Brazier

The umbrella collects two distinct senses of the same English word. The older sense names a worker — the artificer in brass and copper, going back to the genealogy of Cain and surfacing again at the close of Paul's life. The later sense names a utensil — the metal pan of burning coals used to heat a winter-house, set in the scene where Jehoiakim destroys Jeremiah's scroll.

The artificer in brass and copper

The first metal-worker named in scripture is Tubal-cain, born in Cain's line: "And Zillah, she also bore Tubal-cain, the forger of every cutting instrument of bronze and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah" (Ge 4:22). Bronze and iron are paired here under one craft.

The trade carries through to the New Testament. Paul names a contemporary at Ephesus by his craft: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord will render to him according to his works:" (2Ti 4:14). The trade itself is value-neutral; the verse marks the man, not the craft, as the source of harm.

The brazier in the winter-house

The utensil sense gathers around one scene. King Jehoiakim hears the scroll Jeremiah has dictated read aloud in his winter quarters. The setting is given precisely: "Now the king was sitting in the winter-house in the ninth month: and [there was a fire in] the brazier burning before him" (Je 36:22). The brazier is a portable hearth, the heat source of the room.

It becomes the instrument of contempt. As the reader works through the scroll, "And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that [the king] cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier" (Je 36:23). The same utensil that warms the king receives the prophetic word column by column. The scene closes on the corporate response: "And they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his slaves who heard all these words" (Je 36:24). The brazier here is more than furniture — it is the visible site of a king's refusal of the word.