And I will break the pride of your power. — That is, the strength which is the cause of your pride, the wealth which they derive from the abundant harvests mentioned in Leviticus 26:4-5, as is evident from what follows immediately, where the punishment is threatened against the resources of this power or wealth. Comp. Ezekiel 30:6; Ezekiel 33:28.) The authorities during the second Temple, however, took the phrase “the pride of your power” to denote the sanctuary, which is called “the pride of your power” in Ezekiel 24:21. the expression used here, but the identity of which is obliterated in the Authorised Version by rendering the phrase “the excellency of your strength.” Hence the Chaldee Versions paraphrase it, “And I will break down the glory of the strength of your sanctuary.”
I will make your heaven as iron. — That is, the heaven which is over them shall yield no more rain than if it were of metal. In Deuteronomy 28:23, where the same punishment is threatened, and the same figure is used, the metals are reversed, the heaven is brass, and the earth iron.