Jeremiah Learns That YHWH Has Established Him As An Assayer Of His People, As Well As Their Fortress, Although All That He Will Discover Will Be That They Are A Mixture Of Base Metal And Dross ( Jer 6:27-30 ).

YHWH declares that He has made Jeremiah both a metal assayer and a fortress to His people, in order that he may test their ways so as to discover what they are made of. And what he will discover when he does this is that they are grievous rebels (‘revolters of the revolters’, rebels above all rebels) who continually indulge in slanders and deal corruptly. Rather than being silver and gold they are discovered to be merely bronze and iron, and even then all attempts at refinement could only fail, because all are wicked and it is thus not possible to separate the wicked out from among the good. Men will therefore call them ‘refuse silver’, ore which has so little silver in it that it is not worth bothering about (we might say ‘fool’s gold’), because they will see that YHWH has rejected them.

Jer 6:27

“A tester I have made you,

A fortress among my people,

That you may know,

And try their way.”

Jeremiah has been appointed for two purposes. On the one hand he is to test out the metal of the people, and on the other he is to be a fortress for believers. For he is called on to know their ways and to test them out. Thus God is making provision for all His supposed people. Through Jeremiah He will uphold the righteous, and through him He will sift out the wicked.

Alternately some would repoint mibtser (fortress) as mebatser (tester of metals) to produce, ‘An assayer I made you among my people, a tester of metal –.’

Jer 6:28

‘They are all grievous rebels,

Going about with slanders,

They are bronze and iron,

They all of them deal corruptly.’

And what he will discover about the vast majority is that they are grievous rebels (‘rebels of the rebels’), and that rather than being silver and gold they are bronze and iron. They are of inferior quality, something evidenced by the fact that they go about destroying other people’s reputations falsely (compare Lev 19:16), and are unreliable in their dealings.

Jer 6:29

‘The bellows blow fiercely,

The lead is consumed by the fire,

In vain do they go on refining,

For the wicked are not plucked away.’

Indeed they are so all so evil that there is no way of refining them. The fiercely blowing bellows will heat up the furnace to such an extent that the lead being used for refining is burned up (during refining lead is placed in a crucible with the silver ore and heated, and when the lead becomes oxidized it serves as a flux to collect impurities), but even such heat will not be sufficient to refine His people because when the attempt is made the wicked are not removed, simply because all are wicked.

Jer 6:30

‘Men will call them refuse (reject) silver,

Because YHWH has rejected them.’

Thus because they have been tested and rejected by YHWH men will call them ‘refuse silver’, poor quality silver ore which is thrown away because it is unrefinable. In other words it will be seen that there is no good in them.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jer 6:27-30. I have set thee for a tower, &c. The prophet in these verses evidently takes his ideas from metals, and the trial of them; and the verbs in the latter clause of this verse, referring to such trial, manifestly require something corresponding in the preceding part. But what have a tower and a fortress to do with the trying of metals? In this view the reader will agree with me, that the passage is rendered much more properly in some of the versions, and indeed more agreeably to the Hebrew, I have given or established thee, as a strong prover or trier of metals among my people; that thou mightest know, &c. The French version is nearly the same, I have established thee Comme un robuste fondeur des metaux, au milieu de ce peuple, pour sonder leur voie, &c. They are brass and iron, Jer 6:28, means, “They have basely degenerated. It appears, upon trial, that they have nothing in them of the purity of silver or gold; but their impudence resembles brass, and their obstinacy iron.” They are all corrupters, should be rendered, They are all corrupted, or degenerated, Jer 6:29. The bellows are burned, &c. that is to say, “All methods to purify and amend them are ineffectual.” Lead was made use of in refining metals before the application of quick-silver. Houbigant renders the latter part of this verse, The founder heapeth up fire in vain: the dross of iniquity is not purged away. Reprobate or rejected silver shall men call them, Jer 6:30 means, that they are good for nothing but to be rejected for ever, and thrown into the flames. “As base money is refused by every one, because it cannot bear the touch-stone; so shall these hypocrites and evil-doers be rejected both by God and man.”

REFLECTIONS.1st, We have here,

1. An alarm spread of the approaching foe coming from the north, and spreading destruction before him. The trumpet is blown in Tekoa, the beacon lighted in Beth-haccerem, as a signal for their flight, if they hoped to escape, Jerusalem being ready to be besieged.
2. Their weakness, and the formidable power of their foes, are described. The daughter of Zion is as helpless, and unable to make resistance, as a comely and delicate woman, or, as others read it, a pleasant pasture; in correspondence with the following similitude, where their invaders are compared to shepherds with their flocks, who would pitch their tents there, and eat up the land, and make it bare, as easily as the ox licks up the grass of the field. Note; To have been brought up delicately, makes every hardship more acutely felt.

3. In pursuance of God’s commission, their enemies hasten to the attack. Prepare ye war against her, and press the siege; hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem, to batter the walls; and, as soon as the breach is practicable, make the assault. With mutual encouragements, they quicken each other boldly to storm the place; arise, and let us go up at noon; and, as if some delay had prevented their design from being immediately executed, they regret that the shadows of the evening are advancing, yet resolve to carry their point, and are confident of success; the time of Jerusalem’s visitation being come, they are too impatient to wait for the morning, and resolve that night to attempt the breach. Note; (1.) When God’s day of visitation is come, the sinner can be no longer safe. (2.) If they were so eager to storm the city and seize the wealth of Jerusalem, shall we shew less zeal and earnestness to enter the kingdom of heaven and obtain the unsearchable riches of glory? (3.) Nothing encourages the heart so much as confidence of success. And thus it is, in our spiritual warfare, that faith enables us to overcome. Possunt, quia posse videntur.*

* They can conquer who believe they can.

4. The cause of all these judgments is their sins. Jerusalem was become a sink of wickedness: it flowed incessantly and abundantly as the waters of a fountain; and all ranks and degrees of men were tainted: particularly the whole city was a scene of oppression, where, like riches in the sea, the great preyed upon the little; violence and spoil is heard in every corner, and grief and wounds, the blood and the cries of the oppressed, are continually before God, calling for vengeance. Note; There is a day when the wrongs of the oppressed will be examined and avenged.

5. A fair admonition is once more given, if they have yet ears to hear. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem: at last attend to understand and obey the calls to repentance, lest my soul depart from thee, or be violently plucked away from thee; his favour utterly departing from them: and his love to them turned into abhorrence; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited. Note; (1.) God is unwilling to give up the sinner; and therefore he is patient, and pleads long with him, and late, to return. (2.) When all his offers of mercy are obstinately rejected, at last God will depart, and leave the sinner to his ruin; and then woe, woe unto him.

2nd, Farther iniquities are here discovered, and farther judgments denounced.
1. Their transgressions were multiplied.
[1.] They were deaf to all the warnings of the prophets. To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? intimating the universal disregard paid to his message. Their ear is uncircumcised. At first they would not hearken, and now they are left to the hardness of their hearts, and they cannot hearken. Nay, they counted God’s word, which rebuked their sins, a reproach to them; and treated it, and those who delivered it, with insult and contempt. They have no delight in it; but the very contrary, a loathing and aversion to it. Note; (1.) The fidelity of God’s ministers, in rebuking men’s sins, is often construed into personal abuse. (2.) We are not to wonder that the word of the Gospel is looked upon as a reproach; it was so from the beginning. (3.) They who have no delight in the Bible, have no name in the book of life.

[2.] They were slaves to the love of money. High and low, rich and poor, priest and prophet, all were given to covetousness, and cared not by what falsehoods or means they enriched themselves, so they could but secure the mammon of unrighteousness. Note; Nothing more fatally hardens the heart against God’s word, than this rooted attachment to gain.

[3.] The prophets and priests, who by profession and office should have endeavoured to stop the torrent of ungodliness, contributed to make the disease more desperate and incurable by their lying visions, false glosses, and smooth discourses, suited to lull the sinner’s conscience into a fatal security, crying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Note; There is no surer mark of a false prophet than this, that he avoids those alarming expressions of God’s word which are suited to startle the sinner; that he is solicitous to soften what are counted harsh sayings; that it is his study not to offend, and his labour to lull those to their rest, who may have been made uneasy by more faithful advocates for the truth.

[4.] They were shameless in their abominations. The preachers of lies refused to blush, when never so clearly detected in their false doctrines and flattering divinations; and the people, alike hardened, were neither ashamed of their sins, nor afraid of the threatened punishments. Note; Those faces which will not blush at rebuke, shall soon be pale as flames, when the terrors of God shall seize them.

[5.] The kindest admonitions of God had no influence on them: he would have gathered them, but they would not. Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see; consider your path, and whither it will lead you, to heaven or to hell; and ask for the old paths; consult your Bibles, inquire the way wherein the holy patriarchs walked: Where is the good way, the good old way of faith and holiness, which was revealed in the first promise, and which all God’s saints have trod from the beginning? and ye shall find rest for your souls, from all your fears; but they said, We will not walk therein, as if determined to rush on their destruction. Every method had God taken to deter and divert them from so fatal a resolution. I set watchmen over you, faithful ministers of the sanctuary, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet, breathing the voice of peace and mercy, or spreading the tremendous alarm of the guilt and punishment of sin. But they said, We will not hearken; refusing every method that God had taken to save them, and faithless, and fearless of his judgments, persisting in their impenitence. Note; (1.) The importance of that eternity which depends thereon, should engage us to a frequent and serious consideration of our ways, what we are doing, and whither we are going. (2.) The paths of life and truth are easily found of those who are at pains to inquire after them. (3.) The good way to heaven is Christ, his infinite merit and divine grace; and he is the old way; for from the beginning the Gospel was preached, and the saints of old were saved, even as we. (4.) They who are found in this way will obtain rest to their souls, peace with God, internal consolation, and comfortable confidence of arriving safe at their journey’s end in heaven. (5.) God’s faithful ministers must lead men in this way, and cry aloud to invite sinners to walk in it. (6.) They who will not be persuaded by God’s word, must be left to their own delusions; and miserable, eternally miserable, will be the end of those men.

2. The terrible punishment of the Jewish people is foretold. Because they are thus obstinate and hardened, the prophet declares, I am full of the fury of the Lord; the revelation made to him of the wrath ready to be revealed, was so awful, that it filled his heart with terrible apprehensions for them; I am weary with holding in; as if unwilling to be the messenger of evil, he had refrained, till, like a fire within him, it forced a passage, and he was constrained to speak. And fearful, indeed, are the devastations threatened; I will pour it out upon the little children playing in the streets, upon the assembly of young men associated for mirth and pleasure, husband and wife shall be taken captives, and the most decrepit with age find no reverence or pity. Their houses are given to their enemies, with their wives and fields: upon the whole land the hand of God’s vengeance is stretched out. Their lying prophets shall then meet their doom, and fall among them that fall, in spite of all their vain confidence; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Thus shall their enemies plunder and destroy them; and, as if solicitous to leave none to escape, they shall throughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine, as the poor after the vintage picked off every berry which was left. Turn back thine hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets, till all the spoil is collected, and every Israelite led captive. Note; It is the most unpleasing part of our office to be the messengers of evil; but it is absolutely necessary that by the terrors of the Lord we should persuade men: and, however tremendous the subject, they who hear, ought not to be displeased with the servants who barely report what they have received of the Lord.

3rdly, We have,
1. God’s appeal to the whole world for the equity of his procedure. When tidings of what was done among them, judgments so terrible and strange, were reported, it might astonish them that God should thus deal with his once so favoured people; but the wonder will cease when their provocations are known. Their sufferings are the necessary fruit of their thoughts; evil, and only evil, and that continually; and the consequence of their wicked ways, as disobedient against all the warnings of God’s prophets, and rebellious against all the restraints of his law. Note; If men will not be ruled by God’s word, they will justly be ruined by his wrath.

2. The vanity of their pretended services. Their incense and perfumes, their offerings and sacrifices, however rich, expensive, and numerous, when brought with a hypocritical heart, as a means of purchasing God’s favour, with the hopes of expiating unrepented sins, or to obtain a licence to abide in them; so far were they from being pleasing and acceptable, that they were his detestation and abhorrence.
3. The destruction that God would bring upon them. Stumbling-blocks should be set in their ways, their false prophets permitted to delude them, or the Chaldeans, by whom they should be dashed in pieces, both father and son; for sinners together must suffer together; the neighbour and his friend; for those who have walked in evil fellowship, will be involved in the same calamity. From the north, a far distant country, the mighty enemies come, armed with bow and spear; fierce and cruel, they shew no mercy; their voice terrible as the roaring of the sea; their cavalry swift and strong; advancing in battle array against thee, O daughter of Zion.

4. Terrible consternation will seize the Jewish people at their approach. Frightened at the very report, like a woman with child, who falls into travailing pangs, anguish will seize them, their hearts fail them, and their hands be feeble and incapable of resistance. In terror they shut themselves up within their city, not daring to stir, to face the foe, or carry on their husbandry, or attempt to travel, for the sword of the enemy, or because the enemy hath a sword ready drawn to slay; and fear is on every side, no place being safe. Note; (1.) The sinner’s terrors will seize him suddenly and severely, as the pains of a travailing woman. (2.) When God sends his panic into the heart, the mighty are feeble, and the brave turn cowards.

5. The prophet calls them to lamentation and bitter mourning, to lie in sackcloth and ashes, as one under the most afflicting anguish for the loss of an only son; and this either as a token of repentance for their sin, or as expressive of their desperate sorrows under their sudden desolations. Note; How much wiser is it to prevent the judgment by speedy humiliation, than by impenitence provoke the scourge, when our anguish will come too late to profit us?

6. God appoints the prophet to inspect their ways, and a sad report he makes of them. I have set thee for a tower, to observe them; or a trier, to examine them; and for a fortress among my people, that, as safe in the divine protection, he might not fear their threatenings; that thou mayest know and try their way, into which the more he searched, the more would God’s judgments appear righteous. And what is the consequence of this inquisition? They are all grievous revolters, or revolters of revolters, the most contumacious and stubborn transgressors: walking with slanders: playing the hypocrite with God, or incessantly backbiting one another. They are brass and iron; base and vile as these metals, having brazen fronts which cannot blush, and hearts steeled that are impenetrably hardened. They are all corrupters; as those who adulterate metals, so they corrupt the doctrines of truth; or, in Satan’s stead, turn tempters to each other. The bellows are burned; either the judgments which they suffered had no effect on them; or the true prophets, who prophesied till they were hoarse with crying, could avail nothing; or the false prophets, who flattered them, are now consumed with them. The lead is consumed of the fire, which was used in refining silver, but here was in vain: or, out of the fire it is perfect lead; such are the people, without any thing precious or valuable in them, notwithstanding the furnace of affliction through which they had gone. The founder melteth in vain; all the prophet’s labours were fruitless, and God’s dispensations without effect: for the wicked are not plucked away from their former abominations, but persist in them. Reprobate silver shall men call them; mere dross, because the Lord hath rejected them, from being his people, and given them up for a prey to their enemies. Note; God tries every method with sinners, by calls of grace, and corrections of Providence; and if, after all, they continue reprobate silver, their eternal ruin will lie at their own door.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Jer 6:27 I have set thee [for] a tower [and] a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

Ver. 27. I have set thee for a tower and a fortress. ] Or, A fortified watch tower have I made thee among my people – i.e., to spy out and discover their dispositions and affections.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 6:27-30

27I have made you an assayer and a tester among My people,

That you may know and assay their way.

28All of them are stubbornly rebellious,

Going about as a talebearer.

They are bronze and iron;

They, all of them, are corrupt.

29The bellows blow fiercely,

The lead is consumed by the fire;

In vain the refining goes on,

But the wicked are not separated.

30They call them rejected silver,

Because the LORD has rejected them.

Jer 6:27-30 This strophe is directed towards Jeremiah (cf. Jer 1:18). YHWH has made him

1. an assayer (BDB 103)

2. a tester (NASB, LXX, REB)

3. a fortification (BDB 131, NKJV)

4. a refiner (NJB, JPSOA)

These are rare usages of these roots, which usually denote towers and fortifications, but the context of Jer 6:27-30 demands it.

The strophe continues by YHWH’s description of His people.

1. stubborn (BDB 711)

2. rebellious (BDB 710, KB 779, Qal PARTICIPLE)

3. talebearers (BDB 940)

4. bronze and iron (cf. Eze 22:18)

5. corrupt (BDB 1007, KB 1469, Hiphil PARTICIPLE)

YHWH tries to purify them as silver but they would not, therefore, He has rejected them (BDB 549, KB 540, Qal PERFECT).

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.

1. Is there any hope?

2. Why is God so upset with Judah?

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Jer 6:27-30

Jer 6:27-28

“I have made thee a trier and a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way. They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.”

“Going about with slanders …” (Jer 6:28) “This means going about with the intention of spreading slanders.

Jer 6:29-30

“The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire; in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away. Refuse silver shall men call them, because Jehovah hath rejected them.”

Scholars admit the difficulty of these verses, suggesting that the text might have been damaged; but the general meaning is clear enough. The figure is that of a refiner of silver; and the admonition here is that, “The silver (a metaphor for Judah) is so full of alloy as to be utterly worthless.

6. The hopeless task of the Prophet (Jer 6:27-30)

In Jer 6:27 God addresses Jeremiah. God has made His prophet as strong as a tower a fortified city; the people will not be successful in attacking him. Jeremiah can then fearlessly test and try the way of the people by his preaching(Jer 6:27). Elsewhere in Scripture men are tested in fire or furnace of trials and tribulations in order to refine and purify them from the dross of sin. See Pro 17:3; Zec 13:9; Jer 6:29; Jer 9:7.

In this and the following verses metallurgic phraseology is employed with a moral application. The men of Judah are unfaithful to God for they are in open rebellion against Him. They are unfaithful to their fellowmen because they engage in malicious slander. These wicked men are as hard as brass and iron. Their way of life is corruption; all of them are rotten to the core (Jer 6:28). Try as he may the assayer is not able to extract any precious metal from the worthless ore of the nation Judah. The fire is so hot that the bellows are scorched. The lead which served as a flux to carry away the impurities melts. But no silver remains. There were no righteous ones from whom the wicked could be separated (Jer 6:29). Once Israel had been as precious to God as silver (Deu 5:27-29). Now that silver had become refuse silver i.e., worthless silver, good for nothing dross (Jer 6:30).

Jerusalem Under Siege – Jer 6:1-30

Open It

1. What positive or negative associations do you have with the word “tradition”?

2. How do we use predictions about the future in our everyday lives?

Explore It

3. What warning did Jeremiah issue to the people of Jerusalem? (Jer 6:1-3)

4. What plans did Jeremiah envision being made by invaders? (Jer 6:4-5)

5. What did Jeremiah say would happen if the people didnt heed his warning? (Jer 6:6-8)

6. When Babylon finished “gleaning” the vine of Israel, how many would be left? (Jer 6:9)

7. What kind of response did Jeremiah get to his prophecies? (Jer 6:10)

8. What did Jeremiah predict would happen when God judged the world? (Jer 6:11-12)

9. How had the prophets and priests sinned against God? (Jer 6:13-15)

10. For what did God recommend that the people ask? (Jer 6:16)

11. What did Gods appointed watchmen tell the people? (Jer 6:17)

12. What did God call the rest of the earth to observe about Israel? (Jer 6:18-19)

13. How did God view the sacrifices and expensive incense offered by Israel and Judah? (Jer 6:20)

14. What did God say would cause many people to stumble? (Jer 6:21)

15. How did Jeremiah describe the invading army of Babylon? (Jer 6:22-23)

16. How did Jeremiah predict that people would react to the invaders? (Jer 6:24-26)

17. How did Israel respond to Gods refining? (Jer 6:27-30)

Get It

18. Why do you think Jeremiah kept on talking about the level of devastation that Israels enemies would bring?

19. When have you received a “we will not listen” response to a message about God, as did Jeremiah?

20. Who do you know to whom the Word of the Lord is offensive?

21. Why are some people offended by what the Bible says?

22. By Jeremiahs day, how long had God been revealing His path to righteousness and blessing?

23. What sometimes motivates people in leadership to deceive the people they lead?

24. Why do you think people sometimes put more emphasis on expense and appearance in religious observances than on sincerity of heart?

25. When have you experienced Gods refining in your life?

26. How should we respond when God seeks to refine us?

Apply It

27. To whom do you need to communicate Gods Word, even if he or she finds it (the message, not you) offensive?

28. Where can you read in the Bible this week to remember Gods will and commands?

Questions on Jeremiah Chapter Six

By Brent Kercheville

1 What is Gods message (Jer 6:1-8)? Take special note of verse 7.

2 What are the two reasons for Gods wrath coming (Jer 6:10-11)? What do we learn from this?

3 What sins have the people committed (Jer 6:13-15)? How extensive is the sinning?

4 What are the people called to do (Jer 6:16)? What does this mean? Would the people do it?

5 Why is the peoples worship rejected (Jer 6:19-20)?

6 What will God do (Jer 6:21-30)?

7 What exactly is God doing (6:27)?

8 What will be the result of Gods testing (6:30)?

TRANSFORMATION:

How does this relationship change your relationship with God? What did you learn about him? What will

you do differently in your life?

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Jer 1:18, Jer 15:20, Eze 3:8-10, Eze 20:4, Eze 22:2

Reciprocal: Jdg 3:1 – prove Jdg 7:4 – I will Jer 7:17 – General Eze 33:7 – I have

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Jer 6:27. We here have the pronoun thee and the antecedent ia Jeremiah, for the things said of this person were true of the prophet only. The word tower is from BACHOWN and Strong’s definition is, An assayer Tiester] of metals.’ Fortress is from an original that means “defender, and Jeremiah was to test his people as to their faithfulness and defend them as the circumstances might Buggest and justify.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Jer 6:27. I have set thee for a tower, &c. According to this reading, God speaks here by way of encouragement to the prophet, and tells him he had made him a fortified tower, that he might be safe, notwithstanding all the attempts of the wicked against him. But Lowth, with some others, thinks that the sense would be plainer if the words were translated thus: I have set thee (in) a watch-tower, and (in) a fortress; that is, God tells the prophet that he hath placed him as a watchman in a high tower, or fortress, to take an account of the peoples behaviour, and to warn them accordingly. That thou mayest know and try their way That is, their actions and manners, and how they stand affected toward God and his word; that thou mayest bring their whole conduct under thy strict observation and scrutiny, as refiners do metals. Hereby the prophet is encouraged to reprove them more freely, and with authority, because God promises to defend him from injury, and would give him prudence to see what was amiss, and undauntedness to oppose it. It may be proper to observe here, that this latter clause of the verse favours the sense in which the LXX. and the Vulgate have taken the preceding clause. They render the word , which we translate a tower, , probatorem, a prover, or trier, which Blaney interprets thus: I have appointed thee the office of an assay-master among my people, as to the gold thereof; that is, to try what is in them of genuine worth and excellence, which, like pure gold, will stand the utmost test. Dr. Dodd considers the passage in the same light, observing, The prophet in these verses evidently takes his ideas from metals, and the trial of them; and the verbs in the latter clause of this verse, referring to such trial, manifestly require something corresponding in the preceding part. But what has a tower and fortress to do with the trying of metals? In this view the reader will agree with me, that the passage is rendered much more properly in some of the versions, and indeed more agreeably to the Hebrew, I have given, or established, thee as a strong prover, or trier of metals among my people that thou mightest know, &c.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jer 6:27-30. The Prophets Task.The record of earlier prophecies (Jer 6:1-6) fitly closes with the application to the prophet of the figure of the trier (mg.) or assayer; so inextricably is the alloy mixed with the silver that, though the bellows blow, and the lead (which was added to carry away the alloy) is oxidised in the heat, no purification is effected; only impure silver remains (Driver).

Jer 6:27. Omit a fortress, which is probably a marginal note on the rendering tower, which should be trier.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

6:27 I have set {u} thee [for] a tower [and] a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.

(u) Meaning, Jeremiah, whom God had appointed to try out the godly from the wicked, as a founder does the pure metal from the dross.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Jeremiah’s evaluation of his people 6:27-30

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Yahweh informed Jeremiah that He had given the prophet a role in Judah that was similar to that of an assayer of metals. He would be able and be responsible to test the "mettle" of the Lord’s people (cf. Jer 5:1).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)