This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”
Parallel translations
- WEB I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”
- KJV 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.
- NKJV I will bring the one–third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
- NASB “And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”
- NLT I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will refine the surviving third like silver and gold, and they will call on Him and confess Him as their God, with Him owning them as His people. It matters because it shows suffering used to purify and confirm a covenant people.
Overview
The remnant passes through fire not to be destroyed but refined, emerging in true fellowship: they call on God's name and He answers, sealing the covenant—'It is my people' and 'Yahweh is my God.' Refining imagery shows that God's testing purifies faith rather than discarding it (1 Pet. 1:7). This restored covenant relationship is the goal of all the judgment and cleansing, fulfilled for believers united to Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 38
- Ps 50:15Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”
- Jer 29:11–12For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
- Acts 2:21And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
- Isa 65:23–24They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to disaster; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD—they and their descendants with them.
- Isa 48:10See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
- Ps 34:15–19The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their cry.
- 1 Pet 1:6–7In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials
- Ps 91:15When he calls out to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him.
- Rev 21:7The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.
- 1 Pet 4:12Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.
- Jer 30:22“And you will be My people, and I will be your God.”
- Isa 43:2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched; the flames will not set you ablaze.
- Jas 1:12Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.
- Deut 26:17–19Today you have proclaimed that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in His ways, keep His statutes and commandments and ordinances, and listen to His voice.
- Ps 66:10–12For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us like silver.
- Hos 2:21–23“On that day I will respond—” declares the LORD—“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.
- Zech 10:6I will strengthen the house of Judah and save the house of Joseph. I will restore them because I have compassion on them, and they will be as though I had not rejected them. For I am the LORD their God, and I will answer them.
- Mal 3:2–3But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.
- Heb 8:10For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- Job 23:10Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
- Zech 8:8I will bring them back to dwell in Jerusalem, where they will be My people, and I will be their faithful and righteous God.”
- Jer 31:33“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD. I will put My law in their minds and inscribe it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- Lev 26:12I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.
- Isa 58:9Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and malicious talk,
- Rom 10:12–14For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him,
- Matt 22:29–32Jesus answered, “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
- Rev 21:3–4And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.
- Prov 17:3A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the LORD is the tester of hearts.
- Zech 12:10Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
- Ps 144:15Blessed are the people of whom this is so; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.
- Joel 2:32And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has promised, among the remnant called by the LORD.
- Ezek 37:27My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- Ezek 36:28Then you will live in the land that I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God.
- 1 Cor 3:11–13For no one can lay a foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
- Ezek 11:20so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.
- Isa 44:1–6But now listen, O Jacob My servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.
- Lev 26:44–45Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.
- Jer 32:38They will be My people, and I will be their God.
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Christ at the center
The Branch who is both priest and king, the shepherd struck and the flock scattered, the king coming humble on a donkey, the one they pierced, the fountain opened for sin — Zechariah is dense with Christ.
How Zechariah 13:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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