1 Raja-raja 3:8
Konteks3:8 Your servant stands 1 among your chosen people; 2 they are a great nation that is too numerous to count or number.
1 Raja-raja 8:51
Konteks8:51 After all, 3 they are your people and your special possession 4 whom you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. 5
[3:8] 1 tn There is no verb expressed in the Hebrew text; “stands” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
[3:8] 2 tn Heb “your people whom you have chosen.”
[8:51] 4 tn Heb “inheritance.”
[8:51] 5 tn The Hebrew term כּוּר (kur, “furnace,” cf. Akkadian ku„ru) is a metaphor for the intense heat of purification. A כּוּר was not a source of heat but a crucible (“iron-smelting furnace”) in which precious metals were melted down and their impurities burned away (see I. Cornelius, NIDOTTE 2:618-19). Thus Egypt served not as a place of punishment for the Israelites, but as a place of refinement to bring Israel to a place of submission to divine sovereignty.
[8:51] sn From the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. The metaphor of a furnace suggests fire and heat and is an apt image to remind the people of the suffering they endured while slaves in Egypt.