Jeremiah 6:27
in Jeremiah 6“I have appointed you to examine My people like ore, so you may know and try their ways.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I have made thee a trier and a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way.
KJV
I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.
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This verse in Jeremiah 6
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Render it: I have set thee among My people as a prover of ore, And thou shalt know and try their way. They are all of them rebels of rebels (i. e., utter rebels): Slander-walkers, were copper and iron, Corrupters all of them. The bellows glow: from their fire lead only! In vain hath the smelter smelted, And the wicked are not separated. Refuse-silver have men called them: For Yahweh hath refused them. The intermixture throughout of moral words and metallurgical terms is remarkable.
This site's exposition
I have appointed you to examine My people like ore
on Jeremiah 6:27-30
Jeremiah is given a new office, set to examine the people “like ore, so you may know and try their ways”. The refining reports failure, “The bellows blow fiercely” yet “The refining proceeds in vain”. The verdict is returned, “They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them”.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 27 and following) I have appointed you as a strong tester among my people, and you will know and prove their ways. All these leaders are turning away (or disobedient), walking deceitfully (or perversely). Bronze and iron are all corrupted, the bellows in the fire have failed (which the Greeks more significantly call a 'puffer'), the lead is consumed, the refiner has vainly blown (or the moneylender). For their wickedness is not consumed: call them reprobate silver, for the Lord has rejected them.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
I have set thee - Here God speaks by way of encouragement to the prophet, and tells him, he had made him a fortified tower, that he might be safe, notwithstanding all the attempts against him. And try - As refiners do metals; hereby be is encouraged to reprove them more freely, God will give him prudence to see what is amiss, and undauntedness to oppose it.
Those that will be faithful reprovers have need to be firm as fortresses. Now in trying their way he will find two things:-- 1. That they are wretchedly debauched (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
I have set thee for a tower,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
The Hebrew for "assayer" (English Version, "tower") is from a root "to try" metals. "Explorer" (English Version, "fortress") is from an Arabic root, "keen-sighted"; or a Hebrew root, "cutting," that is, separating the metal from the dross [EWALD].
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
I have set thee for a tower and a fortress - Dr. Blayney translates, I have appointed thee to make an assay among my people. The words refer to the office of an assayer of silver and gold; and the manner of assaying here intended is by the cupel, a flat broad iron ring filled with the ashes of burnt bones. To separate the alloy from the silver they add a portion of lead; and when all is fused together, and brought into a state of ebullition, the cupel absorbs the lead, and with it the dross or alloy, and the silver is left pure and motionless on the top of the cupel. The people are here represented under the notion of alloyed silver. They are full of impurities; and they are put into the hands of the prophet, the assayer, to be purified. The bellows are placed, the fire is lighted up, but all to no purpose: so intensely commixed is the alloy with the silver, that it can not be separated. The nozzle of the bellows is even melted with the intensity of the fire used to effect the refinement; and the lead is carried off by the action of the heat; and the assayer melteth in vain, for the alloy still continues in union with the metal. The assayer gives up the process, - will not institute one more expensive or tedious - pronounces the mass unfit to be coined, and denominates it reprobate silver, Jer 6:30. Thus, the evil habits and dispositions of the Israelites were so ingrained that they would not yield to either the ordinary or extraordinary means of salvation. God pronounces them reprobate silver, - not sterling, - full of alloy; - having neither the image nor the superscription of the Great King either on their hearts or on their conduct. Thus he gave them up as incorrigible, and their adversaries prevailed against them. […]
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בָּח֛וֹן | bachon | an assayer | H969 → | |
| נְתַתִּ֥יךָ | netatikha | I have made you | H5414 → | 2011 times |
| בְעַמִּ֖י | veami | among people my | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| מִבְצָ֑ר | mivtzar | fortification | H4013 → | 37 times |
| וְתֵדַ֕ע | veteda' | so you may observe | H3045 → | 945 times |
| וּבָחַנְתָּ֖ | uvachanta | and you will test | H974 → | 29 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| דַּרְכָּֽם׃ | darkam | conduct their | H1870 → | 707 times |
בָּח֛וֹןan assayer
bachonH969 →
נְתַתִּ֥יךָI have made you
netatikhaH5414 →2011 times
בְעַמִּ֖יamong people my
veamiH5971 →1873 times
מִבְצָ֑רfortification
mivtzarH4013 →37 times
וְתֵדַ֕עso you may observe
veteda'H3045 →945 times
וּבָחַנְתָּ֖and you will test
uvachantaH974 →29 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
דַּרְכָּֽם׃conduct their
darkamH1870 →707 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 1:18Now behold, this day I have made you like a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of…
it leads to
- Isaiah 50:7
Because the Lord GOD helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame.
- Ezekiel 3:8–9
Behold, I will make your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.
- Jeremiah 15:20
Then I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to save and deliver…
- Micah 3:8–9
As for me, however, I am filled with power by the Spirit of the LORD, with justice and courage, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
- Jeremiah 34:20–22
I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
- Isaiah 50:7
Through
Jeremiah 15:20Then I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to save and deliver…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 1:18–19
Now behold, this day I have made you like a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of…
- Jeremiah 1:18–19
Through
Jeremiah 9:7Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of the daughter of My people?
it leads to
- Isaiah 1:25
I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities.
- Malachi 3:3
And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in…
- Isaiah 1:25
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Jeremiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.