Therefore the Lord says, The LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, "Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries, And take vengeance on My enemies.

I will turn My hand against you, And thoroughly purge away your dross, And take away all your alloy.

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.

[It is] good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.

Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, As [do] stripes the inner depths of the heart.

"I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I [am] the LORD.

In your filthiness [is] lewdness. Because I have cleansed you, and you were not cleansed, You will not be cleansed of your filthiness anymore, Till I have caused My fury to rest upon you.

"And [some] of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purify [them,] and make [them] white, [until] the time of the end; because [it is] still for the appointed time.

"But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He [is] like a refiner's fire And like launderer's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness.

But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."

Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected [us,] and we paid [them] respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

He burned the house of the LORD and the king's house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire.

The bronze pillars that [were] in the house of the LORD, and the carts and the bronze Sea that [were] in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried their bronze to Babylon.

The firepans and the basins, the things of solid gold and solid silver, the captain of the guard took away.

The height of one pillar [was] eighteen cubits, and the capital on it [was] of bronze. The height of the capital was three cubits, and the network and pomegranates all around the capital were all of bronze. The second pillar was the same, with a network.

Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions.

Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and his brethren, arose and built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as [it is] written in the Law of Moses the man of God.

Though fear [had come] upon them because of the people of those countries, they set the altar on its bases; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, [both] the morning and evening burnt offerings.

"And they will go there, and they will take away all its detestable things and all its abominations from there.

"Then set the pot empty on the coals, That it may become hot and its bronze may burn, [That] its filthiness may be melted in it, [That] its scum may be consumed.

In your filthiness [is] lewdness. Because I have cleansed you, and you were not cleansed, You will not be cleansed of your filthiness anymore, Till I have caused My fury to rest upon you.

For they shall be ashamed of the terebinth trees Which you have desired; And you shall be embarrassed because of the gardens Which you have chosen.

For the day of the LORD of hosts [Shall come] upon everything proud and lofty, Upon everything lifted up -- And it shall be brought low --

Upon all the high mountains, And upon all the hills [that are] lifted up;

Upon all the ships of Tarshish, And upon all the beautiful sloops.

But the idols He shall utterly abolish.

In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver And his idols of gold, Which they made, [each] for himself to worship, To the moles and bats,

He will not look to the altars, The work of his hands; He will not respect what his fingers have made, Nor the wooden images nor the incense altars.

" Ephraim [shall say,] 'What have I to do anymore with idols?' I have heard and observed him. I [am] like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me."

Your carved images I will also cut off, And your sacred pillars from your midst; You shall no more worship the work of your hands;

I will pluck your wooden images from your midst; Thus I will destroy your cities.

" It shall be in that day," says the LORD of hosts, "[that] I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.

He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.

They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which [were] above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered [it] on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.