²² Your silver has become dross,^(A)
    your choice wine is diluted with water.

¹⁸ Even when their drinks are gone,
    they continue their prostitution;
    their rulers dearly love shameful ways.

4 ^[a]How the gold has lost its luster,
    the fine gold become dull!
The sacred gems are scattered
    at every street corner.^(A)

² How the precious children of Zion,^(B)
    once worth their weight in gold,
are now considered as pots of clay,
    the work of a potter’s hands!

²⁸ They are all hardened rebels,^(A)
    going about to slander.^(B)
They are bronze and iron;^(C)
    they all act corruptly.
²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely
    to burn away the lead with fire,
but the refining^(D) goes on in vain;
    the wicked are not purged out.
³⁰ They are called rejected silver,^(E)
    because the Lord has rejected them.”^(F)

⁴ “What can I do with you, Ephraim?^(A)
    What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
    like the early dew that disappears.^(B)