Isaiah 1:22

¹How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street. ²The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

¹⁸Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

²⁸They are all grievous rebels, going around to slander. They are bronze and iron. All of them deal corruptly. ²⁹The bellows blow fiercely. The lead is consumed in the fire. In vain they go on refining, for the wicked are not plucked away. ³⁰Men will call them rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”

¹⁸“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are the dross of silver. ¹⁹Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem. ²⁰As they gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there and melt you. ²¹Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted in the middle of it. ²²As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so you will be melted in the middle of it; and you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my wrath on you.’”

¹⁷For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

⁴“Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.