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Bible Dictionaries
Furnace
Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
or a fireplace for melting gold and other metals. "The fining pot is for silver, the furnace for gold," Proverbs 17:3 . It signifies also a place of cruel bondage and oppression, such as Egypt was to the Israelites, who there met with much hardship, rigour, and severity, to try and purge them, Deuteronomy 4:20; Jeremiah 11:4; the sharp and grievous afflictions and judgments, wherewith God tries his people, Ezekiel 22:18; Ezekiel 20:22; also a place of torment, as Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, Daniel 3:6; Daniel 3:11 . On the last we may remark, that this mode of putting to death is not unusual in the east in modern times. After speaking of the common modes of punishing with death in Persia, Chardin says, "But there is still a particular way of putting to death such as have transgressed in civil affairs, either by causing a dearth, or by selling above the tax by a false weight, or who have committed themselves in any other manner: they are put upon a spit and roasted over a slow fire, Jeremiah 29:22 . Bakers, when they offend, are thrown into a hot oven. During the dearth in 1668, I saw such ovens heated in the royal square in Ispahan, to terrify the bakers, and deter them from deriving advantage from the general distress."
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Watson, Richard. Entry for 'Furnace'. Richard Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/wtd/f/furnace.html. 1831-2.
