Ezekiel 22:1-31
22 And the word of Jehovah again came to me, saying:
2 “As for you, son of man, are you prepared to pronounce judgment on* the bloodguilty city+ and to make known to her all her detestable things?+
3 You are to say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: “O city that sheds blood+ within herself, whose time is coming,+ who makes disgusting idols* to defile herself,+
4 your bloodshed has made you guilty,+ and your disgusting idols have made you unclean.+ You have hastened the end of your days, and the end of your years has come. That is why I will make you an object of reproach to the nations and an object of mockery to all the lands.+
5 The lands nearby and those far away from you will mock you,+ you whose name is unclean and who are filled with turmoil.
6 Look! Each of the chieftains of Israel among you uses his authority to shed blood.+
7 Within you they treat their father and mother with contempt.+ They defraud the foreign resident, and they mistreat the fatherless child* and the widow.”’”+
8 “‘My holy places you despise, and my sabbaths you profane.+
9 Within you are slanderers intent on shedding blood.+ Within you they eat sacrifices on the mountains and carry on obscene conduct in your midst.+
10 Within you they dishonor their father’s bed,*+ and they violate a woman unclean in her menstruation.+
11 Within you one man acts detestably with his neighbor’s wife,+ another defiles his own daughter-in-law with obscene conduct,+ and another violates his sister, the daughter of his own father.+
12 Within you they take a bribe to shed blood.+ You lend on interest+ or for a profit,* and you extort money from your neighbors.+ Yes, you have entirely forgotten me,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.
13 “‘Look! I clap my hands in disgust at the dishonest gain you have made and over the acts of bloodshed in your midst.
14 Will your courage* endure and your hands remain strong in the days when I take action against you?+ I myself, Jehovah, have spoken, and I will take action.
15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among the lands,+ and I will put an end to your uncleanness.+
16 And you will be dishonored before the nations, and you will have to know that I am Jehovah.’”+
17 And the word of Jehovah again came to me, saying:
18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become like worthless dross to me. All of them are copper and tin and iron and lead in a furnace. They have become the dross of silver.+
19 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says: ‘Because all of you have become like worthless dross,+ I am collecting you together inside Jerusalem.
20 Just as silver and copper and iron and lead and tin are collected inside a furnace in order to blow fire upon them and melt them, so I will collect you together in my anger and in my rage, and I will blow upon you and make you melt.+
21 I will bring you together and blow upon you with the fire of my fury,+ and you will be melted inside of her.+
22 Just as silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her; and you will have to know that I myself, Jehovah, have poured out my rage on you.’”
23 And the word of Jehovah again came to me, saying:
24 “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land that will not be cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.
25 Her prophets have conspired within her,+ like a roaring lion tearing prey.+ They are devouring people.* They are seizing treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within her.
26 Her priests have violated my law,+ and they keep profaning my holy places.+ They make no distinction between what is holy and what is common,+ and they fail to make known what is unclean and what is clean,+ and they refuse to observe my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing prey; they shed blood and kill people* to make dishonest gain.+
28 But her prophets have plastered over their deeds with whitewash. They see false visions and give lying divination,+ and they say: “This is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah says,” when Jehovah himself has not spoken.
29 The people of the land have defrauded and committed robbery,+ they have mistreated the needy and the poor, and they have defrauded the foreign resident and denied him justice.’
30 “‘I was looking for a man from among them who would repair the stone wall or stand before me in the breach in behalf of the land, so that it would not be destroyed,+ but I found no one.
31 So I will pour out my indignation on them and exterminate them with the fire of my fury. I will bring the consequences of their way on their own head,’ declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.”
Footnotes
^ Lit., “will you judge, will you judge.”
^ The Hebrew term may be related to a word for “dung” and is used as an expression of contempt.
^ Or “the orphan.”
^ Lit., “expose the nakedness of their father.”
^ Or “or take usury.”
^ Lit., “heart.”
^ Or “souls.”
^ Or “souls.”
