Indictment of Sinful Jerusalem

22 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “As for you, son of man, will you pass judgment? Will you pass judgment against the city of blood? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.^{(A) 3} You are to say: This is what the Lord God says: A city that sheds blood^(B) within her walls so that her time of judgment has come and who makes idols for herself so that she is defiled! ⁴ You are guilty of the blood you have shed,^(C) and you are defiled from the idols you have made. You have brought your judgment days near and have come to your years of punishment. Therefore, I have made you a disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all the lands. ⁵ Those who are near and those far away from you will mock you, you infamous one full of turmoil.

⁶ “Look, every prince of Israel^(D) within you has used his strength to shed blood. ⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt,^(E) and the foreign resident is exploited within you. The fatherless and widow are oppressed in you.^{(F) 8} You despise My holy things and profane My Sabbaths.^{(G) 9} There are men within you who slander in order to shed blood.^(H) People who live in you eat at the mountain shrines; they commit immoral acts within you. ¹⁰ Men within you have sexual intercourse with their father’s wife and violate women during their menstrual impurity.^{(I) 11} One man within you commits a detestable act with his neighbor’s wife;^(J) another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his father’s daughter.^{(K) 12} People who live in you accept bribes in order to shed blood.^(L) You take interest and profit on a loan and brutally extort your neighbors.^(M) You have forgotten Me.”^(N) This is the declaration of the Lord God.

¹³ “Now look, I clap My hands together against the dishonest profit you have made^(O) and against the blood shed among you. ¹⁴ Will your courage endure^(P) or your hands be strong in the days when I deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken, and I will act.^{(Q) 15} I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you among the countries;^(R) I will purge your uncleanness.^{(S) 16} You^[a] will be profaned in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.”^(T)

Jerusalem as God’s Furnace

¹⁷ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me.^(U) All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace;^(V) they are the dross of silver. ¹⁹ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because all of you have become dross, I am about to gather you into Jerusalem. ²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to blow fire^(W) on them and melt them, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, put you inside, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of My fury, and you will be melted within the city. ²² As silver is melted inside a furnace, so you will be melted inside the city. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out My wrath on you.”^(X)

Indictment of a Sinful Land

²³ The word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ “Son of man, say to her: You are a land that has not been cleansed,^(Y) that has not received rain in the day of indignation. ²⁵ The conspiracy of her prophets^(Z) within her is^[b] like a roaring lion tearing its prey: they devour people, seize wealth and valuables, and multiply the widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests do violence to My instruction and profane My holy things.^(AA) They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they do not explain the difference between the clean and the unclean.^(AB) They disregard^[c] My 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. ²⁸ Her prophets plaster with whitewash for them by seeing false visions and lying divinations,^(AC) and they say, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery.^(AD) They have oppressed the poor and needy and unlawfully exploited the foreign resident. ³⁰ I searched for a man among them who would repair the wall^(AE) and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land so that I might not destroy it,^(AF) but I found no one. ³¹ So I have poured out My indignation on them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their actions down on their own heads.”^(AG) This is the declaration of the Lord God.