The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the hearts.
Parallel Translations
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The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the hearts.
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The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.
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The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but the LORD trieth the hearts.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Proverbs 17:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
- Jeremiah 17:10 “I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
- Psalms 26:2 Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind.
- Proverbs 27:21 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but man is refined by his praise.
- 1 Chronicles 29:17 I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things. Now I have seen with joy your people, who are present here, offer willingly to you.
- 1 Peter 1:7 that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ—
- Psalms 66:10 For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined.
- Zechariah 13:9 I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’ ”
- Malachi 3:2-3 “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap; and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.
- Revelation 2:23 I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 17:3 The fining pot [is] for silver, and…
Pro 17:3 The fining pot [is] for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.
Ver. 3. The fining pot is for silver, &c.] God also hath his "fire in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem"; {Isa 31:9} his conflatories and his crucibles wherein he will refine his, "as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried." {Zec 13:9} Not as if he knew them not, till he had tried them; for he made them, and therefore cannot but know them; as artificers know the several parts and properties of their works. Sed tentat ut sciat, id est, ut scire nos faciat, saith Augustine. He therefore tries us, that he may make us know what is in us, what dross, what pure metal; and that all may see that we are such as, for a need, can "glorify him in the very fires," {Isa 24:15} "that the trial of our faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though tried in the fire, may be found to praise, and honour, and glory." {1Pe 1:7}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The hearts of men cannot be searched and known…
The hearts of men cannot be searched and known by any human art, but by God only.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Note, 1. The hearts of the children of men…
Note, 1. The hearts of the children of men are subject, not only to God's view, but to his judgment: As the fining-pot is for silver, both to prove it and to improve it so the Lord tries the hearts; he searches whether they are standard or no, and those that are he refines and makes purer, Jer 17:10. God tries the heart by affliction (Psa 66:10, Psa 66:11), and often chooses his people in that furnace (Isa 48:10) and makes them choice. 2. It is God only that tries the hearts. Men may try their silver and gold with the fining-pot and the furnace, but they have no such way of trying one another's hearts; God only does that, who is both the searcher and the sovereign of the heart.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace…
The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold,.... Refiners of silver have their fining pots, in which they purify the silver from the dross; and goldsmiths have their crucibles to melt and purify their gold, by which assays of the worth and value of it may be made;
but the Lord trieth the hearts; there is no vessel, as Gersom observes, in which they can be put and tried by creatures; a man does not know, nor can he thoroughly search and try his own heart, and much less the hearts of others; God only knows and tries them, Jer 17:9; The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render it by way of similitude, "as the fining pot is for silver", &c. as silver is refined in the pot, and gold in the furnace, so are the hearts of God's people, and their graces tried and purified by him in the furnace of affliction; the variety of troubles they are exercised with are made useful for the purging away of the dross of sin and corruption, and for the brightening of their graces, Pe1 1:7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. The fining pot is for silver] When…
Verse 3. The fining pot is for silver] When silver is mixed, or suspected to be mixed, with base metal, it must be subjected to such a test as the cupel to purify it. And gold also must be purified by the action of the fire. So God tries hearts. He sends afflictions which penetrate the soul, and give a man to see his state, so that he may apply to the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, to destroy what cannot stand the fire, to separate and burn up all the dross.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Wonderful as is the separation of the pure metal…
Wonderful as is the separation of the pure metal from the dross with which it has mingled, there is something yet more wonderful in the divine discipline which purifies the good that lies hid, like a grain of gold, even in rough and common natures, and frees it from all admixture of evil. Compare Mal 3:2; 1Pe 1:7.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain The refiner’s fining-pot and furnace try his metals. But…
The refiner’s fining-pot and furnace try his metals. But Jehovah claims to himself the prerogative of trying the hearts. (1Ki 8:39 . Jer 17:10 .) His eyes are as a flame of fire. (Rev 1:14 .) Nothing deceives him; nothing escapes his probing search. The gold must be put into the furnace. So mixed is it with dross, that the workman’s eye can scarcely discover it. But for the furnace, the dross would cleave inseparably. The refiner’s process burns it out, and the pure metal is left behind. No burnishing is of any avail. Till it has undergone the fire, it is unfit for use. And must there not be a furnace for the child of God? (Isa 31:9 . Jer 9:7 .) None of us know ourselves, until "the fire has tried every man’s work, of what sort it is." (1Co 3:13 .) We can but exclaim in witnessing the result — Lord! what is man! the heart of man of the holiest saint thus proved — thus open to view?
But the LORD will have the metal cleansed. We cannot do the work. It is no common power, that can separate the base alloy. No milder remedy will accomplish the purpose. But by this process the hidden evil is brought out for humiliation;†1 the hidden good for honour.†2 Deep personal or relative affliction; "the knowledge of the plague of our own hearts;"†3 the discovery of secret sins; circumstances of daily trial in trifles, known perhaps only to the heart that feels them†4 — all or any of these are a searching, piercing furnace.
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Painful indeed is the purifying process. The flesh trembles at the fire. Yet shall we not let the refiner do his work, though it be by Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace?†5 Shall we not commit ourselves with well-grounded confidence to his wisdom, tenderness and love? — "O LORD, correct me; but with judgment." (Jer 10:24 .) Is not any furnace, that "purges away our dross" (Isa 1:25 ) of earthliness, that brings us to know ourselves, our God, and his dealings with us — a mighty blessing? The best materials for praise are brought out of this consecrated furnace. Yet we must carefully examine, ere we perceive the value of these trying dispensations. When the action of fire upon the metal has brought it into its best state for use, we now look for the results, in the displacing of all worldly idols, in the melting away of the stubbornness of the will, and the entireness of the heart for God. For ’as gold cast into the furnace receiveth their new lustre, and shineth brighter when it cometh forth than it did before; so are the saints of God more glorious after their great afflictions, and their graces even more resplendent.’†6 The refiner’s process may be slow, but its results are sure. Nothing but dross will perish. The vilest earth will be turned into the finest gold. No refiner ever watched the furnace with such exactness and care. Many glittering particles may be swept away. But the pure residue — the solid particles — comparatively scanty in the amount, but sterling in quality, shall be delivered into the mold. Strange as it may seem to see the gold left in the fire, ’he that put it there will be loth to lose it. Not one grain, not one drachm, shall be lost.’†7 He "sits" in patient watchfulness (Mal 3:2-3 ), moderating the heat, and carefully marking the moment, when it "shall be brought through the fire" (Zec 13:9 ), and set out in all the purity of the purifying trial. Every hour of the trial is above gold, and issues in a richer vein of Christian attainment. A suffering Savior is realized and endeared.
Here then in the furnace — child of God — see the seal of thine election (Isa 48:10 ); the ground and establishment of thy confidence (Zec 13:9 ); thy joyous anticipation, that thy faith that is here in the furnace shall, when thy Lord shall appear, be then made up into a crown ’of pure gold, and be found unto praise and honour, and glory.’†8
Footnotes:
†1 Deu 8:2. 2Ch 32:31 .
†2 Gen 22:12. Mat 15:23-28 .
†3 1Ki 8:38 .
†4 Pro 14:10.
†5 Dan 3:19.
†6 Bp. Sanderson’s Sermon on Psa 119:75 .
†7 Leighton on 1Pe 1:7 .
†8 1Pe 1:7 . Leighton ut supra.
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain God only knows, as He tries (Psa 12:6; Psa…
God only knows, as He tries (Psa 12:6; Psa 66:10) the heart.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. The fining pot — Better: The cupel for…
3. The fining pot — Better: The cupel for silver, and the furnace for gold; but the prover of hearts is Jehovah. He tries and purifies. On the first clause compare Pro_27:21; on the second clause Pro_15:11; Pro_16:2; Pro_21:2; Pro_24:12; Malachi 3:23; 1Pe_1:7; Psa_26:2; Jer_17:10.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. trieth the hearts] q.d. man can try the…
3. trieth the hearts] q.d. man can try the precious metals, but only God the hearts (Jer_17:9-10). The thought that He tries them to refine them, which is suggested here by the parallelism, is elsewhere expressed clearly. (Psa_66:10-12; Mal_3:3-4; 1Pe_1:7. Comp. Sir_2:5.)
