14. Do you think you will have any courage left or have strength enough to lift your hand when I am finished with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I keep my word.
15. I will scatter your people to every country and nation and will put an end to your evil actions.
16. And so the other nations will dishonour you, but you will know that I am the Lord.”
17. The Lord said to me,
18. “Mortal man, the Israelites are of no use to me. They are like the waste metal — copper, tin, iron, and lead — left over after silver has been refined in a furnace.
19. So now I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling them that they are just as useless as that. I will bring them all together in Jerusalem
20. in the same way that the ore of silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin is put in a refining furnace. My anger and rage will melt them just as fire melts ore.
21. Yes, I will gather them in Jerusalem, build a fire under them, and melt them with my anger.
22. They will be melted in Jerusalem just as silver is melted in a furnace, and then they will know that they are feeling the anger of the Lord.”
23. The Lord spoke to me again.
24. “Mortal man,” he said, “tell the Israelites that their land is unholy, and so I am punishing it in my anger.