Ezekiel 22:18

22:18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become slag to me. All of them are like bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace; ¹  they are the worthless slag of silver.

Ezekiel 22:22

22:22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in it, and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my anger on you.’”

Ezekiel 20:38

20:38 I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt ²  against me. I will bring them out from the land where they have been residing, but they will not come to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 23:47-48

23:47 That army will pelt them with stones and slash them with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn their houses. ³  23:48 I will put an end to the obscene conduct in the land; all the women will learn a lesson from this and not engage in obscene conduct.

Ezekiel 24:6-14

24:6 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Woe to the city of bloodshed,

the pot whose rot ⁴  is in it,

whose rot has not been removed ⁵  from it!

Empty it piece by piece.

No lot has fallen on it. ⁶ 

24:7 For her blood was in it;

she poured it on an exposed rock;

she did not pour it on the ground to cover it up with dust.

24:8 To arouse anger, to take vengeance,

I have placed her blood on an exposed rock so that it cannot be covered up.

24:9 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Woe to the city of bloodshed!

I will also make the pile high.

24:10 Pile up the bones, kindle the fire;

cook the meat well, mix in the spices,

let the bones be charred.

24:11 Set the empty pot on the coals, ⁷ 

until it becomes hot and its copper glows,

until its uncleanness melts within it and its rot ⁸  is consumed.

24:12 It has tried my patience; ⁹ 

yet its thick rot is not removed ¹⁰  from it.

Subject its rot to the fire! ¹¹ 

24:13 You mix uncleanness with obscene conduct. ¹² 

I tried to cleanse you, ¹³  but you are not clean.

You will not be cleansed from your uncleanness ¹⁴ 

until I have exhausted my anger on you.

24:14 “‘I the Lord have spoken; judgment ¹⁵  is coming and I will act! I will not relent, or show pity, or be sorry! ¹⁶  I will judge you ¹⁷  according to your conduct ¹⁸  and your deeds, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Isaiah 1:25

1:25 I will attack you; ¹⁹ 

I will purify your metal with flux. ²⁰ 

I will remove all your slag. ²¹ 

Zechariah 13:9

13:9 Then I will bring the remaining third into the fire;

I will refine them like silver is refined

and will test them like gold is tested.

They will call on my name and I will answer;

I will say, ‘These are my people,’

and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” ²² 

Malachi 3:3

3:3 He will act like a refiner and purifier of silver and will cleanse the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will offer the Lord a proper offering.

Malachi 4:1

4:1 (3:19) ²³  “For indeed the day ²⁴  is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It ²⁵  will not leave even a root or branch.

Matthew 3:12

3:12 His winnowing fork ²⁶  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ²⁷  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ²⁸ 

Matthew 3:1

The Ministry of John the Baptist

3:1 In those days John the Baptist came into the wilderness ²⁹  of Judea proclaiming,

Matthew 4:12

Preaching in Galilee

4:12 Now when Jesus ³⁰  heard that John had been imprisoned, ³¹  he went into Galilee.

[22:18]  ¹ tn For similar imagery, see Isa 1:21-26; Jer 6:27-30.

[20:38]  ² tn See the note at 2:3.

[23:47]  ³ tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”

[24:6]  ⁴ tn Or “rust.”

[24:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “has not gone out.”

[24:6]  ⁶ tn Here “lot” may refer to the decision made by casting lots; it is not chosen at all.

[24:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “set it upon its coals, empty.”

[24:11]  ⁸ tn Or “rust” (so also in v. 12).

[24:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “(with) toil she has wearied.” The meaning of the statement is unclear in the Hebrew text; some follow the LXX and delete it. The first word in the statement (rendered “toil” in the literal translation above) occurs only here in the OT, and the verb “she has wearied” lacks a stated object. Elsewhere the Hiphil of the verb refers to wearying someone or trying someone’s patience. The feminine subject is apparently the symbolic pot.

[24:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “does not go out.”

[24:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “in fire its rust.” The meaning of the expression is unclear. The translation understands the statement as a command to burn the rust away. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:768.

[24:13]  ¹² tn Heb “in your uncleanness (is) obscene conduct.”

[24:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “because I cleansed you.” In this context (see especially the very next statement), the statement must refer to divine intention and purpose. Despite God’s efforts to cleanse his people, they resisted him and remained morally impure.

[24:13]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text adds the word “again.”

[24:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “it”; the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:14]  ¹⁶ tn Or perhaps, “change my mind.”

[24:14]  ¹⁷ tc Some medieval Hebrew mss and the major ancient versions read a first person verb here. Most Hebrew mss read have an indefinite subject, “they will judge you,” which could be translated, “you will be judged.”

[24:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “ways.”

[1:25]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “turn my hand against you.” The second person pronouns in vv. 25-26 are feminine singular. Personified Jerusalem is addressed. The idiom “turn the hand against” has the nuance of “strike with the hand, attack,” in Ps 81:15 HT (81:14 ET); Ezek 38:12; Am 1:8; Zech 13:7. In Jer 6:9 it is used of gleaning grapes.

[1:25]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I will purify your dross as [with] flux.” “Flux” refers here to minerals added to the metals in a furnace to prevent oxides from forming. For this interpretation of II בֹּר (bor), see HALOT 153 s.v. II בֹּר and 750 s.v. סִיג.

[1:25]  ²¹ sn The metaphor comes from metallurgy; slag is the substance left over after the metallic ore has been refined.

[13:9]  ²² sn The expression I will say ‘It is my people,’ and they will say ‘the Lord is my God’ is reminiscent of the restoration of Israel predicted by Hosea, who said that those who had been rejected as God’s people would be reclaimed and once more become his sons and daughters (Hos 2:23).

[4:1]  ²³ sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:19 HT, 4:2 ET = 3:20 HT, etc., through 4:6 ET = 3:24 HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.

[4:1]  ²⁴ sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30-31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.

[4:1]  ²⁵ tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[3:12]  ²⁶ sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

[3:12]  ²⁷ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).

[3:12]  ²⁸ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.

[3:1]  ²⁹ tn Or “desert.”

[4:12]  ³⁰ tn Grk “he.”

[4:12]  ³¹ tn Or “arrested,” “taken into custody” (see L&N 37.12).