Isaiah 30:28 contains vivid imagery of God's judgment: 'to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction.' The term denotes an agricultural implement used to separate grain from chaff or to sort materials by size. Ancient sieves were frames with mesh or perforated material; shaken vigorously, they allowed fine material through while retaining larger particles. Isaiah transforms this domestic tool into a metaphor for divine sorting—nations will be shaken in God's sieve, the worthless falling away. The 'sieve of worthlessness' suggests a sorting that retains nothing, total rejection.