Jeremiah Chapter 6 verse 27 Holy Bible
I have made thee a trier `and' a fortress among my people; that thou mayest know and try their way.
read chapter 6 in ASV
I have made you a tester among my people, so that you may have knowledge of their way and put it to the test.
read chapter 6 in BBE
I have set thee among my people as an assayer, a fortress, that thou mayest know and try their way.
read chapter 6 in DARBY
I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way.
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read chapter 6 in WBT
I have made you a tester of metals [and] a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way.
read chapter 6 in WEB
A watch-tower I have given thee, Among My people a fortress, And thou knowest, and hast tried their way.
read chapter 6 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 27. - I have set thee, etc.; literally, as an assayer have I set thee among my people, a fortress. Various attempts have been made to avoid giving the last word its natural rendering, "a fortress." Ewald, for instance, would alter the points, and render "a separator [of metals]," thus making the word synonymous with that translated "an assayer;" but this is against Hebrew usage. Hitzig, assuming a doubtful interpretation of Job 22:24, renders "... among my people without gold," i.e. "without there being any gold there for thee to essay" (a very awkward form of expression). These are the two most plausible views, and yet neither of them is satisfactory. Nothing remains but the very simple conjecture, supported by not a few similar phenomena, that mibhcar, a fortress, has been inserted by mistake from the margin, where an early glossator had written the word, to remind of the parallel passage (Jeremiah 1:18, "I have made thee this day a fortress-city," 'it mibhcar). In this and the following verses metallurgic phraseology is employed with a moral application (comp. Isaiah 1:22, 25).
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(27) I have set thee . . .--The verse is difficult, as containing words in the Hebrew which are not found elsewhere, and have therefore to be guessed at. The following rendering is given on the authority of the most recent commentators, and has the merit of being in harmony with the metallurgic imagery of the following verses. As a prover of ore I have set thee among my people, and thou shalt know and try their way. The words are spoken by Jehovah to the prophet, and describe his work. By others, the first part of the sentence is rendered as follows: As a prover of ore I have set thee like a fortress, as if with a reference to Jeremiah 1:18, where the same word is used.