This verse reflects the ancient method of refining silver. Lead was heated together with the silver ore, and in the process it would oxidize and carry off the other unwanted metals, leaving pure silver. Jeremiah is saying of the people that they are so impure that even lead cannot carry off the impurities, and so no “silver” emerges.

Some readers will find bellows difficult to understand, and it may be wise to shift to the picture of a furnace: “The furnace burns fiercely” (Good News Translation). Even if bellows are known, it may help readers to say “The bellows make the furnace fires burn fiercely.” It might also be necessary to say “the furnace for refining metal.”

The lead … goes on will quite possibly also be misunderstood by many readers. Perhaps here too the solution of Good News Translation is much clearer: “… but the waste metals do not melt and run off. It is useless to go on refining my people….”

Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch introduces the imagery of the furnace at the beginning of the verse, though without identifying the wicked as the people of Israel: “The bellows blew fiercely, but nothing came from the furnace. All effort was useless: the lead did not separate; no pure silver was produced.” It may be helpful to make the comparison quite clear, and render the whole verse as follows:

• My people are like an impure metal [or, silver] which, if you try to refine it, even if the bellows make the fire fiercely hot, the waste metals do not run off. The refining is in vain. So, too, my people are so wicked the evil among them can’t be separated out.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .