1:25 I will attack you; 1
I will purify your metal with flux. 2
I will remove all your slag. 3
3:18 4 At that time 5 the sovereign master will remove their beautiful ankle jewelry, 6 neck ornaments, crescent shaped ornaments,
30:11 Turn aside from the way,
stray off the path. 7
Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.” 8
47:2 Pick up millstones and grind flour!
Remove your veil,
strip off your skirt,
expose your legs,
cross the streams!
57:14 He says, 9
“Build it! Build it! Clear a way!
Remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!”
1 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.
2 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.
3 sn The metaphor comes from metallurgy; slag is the substance left over after the metallic ore has been refined.
4 sn The translation assumes that the direct quotation ends with v. 17. The introductory formula “in that day” and the shift from a poetic to prosaic style indicate that a new speech unit begins in v. 18.
5 tn Or “in that day” (KJV).
6 tn Or “the beauty of [their] ankle jewelry.”
7 sn The imagery refers to the way or path of truth, as revealed by God to the prophet.
8 sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.
9 tn Since God is speaking throughout this context, perhaps we should emend the text to “and I say.” However, divine speech is introduced in v. 15.