צָרַףtsâraph

smelt, refine, test

Pronunciation: tsaw-raf' · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H6884

Meanings

Qal: construct, active (Jeremiah 6:29; Psalms 105:19; Psalms 17:3)

1. smelt, refine (Jeremiah 6:29; Isaiah 1:25; Zechariah 13:9)

2. test (Judges 7:4; Judges 7:3; Jeremiah 9:6)

3. test, (and prove true) (Psalms 105:19)

4. active as noun smelter, refiner, hence = goldsmith (Judges 17:4; Jeremiah 10:9; Jeremiah 10:14)

Niph`al: shall be refined (Daniel 12:10)

Pi`el: as noun a refiner (Malachi 3:2; Malachi 3:3)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 33 times in the Bible.

  • Judges 7:4 But the Lord told Gideon, “There are still too many! Bring them down to the spring, and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not.”
  • Judges 17:4 So when he returned the money to his mother, she took 200 silver coins and gave them to a silversmith, who made them into an image and an idol. And these were placed in Micah’s house.
  • 2 Samuel 22:31 “God’s way is perfect. All the Lord’s promises prove true. He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
  • Nehemiah 3:8 Next was Uzziel son of Harhaiah, a goldsmith by trade, who also worked on the wall. Beyond him was Hananiah, a manufacturer of perfumes. They left out a section of Jerusalem as they built the Broad Wall.
  • Nehemiah 3:32 The other goldsmiths and merchants repaired the wall from that corner to the Sheep Gate.
  • Psalms 12:6 The Lord’s promises are pure, like silver refined in a furnace, purified seven times over.
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).