Application to Israel and to Nephi’s audience: For both Israel and the Lehites, their journeys in the wilderness are a “furnace of affliction.” The exodus remained a significant part of the Israelite consciousness. The Lehites were keenly conscious of their personal struggles in the wilderness, only a few years in the past. Yahweh reminds them that the trials have spiritual benefits, if they are willing to find them.
Variant/Translation: The Book of Mormon removes a parenthetical phrase from the Isaiah text, which has “but not with silver” following the text “I have refined thee.” Victor Ludlow suggests that “but not with silver” was added after the compilation of the brass plates text. While possible, this proposal may not be the best explanation for the omission. Although “but not with silver” is indeed problematic, the problem is “with.” Note the following combinations of “silver” and refining (or “trying”):
The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. (Ps. 12:6)
For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. (Ps. 66:10)
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zech. 13:9)
These three cases each discuss the refining process of silver, exactly the situation in Isaiah. In addition, both Psalms 66:10 and Zechariah 13:9 explicitly apply the example to the children of Israel. The confusion in reading can be solved so easily by substituting “as” for “with” that a scribal error seems highly likely. The Hebrew words for “as” (ke) and “with” (be) both appear as single consonants that resemble each other. If an early copyist wrote the wrong letter, the error would be a single character rather than a whole phrase. Thus the original text would read: “but not as silver.”
What, then, happened to that phrase in the Book of Mormon? The phrase may have been missing from the brass plates and therefore was not translated. This would be the preferred explanation if we visualize Joseph Smith as rendering an exactly literal translation of the text on the plates. However, Doctrine and Covenants 9:7–8 makes it clear that the translation process required the translator’s active intellectual engagement. As I have already suggested, Joseph Smith interacted with his text, making alterations based on his understanding. (For an expanded discussion of the translation method see 3 Nephi, Chapter 3, “Notes on the Translation Process,” and commentary accompanying 2 Nephi 8:18–19.) This scenario also seems to fit several other variations between the Book of Mormon and King James texts of Isaiah. Joseph used this same process of interaction and clarification when he undertook his translation of the Bible. There is no reason to expect that a similar process did not occur in Joseph’s translation of essentially the King James Version Isaiah in the Book of Mormon. The absence of the phrase could have been by choice during the translation but is perhaps more likely an inadvertent omission.
The context of refining provides for a variant found in the Great Isaiah Scroll: “Look, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have purified you in the furnace of affliction.” The translators note that “chosen” in the King James Version (as opposed to “purified” in their translation) is derived from an alternate verb (not indicated) in the Masoretic tradition that can also mean “chosen.” The choice of the verb meaning “purified” in Dead Sea Scroll’s Isaiah perhaps confirms the more appropriate context of refining than is being suggested here.