Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
I have chosen thee "I have tried thee" - For becharticha , "I have chosen thee," a MS. has bechanticha , "I have tried thee." And so perhaps read the Syriac and Chaldee interpreters; they retain the same word bechartach ; but in those languages it signifies, I have tried thee. kecheseph , quasi argentum, "as silver." Vulgate.
I cannot think becheseph , With silver, is the true reading. kecheseph , Like silver, as the Vulgate evidently read it, I suppose to have been the original reading, though no MS. yet found supports this word; the similarity of the two letters, beth and caph , might have easily led to the mistake in the first instance; and it has been but too faithfully copied ever since. cur , which we translate furnace, should be rendered crucible, the vessel in which the silver is melted. The meaning of the verse seems to be this: I have purified you, but not as silver is purified; for when it is purified, no dross of any kind is left behind. Had I done this with you, I should have consumed you altogether; but I have put you in the crucible of affliction, in captivity, that you may acknowledge your sins, and turn unto me.
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