21 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but man is refined by his praise.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
So is - Better, So let a man be to his praise, let him purify it from all the alloy of flattery and baseness with which it is too probably mixed up.
As the fining pot for silver - As silver and gold are tried by the art of the refiner, so is a man's heart by the praise he receives. If he feel it not, he deserves it; if he be puffed up by it, he is worthless.
[As] the refining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so [is] a man to his (i) praise.
(i) That is, he is either known to be ambitious and glorious, or humble and modest.
As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold,.... For the trying, proving, and purifying these metals; see Proverbs 17:3;
so is a man to his praise; or "according to the mouth of his praise" (p); if his own mouth praises him, as in Proverbs 27:2;, he is known to be what he is, a foolish and vainglorious person: or "so a man is proved by the mouth of him that praises him", as the Vulgate Latin version; or "of them that praise him", as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions; and so the Targum: the meaning is, either a man is known by the persons that praise him, according to what their characters are; if he is praised by good and virtuous men, he may be thought to be so himself; and if by wicked men, he may be concluded to be so likewise; see Proverbs 28:4; or he is known by the effect that praise has upon him; if it swells him with pride, and makes him haughty, conceited, and overbearing, he will appear to be a weak and foolish man; but if he continues modest and humble, and studious and diligent to answer his character, thankful to God for what he has, and to whom he gives all the glory, he will approve himself a wise and good man.
(p) "ad os laudis suae", Gejerus.
Silver and gold are tried by putting them into the furnace and fining-pot; so is a man tried by praising him.
Praise tests character.
a man to his praise--according to his praise, as he bears it. Thus vain men seek it, weak men are inflated by it, wise men disregard it, &c.
There follow here two proverbs which have in common with each other the figures of the crucible and the mortar:
21 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
And a man according to the measure of his praise;
i.e., silver and gold one values according to the result of the smelting crucible and the smelting furnace; but a man, according to the measure of public opinion, which presupposes that which is said in Proverbs 12:8, "according to the measure of his wisdom is a man praised." מהלל is not a ῥῆμα μέσον like our Leumund [renown], but it is a graduated idea which denotes fame down to evil Lob [fame], which is only Lob [praise] per antiphrasin. Ewald otherwise: "according to the measure of his glorying;" or Hitzig better: "according to the measure with which he praises himself," with the remark: "מהלל is not the act, the glorifying of self, but the object of the glorying (cf. מבטח, מדון), i.e., that in which he places his glory." Bttcher something further: "one recognises him by that which he is generally wont to praise in himself and others, persons and things." Thus the proverb is to be understood; but in connection with Proverbs 12:8 it seems to us more probable that המלל is thought of as going forth from others, and not as from himself. In line first, Proverbs 17:3 is repeated; the second line there is conformable to the first, according to which it should be here said that the praise of a man is for him what the crucible and the furnace is for metal. The lxx, Syr., Targ., Jerome, and the Venet. read לפי מהללו, and thereby obtain more concinnity. Luther accordingly translates:
A man is tried by the mouth of his praise,
As silver in the crucible and gold in the furnace.
Others even think to interpret man as the subject examining, and so they vocalize the words. Thus e.g., Fleischer: Qualis est catinus argento et fornax auro, talis sit homo ori a quo laudatur, so that "mouth of his praise" is equivalent to the man who praises him with his mouth. But where, as here, the language relates to relative worth, the supposition for לפי, that it denotes, as at Proverbs 12:8, pro ratione, is tenable. And that the mouth of him who praises is a smelting crucible for him who is praised, or that the praised shall be a crucible for the mouth of him who praises, would be a wonderful comparison. The lxx has here also an additional distich which has no place in the Hebrews. text.
To his praise - Or, according to his praise. So a man is tried by praise.
*More commentary available at chapter level.