"And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace;"

The phrase is "as if they burned in a furnace". Not "as if they *had been* burned in a furnace". Present tense, not past tense.

It makes a difference. If you put something into a furnace, it's only black afterwards (and then only if it burns). When it's in the furnace, it glows yellow due to the extreme heat. In other words, the colour of fine, polished brass. Gold could have been used as an analogy, but gold doesn't polish up well and doesn't reflect light, whereas brass takes a good shiny surface and so will reflect light back at you.

And the "wool" line is for whiteness, not for wooliness.

Sometimes I wonder whether some people really read, or whether they just pick out every other word... ho hum. Better luck next time, Guest.

Graham.