Bilangan 31:22-23

31:22 ‘Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, 31:23 everything that may stand the fire, you are to pass through the fire, ¹  and it will be ceremonially clean, but it must still be purified with the water of purification. Anything that cannot withstand the fire you must pass through the water.

Yeremia 23:28-29

23:28 Let the prophet who has had a dream go ahead and tell his dream. Let the person who has received my message report that message faithfully. What is like straw cannot compare to what is like grain! ²  I, the Lord, affirm it! ³  23:29 My message is like a fire that purges dross! ⁴  It is like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces! ⁵  I, the Lord, so affirm it! ⁶ 

Maleakhi 3:3

3:3 He will act like a refiner and purifier of silver and will cleanse the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will offer the Lord a proper offering.

Maleakhi 3:2

3:2 Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can keep standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire, ⁷  like a launderer’s soap.

1 Tesalonika 1:7

1:7 As a result you became an example ⁸  to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

[31:23]  ¹ sn Purification by fire is unique to this event. Making these metallic objects “pass through the fire” was not only a way of purifying (burning off impurities), but it seems to be a dedicatory rite as well to the Lord and his people. The aspect of passing through the fire is one used by these pagans for child sacrifice.

[23:28]  ² tn Heb “What to the straw with [in comparison with] the grain?” This idiom represents an emphatic repudiation or denial of relationship. See, for example, the usage in 2 Sam 16:10 and note BDB 553 s.v. מָה 1.d(c).

[23:28]  ³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “Is not my message like a fire?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer that is made explicit in the translation. The words “that purges dross” are not in the text but are implicit to the metaphor. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[23:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “Is it not like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” See preceding note.

[23:29]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[3:2]  ⁷ sn The refiner’s fire was used to purify metal and refine it by melting it and allowing the dross, which floated to the top, to be scooped off.

[1:7]  ⁸ tc Most mss (א A C D² F G Ψ 0278 Ï) have the plural τύπους (tupou", “examples”) here, while a few important witnesses have the singular τύπον (tupon, “example”; B D*^,c 6 33 81 104 1739 1881 pc lat). With ὑμᾶς (Jumas, “you”) immediately preceding, the plural form looks motivated: Scribes would be expected to change the singular to the plural here. Although the external evidence for the singular reading is not overwhelming, the internal evidence for it is compelling.