1 Raja-raja 4:30

4:30 Solomon was wiser than all the men of the east and all the sages of Egypt. ¹ 

1 Raja-raja 8:51

8:51 After all, ²  they are your people and your special possession ³  whom you brought out of Egypt, from the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. ⁴ 

[4:30]  ¹ tn Heb “the wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.”

[8:51]  ² tn Or “for.”

[8:51]  ³ tn Heb “inheritance.”

[8:51]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew term כּוּר (kur, “furnace,” cf. Akkadian ku„ru) is a metaphor for the intense heat of purification. A כּוּר was not a source of heat but a crucible (“iron-smelting furnace”) in which precious metals were melted down and their impurities burned away (see I. Cornelius, NIDOTTE 2:618-19). Thus Egypt served not as a place of punishment for the Israelites, but as a place of refinement to bring Israel to a place of submission to divine sovereignty.

[8:51]  sn From the middle of the iron-smelting furnace. The metaphor of a furnace suggests fire and heat and is an apt image to remind the people of the suffering they endured while slaves in Egypt.