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A Man is the Crucible of His Praise (Pr 27:21)

by David K. Stabnow, PhD

In this paper I will investigate the translation of Proverbs 27:21. I will consider how

it has been translated in ancient and English versions and recommend a translation and
interpretation. I contend that, other than the KJV and very few others, English translations
do not accurately reflect the Hebrew text.
A Simple Translation

First, I propose to look at the Hebrew with fresh eyes.

:wølDlShAm yIpVl vyIaw bDhÎzAl r...wkw PRsR;kAl PérVxAm

Vocabulary:

The vocabulary is not particularly difficult, nor is it the primary concern of this paper.

PérVxAm

is a device for smelting, refining, or purifying. The noun occurs only here and in Pr

17:3, but the verb is well attested in several Semitic languages and occurs 34 times in the
Hebrew Bible. It has a broad semantic range having to do with smelting and refining as well
as testing--especially testing to show that something is true. Similarly,

r...wk

is a small

furnace for metals, though NIDOTTE says that it is more for refining than smelting. It is
used figuratively in the Bible for oppression, testing, and punishment. Egypt was the iron
furnace of oppression from which God liberated Israel.

PérVxAm

and

r...wk

have a lot of semantic

overlap. For the sake of this paper, I will simply translate them "crucible" and "furnace"
respectively.

PRsR;k

and

bDhÎz

are the common words for silver and gold.

vyIa

is the ubiquitous word

for man or mankind, and

yIp

is the construct form of the word for mouth. As it is pointed in

BHS,

wølDlShAm

is the noun "praise" with a third-person singular suffix.

Syntax:

The words of this proverb are grouped into three verbless clauses by means of the

lamed preposition, and the three verbless clauses are tied together with the waw conjunction.

The pronominal suffix on

wølDlShAm

could be either objective or subjective; that is, it

could be the praise that a man gives or that he receives. Which one is intended cannot be
determined on the basis of syntax.

The last clause could be taken as having the same structure as the first two--where

the lamed preposition implies a relationship between the first noun and the last noun
phrase--or

ypl

could be taken as an idiomatic phrase implying proportion or correlation. If

the latter, the last clause would read, "and a man according to his praise," or "and a man is
proportional to his praise." This is syntactically possible, but the meaning would be
disconnected from the first two clauses.

What does the idea that a man has some kind of

proportional relationship to his praise have to do with the effect that a crucible has on
precious metals? For this reason, I consider the idiomatic interpretation of

ypl

unlikely. I

will say more about it later.

Note the disconnect in NJB "A furnace for silver, a foundry for gold: a person is worth what his reputation is worth."