Ezekiel 22:23–29

Indictment of a Sinful Land

²³The word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴“Son of man, say to her: You are a land that has not been cleansed, ^ethat has not received rain in the day of indignation. ²⁵The conspiracy of her prophets ^fwithin her is ^glike a roaring lion tearing its prey: they devour people, seize wealth and valuables, and multiply the widows within her. ²⁶Her priests do violence to My instruction and profane My holy things. ^hThey make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they do not explain the difference between the clean and the unclean. ⁱThey disregard ^jMy Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷“Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives in order to make profit dishonestly. ²⁸Her prophets plaster with whitewash for them by seeing false visions and lying divinations, ^kand they say, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. ^lThey have oppressed the poor and needy and unlawfully exploited the foreign resident.