“Fine gold (2 Chr. 3:8; Lam. 4:2) is a grade of a higher quality than metal simply referred to as gold, and the gold of Ophir (1 Kgs. 9:28; 22:48; Job 28:16) was prized in the ancient Near East because it was a grade of gold of the highest quality. The statement here that man will be more precious than fine gold calls to mind two things: a great number of people will be slaughtered during the destructions identified in this section, so that those who remain on the earth will be more scarce than a precious metal like gold; and those who remain after the decreed desolations and survive the furnace of affliction will be purified like gold; they will no longer possess dross (sin)” (Parry et al., Understanding Isaiah, 136).