Jeremiah 6:27

27. A tower and a fortress The rendering here is clearly indefensible. The word rendered “tower” is an active verbal noun from a root which means “to inspect closely,” and may perhaps be best rendered as tester or trier that is, of metals. The word rendered “fortress” is more doubtful.

Some (Gesenius, Keil, Noyes) accept this sense, and translate, “For a trier have I set thee among my people as a strong tower. Others (as Furst and Nagelsbach) take the word in the sense of ore. There is no other example of this sense for this word in the Old Testament, but it comes legitimately from the root-meaning, namely, to cut off, hence that which is cut off the ore. The rendering then would be, “I have set thee among my people as a tester of ore,” or, more expressly, after Nagelsbach, “I have set thee as a trier among my people the ore.”