Jeremiah 6:27

King James Version

I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I have appointed you to be an assayer among my people—a refiner—so you may know and assay their way of life.

Hebrew Names Version
I have made you a tester of metals [and] a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way.

English Standard Version
"I have made you a tester of metals among my people, that you may know and test their ways.

New American Standard Bible
"I have made you an assayer and an examiner among My people, So that you may know and put their way to the test."

New Century Version
"Jeremiah, I have made you like a worker who tests metal, and my people are like the ore. You must observe their ways and test them.

Amplified Bible
"I [the LORD] have set you as an assayer [O Jeremiah] and as a tester [of the ore] of My people, That you may know and analyze their acts."

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.

Geneva Bible (1587)
I haue set thee for a defence and fortres among my people, that thou maiest knowe and trie their waies.

Legacy Standard Bible
"I have made you a tester of metals and an assayer among My people,That you may know and test their way."

Berean Standard Bible
I have appointed you a tester of metals among My people, so you may know and try their ways.

Contemporary English Version
The Lord said: Jeremiah, test my people as though they were metal.

Complete Jewish Bible
"I have made you a refiner and tester of my people, to know and test how they behave.

Darby Translation
I have set thee among my people as an assayer, a fortress, that thou mayest know and try their way.

Easy-to-Read Version
"Jeremiah, I want you to be like a worker who tests metals. You will test my people and watch how they live.

George Lamsa Translation
I have set you as a seer among my great people, that you may know and understand their ways.

Good News Translation
Jeremiah, test my people, as you would test metal, and find out what they are like.

Lexham English Bible
"I have made you an assayer among my people, a fortification, so that you may know and put to the test their ways.

Literal Translation
I have given you as a sayer, an examiner among My people, that you may know and examine their way.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The haue I set for a prouer of my harde people, to seke out and to trye their wayes.

American Standard Version
I have made thee a trier and a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way.

Bible in Basic English
I have made you a tester among my people, so that you may have knowledge of their way and put it to the test.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
I have made thee a tower and a fortress among My people; that thou mayest know and try their way.

King James Version (1611)
I haue set thee for a towre, and a fortresse among my people: that thou mayest know and trie their way.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Thee haue I set for a strong towre [O thou prophete] and a well fensed wall among my people, to seeke out and to trye their wayes.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I have caused thee to be tried among tried nations, and thou shalt know me when I have tried their way.

English Revised Version
I have made thee a tower and a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
I yaf thee a strong preuere in my puple, and thou schalt knowe, and preue the weie of hem.

Update Bible Version
Among my people, I have made you as a trier [of metals], as a fortress you will examine and try their way.

Webster's Bible Translation
I have set thee [for] a tower [and] a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

New English Translation
The Lord said to me, "I have made you like a metal assayer to test my people like ore. You are to observe them and evaluate how they behave."

New King James Version
"I have set you as an assayer and a fortress among My people, That you may know and test their way.

New Living Translation
"Jeremiah, I have made you a tester of metals, that you may determine the quality of my people.

New Life Bible
"I have asked you to test My people, that you may know and test their ways."

New Revised Standard
I have made you a tester and a refiner among my people so that you may know and test their ways.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
An assayer, have I set thee amongst my people, of gold-ore, - That thou mayest note and try their way:

Douay-Rheims Bible
I have set thee for a strong trier among my people: and thou shalt know, and prove their way.

Revised Standard Version
"I have made you an assayer and tester among my people, that you may know and assay their ways.

Young's Literal Translation
A watch-tower I have given thee, Among My people a fortress, And thou knowest, and hast tried their way.

THE MESSAGE
God gave me this task: "I have made you the examiner of my people, to examine and weigh their lives. They're a thickheaded, hard-nosed bunch, rotten to the core, the lot of them. Refining fires are cranked up to white heat, but the ore stays a lump, unchanged. It's useless to keep trying any longer. Nothing can refine evil out of them. Men will give up and call them ‘slag,' thrown on the slag heap by me, their God ."

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"I have made you an assayer and a tester among My people, That you may know and assay their way."

Contextual Overview

¹⁸ Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. ¹⁹ Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it. ²⁰ To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. ²¹ Therefore thus saith the Lord , Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish. ²² Thus saith the Lord , Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. ²³ They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion. ²⁴ We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail. ²⁵ Go not forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side. ²⁶ O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us. ²⁷ I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Jeremiah 1:18, Jeremiah 15:20, Ezekiel 3:8-10, Ezekiel 20:4, Ezekiel 22:2

Reciprocal: Judges 3:1 - prove Judges 7:4 - I will Jeremiah 7:17 - General Ezekiel 33:7 - I have

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I have set thee for a tower,.... Or "in" one d; in a watch tower, to look about and observe the actions of the people, their sins and transgressions, and reprove them for them; as well as to descry the enemy, and give notice of danger; see Habakkuk 2:1 or, "for a trier"; since the word used comes from one which signifies to "try" metals, as gold and silver; and the rather this may be thought to be the meaning here, since the verb is made use of in this sense in the text; and the metaphor is carried on in the following words; though the word is used for towers in Isaiah 23:13 and may well enough be understood of a watchtower, agreeably with the office of the prophet; who is here addressed as a watchman, and was one to the house of Israel: and as the faithful discharge of his work required courage, as well as diligence and faithfulness, it follows, and

for a fortress among my people; not to defend them, but himself against them; or he was to consider himself as so under the divine protection, that he was as a fortress or strong tower, impregnable, and not to be dismayed and terrified with their calumnies and threatenings; see Jeremiah 1:18:

that thou mayest know and try their way; their course and manner of life, whether good or bad; which he would be able to do, being in his watch tower, and in the discharge of his duty; for the ministry of a good man is as a touchstone, by which the principles and practices of men are tried and known; for if it is heard and attended to with pleasure, it shows that the principles and practices of men are good; but if despised and rejected, the contrary is evident, see 1 John 4:5.

d בחון "in exploratoria specula", Junius & Tremellius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 6:27. 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 cannot 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.