Yehezkiel 20:38

20:38 I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt ¹  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.

Yehezkiel 22:15-23

22:15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among various countries; I will remove your impurity from you. ²  22:16 You will be profaned within yourself ³  in the sight of the nations; then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

22:17 The word of the Lord came to me: 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; ⁴  they are the worthless slag of silver. 22:19 Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because all of you ⁵  have become slag, look out! – I am about to gather you in the middle of Jerusalem. ⁶  22:20 As silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin are gathered in a furnace so that the fire can melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and in my rage. I will deposit you there ⁷  and melt you. 22:21 I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted in it. 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.’”

22:23 The word of the Lord came to me:

Yehezkiel 23:26-27

23:26 They will strip your clothes off you and take away your beautiful jewelry. 23:27 So I will put an end to your obscene conduct and your prostitution which you have practiced in the land of Egypt. ⁸  You will not seek their help ⁹  or remember Egypt anymore.

Yehezkiel 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. ¹⁰  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.

Yehezkiel 36:25

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ¹¹  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols.

Yesaya 1:25

1:25 I will attack you; ¹² 

I will purify your metal with flux. ¹³ 

I will remove all your slag. ¹⁴ 

Yesaya 4:4

4:4 At that time ¹⁵  the sovereign master ¹⁶  will wash the excrement ¹⁷  from Zion’s women,

he will rinse the bloodstains from Jerusalem’s midst, ¹⁸ 

as he comes to judge

and to bring devastation. ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 27:9

27:9 So in this way Jacob’s sin will be forgiven, ²⁰ 

and this is how they will show they are finished sinning: ²¹ 

They will make all the stones of the altars ²² 

like crushed limestone,

and the Asherah poles and the incense altars will no longer stand. ²³ 

Mikha 5:11-14

5:11 I will destroy the cities of your land,

and tear down all your fortresses.

5:12 I will remove the sorcery ²⁴  that you practice, ²⁵ 

and you will no longer have omen readers living among you. ²⁶ 

5:13 I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst;

you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

5:14 I will uproot your images of Asherah ²⁷  from your midst,

and destroy your idols. ²⁸ 

Zakharia 13:1-2

The Refinement of Judah

13:1 “In that day there will be a fountain opened up for the dynasty ²⁹  of David and the people of Jerusalem ³⁰  to cleanse them from sin and impurity. ³¹  13:2 And also on that day,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will remove ³²  the names of the idols from the land and they will never again be remembered. Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

Zakharia 13:8-9

13:8 It will happen in all the land, says the Lord,

that two-thirds of the people ³³  in it will be cut off and die,

but one-third will be left in it. ³⁴ 

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.’” ³⁵ 

Maleakhi 4:1

4:1 (3:19) ³⁶  “For indeed the day ³⁷  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 ³⁸  will not leave even a root or branch.

Matius 3:12

3:12 His winnowing fork ³⁹  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ⁴⁰  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ⁴¹ 

Matius 3:1

The Ministry of John the Baptist

3:1 In those days John the Baptist came into the wilderness ⁴²  of Judea proclaiming,

Kolose 3:12-13

Exhortation to Unity and Love

3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, ⁴³  kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 3:13 bearing with one another and forgiving ⁴⁴  one another, if someone happens to have ⁴⁵  a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others. ⁴⁶ 

[20:38]  ¹ tn See the note at 2:3.

[22:15]  ² sn The ultimate purpose of divine judgment is to purify the covenant community of its sins.

[22:16]  ³ tc Several ancient versions read the verb as first person, in which case the Lord refers to how his people’s sin brings disgrace upon him. For a defense of the Hebrew text, see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:712, n. 68, and M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:457-58.

[22:16]  tn The phrase “within yourself” is the same as the several previous occurrences of “within you” but adjusted to fit this clause which is the culmination of the series of indictments.

[22:18]  ⁴ tn For similar imagery, see Isa 1:21-26; Jer 6:27-30.

[22:19]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew second person pronoun is masculine plural here and in vv. 19b-21, indicating that the people are being addressed.

[22:19]  ⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[22:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will put.” No object is supplied in the Hebrew, prompting many to emend the text to “I will blow.” See BHS and verse 21.

[23:27]  ⁸ tn Heb “I will cause your obscene conduct to cease from you and your harlotry from the land of Egypt.”

[23:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “lift your eyes to them.”

[23:47]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”

[36:25]  ¹¹ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[1:25]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ sn The metaphor comes from metallurgy; slag is the substance left over after the metallic ore has been refined.

[4:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “when” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); CEV “after”; NRSV “once.”

[4:4]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[4:4]  ¹⁷ tn The word refers elsewhere to vomit (Isa 28:8) and fecal material (Isa 36:12). Many English versions render this somewhat euphemistically as “filth” (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV). Ironically in God’s sight the beautiful jewelry described earlier is nothing but vomit and feces, for it symbolizes the moral decay of the city’s residents (cf. NLT “moral filth”).

