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.’ ”
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.
- BSB 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.’”
- 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 on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
- Jer 29:11–12For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
- Acts 2:21It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
- Isa 65:23–24They will not labor in vain, nor give birth for calamity; for they are the offspring of Yahweh’s blessed, and their descendants with them.
- Isa 48:10Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
- Ps 34:15–19Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
- 1 Pet 1:6–7Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials,
- Ps 91:15He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him, and honor him.
- Rev 21:7He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son.
- 1 Pet 4:12Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you, to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you.
- Jer 30:22“You shall be my people, and I will be your God.
- Isa 43:2When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and flame will not scorch you.
- Jas 1:12Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.
- Deut 26:17–19You have declared today that Yahweh is your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice.
- Ps 66:10–12For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined.
- Hos 2:21–23It will happen in that day, I will respond,” says Yahweh, “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth;
- Zech 10:6“I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back; for I have mercy on them; and they will be as though I had not cast them off: for I am Yahweh their God, and I will hear them.
- Mal 3:2–3“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap;
- Heb 8:10“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
- Job 23:10But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out like gold.
- Zech 8:8and I will bring them, and they will dwell within Jerusalem; and they will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.”
- Jer 31:33“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
- Lev 26:12I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people.
- Isa 58:9Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;
- Rom 10:12–14For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him.
- Matt 22:29–32But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
- Rev 21:3–4I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
- Prov 17:3The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the hearts.
- Zech 12:10I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.
- Ps 144:15Happy are the people who are in such a situation. Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.
- Joel 2:32It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls.
- Ezek 37:27My tent also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- Ezek 36:28You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
- 1 Cor 3:11–13For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
- Ezek 11:20that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
- Isa 44:1–6Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.
- Lev 26:44–45Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am Yahweh their God;
- Jer 32:38and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.