Proverbs 17:3
As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace: so the Lord trieth the hearts.
Open Proverbs 17:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sicut igne probatur argentum et aurum camino, ita corda probat Dominus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὥσπερ δοκιμάζεται ἐν καμίνῳ ἄργυρος καὶ χρυσός, οὕτως ἐκλεκταὶ καρδίαι παρὰ Κυρίῳ·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- מַצְרֵ֣ף לַ֭כֶּסֶף וְכ֣וּר לַזָּהָ֑ב וּבֹחֵ֖ן לִבּ֣וֹת יְהוָֽה
The Fathers on this verse
Sulpitius Severus The Doubtful Letters of Sulpitius Severus, Chapter XI
I believe that I have now set forth, briefly indeed, but, at the same time, fully, what is implied in a woman’s purity of body: it remains that we should learn what it is to be pure also in spirit; i.e. that what it is unlawful for one to do in act, it is also unlawful for one even to imagine in thought. For she is holy, alike in body and in spirit, who sins neither in mind nor heart, knowing that God is one who examines also the heart; and, therefore, she takes every pains to possess a mind as well as a body free from sin. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter XXV. On the fact that those men are more wretched who are possessed by sins than those who are possessed by devils
Although it is a fact that those men are more grievously and severely troubled, who, while they seem to be very little affected by them in the body, are yet possessed in spirit in a far worse way, as they are entangled in their sins and lusts. For as the Apostle says: “Of whom a man is overcome, of him he is also the servant.” Only that in this respect they are more dangerously ill, because though they are their slaves, yet they do not know that they are assaulted by them, and under their dominion. …