Jeremiah 6:27
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
I have set you for a tower and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.
American King James Version (AKJV)
I have set you for a tower and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.
American Standard Version (ASV)
I have made thee a trier and a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
I have made you a tester among my people, so that you may have knowledge of their way and put it to the test.
Webster's Revision
I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.
World English Bible
"I have made you a tester of metals [and] a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way.
English Revised Version (ERV)
I have made thee a tower and a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way.
Clarke's Jeremiah 6:27 Bible Commentary
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, Jeremiah 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. This should be a warning to other nations, and indeed to the Christian Church; for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare these.
Barnes's Jeremiah 6:27 Bible Commentary
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.
Wesley's Jeremiah 6:27 Bible Commentary
6:27 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.