sig

סִיג denotes the slag or refuse separated from silver in cupellation, the ancient refining process in which lead oxidizes to litharge and is drawn off, leaving pure silver; it can also stand for the impure base metal before refining. The traditional etymology derives it from the root סוג "to turn aside, backslide" (so BDB, Klein, and the Gesenius tradition), reading dross as "what is removed," but no secure cognate confirms this and the modern lexica hedge; there is no clear Akkadian noun-cognate for "dross." The eight occurrences move from a literal proverb (Proverbs 25:4) to prophetic metaphor for a debased people (Isaiah 1:22; Ezekiel 22:18 to 19) and to judgment-as-refining (Isaiah 1:25; Psalm 119:119). Two verses are text-critically contested: at Proverbs 26:23 H. L. Ginsberg repointed כֶּסֶף סִיגִים to kesapsaggim "like glaze," citing Ugaritic spsg (attested in the Aqhat epic, KTU 1.17 VI.36, not Kirta as often reported), a reading adopted by many versions but resisted by defenders of the Masoretic Text; at Psalm 119:119 the Greek Old Testament read "transgressors" (παραβαίνοντας) with a verb of reckoning, and the United Bible Societies project rates the Hebrew text with considerable doubt. At Ezekiel 22:18 the written and read forms differ (סוג written, סִיג read), a minor spelling variant rather than a change of meaning.