1 Kings 8:51

8:51 After all, ¹  they are your people and your special possession ²  whom you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. ³ 

1 Kings 13:20

13:20 While they were sitting at the table, the Lord spoke through the old prophet ⁴ 

1 Kings 20:3

20:3 He said to him, “This is what Ben Hadad says, ‘Your silver and your gold are mine, as well as the best of your wives and sons.’”

[8:51]  ¹ tn Or “for.”

[8:51]  ² tn Heb “inheritance.”

[8:51]  ³ 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.

[13:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back.”