What Does Isaiah 1:25 Mean in the King James?
And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
God’s hand turns against the mixture so the silver can be separated from what has corrupted it.
THE MEANING
The hand is turned against you, and what has become mixed into you is purged and taken away. The verse names a severe cleansing: the dross and tin are removed while the silver remains. Its force falls on the corruption that clouds what is precious.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that what has become corrupted is identical with what is precious; the verse distinguishes the silver from what is mixed into it.
THE ROOT
אֶצְרֹף
etsrof
GROWS FROM
צ־ר־ף
ts-r-f
To smelt or refine metal.
“purge” in this verse is etsrof. The same seed names smelting and refining, so the verb is not merely wiping the surface clean: it is processing metal until unwanted material separates. Here the severe hand acts on the dross that clouds the silver.
ALSO GROWS
tsaruf: Refined, smelted.
צָרוּף
This form describes the silver after the refining named in the verse.
tsoreph: Refiner, metalworker.
צֹרֵף
The root names both the process and the one who carries it out, giving the removal its force and intention.
בְּדִיל
bedil
GROWS FROM
ב־ד־ל
b-d-l
To separate or divide.
Bedil, “tin,” echoes badal, “to separate”: the unwanted metal is named through the idea of division. Its removal makes distinction the center of the image, silver and what has mixed into it are no longer treated as one.
ALSO GROWS
badal: Separate, divide.
בָּדַל
This root makes the taking away of tin part of a larger movement of separating what is mixed together.
hivdil: Set apart, distinguish.
הִבְדִּיל
The related form names the distinction that refining reveals between the silver and what clouds it.
THE PATTERN
Refining restores what is precious by separating away what is mixed into it.
Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:THE THREAD
Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.The Hebrew word for “dross” here, סִיג (sig), is the same word in Isaiah 1:25. Proverbs shows what comes through when it is removed: the silver can yield a vessel, making Isaiah’s severe image precise, the force falls on the impurity, while the precious material remains.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us