9 The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in .
10 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
11 Or “set apart,” cf. “special.”
12 Heb “all who are written down for life in Jerusalem.” A city register is envisioned; everyone whose name appears on the roll will be spared. This group comprises the remnant of the city referred to earlier in the verse.
13 Heb “when” (so , , ); “after”; “once.”
14 The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).
15 The word refers elsewhere to vomit (Isa 28:8) and fecal material (Isa 36:12). Many English versions render this somewhat euphemistically as “filth” (e.g., , , ). Ironically in God’s sight the beautiful jewelry described earlier is nothing but vomit and feces, for it symbolizes the moral decay of the city’s residents (cf. “moral filth”).
16 See 1:21 for a related concept.
17 Heb “by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.” The precise meaning of the second half of the verse is uncertain. רוּחַ (ruakh) can be understood as “wind” in which case the passage pictures the Lord using a destructive wind as an instrument of judgment. However, this would create a mixed metaphor, for the first half of the verse uses the imagery of washing and rinsing to depict judgment. Perhaps the image would be that of a windstorm accompanied by heavy rain. רוּחַ can also mean “spirit,” in which case the verse may be referring to the Lord’s Spirit or, more likely, to a disposition that the Lord brings to the task of judgment. It is also uncertain if בָּעַר (ba’ar) here means “burning” or “sweeping away, devastating.”

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

Whoever remains in Zion and whoever is left in Jerusalem will be called holy—all in Jerusalem written in the book of life—when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodguilt from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.

NLTNew Living Translation

All who remain in Zion

will be a holy people—

those who survive the destruction of Jerusalem

and are recorded among the living.

The Lord will wash the filth from beautiful Zion

and cleanse Jerusalem of its bloodstains

with the hot breath of fiery judgment.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And this shall happen: He who is left in Zion

and he who remains in Jerusalem will be called holy,

everyone written for life in Jerusalem,

when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion

and cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from her midst

by a spirit of judgment

and by a spirit of burning.

KJV 1900King James Version

And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion,

And he that remaineth in Jerusalem,

Shall be called holy,

Even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:

When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion,

And shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof

By the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

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