Jeremiah 6:26-28

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

²⁶ O my poor people, put on sackcloth,
    and roll in ashes;
make mourning as for an only child,
    most bitter lamentation:
for suddenly the destroyer
    will come upon us.

²⁷ I have made you a tester and a refiner^[a] among my people
    so that you may know and test their ways.
²⁸ They are all stubbornly rebellious,
    going about with slanders;
they are bronze and iron,
    all of them act corruptly.