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Furnaces were used for various purposes, as smelting the crude metal, and for crucibles to refine the metal; for lime and bricks; and as an oven. Gen. 19: 28; Ex. 9: 8, 10; Prov. 17: 3. The fiery furnace
in Babylon must have been very large for four persons to have walked therein. It may have been the furnace they used for their bricks. Dan. 3: 6-26. The furnace is used figuratively for the oppression of Egypt, out of which God delivered the Israelites, Deut. 4: 20; and for the afflictions God afterwards brought them into to purify them from their idolatry and sin. Ezek. 22: 18, 22. In the N.T. the furnace of fire refers to the place of eternal punishment. Matt. 13: 42, 50.