Psalms 119:119

119:119 You remove all the wicked of the earth like slag. ¹ 

Therefore I love your rules. ² 

Proverbs 25:4

25:4 Remove the dross from the silver,

and material ³  for the silversmith will emerge;

Isaiah 1:22

1:22 Your ⁴  silver has become scum, ⁵ 

your beer is diluted with water. ⁶ 

Isaiah 1:25

1:25 I will attack you; ⁷ 

I will purify your metal with flux. ⁸ 

I will remove all your slag. ⁹ 

Ezekiel 22:18-19

22:18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become slag to me. All of them are like bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace; ¹⁰  they are the worthless slag of silver. 22:19 Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because all of you ¹¹  have become slag, look out! – I am about to gather you in the middle of Jerusalem. ¹² 

Matthew 5:13

Salt and Light

5:13 “You are the salt ¹³  of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, ¹⁴  how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.

[119:119]  ¹ sn Traditionally “dross” (so KJV, ASV, NIV). The metaphor comes from metallurgy; “slag” is the substance left over after the metallic ore has been refined.

[119:119]  ² sn As he explains in the next verse, the psalmist’s fear of judgment motivates him to obey God’s rules.

[25:4]  ³ tn The Hebrew כֶּלִי (keli) means “vessel; utensil” (cf. KJV, ASV, NASB). But purging dross from silver does not produce a “vessel” for the silversmith. Some versions therefore render it “material” (e.g., NIV, NRSV). The LXX says “that it will be entirely pure.” So D. W. Thomas reads כָּלִיל (kalil) and translates it “purified completely” (“Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” VT 15 [1965]: 271-79; cf. NAB). W. McKane simply rearranges the line to say that the smith can produce a work of art (Proverbs [OTL], 580; cf. TEV “a thing of beauty”). The easiest explanation is that “vessel” is a metonymy of effect, “vessel” put for the material that goes into making it (such metonymies occur fairly often in Psalms and Proverbs).

[1:22]  ⁴ tn The pronoun is feminine singular; personified Jerusalem (see v. 21) is addressed.

[1:22]  ⁵ tn Or “dross.” The word refers to the scum or impurites floating on the top of melted metal.

[1:22]  ⁶ sn The metaphors of silver becoming impure and beer being watered down picture the moral and ethical degeneration that had occurred in Jerusalem.

[1:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “turn my hand against you.” The second person pronouns in vv. 25-26 are feminine singular. Personified Jerusalem is addressed. The idiom “turn the hand against” has the nuance of “strike with the hand, attack,” in Ps 81:15 HT (81:14 ET); Ezek 38:12; Am 1:8; Zech 13:7. In Jer 6:9 it is used of gleaning grapes.

[1:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will purify your dross as [with] flux.” “Flux” refers here to minerals added to the metals in a furnace to prevent oxides from forming. For this interpretation of II בֹּר (bor), see HALOT 153 s.v. II בֹּר and 750 s.v. סִיג.

[1:25]  ⁹ sn The metaphor comes from metallurgy; slag is the substance left over after the metallic ore has been refined.

[22:18]  ¹⁰ tn For similar imagery, see Isa 1:21-26; Jer 6:27-30.

[22:19]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew second person pronoun is masculine plural here and in vv. 19b-21, indicating that the people are being addressed.

[22:19]  ¹² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:13]  ¹³ sn Salt was used as seasoning or fertilizer (BDAG 41 s.v. ἅλας a), or as a preservative. If salt ceased to be useful, it was thrown away. With this illustration Jesus warned about a disciple who ceased to follow him.

[5:13]  ¹⁴ sn The difficulty of this saying is understanding how salt could lose its flavor since its chemical properties cannot change. It is thus often assumed that Jesus was referring to chemically impure salt, perhaps a natural salt which, when exposed to the elements, had all the genuine salt leached out, leaving only the sediment or impurities behind. Others have suggested that the background of the saying is the use of salt blocks by Arab bakers to line the floor of their ovens; under the intense heat these blocks would eventually crystallize and undergo a change in chemical composition, finally being thrown out as unserviceable. A saying in the Talmud (b. Bekhorot 8b) attributed to R. Joshua ben Chananja (ca. a.d. 90), when asked the question “When salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again?” is said to have replied, “By salting it with the afterbirth of a mule.” He was then asked, “Then does the mule (being sterile) bear young?” to which he replied: “Can salt lose its flavor?” The point appears to be that both are impossible. The saying, while admittedly late, suggests that culturally the loss of flavor by salt was regarded as an impossibility. Genuine salt can never lose its flavor. In this case the saying by Jesus here may be similar to Matt 19:24, where it is likewise impossible for the camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle.