Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.

Son of man, the house of Israel is become dress to me: all these are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: they are become the dress of silver.

Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross to me: they are all copper, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: they are become the dross of silver.

The house of Israel hath been to Me for dross, All of them are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, In the midst of a furnace, dross hath silver been,

Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the middle of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.

Son of man, the children of Israel have become like the poorest sort of waste metal to me: they are all silver and brass and tin and iron and lead mixed with waste.

Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me: all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.

"Son of man, the house of Israel has become like dross to me. All these are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead in the midst of the furnace; they have become like the dross of silver.

Dross - A frequent metaphor which denotes not only the corruption of the people, who have become like base metal, but also a future purification whereby, the "dross" being burned away, the remnant of good may appear.

The house of Israel is to me become dross - They are all like base metal - brass, tin, iron, and lead alloyed together with silver. Ye must be put in the furnace, and subjected to the most intense fire, till your impurities are consumed away. No ordinary means will avail any thing; the most violent must be resorted to.

Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become (k) dross: all they [are] brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are [even] the dross of silver.
(k) Which before was most precious.

Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross,.... Vile, despicable, useless, and unprofitable; to which the wicked of the earth are compared, Psalm 119:119 and here the Lord's professing people, they differing nothing from them, being sadly degenerated; formerly they were as silver, and so they might be reckoned among themselves; but to God, who is omniscient, the searcher of the hearts and reins, who saw all their actions, and knew the spring of them, in his sight they were as dross:
all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: or "crucible" (f); where they are put together, in order to be set in the furnace, and melted down. It is not usual to put so many different metals together for melting, but separately; but here it seems to intend a mixture of them all together; and so the Targum and Septuagint render it,
"all they as brass, &c. are mixed;''
several metals of the baser sort are here mentioned, by a gradation from the better to the worse; tin being not so good as brass, and iron of less value than either, and lead than any of them. Some think the different characters of the people are here described; impudent persons by "brass"; hypocrites by "tin"; cruel and savage ones by "iron"; and such as were sottish and stupid by "lead"; or, as others, covetous ones:
they are even the dross of silver; once they were like silver, precious and valuable, while they retained the true religion, and the worship of God, and behaved agreeably to their character in the performance of all good works, and were in outward flourishing circumstances; but now degenerated from the pure worship of God, and sunk into idolatry and wickedness, and become poor and miserable.
(f) "catinus", Junius and Tremellius, Polanus, Grotius, Cocceius, Starckius.

dross . . . brass--Israel has become a worthless compound of the dross of silver (implying not merely corruption, but degeneracy from good to bad, Isaiah 1:22, especially offensive) and of the baser metals. Hence the people must be thrown into the furnace of judgment, that the bad may be consumed, and the good separated (Jeremiah 6:29-30).

Dross - Utterly degenerate, and base metal. The furnace - The afflictions I have laid upon them have not bettered them. The dross - While they loved mercy, did justly, walked humbly with their God, they were as silver; now they are but dross.