Book of Ezekiel 30:13–18 in an English manuscript from early 13th century, MS. Bodl. Or. 62, fol. 59a. A Latin translation appears in the margins with further interlineations above the Hebrew.
The chapter has three divisions.[1][6] The first contains a denunciation of the various sins of Jerusalem coupled with a promise of judgment (verses 1–16). The prophet then compares Jerusalem to metal filled with impurities, and promises that God will purge the impurities by burning (17-22). Ezekiel then justifies the judgment against Jerusalem in terms of wrongful acts committed by various leaders, including prophets, priests, and the nobility (23-31).
Verse 2
“Now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Yes, show her all her abominations![7]
The phrase "Son of man" (Hebrew: בן־אדם ḇen-’āḏām) is used 93 times in the book of Ezekiel to address the prophet.[8] Each of the three sections in this chapter commence with God's word to the "son of man" (verses 2, 18 and 24).
Verse 18
Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me;
they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace;
This verse introduces the figure of a smelting furnace.[1]
"Dross" (Hebrew: סיג or סוג, sig or sug, plural: סגים): "what is removed from metal", usually of silver;[10] "the refuse of metal", "scoria", baser metal that is separated from the purer metal by melting.[11] As silver is purified in the furnace to remove the floating dross until the reflection of the image of the refiner is shown from its molten surface, the judgment of Israel was for the purpose of purification.[12]
Verses 23-31
An indictment of "all the classes of the nation": the royal house (verse 25), the priests (verse 26), the princes (verse 27), the prophets (verse 28) and the people of the land (verse 29).[1]
^The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Editors. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2007. pp. 1209-1211 Hebrew Bible. ISBN978-0195288810
Brown, Francis; Briggs, Charles A.; Driver, S. R. (1994) [1906]. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (reprint ed.). Hendrickson Publishers. ISBN978-1565632066.
Gesenius, H. W. F. (1979) [1857]. Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures: Numerically Coded to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, with an English Index. Translated by Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux (7th ed.). Baker Book House.