Chapter 22

The Sins of Israel

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

2 “And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations.

3 “You shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord 1God, “A city ashedding blood in her midst, so that her time will come, and that makes idols, contrary to her interest, for defilement!

4 “You have become aguilty by 1the blood which you have shed, and defiled by your idols which you have made. Thus you have brought your 2day near and have come to your years; therefore I have made you a breproach to the nations and a mocking to all the lands.

5 “Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you of ill repute, full of aturmoil.

6 “Behold, the arulers of Israel, each according to his 1power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood.

7 “They have atreated father and mother lightly within you. The balien they have oppressed in your midst; the cfatherless and the widow they have wronged in you.

8 “You have adespised My holy things and bprofaned My sabbaths.

9 “Slanderous men have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood, and in you they have eaten at the mountain shrines. In your midst they have acommitted acts of lewdness.

10 “In you 1they have auncovered their fathers’ nakedness; in you they have humbled her who was bunclean in her menstrual impurity.

11 “One has committed abomination with his aneighbor’s wife and another has lewdly defiled his bdaughter-in-law. And another in you has chumbled his sister, his father’s daughter.

12 “In you they have ataken bribes to shed blood; you have taken binterest and profits, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by coppression, and you have dforgotten Me,” declares the Lord God.

13 “Behold, then, I smite My hand at your adishonest gain which you have acquired and at 1the bloodshed which is among you.

14 “Can ayour heart endure, or can your hands be strong in the days that I will deal with you? bI, the Lord, have spoken and will act.

15 “I will ascatter you among the nations and I will disperse you through the lands, and I will bconsume your uncleanness from you.

16 “You will profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will aknow that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become adross to Me; all of them are bbronze and tin and iron and lead in the cfurnace; they are the dross of silver.

19 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because all of you have become dross, therefore, behold, I am going to gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

20 ‘As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the afurnace to blow fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in My anger and in My wrath and I will lay you there and melt you.

21 ‘I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted in the midst of it.

22 ‘As silver is melted in the furnace, so you will be melted in the midst of it; and you will know that I, the Lord, have apoured out My wrath on you.’ ”

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

24 “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land that is anot cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.’

25 “There is a aconspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have bdevoured lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many cwidows in the midst of her.

26 “Her apriests have done violence to My law and have bprofaned My holy things; they have made no cdistinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the dunclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

27 “Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, by shedding blood and adestroying lives in order to get bdishonest gain.

28 “Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing afalse visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken.

29 “The people of the land have practiced aoppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy and have boppressed the sojourner without justice.

30 “I asearched for a man among them who would bbuild up the wall and cstand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found 1no one.

31 “Thus I have poured out My aindignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; btheir way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord God.