Ezekiel 22

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

2You, son of man, will you judge the city of bloodshed? Will you judge it? Show her all her abominations.

3You shall say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: A city that pours out blood within her to bring her time, and makes idols against her to defile her.

4You became guilty through the blood you poured out and defiled yourself with your idols that you made; you brought your days near and reached your years, so I have made you a reproach to the nations and mockery to all the lands.

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

6See, the princes of Israel, each by his own strength, have been in you to shed blood.

7They have despised father and mother in you, extorted the sojourner in your midst, and oppressed the orphan and widow in you.

8You have scorned my sacred things and desecrated my Sabbaths.

9Men of slander have been among you to shed blood, and within you they have eaten upon the mountains; in your midst they have committed lewdness.

10In you they have exposed their fathers' nakedness; in you they have humbled the woman defiled by her menstrual impurity.

11A man has done an abomination with his fellow's wife, another has defiled his daughter-in-law with lewdness, and another has humbled his sister, his father's daughter, in you.

12In you they took bribes to shed blood; you took usury and increase, you plundered your neighbors by extortion, and you forgot me, declares the Lord Yahweh.

13Look, I have clapped my hand at your ill-gotten gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been among you.

14Will your heart stand firm, or will your hands gain strength, in the days when I deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will perform it.

15I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you through the lands, and I will put an end to your uncleanness from you.

16You will defile yourself before the nations, and you will know that I am Yahweh.

17The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

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

19Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because all of you have become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

20Like gathering silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of the furnace to blow fire upon it and melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my fury, leave you there, and melt you.

21I will gather you and blow my wrath's fire upon you, and you will melt in its midst.

22As silver melts in the midst of the furnace, so you will melt in its midst, and you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured my fury upon you.

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

24Son of man, say to her, "You are a land not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of wrath."

25Her prophets conspire within her like a roaring lion seizing prey; they have devoured lives, they seize treasure and precious things, they have multiplied her widows within her.

26Her priests have violated my law and defiled my sacred things; they have not separated the holy from the common, nor made known the unclean from the pure, but have closed their eyes to my Sabbaths, and I am defiled in their midst.

27Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood and destroy lives, for the sake of unjust gain.

28Her prophets have daubed them over with untempered plaster, seeing vain visions and divining lies for them, saying, "Thus says the Lord Yahweh," when Yahweh has not spoken.

29The people of the land have practiced oppression and robbery, and wronged the afflicted and the needy; they have also defrauded the sojourner without justice.

30I sought among them for a man to repair the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, lest I ruin it, but I found none.

31I poured out my fury on them; with the fire of my wrath I consumed them; I set their own way upon their heads, declares the Lord Yahweh.