HEBREW WORD STUDY – SEPARATION – TSARAPH צרף Sade Resh Pei

Psalms 12:6: “The words of the LORD [are] pure words: [as] silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.”

Some time ago there was a neat little story making its rounds on the internet and copied in many blogs. I am sure you have heard the story. It is likely not a true story or else it has gone through so many versions that certain facts turn out to be false.

For those who haven’t heard the story, just briefly, the story told of a Bible study where they were studying Malachi 3:3 “And he shall sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.” The question came up as to whether the refiner actually sat and watched the refining process. So, one woman volunteered to visit a refiner and find out the process.

In truth, the refiner does watch the silver but not to burn away the impurities. Silver is never found in a pure state, it is always mixed with other metals like copper, gold, lead, etc. By heating it you are able to separate the silver from the other metals. In ancient times, the time of David a silversmith extracted silver from ores with lead sulfide and/or galena. The silversmith then heated the ore in a fire and sifted the lead out of the ashes. He placed the lead in a dish known as a cupel which was usually made of bone ash or clay containing calcium carbonate and heated it in a furnace to about 1,600-1,800 degrees. When the metal reached the right temperature the silversmith would introduce oxygen by blowing air over it through a bellows. Litharge, which is a secondary mineral, would appear as the oxidation formed a red crust on the surface of the metal and the silversmith would blow or scape it off leaving pure silver. The silver would not form its shine by heating. A silversmith would repeat the process of oxidation twice reintroducing lead to the silver so that the newly formed litharge could remove any remaining impurities and then the silversmith polished the silver using certain polishes.

This process of separation from other metals was delicate, requiring just the right temperature and just the right amount of lead. So the silversmith would need to watch it closely in the fires. He would know he achieved pure silver, unfortunately not be seeing his face on the silver as the story goes but by seeing its unmistakably pure glowing light.

In our study verse, David is saying that the words of the Lord are so pure that it is like silver being tried and purified seven times. The word tried in Hebrew is tsaraph which comes from the Assyrian word furrupu and entered the Phoenician language as matsaraph and came into the Hebrew as tsaraph. Only in later Hebrew did the word mean smelting (not refining) and during David’s time, it meant to separate. Thus, silver is separated in a furnace of earth and purified. It is true that God sometimes has to separate the impurities in us in the fires, but He is closely watching during the process.

The word purify is strangely a different word than the one used at the beginning of the verse that speaks of God’s words as pure. That word for pure for the silver is taharot from the root word tahor which means ready for absorption. His words are completely free of anything that would corrupt it. We just need to read it and absorb it.

Unfortunately, many Christians do not read the Word of God, they listen preachers expound on it, but they don’t test those words against the Bible. I have known people who talk about the Bible saying: “All men are created equal.” That was Abraham Lincoln, it is not found in the Bible. Some talk of the lion laying down with the lamb. I suggest you check out Isaiah 11:6 on that one. I remember asking my first year Bible College students to turn to the Book of Hezekiah in their Bibles and I actually had students searching for it and going to their index to find it. Let’s face it we are a nation that is Biblically illiterate. We really do not know our Bibles and we believe everything we hear. It sounds so good that we run with it without checking it out like the true process of refining silver where the test is not seeing your face in the silver but seeing the pure light. Almost the same thing but not the same thing. That is why God says that his word is tahorat, free from any nuance of corruption. People easily corrupt what is written and few check it out Scripturally.

In my state, people wear their masks to prevent catching the coronavirus and they will call you out if you are walking down the street not wearing your mask. Try to tell them there is no such mandate that it is only a suggestion and they will get in your face and say they heard the governor declare that everyone was to wear a mask when out on the street. Such people honestly believe they heard the governor say it some just say the governor said assuming he did. Few will take the time to go on the internet and call up the guidelines on the state’s board of health. It only says to wear the mask when entering a building or business. They just recommend wearing it outside, but the jury is still out as to whether that is preventative or not.

Whatever you hear from a pulpit, on the internet, teaching or from Chaim Bentorah, you must confirm it in Scripture. For Scripture is pure, Chaim Bentorah may still have a lot of dross. He has been purified by the blood of Jesus but not like God’s Word which has been purified seven times. Hebraically, seven means countless. As many times as it takes to achieve complete and total purity. That word for purity in reference to God’s Word is mezuqaq from the root word zaqaq which comes from an Assyrian word for straining and filtering. It is also a word for binding, binding in the sense of firmly sealed. Like binding arbitration. Once something is arbitrated in binding arbitration, there is no changing the final ruling. That is the purity of God’s Word. You can’t change Scripture to say a lion laying down with a lamb, you have to live with the wolf laying down with the lamb.

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