“The crucible is for silver”, “and the furnace is for gold”: This line is repeated in 27.21. “Crucible” translates a noun related to the Hebrew verb meaning to smelt, refine, or test. It is a container that withstands high temperatures and in which metals are melted to liquid form. The sense of “The crucible is for silver” is that silver is refined or melted in the crucible and impurities removed. A “furnace” is a place where a very hot fire is made to melt metals. Because the second line speaks of testing hearts, some translations understand the first clause to refer to testing the purity of the metals. See Good News Translation.

In areas where the terms “crucible” and “furnace” are unknown, it is possible to speak of testing by fire. For example, Biblia Dios Habla Hoy has “Gold and silver are tested by fire.” If such a rendering is unclear, it may be necessary to say, for example, “Fire is used to melt gold and silver to make them pure [or, see if they are pure].”

“And the Lord tries hearts”: The thought of this line is parallel to the first but in a figurative sense. The Lord does not test hearts with fire. The expression “tries hearts” may need to be expressed as “He tests the hearts of people” or adjusted in some languages to say, for example, “The Lord sees how pure the hearts of people are” or “The Lord examines people’s livers to see if they are pure.”

In some languages the whole saying may need to be restructured to make the connection between the two lines clear. In one language, for example, the saying is expressed as a simile: “The Lord wants to find out if we are good or bad, and he tries our insides just as fire melts gold and silver to find out whether they are true [pure] or not.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .