How does cleansing lead to trial?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The fountain and removal of false prophecy precede the struck shepherd and refined remnant.

Chapter breakdown

The heading interprets the fountain as Christ’s, announces removal of idols and false prophets, Christ’s suffering and his people’s trial by fire. A fountain opens to David’s house and Jerusalem’s inhabitants for washing the sinner and the unclean woman. God announces that idol names will be destroyed out of the earth and forgotten, with false prophets and the unclean spirit removed. A man prophesying lies in God’s name is told by his parents that he shall not live, and they thrust him through when he prophesies. The passage supplies no private motive or named historical execution.

Prophets become confounded by their own visions and no longer wear sackcloth to deceive. A speaker denies being a prophet, calls himself a husbandman and names Adam as his example from youth. Asked about wounds in the midst of his hands, he replies that he was wounded in the house of those who loved him. This is the stated answer, without an explanation of ritual cutting or a judgment that the answer is a lie. The sword is commanded against God’s shepherd and the man who cleaves to him; striking the shepherd scatters the sheep, and God turns his hand to the little ones. Two parts in all the earth are announced as scattered and perishing, with a third left. The third passes through fire, refined like silver and tried like gold. They call and are heard; God calls them his people and they name him their God. These are announced events and images, not an observed population count.

The story inside

The fountain includes sinner and unclean woman. The wounds’ reply is preserved without invented ritual explanation. The remnant calls and is heard.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The fountain includes sinner and unclean woman.
2
The wounds’ reply is preserved without invented ritual explanation.
3
The remnant calls and is heard.

Test your recall

What metals describe the remnant’s trial?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 103958–103971
13:1. In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: for the washing of the sinner, and of the unclean woman. 13:2. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will destroy the names of idols out of the earth, and they shall be remembered no more: and I will take away the false prophets, and the unclean spirit out of the earth. 13:3. And it shall come to pass, that when any man shall prophesy any more, his father and his mother that brought him into the world, shall say to him: Thou shalt not live: because thou hast spoken a lie in the name of the Lord. And his father, and his mother, his parents, shall thrust him through, when he shall prophesy.
Lines 103973–103982
13:4. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be confounded, every one by his own vision, when he shall prophesy, neither shall they be clad with a garment of sackcloth, to deceive: 13:5. But he shall say: I am no prophet, I am a husbandman: for Adam is my example from my youth. 13:6. And they shall say to him: What are these wounds in the midst of thy hands? And he shall say: With these I was wounded in the house of them that loved me.
Lines 103984–103995
13:7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that cleaveth to me, saith the Lord of hosts: strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn my hand to the little ones. 13:8. And there shall be in all the earth, saith the Lord, two parts in it shall be scattered, and shall perish: but the third part shall be left therein. 13:9. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined: and I will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say: Thou art my people: and they shall say: The Lord is my God.