The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.
Note, 1. The hearts of the children of men are subject, not only to God's view, but to his judgment: As the fining-pot is for silver, both to prove it and to improve it so the Lord tries the hearts; he searches whether they are standard or no, and those that are he refines and makes purer, Jer 17:10.
The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold,.... Refiners of silver have their fining pots, in which they purify the silver from the dross; and goldsmiths have their crucibles to melt and purify their gold, by which assays of the worth and value of it may be made; but the Lord trieth the hearts; there is no vessel, as Gersom observes, in...
God only knows, as He tries (Psa 12:6; Psa 66:10) the heart.