Bible Dictionary
SCUM
Scum is the residue or dirt adhering to a cooking pot. In Ezekiel 24 it pictures the stubborn uncleanness that judgment would not remove.
Definition
Scum is the residue of dirt adhering to a cooking pot or caldron. In Ezekiel 24, the term is preferred by the supplied material over “rust,” since the vessel is described as brass and the fire does not remove the residue.
Biblical Usage
Scum appears in Ezekiel’s illustration of the caldron. Its persistence represents a residue that remains despite the attempted cleansing by fire.
Historical Background
The Revised Version translates the underlying word “rust,” but a brass caldron would not ordinarily rust. The context’s reference to the failure of fire to remove it supports the meaning “scum.”
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>skum (chel'ah; Septuagint ios, "poison" or "verdigris"; compare Plato Rep. 609a): The word is only found in Eze 24:6,11,12, where the Revised Version (British and American) translates it "rust." The fact, however, that the caldron is of brass and therefore not liable to rust, and the astonishment expressed that the fire did not remove it (24:12), would seem to point to the preferability of the translation "scum," the residue of dirt adhering to the caldron from previous use.</p>