As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it: This sentence continues to compare God’s punishment of the people of Jerusalem to the refining of silver in a furnace (see the comments on verses 18-21).

And you shall know that I the LORD have poured out my wrath upon you: When the people are punished, they will recognize that God has done it because he was angry with them. For the recognition theme here, see verse 16. I the LORD have poured out my wrath upon you pictures God pouring out his anger as if it were a hot liquid (see 7.8)

A model for verses 18-22 is:

• 18 “Mortal man, the people of Israel have become like the worthless metal that is left over after workmen have refined silver in a furnace. 19 Therefore I, the Lord Yahweh, say to the people of Jerusalem: Because you are just like worthless leftover metal, I will collect you together and put you in the middle of Jerusalem. 20 Just as workmen collect silver, copper, iron, lead and tin and put them into a furnace and blow on the fire to heat it up and melt the metal, so I will collect you together because I am so angry with you, and I will put you in a furnace and melt you. 21 I will put you all into the furnace. Then I will fan my anger to burn very strongly against you, and you will melt there in the middle of the furnace. 22 You will melt in the furnace just like silver melts when the workmen put it into the furnace. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, am angry with you and have punished you.”

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .