Silver in the Streets
14 They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but no one goes to the battle, for my wrath is on all its multitude. 15 “‘The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He who is in the field will die by the sword. He who is in the city will be devoured by famine and pestilence. 16 But of those who escape, they will escape and will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, everyone in his iniquity. 17 All hands will be feeble, and all knees will be weak as water. 18 They will also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror will cover them. Shame will be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. 19 They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing. Their silver and their gold won’t be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath. They won’t satisfy their souls or fill their bellies; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity. 20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein. Therefore I have made it to them as an unclean thing. 21 I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a plunder; and they will profane it. 22 I will also turn my face from them, and they will profane my secret place. Robbers will enter into it, and profane it. 23 “‘Make chains, for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. 24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong to cease. Their holy places will be profaned. 25 Destruction comes! They will seek peace, and there will be none. 26 Mischief will come on mischief, and rumor will be on rumor. They will seek a vision of the prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders. 27 The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed with desolation. The hands of the people of the land will be troubled. I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”
The trumpet sounds and nobody comes, and the wealth that was supposed to buy safety is thrown into the road as garbage.
The first picture is of a mobilization that fails. They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but no one goes to the battle. The alarm works, the preparations are complete, and the men do not move. That is not cowardice so much as the removal of the will to fight. The reason given is short: the wrath is on the whole multitude. A nation can be defeated before an enemy arrives.
Then the exits are counted and there are none. The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. A man in the field dies by the sword; a man in the city dies of famine and disease. Those who do escape reach the hills and are compared to doves of the valleys, moaning. They are birds displaced from their nesting places, making a sound that is neither song nor speech. Every one of them, the text adds, in his own iniquity.
The strongest verse in the chapter concerns money, and it is worth reading slowly. They will cast their silver in the streets, and their gold will be as an unclean thing. Not stolen, not confiscated. Thrown away by its owners, in the road, as a thing you would not want to touch. The reason is given plainly. It cannot deliver them in the day of Yahweh's wrath, and it cannot satisfy a soul or fill a belly. Precious metal has exactly one function in a famine, which is none, and the collapse of its value is described as a revelation rather than a loss.
And the same verse names what the silver had actually been: the stumbling block of their iniquity. The wealth had not merely failed to help; it had been the thing they tripped over. The chapter ends by taking away the three sources a nation consults when it is frightened — the prophet's vision, the priest's law, the elders' counsel — and reporting all three as failed. King and prince are left mourning and desolate, and the last clause is the book's constant one: according to their own judgments I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.
settled What this mark means