comme-bronze"]·heb["כ-ה-כנחשה","נחושה","נחושת"]·HI["काँसा","काँसे-की","कांसे-के","कैसे-तांबे","पीतल","पीतल-का","पीतल-की","पीतल-के","पीतल-को"]·ID["perunggu","seperti-tembaga","tembaga"]·IT["[נחושה]","bronze","bronzo","come-bronzo","copper"]·jav["kados-tembaga.","perunggu","tembaga","tembaga.","tembaga;"]·KO["놈의","놋","놋이라","농쇠의","놓쇠를","놓쇠의","뇋같이","당동의","동을","롭-의"]·PT["bronze","bronze.","como-bronze"]·RU["бронзовый","как-медь","медные","медный","медными","медь"]·ES["bronce","bronce.","como-bronce"]·SW["kama-shaba","shaba","ya-shaba"]·TR["-gibi-tunç","bakır","bakırın","bron","tunca-o","tunctur","tuncu","tuncun","tununç","tunç"]·urd["پیتل-میں","پیتل-کو","پیتل-کی","پیتل-کی-طرح","پیتل-کے"]
Senses
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† נְחוּשָׁה and (Lv 26:19 Jb 40:18) נְחֻשָׁה n.f. copper, bronze (only poet.; cf. i. נְחשֶׁת);—נ׳ always abs.;— 1. copper, produced from ore by melting Jb 28:2. 2. copper, doubtless hardened with alloy, = bronze, as material of bow 2 S 22:35 = ψ 18:35, Jb 20:24; gates Is 45:2; fig. of strength Jb 40:18 (bones of hippopotamus), cf. 41:19, Mi 4:13 (hoofs of Zion); of obstinate brow Is 48:4 (‖ גִּיד בַּרְזֶל עָרְפֶּ֑ךָ); unproductive earth Lv 26:19.