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Ezekiel >
Exposition >
II. Oracles of judgment on Judah and Jerusalem for sin chs. 4-24 >
D. Israel's defective leadership chs. 20-23 >
3. The idolatrous rulers of Judah ch. 22 >
Coming refining 22:17-22
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22:17-20 The Lord also compared the present Judahites to the base metals that separate from silver in the refining process. He planned to gather them in Jerusalem, His crucible, and subject them to a trial by fire, as refiners do to extract any remaining silver from the dross (cf. Isa. 1:22-25; 48:10; Jer. 6:27-30; 9:7; Zech. 13:9; Mal. 3:2-4).309
22:21-22 God's wrath would be the fire that He would blow on them, and they would melt as when a silversmith refines silver (cf. 2 Pet. 3:9-14; Rev. 20:15). They would then know that Yahweh had judged them.
The Babylonians really did burn the city, so this turned out to be a literal fire as well as a metaphorical one.
