Ezekiel 22

1And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

2And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then make known to her all her abominations.

3And say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: O city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile herself!’

4By your blood that you have shed, you have become guilty, and by your idols that you have made, you have become unclean. You have brought your days near and have come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all the lands.

5Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, defiled of name, full of turmoil.

6Look, the princes of Israel in you, each according to his power, were in you to shed blood.

7In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in your midst they have oppressed the sojourner; in you they have defrauded the fatherless and the widow.

8You have despised my holy things, and you have profaned my Sabbaths.

9Men of slander were in you in order to shed blood; and on the mountains they ate; they committed lewdness in your midst.

10In you they uncover a father's nakedness; in you they violate a woman in her menstrual impurity.

11One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife, another defiles his daughter-in-law with lewdness, and another violates his sister, his father’s daughter, within you.

12In you they have taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and profit, and you have extorted your neighbors by oppression, and you have forgotten me, declares the Lord GOD.

13And behold, I strike my hand against your unjust gain that you have made, and against the bloodshed that has been in your midst.

14Will your heart endure, or will your hands remain strong, in the days when I deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will do it.

15I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the lands, and I will purge your uncleanness from you.

16And you will be profaned through yourself before the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

17And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

18Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace; they are the dross of silver.

19Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because all of you have become dross, therefore behold, I am gathering you into the midst of Jerusalem.

20As silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin are gathered into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will place you there and melt you.

21I will gather you, and I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted within it.

22As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so you will be melted in the midst of it; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you.

23And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

24Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land not cleansed and not rained on in the day of indignation.’

25A conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst, like a roaring lion tearing prey: they have devoured lives, they take wealth and precious things, they have multiplied her widows in her midst.

26Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have not distinguished between the holy and the common, and they have not made known the difference between the unclean and the clean. They have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I have been profaned among them.

27Her princes within her are like wolves tearing prey, to shed blood, to destroy lives, in order to gain dishonest profit.

28And her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing falsehood and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when Yahweh has not spoken.

29The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery; they have mistreated the poor and needy, and they have oppressed the foreigner without justice.

30And I sought among them for a man who would build up a wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found none.

31So I poured out my indignation on them; with the fire of my wrath I consumed them. I have put their way on their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.