Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.
Shoes shall be iron and brass. These shoes suited his rocky coast from Carmel to Sidon. Country people, as well as ancient warriors, had their lower extremities protected by metallic greaves (1 Samuel 17:6; Ephesians 6:15) and iron-soled shoes. The traveler can still see these ores if one explores the southern slopes of Lebanon (Porter's 'Handbook of Syria and Palestine' p. 363; Kendrick's 'Phoenicia,' p. 35; Stanley's 'Sinai and Palestine,' p. 265). (See the 'Parallel Prophecies of Jacob and Moses relating to the Twelve Tribes, with a Translation and Notes,' by D. Durrell, D.D., Principal of Hertford College, Oxford, p. 1764.)