Like someone who heats and purifies silver, he will purify the Levites and make them pure like gold and silver. Then they will bring offerings to the Lord in the right way.
So this is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “I will test the people of Judah as a person tests metal in a fire. I have no other choice, because my people have sinned.
The Lord will wash away the filth from the women of Jerusalem. He will wash the bloodstains out of Jerusalem and clean the city with the spirit of fairness and the spirit of fire.
Then Jerusalem will not be ashamed of the wrongs done against me, because I will remove from this city those who like to brag; there will never be any more proud people on my holy mountain in Jerusalem.
I will get rid of those who refuse to obey me and who turn against me. I will bring them out of the land where they are now living, but they will never enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
He will come ready to clean the grain, separating the good grain from the chaff. He will put the good part of the grain into his barn, but he will burn the chaff with a fire that cannot be put out.”
People put silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin together inside a furnace to melt them down in a blazing fire. In the same way I will gather you in my hot anger and put you together in Jerusalem and melt you down.
Be happy, nations, with his people, because he will repay you for the blood of his servants. He will punish his enemies, and he will remove the sin of his land and people.
This is how Israel’s guilt will be forgiven; this is how its sins will be taken away: Israel will crush the rocks of the altar to dust, and no statues or altars will be left standing for the Asherah idols.