Ezekiel 22

1The word of Yahweh came to me:

2“As for you, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the city of bloodshed? Then make her know all her abominations,

3and say, ‘This is what Lord Yahweh says: You city that sheds blood within yourself, bringing on your own time of doom, and that makes idols for yourself and so becomes defiled,

4you have become guilty by the blood you have shed, and you have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days near, and you have come to the end of your years. That is why I have made you an object of scorn to the nations and a joke to all the countries.

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

6Look, the princes of Israel within you have each used his power to shed blood.

7In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; within you they have oppressed the foreigner; in you they have wronged the orphan and the widow.

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

9In you are slanderers who are out to shed blood. In you are those who eat at the mountain shrines; within you they commit lewdness.

10In you they uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean during their period.

11One man does what is abominable with his neighbor’s wife; another defiles his daughter-in-law with lewdness; and another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter.

12In you they take bribes to shed blood. You take interest and profit, and you make gain from your neighbors by oppression. And you have forgotten me, declares Lord Yahweh.

13So now I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made and at the bloodshed that has been within you.

14Will your heart hold out, or will your hands stay 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 countries, and I will put an end to your uncleanness.

16You will be profaned through your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am Yahweh.’”

17The word of Yahweh came to me:

18“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they have become the dross of silver.

19Therefore this is what Lord Yahweh says: Because all of you have become dross, I am going to gather you into Jerusalem.

20As people gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into a furnace to blow fire on it and melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and my fury, and I will put you there and melt you.

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

22As silver is melted inside a furnace, so you will be melted inside the city, and you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my fury on you.”

23The word of Yahweh came to me:

24“Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed, that has had no rain on the day of indignation.’

25Her prophets within her are a conspiracy, like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour people’s lives; they take treasure and precious things; they make many widows within her.

26Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they do not teach the difference between the unclean and the clean. They shut their eyes to my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

27Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood and destroying lives to make dishonest gain.

28Her prophets cover for them with whitewash. They see false visions and divine lies for them, saying, ‘This is what Lord Yahweh says,’ when Yahweh has not spoken.

29The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery. They wrong the poor and needy, and they oppress the foreigner without justice.

30I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.

31So I have poured out my indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have brought their conduct down on their own heads, declares Lord Yahweh.”