Refiner, refining (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. The verb ppi in Qal is used in Job 28' of gold, and in 36" of rain (see Bill m. ad loc. ) ; in Piel it is used in 1 Ch 28" of gold, in 29 (cf. Ps 12) of silver ; and in Pual of settled wine, Is 25'. 2. The most usual word for ' refine ' is l?f. The only occurrence in AV of ' refiner ' is Mai 3, ' (■riKP). i-iy occurs both in a literal, Ps 66'°, Jer 6^, Zee 13", and in a metaphorical sense, Ps 26', Is 1»>48'», Dn 11» (cf. Driver, Par. Psalt. 458 f.). 3. rvpomecL Rev l'» 3" (RV 'be refined'); cf. 1 P 1', with Hort's note. The ancient Egyptians, as described by Wilkin- •on, purified n;oId by putting it into earthen crucibles with lead, salt, a little tin, and barley bran, sealing the crucibles with clay, and then exposing them to the heat of a furnace for five daj's and nights. Refining silver by cupellation is a veiy old process. The silver mixed with lead is put into a crucible made of bone earth, and placed in a reverberatory furnace. As the oxide of lead fonns, it is blown on by bellows, and towards the end of the process the thin covering of oxide becomes iridescent and soon disappears, and the pure bright surface of the silver flashes out. This process of refining silver is re- ferred to in Jer 6'^. The reference in Mai 3 is to the purifying influence of atlliction on the people of CJod ; their sinful impurities gradually disappear, and at last the Divine image is reflected from the (oul, as the face of the refiner from the surface of the purified silver. W. Carslaw.