And think about the image here: to sharpen iron, one piece of iron was put in the furnace to soften, then another iron hammer beat it until it became sharp. This is a negative image, and we find it in the context of a number of negative relationship images. In light of this, Ron Giese summarizes the verse this way: “Just as a hard iron hammer pounds soft iron into something sharp, ready for battle, in the same way a man causes his neighbor to go on the attack.”8 The implication? Don’t provoke people to anger.