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) The fining pot is for silver.—See above on…
(3) The fining pot is for silver.—See above on Pro_2:4.
The Lord trieth the hearts.—By allowing sorrows and temptations to assail them, in order that they may come out of the trial as pure gold (Rev_3:18; 1Pe_1:7; 1Co_3:13; Mal_3:3), purged of earthly infirmities.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace…
The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold. The word matsreph, "fining pot," occurs also in Pro_27:21. It is not certain what is meant by it. There is no evidence that the Israelites were acquainted with the use of acids in the manipulation of impure or mixed metals; otherwise the "pot" and the "furnace" would represent the two usual modes of reduction; but it is most probable that both allude to the same method of smelting the ore in crucibles, for the purpose of separating the pure metal from the dross. That silver and gold were plentiful in Solomon"s time is abundantly evident; indeed, the amount of the precious metals collected by David and his son is almost incredible. (see 1Ch_22:14 1Ch_29:2, etc., from which and similar passages it is inferred that the sums enumerated equalled more than nine hundred millions of pounds sterling) But the Lord trieth the hearts. (Pro_15:11 Pro_24:12) That which fire does for the metals, the Lord does for men"s hearts; he purifies them from dross, brings forth the good that is in them, purged from earthly infirmities. God"s process is the application of sorrow, sickness, temptation, that, duly meeting these, the soul may emerge from the trial as pure gold, fit for the Master"s use. (comp. Jer_12:3 Mal_3:2 1Pe_1:7 Rev_3:18)
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Ver. 3. Divine proving and purifying.
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Heat, like water, is a very bad master but a very excellent servant. It proves whether our acquisition has or has not any value, whether it should be carefully preserved or be "trodden underfoot;" and it refines that which has any worth at all, separating the dross and securing for us the pure metal which we want for use or ornament. What we do with our materials God does with ourselves; but the fires through which he sends us are of a very different kind from those we kindle.
I THE FIRES THROUGH WHICH GOD PASSES US. These are the disciplinary experiences through which, in his holy providence and in his fatherly love, he causes us to pass. And of them we may say that their name is legion, for "they are many." They vary as do the histories of human life. It may be
(1) a change for the worse, sudden or gradual, permanent or transient, in our temporal conditions, affluence sinking into competence, or competence into pecuniary embarrassment, or into hard toil and scant enjoyment; or
(2) bereavement and consequent loneliness of spirit, the loss of some near companion whose fellowship was sweet beyond expression, or whose guidance was incalculably helpful; or
(3) disappointment, the going out of some bright hope in the light of which our path had been trodden and the extinction of which throws the future into thick darkness; or
(4) the loss of health and strength, when we are taken away from activities which were congenial or apparently necessary to us, and are shut in to an enforced idleness, from which we long to be delivered; or
(5) the endurance of pain; or
(6) our failure to accomplish some good work on which we had set our heart and put our hand.
II HIS TRIAL OF OUR SPIRIT. God thus proves us. Theme troubles are trials; they show to our Creator and to ourselves what manner of men we are, what is "the spirit we are of." They prove to him and to us whether we care more about our circumstances than we do about ourselves and our character; they prove whether we have a deep spirit of submission and of trustfulness, or whether our subjection to the will of God is very shallow and departs as soon as it is tested; they prove whether in the hour of need we look above us for strength and succour, or whether we have recourse only to those persons and things which are around us, or whether we descend to props and stays that are positively beneath us. They prove the quality of our Christian character; they sometimes demonstrate its actual unreality.
III GOD"S REFINING GOODNESS AND WISDOM. God tries our hearts, not merely that he or we may see what is in them, but that they may be purified. (see Isa_48:10) Many purifying, practical lessons we learn in affliction which we are very slow to receive, and which, but for its discipline, we might never gain at all. They are these, among others.
1. The unsatisfying character of all that is earthly and human.
2. The transitoriness of the present, and the wisdom of laying up treasures in heaven.
3. The secondariness of all claims to those that are Divine, and our consequent obligation to give the first place to the will and the cause of our Redeemer.
4. Our deep need of Christ as the Lord whom we are to be faithfully serving and the Friend in whose fellowship we are to spend our days. With these great spiritual truths burnt into our souls by the refining fires, we shall have our worldliness and our selfishness expelled, and be vessels of pure gold, meet for the Master"s use. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace…
Pro_17:3
The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts.
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Gods fining pot and furnace
The text is a parabolical description of Gods almighty power and wisdom, for the discovery and reformation of the closest, and subtlest, and perfectest thing in the world, which is the heart of man.
I. The proposition. First part of the verse. The metals mentioned are silver and gold. The instruments are the fining pot and the furnace. Good men are like gold and silver in sundry regards.
1. From the solidity and substantialness of their principles.
2. From the purity and sincerity of their conversation.
3. From the splendour of their example.
Their hearts are like gold and silver, but it is like gold and silver in the ore, which has a great deal of dross mixed with it, and must be separated from it by Gods instruments of purification. The fining pot represents the Word of God, the furnace represents the rod of God, or affliction. The furnace is not for the hurt of the gold, but for its advantage. Labour to be bettered by every hand of God upon us, that so therein we may close with His gracious ends.
II. The reddition. But the Lord trieth the hearts. This adversative particle hath a threefold emphasis in it.
1. An emphasis of proportion. Taking but for so. The Lord is no less able or careful to try the hearts of the sons of men than the goldsmith is his silver and gold. God tries the heart either in a way of discovery or of purification. He tries them so as to discern them, and make known what they are. This kind of trial has two seasons, this present time and the world to come. He tries them to purge them, and remove their corruptions from them. This He does out of love to themselves, that He may make them vessels of honour. In reference to their works, that they may bring forth more fruit. For the sake of others.
2. An emphasis of exception. As restraining the skill of the refiner in this particular. He may be able to refine his metals, but he cannot try the heart.
3. An emphasis of appropriation. The Lord trieth the hearts, i.e., the Lord alone does it. This is His prerogative. None other can try the heart thus authoritatively, and none can try it so effectually. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Heart tests
The chemical analyst has different tests for different poisons. If he suspect the presence of arsenic, he will use one thing to detect that; if he is looking for antimony, he will take another to discover that; if he is trying for strychnine, he will employ quite another to bring that to light. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Religious lessons from metallurgy
To get the dross out of us, this is the sovereign aim of our training in this world. In education the main purpose is to free the mental faculties of the dross of sloth and prejudice. In active life the great success is in confirming the fibre of energy and character. In higher relations the object of the Almighty is to burn out the dross of the spirit and make us noble and pure. What is dross in human character? Suppose you are inclined to avarice, the excessive love of money. If you think of your own character as strengthened, made better, do you think of that quality of avarice as untouched? Do you think of it as stronger than it is now? Or do you think of it as weaker, as melted down in part, and poured off from your soul like scum? Now consider profanity, levity, intemperance, lust, moral sluggishness, vanity, haughtiness, insolence of words or manners, irreverence, rebellion in feeling against Providence--translate these into natural language, into the language of metals and the crucible, what are they?--valuable elements or foul ones, dross or gold? But take the converse qualities--reverence, purity, zeal for good, aspiration, generous use of money, the spirit of sacrifice, charity, devotion to the will of God--how do you represent these in your imagination? You say at once these are the precious elements of human nature and human life. These are the pure silver and gold of the moral world. Now, God is seeking to bring out these qualities into greater concentration and prominence by His moral government. Left to ourselves, to the wandering, undirected impulses of our constitution, mentally and morally, we should always be in the ore state. The hardships of life, the tough conditions that surround the attainment of truth and the training of character, are Gods reducing and refining processes. I do not mean to maintain here that all the hard conditions of life can be explained by this figure, or by any figure or theory of mans device. But a world without hardships to such beings as we are would be a far worse, a far