19. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because all of you have become dross, See! I am gathering you within Jerusalem.
20. Just as silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are gathered within a furnace to be blasted with fire to smelt it, so I will gather you together in my furious wrath, put you in, and smelt you.
21. When I have assembled you, I will blast you with the fire of my anger and smelt you with it.
22. Just as silver is smelted in a furnace, so you shall be smelted in it. Thus you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out my fury on you.
23. The word of the Lord came to me:
24. Son of man, say to her: You are an unclean land receiving no rain at the time of my fury.
25. A conspiracy of its princes is like a roaring lion tearing prey; they devour people, seizing their wealth and precious things, making many widows within her.
26. Her priests violate my law and desecrate what I consider holy; they do not distinguish between holy and common, nor teach the difference between unclean and clean; they pay no attention to my sabbaths, so that I have been desecrated in their midst.
27. Within her, her officials are like wolves tearing prey, shedding blood and destroying lives to extort profit.
28. And her prophets cover them with whitewash, seeing false visions and performing lying divinations, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” although the Lord has not spoken.
29. The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they wrong the poor and the needy, and oppress the resident alien without justice.
30. Thus I have searched among them for someone who would build a wall or stand in the breach before me to keep me from destroying the land; but I found no one.
31. Therefore I have poured out my fury upon them; with my fiery wrath I have consumed them, bringing down their ways upon their heads—oracle of the Lord God.