The Sins of Jerusalem

22 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

² Now you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Indeed, you shall show her all her abominations. ³ Then say, Thus says the Lord God: The city sheds blood in her midst, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself. ⁴ You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed and have defiled yourself with your idols which you have made. And you have caused your day to draw near and have come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all countries. ⁵ Those who are near and those who are far from you shall mock you, you of infamy and much turmoil.

⁶ The princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. ⁷ In you they have treated father and mother lightly. In your midst they have dealt with the stranger by oppression. In you they have vexed the fatherless and the widow. ⁸ You have despised My holy things and have profaned My Sabbaths. ⁹ In you are men who carry slanders to shed blood. And in you they eat at the mountain shrines. In your midst they commit lewdness. ¹⁰ In you they have uncovered their fathers’ nakedness. In you they have humbled her who was unclean in her menstrual impurity. ¹¹ One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. And another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter. ¹² In you they have taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken usury and increase, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by extortion, and you have forgotten Me, says the Lord God.

¹³ Therefore I have struck My hand toward your dishonest gain which you have made, and toward your blood which has been in your midst. ¹⁴ Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken and will do it. ¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you in the countries and consume your filthiness out of you. ¹⁶ You shall profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

Jerusalem as God’s Furnace

¹⁷ The word of the Lord came to me, saying: ¹⁸ Son 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 the furnace. They are the dross of silver. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you all have become dross, therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. ²⁰ As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the midst of a furnace to blow fire on it to melt it, so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will lay you there and melt you. ²¹ Indeed, I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. ²² As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it. And you shall know that I the Lord have poured out My fury upon you.

Indictment of Sinful Leaders

²³ The word of the Lord came to me, saying: ²⁴ Son of man, say to her: You are the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation. ²⁵ There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in her midst. ²⁶ Her priests have violated My law and have profaned My holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and profane, nor have they shown the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. ²⁷ Her officials in her midst are like wolves ravening the prey by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to obtain dishonest gain. ²⁸ Her prophets have daubed them with whitewash, seeing vanity and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully.

³⁰ I sought for a man among them who would build up the hedge and stand in the gap before Me for the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ³¹ Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath. Their own way I have recompensed on their heads, says the Lord God.