Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver - (note, Isaiah 1:25.)
With silver - or, 'for silver.' I sought by affliction to purify thee, but thou wast not as silver [non quasi argentum, Vulgate] obtained by melting, but as dross (Gesenius). Thy repentance is not complete: thou art not yet as refined silver. Rosenmuller explains, not as silver; not with the intense heat needed to melt silver (it being harder to melt than gold) - i:e., not with the most extreme severity (Isaiah 42:25; Ezekiel 22:18-20; Ezekiel 22:22). The Hebrew preposition [bª-] must mean the same as it means in the last clause of the verse-namely, "in." I therefore translate as the Chaldaic and Syriac, 'not in the midst of silver.' Gesenius' view is virtually the same. So the Septuagint and Arabic, 'not for the sake of silver:' the result of my putting thee in the furnace has not been that I have gained silver thereby.
I have chosen thee - or else (Lowth), tried ... proved; according to Gesenius ( bªcharªtiykaa (H977), from baachar (H977)) - literally, to rub with the touchstone, or to cut in pieces so as to examine (Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:3; 1 Peter 1:7).