Ezekiel 22

The word of the LORD came to me: “As for you, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the city of bloodshed? Make her know all her abominations. Say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: A city that sheds blood within itself so that its time may come, and makes idols for itself to defile itself! You have become guilty through the blood you have shed and defiled through the idols you have made. You have brought your days near and reached your appointed years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all the countries. Those near you and those far from you will mock you, you with a defiled name and great turmoil. The princes of Israel in you have each used their power to shed blood. In you they have treated father and mother with contempt. Within you they have extorted the foreigner; in you they have oppressed the fatherless and the widow. You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. In you are slanderers intent on shedding blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains; within you they have committed lewdness. In you they have uncovered a father’s nakedness; in you they have violated women in their menstrual uncleanness. One has committed an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; another in you has violated his sister, his father’s daughter. In you they have accepted bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and extra profit, extorted gain from your neighbors, and forgotten me, declares the Lord GOD. So I have struck my hand at the dishonest gain you have made and at the bloodshed within you. Can your heart endure, or can your hands remain strong, in the days when I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it. I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among the countries, and I will put an end to your uncleanness within you. You will be profaned through your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am the LORD.’” The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace; they have become the dross of silver. Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because all of you have become dross, I will gather you into Jerusalem. As silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are gathered into a furnace to have fire blown upon them to melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and my wrath. I will put you there and melt you. I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted within it. As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted within it. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my wrath upon you.” The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed and has received no rain in the day of indignation. There is a conspiracy of her prophets within her, like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They have devoured lives, taken treasure and precious things, and multiplied her widows within her. Her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things. They have not distinguished between the holy and the common or taught the difference between the unclean and the clean. They have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I have been profaned among them. Her officials within her are like wolves tearing prey, shedding blood and destroying lives to obtain dishonest gain. Her prophets have coated them with whitewash, seeing false visions and divining lies for them. They say, “This is what the Lord GOD says,” though the LORD has not spoken. The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and extorted the foreigner without justice. I sought a man among them 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. So I poured out my indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I brought their ways upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.’”

Rights and attribution