¹⁷ “‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats.^{(A) 18} Is it not enough^(B) for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet?^(C) Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? ¹⁹ Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?

²⁰ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep.^{(D) 21} Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns^(E) until you have driven them away, ²² I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another.^(F)

³ He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver;^(A) he will purify^(B) the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.^(C) Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,^(D)

Judgment and Covenant Renewal

4 ^[a]“Surely the day is coming;^(A) it will burn like a furnace.^(B) All the arrogant^(C) and every evildoer will be stubble,^(D) and the day that is coming will set them on fire,^(E)” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch^(F) will be left to them. ² But for you who revere my name,^(G) the sun of righteousness^(H) will rise with healing^(I) in its rays. And you will go out and frolic^(J) like well-fed calves. ³ Then you will trample^(K) on the wicked; they will be ashes^(L) under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.