[4:4]  ¹⁸ sn See 1:21 for a related concept.

[4:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.” The precise meaning of the second half of the verse is uncertain. רוּחַ (ruakh) can be understood as “wind” in which case the passage pictures the Lord using a destructive wind as an instrument of judgment. However, this would create a mixed metaphor, for the first half of the verse uses the imagery of washing and rinsing to depict judgment. Perhaps the image would be that of a windstorm accompanied by heavy rain. רוּחַ can also mean “spirit,” in which case the verse may be referring to the Lord’s Spirit or, more likely, to a disposition that the Lord brings to the task of judgment. It is also uncertain if בָּעַר (ba’ar) here means “burning” or “sweeping away, devastating.”

[27:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “be atoned for” (NIV); cf. NRSV “be expiated.”

[27:9]  ²¹ tn Heb “and this [is] all the fruit of removing his sin.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear, though “removing his sin” certainly parallels “Jacob’s sin will be removed” in the preceding line. If original, “all the fruit” may refer to the result of the decision to remove sin, but the phrase may be a corruption of לְכַפֵּר (lekhaper, “to atone for”), which in turn might be a gloss on הָסִר (hasir, “removing”).

[27:9]  ²² tn Heb “when he makes the stones of an altar.” The singular “altar” is collective here; pagan altars are in view, as the last line of the verse indicates. See also 17:8.

[27:9]  ²³ sn As interpreted and translated above, this verse says that Israel must totally repudiate its pagan religious practices in order to experience God’s forgiveness and restoration. Another option is to understand “in this way” and “this” in v. 9a as referring back to the judgment described in v. 8. In this case כָּפַר (kafar, “atone for”) is used in a sarcastic sense; Jacob’s sin is “atoned for” and removed through severe judgment. Following this line of interpretation, one might paraphrase the verse as follows: “So in this way (through judgment) Jacob’s sin will be “atoned for,” and this is the way his sin will be removed, when he (i.e., God) makes all the altar stones like crushed limestone….” This interpretation is more consistent with the tone of judgment in vv. 8 and 10-11.

[5:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “magic charms” (so NCV, TEV); NIV, NLT “witchcraft”; NAB “the means of divination.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is uncertain, but note its use in Isa 47:9, 12.

[5:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “from your hands.”

[5:12]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and you will not have omen-readers.”

[5:14]  ²⁷ tn Or “Asherah poles.”

[5:14]  sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4). The Lord states that he will destroy these images, something the Israelites themselves should have done but failed to do.

[5:14]  ²⁸ tn The MT reads “your cities,” but many emend the text to צִרֶיךָ (tsirekha, “your images”) or עֲצַבֶּיךָ (’atsbbekha, “your idols”).

[13:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “house” (so NIV, NRSV), referring to dynastic descendants.

[13:1]  ³⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[13:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “for sin and for impurity.” The purpose implied here has been stated explicitly in the translation for clarity.

[13:1]  sn This reference to the fountain opened up…to cleanse them from sin and impurity is anticipatory of the cleansing from sin that lies at the heart of the NT gospel message (Rom 10:9-10; Titus 3:5). “In that day” throughout the passage (vv. 1, 2, 4) locates this cleansing in the eschatological (church) age (John 19:37).

[13:2]  ³² tn Heb “cut off” (so NRSV); NAB “destroy”; NIV “banish.”

[13:8]  ³³ tn The words “of the people” are supplied in the translation for clarity (cf. NCV, TEV, NLT).

[13:8]  ³⁴ sn The fractions mentioned here call to mind the affliction of God’s people described by Ezekiel, though Ezekiel referred to his own times whereas Zechariah is looking forward to a future eschatological age. Ezekiel spoke of cutting his hair at God’s command (Ezek 5:1-4) and then of burning a third of it, striking a third with a sword, and scattering the rest. From this last third a few hairs would survive to become the nucleus of a new Israel. It is this “third” Zechariah speaks of (v. 9), the remnant who will be purified and reclaimed as God’s covenant people.

[13:9]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ 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]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[3:12]  ³⁹ 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]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).

[3:12]  ⁴¹ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.

[3:1]  ⁴² tn Or “desert.”

[3:12]  ⁴³ tn If the genitive construct σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ (splancna oiktirmou) is a hendiadys then it would be “compassion” or “tenderheartedness.” See M. J. Harris, Colossians and Philemon (EGGNT), 161.

[3:13]  ⁴⁴ tn For the translation of χαριζόμενοι (carizomenoi) as “forgiving,” see BDAG 1078 s.v. χαρίζομαι 3. The two participles “bearing” (ἀνεχόμενοι, anecomenoi) and “forgiving” (χαριζόμενοι) express the means by which the action of the finite verb “clothe yourselves” is to be carried out.

[3:13]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “if someone has”; the term “happens,” though not in the Greek text, is inserted to bring out the force of the third class condition.

[3:13]  ⁴⁶ tn The expression “forgive others” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. It is included in the translation to make the sentence complete and more comprehensible to the English reader.