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 8:53

8:53 After all, ⁴  you picked them out of all the nations of the earth to be your special possession, ⁵  just as you, O sovereign Lord, announced through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt.”

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¹ tn Or “for.”

² tn Heb “inheritance.”

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.

sn From the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. The metaphor of a furnace suggests fire and heat and is an apt image to remind the people of the suffering they endured while slaves in Egypt.

⁴ tn Or “For.”

⁵ tn Heb “your inheritance.”