more disastrous world than the present. What would a ton of ore, taken out in one slab, be likely to say if it could be conscious, when carried to the batteries of the mill, and then washed for gold, and roasted to drive off sulphur, and pounded again, and mixed with quicksilver, and heated once more to drive off the mercury, and melted again into a mixed bar, and assayed, and still once more melted and granulated into cold water, and then gnawed by nitric acid, to take up the silver and leave the gold as sediment, and then precipitated from the acid as pure silver powder, and washed, and packed into cakes by hydraulic presses to squeeze the water out of it, and melted again in bars, and run through rollers, and punched, and milled, and stamped--thus becoming fit to serve the daily necessities of civilisation? Suppose it should be told, half-way in the process, that all this was good for it, was part of a great plan, supremely wise, for its permanent benefit I Would it not be likely to say, Why did you not leave me in my sluggish content in the darkness of the mine? I was happy there. I had no dream there of a higher and better lot. I should have never known these terrible buffets and scourgings and bitings and pressures if I had been left there. Oh, for that gloom and calm again! In its silver-bar state, afterwards in its coin-state, will it say so? It can look back then on the trials and pains, and see their meaning and read their bitter but splendid benevolence. We see enough now to show that the best qualities of human nature are brought out and tested by difficulty and suffering. To the choice characters of the world God can say now, as the Spirit said through Isaiah, I have refined thee, but not with silver: I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. And if this world is designed not as the final state for the enjoyment of God, but as the state in which we get the preparation of quality within for the true knowledge and enjoyment of Him, we find the whole secret of life--of its terrors and its hidden mercy--when we follow the ore from its cave to its appearance as the clean silver and the flaming gold. Do not fail either to receive the searching lesson as to judgment hidden in this analogy. The ore is tested thoroughly at the final process of its history. The assayer, by balance and fire, determines exactly what its quality is and its worth. And the processes of Gods government are taking us to judgment. It is to be known and seen one day just what we are. To the great judgment of truth you and I, and all the millions living, are moving with every heart-beat, and nothing can save us from its severity and its rewards. The fining-pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but the Lord trieth the hearts.
1. If we pass now to consider sectarian divisions and strifes in the Christian Church, we can gain some help in a right estimate of them and for a wise charity, from analogies in the science of metallurgy. The great object of the New Testament and of Christianity is to increase religious qualities practically in the world, to add pure working forces to life, so that men will be nobler and happier in themselves and in their relations to each other. God has made different kinds of ores, and equally rich in different kinds. For some kinds of mineral one process is admirable; for other kinds a very different treatment is essential. And human nature is analogous. Evils are thrown off from men, and good is practically brought out, by a variety of spiritual methods; and that Church or system of training is the best for a soul which fits its temperament and quickens its will. In some men the good is quickly and easily appealed to and developed. A simple faith and administration will reach and awaken it. Others have the sulphurets in the soul. They are obstinate. Common batteries and cool washings do not do the work. They need heat, fire, the treatment of the element of fear; that takes hold of them. Calvinism is the process that reduces their stubborn self-will and makes them agents of good. Give the proper temperaments to each Church: let the Episcopalians take those that can be best reached by their methods, and the Methodists take their natural material, and the Swedenborgians and the Quakers and the Calvinists theirs, and the Unitarians theirs, and great good will be done. The world of character will be richer. The work of the Spirit will be variously and properly performed. There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. In science men appeal to the facts. If you put in a ton of ore and take out a pound of gold, you may say that there ought to be two pounds, but you cant say that the process does not produce any gold. And if a system of Christian administration produces honesty, integrity, principle, charity, interest in worship, interest in good ideas and good government and liberty and order, quiet and elevated homes, readiness to serve others and to hold gifts and treasures partly in trust for others--are these qualities to be denied to be good because the process which produces them is different from the ordinary customs? The melter and assayer does not make coin; society does not allow him to put his stamp on money and say, All gold is spurious which is not poured from my crucibles. It is his office to produce gold. The Government coins and issues it, and allows that great office to no private hands. So the business of Churches is to produce purity, reverence integrity, charity, readiness to do good in all forms. God rates and stamps the products, and His judgment is the final and the only one as to the honesty or spuriousness of the products of the sanctuaries. There is one other point upon which I wish to make our subject bear in illustration.
2. There is a great discussion now about the Bible, especially the Old Testament, and its religious value. Is it a verbally inspired, completely accurate, and authoritative revelation? The Old Testament is a very wonderful book, and its value in the religious and providential training of the world cannot readily be stated. But it is not a continuous revelation. It does not offer you concentrated spiritual truth in all its pages, the pure silver and gold of the Spirit. The Old Testament is a great lode, or precious mineral vein, upheaved and winding through the strata of a national history. There are different kinds and qualities of ore in it, some easy, some difficult of reduction to the pure standard of moral truth. The Old Testament, compared with all other ancient national literatures, is a religious gold and silver vein immensely, incalculably, divinely rich. That is its distinction in the world, and will be its distinction for ever. And by the statement and authority of Jesus Himself, we get its concentrated value in the laws of love to God and our neighbour. If you understand little of commentaries and theological discussion and council lore, and have these, you have what Jesus Christ called the essentials. Knowledge of mining is good, but its practical value is in furnishing the silver for human use. This spirit of love is the silver into which the inspiration collected from the ore of the Bible is finally reduced. If you do not possess this spirit, your Biblical learning is only intellectual wisdom, your soundness of faith is only correct thinking; and though you may be baptized every day in the name and forms of the most orthodox creed, you advance not by a step towards the kingdom of heaven. (T. Starr King.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_17:3
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_17:3
THE TRIER OF HEARTS
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We have here an analogy implied between men’s hearts and gold and silver.
I. Both have an intrinsic worth. Gold and silver have not only an artificial value, but they have qualities in themselves which render them of especial worth. So the heart of man—that spiritual and immortal part of him which constitutes him a man—is of priceless worth because of its infinite capacities of good and evil, its infinite capabilities of enjoyment and of suffering.
II. Both must be separated from worthless alloy if they are to attain their real value. Gold and silver are comparatively worthless until they are separated from every other mineral; they must be unalloyed with baser metal, or nearly so, before their intrinsic excellences and capabilities become apparent and they can be put to the uses for which they are so peculiarly fitted. So the human soul cannot rise to the high destiny to which it is appointed until there is a separation made between it and sinful habits, motives, and desires.
III. Both human souls and precious metals are subjected to a testing process. The gold and the silver ores are thrown into the crucible and placed over the fire, in order that it may be made manifest how much there is of real worth in them, and the human soul is subjected to trials of various kinds by the Great Searcher of hearts, in order that both the good and the evil that is therein may be seen, and the one separated from the other. The proverb seems rather to refer to the testing, than to the purifying process.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Trying is more than simply discerning. The Lord does not need to try in order to make any discovery for Himself. He “knoweth what is in man.” But He “tries,” in order to bring to light what may lie concealed from men, and especially from the individual himself. And this He does in order to the person’s conviction and benefit; and that He may be vindicated in His final judgments He “tries,” in different respects, both the wicked and the righteous. By the dispensations of His providence He often elicits the latent evils that are in the hearts of the ungodly and the worldly. He brings out their hidden abominations. He manifests the deceitfulness, the hypocrisy, the “desperate wickedness” of their “inward parts,” their rebellions and unsubdued dispositions. He exposed the simulation of dissemblers, and of those whose religion only seems to thrive when their profession of it brings no suffering, and demands no sacrifice.… In the same manner, too, does God try and bring out to view the inward graces and virtues of His children. And while disclosing He refines and purifies them, He detects and removes the alloy—the dross and tin of self and the world, separating the “vile” from the “precious,” and so rendering the precious the more excellent.—Wardlaw.
Silver is refined by getting the silver out from among the dross. Christians are refined by putting the silver in among the dross, and refining the dross away. Men in a natural state are not an ore of silver, but are dross, and they are nothing else. He who sits to purify them (Mal_3:3) does not disengage the gold, but supplies it as He goes along. In other respects the emblem is complete.
(1) The “furnace” takes out the dross. So does “Jehovah.”
(2) The “furnace” burns out the dross. So does “Jehovah,” with biting flames.
(3) The “furnace” is a gradual worker. So is God.—Miller.
Man trieth many things, and many things in man are tried by man. The silver of a man’s word is tried by a wise care: the gold of a man’s deeds is tried by the fruit of them: the silver of a man’s wit is tried by dangers and distresses, the gold of a man’s understanding is tried by weighty and important business; the gold of a man’s strength is tried by hard and burdensome labour; the gold of his knowledge by hard and difficult questions; the silver of a man’s diligence is tried by the haste of affairs; the gold of a man’s faithfulness by trust reposed in him: the silver of a man’s estate is tried by a careful account, the gold of his virtues by troubles and temptations. Thus there is a fining-pot for the silver, and a furnace for the gold: and the heart of man trieth other things, but the trier of the heart is the Lord alone. The fine silver, the pure gold that lie in that, can be proved by nothing but by His touch. Whoever else taketh upon him to search the secrets of the heart, layeth open his own sin and folly. The heart itself cannot try itself; God is the goldsmith for it. Or else the original will bear well this sense, that God, by troubles, trieth the heart of man. Wherefore Tertullian saith, When we are burned in the heat of persecution then are we tried in the hold-fast of our faith.… And surely if Seneca could say, “I gave thanks unto fortune because she would try how much I esteemed honesty, so great a thing ought not to stand me in a little,” then certainly the servants of God ought to thank God when He, by troubles, trieth how well they love Him.—Jermin.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 3. The fining-pot is for silver and the…
v. 3. The fining-pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, their nature and purity in either case being brought out by the process to which they are submitted; but the Lord trieth the hearts, testing the worth of both their nature and their contents, familiar with even the hidden desires of men.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 The crucible is for silver and the furnace is…
The crucible is for silver and the furnace is for gold
This refers to how gold and silver are refined. A metal is refined by heating it to a high temperature so that it melts and the impurities may be removed. AT: "The crucible is used to refine silver and the furnace is used to refine gold" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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crucible
a pot in which metals are melted at a very high temperature
Yahweh refines hearts
This speaks of Yahweh testing people to help them stop being evil and foolish as if their hearts were a metal that Yahweh was refining to remove everything that is impure. AT: "Yahweh tests peoples' hearts" (See: Metaphor)
wicked lips
The word "lips" can be translated as either 1) a synecdoche for the person or 2) a metonym for the words that come out from those lips. AT: "a wicked person" or "wicked talk" (See: Synecdoche and Metonymy)
gives ear
This idiom means "listens." (See: Idiom)
destructive tongue
The word "tongue" can be translated as either 1) a synecdoche for the person or 2) a metonym for the words that the tongue produces. AT: "a destructive person" or "destructive talk" (See: Synecdoche and Metonymy)
translationWords
silver
furnace
gold
Yahweh
heart
evil
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 17:3 The Lord’s refining fire (see Ps 66:10; Jer…
17:3 The Lord’s refining fire (see Ps 66:10; Jer 9:7; Mal 3:2-3) separates what is precious from the impurities in a person’s heart (cp. Prov 16:2; 21:2; 27:21).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.