Ezekiel 22:1-20
The Sins of Jerusalem
22:1 The word of the Lord came to me:
22:2 “As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? Then confront her with all her abominable deeds!
22:3 Then say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: O city, who spills blood within herself (which brings on her doom), and who makes herself idols (which results in impurity),
22:4 you are guilty because of the blood you shed and defiled by the idols you made. You have hastened the day of your doom; the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations, an object to be mocked by all lands.
22:5 Those both near and far from you will mock you, you with your bad reputation, full of turmoil.
22:6 “‘See how each of the princes of Israel living within you has used his authority to shed blood.
22:7 They have treated father and mother with contempt within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow within you.
22:8 You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths!
22:9 Slanderous men shed blood within you. Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains; they commit obscene acts among you.
22:10 They have sex with their father’s wife within you; they violate women during their menstrual period within you.
22:11 One commits an abominable act with his neighbor’s wife; another obscenely defiles his daughter-in-law; another violates his sister – his father’s daughter – within you.
22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, declares the sovereign Lord.
22:13 “‘See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed they have done among you.
22:14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong when I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it!
22:15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among various countries; I will remove your impurity from you.
22:16 You will be profaned within yourself in the sight of the nations; then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
22:17 The word of the Lord came to me:
22:18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become slag to me. All of them are like bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace; they are the worthless slag of silver.
22:19 Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because all of you have become slag, look out! – I am about to gather you in the middle of Jerusalem.
22:20 As silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin are gathered in a furnace so that the fire can melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and in my rage. I will deposit you there and melt you.