Proverbs 25:4

Footnotes

1. 6 The Hebrew כֶּלִי (keli) means “vessel; utensil” (cf. , , ). But purging dross from silver does not produce a “vessel” for the silversmith. Some versions therefore render it “material” (e.g., , ). The says “that it will be entirely pure.” So D. W. Thomas reads כָּלִיל (kalil) and translates it “purified completely” (“Notes on Some Passages in the Book of Proverbs,” 15 [1965]: 271–79; cf. ). W. McKane simply rearranges the line to say that the smith can produce a work of art (Proverbs [], 580; cf. “a thing of beauty”). The easiest explanation is that “vessel” is a metonymy of effect, “vessel” put for the material that goes into making it (such metonymies occur fairly often in Psalms and Proverbs).