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Ezekiel 22
New English Translation

The Sins of Jerusalem

22 The Lord’s message came to me: 2 “As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment?[a] Are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city?[b] Then confront her with all her abominable deeds! 3 Then say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O city, who spills blood within herself (which brings on her doom),[c] and who makes herself idols (which results in impurity), 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;[d] the end of your years has come.[e] Therefore I will make[f] you an object of scorn to the nations, an object to be mocked by all lands. 5 Those both near and far from you will mock you, you with your bad reputation,[g] full of turmoil.

6 “‘See how each of the princes of Israel living within you has used his authority to shed blood.[h] 7 They have treated father and mother with contempt[i] within you; they have oppressed the resident foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow[j] within you. 8 You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths! 9 Slanderous men shed blood within you.[k] Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains;[l] they commit obscene acts among you.[m] 10 They have sexual relations with their father’s wife within you;[n] they violate women during their menstrual period within you.[o] 11 One[p] commits an abominable act with his neighbor’s wife; another obscenely defiles his daughter-in-law; another violates[q] his sister—his father’s daughter[r]—within you. 12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest;[s] you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me,[t] declares the Sovereign Lord.[u]

13 “‘See, I strike my hands together[v] at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed[w] they have done among you. 14 Can your heart endure,[x] or can your hands be strong when I deal with you?[y] I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it! 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among various countries; I will remove your impurity from you.[z] 16 You will be profaned within yourself[aa] in the sight of the nations; then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

17 The Lord’s message came to me: 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;[ab] they are the worthless slag of silver. 19 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Because all of you[ac] have become slag, look out! I am about to gather you in the middle of Jerusalem. 20 As silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin are gathered in a furnace so that the fire can blow on them to melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and in my rage. I will deposit you there[ad] and melt you. 21 I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted in it. 22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in it, and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my anger on you.’”

23 The Lord’s message came to me: 24 “Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that receives no rain[ae] or showers in the day of my anger.’[af] 25 Her princes[ag] within her are like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they have devoured lives. They take away riches and valuable things; they have made many women widows[ah] within it. 26 Her priests abuse my law and have desecrated my holy things. They do not distinguish between the holy and the profane,[ai] or recognize any distinction between the unclean and the clean. They ignore[aj] my Sabbaths, and I am profaned in their midst. 27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey—shedding blood and destroying lives—so they can get dishonest profit. 28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash.[ak] They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the resident foreigner and denied them justice.[al]

30 “I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.[am] 31 So I have poured my anger on them and destroyed them with the fire of my fury. I hereby repay them for what they have done,[an] declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 22:2 tn Heb “will you judge.” Here the imperfect form of the verb is probably used with a desiderative nuance. Addressed to the prophet, “judge” means to warn of or pronounce God’s impending judgment upon the city. See 20:4.
  2. Ezekiel 22:2 tn The phrase “bloody city” is used of Nineveh in Nah 3:1.
  3. Ezekiel 22:3 tn Heb “her time”; this refers to the time of impending judgment (see the note on “doom” in v. 4).
  4. Ezekiel 22:4 tn Heb “you have brought near your days.” The expression “bring near your days” appears to be an adaptation of the idiom “days draw near,” which is used to indicate that an event, such as death, is imminent (see Gen 27:41; 47:29; Deut 31:14; 1 Kgs 2:1; Ezek 12:23). Here “your days” probably refer to the days of the personified city’s life, which was about to come to an end through God’s judgment.
  5. Ezekiel 22:4 tn Heb “and you have come to your years.” This appears to mean that she has arrived at the time when her years (i.e., life) would end, though it may mean that her years of punishment will begin. Because “day” and “time” are so closely associated in the immediate context (see 21:25, 29), some prefer to emend the text and read: “you have brought near your time.” See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:31, as well as the translator’s note on verse 3.
  6. Ezekiel 22:4 tn The Hebrew verb is a prophetic perfect, emphasizing that the action is as good as done from the speaker’s perspective.
  7. Ezekiel 22:5 tn Heb “unclean of name.”
  8. Ezekiel 22:6 tn Heb “Look! The princes of Israel, each according to his arm, were in you in order to shed blood.”
  9. Ezekiel 22:7 tn Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”
  10. Ezekiel 22:7 tn Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT (Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13; Jer 7:6; 22:3). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.
  11. Ezekiel 22:9 tn Heb “men of slander are in you in order to shed blood.”
  12. Ezekiel 22:9 tn Heb “and on the mountains they eat within you.” The mountains mentioned here were the site of pagan sacrifices. See 18:6.
  13. Ezekiel 22:9 sn This statement introduces vv. 10-11 and refers in general terms to the sexual sins described there. For the legal background of vv. 10-11, see Lev 18:7-20; 20:10-21; Deut 22:22-23, 30; 27:22.
  14. Ezekiel 22:10 tn Heb “The nakedness of a father one uncovers within you.” The ancient versions read the verb as plural (“they uncover”). If the singular is retained, it must be taken as indefinite and representative of the entire group. The idiomatic expression “uncover the nakedness” refers here to sexual intercourse (cf. Lev 18:6). To uncover a father’s nakedness could include sexual relations with one’s own mother (Lev 18:7), but more likely it refers to having intercourse with another wife of one’s father, such as a stepmother (Lev 18:8; cf. Gen 35:22; 49:4).
  15. Ezekiel 22:10 tn Heb “(one who is) unclean due to the impurity they humble within you.” The use of the verb “to humble” suggests that these men forced themselves upon women during menstruation. Having sexual relations with a woman during her period was forbidden by the Law (Lev 18:19; 20:18).
  16. Ezekiel 22:11 tn Heb “a man.”
  17. Ezekiel 22:11 tn The verb is the same one used in verse 10b and suggests forcible sexual violation of the woman.
  18. Ezekiel 22:11 sn Sexual relations with one’s half-sister may be primarily in view here. See Lev 18:9 and 20:17.
  19. Ezekiel 22:12 tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.
  20. Ezekiel 22:12 sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.
  21. Ezekiel 22:12 tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.
  22. Ezekiel 22:13 sn This gesture apparently expresses mourning and/or anger (see 6:11; 21:14, 17).
  23. Ezekiel 22:13 tn Heb “the blood that was in you.”
  24. Ezekiel 22:14 tn Heb “stand.” The heart here stands for the emotions; Jerusalem would panic in the face of God’s judgment.
  25. Ezekiel 22:14 tn Heb “in the days when I act against you.”
  26. Ezekiel 22:15 sn The ultimate purpose of divine judgment is to purify the covenant community of its sins.
  27. Ezekiel 22:16 tc Several ancient versions read the verb as first person, in which case the Lord refers to how his people’s sin brings disgrace upon him. For a defense of the Hebrew text, see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:712, n. 68, and M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:457-58. tn The phrase “within yourself” is the same as the several previous occurrences of “within you” but adjusted to fit this clause, which is the culmination of the series of indictments.
  28. Ezekiel 22:18 tn For similar imagery, see Isa 1:21-26 and Jer 6:27-30.
  29. Ezekiel 22:19 tn The Hebrew second person pronoun is masculine plural here and in vv. 19b-21, indicating that the people are being addressed.
  30. Ezekiel 22:20 tn Heb “I will put.” No object is supplied in the Hebrew, prompting many to emend the text to “I will blow.” See BHS and verse 21.
  31. Ezekiel 22:24 tc The MT reads: “that is not cleansed”; the LXX reads: “that is not drenched,” which assumes a different vowel pointing as well as the loss of a מ (mem) due to haplography. In light of the following reference to showers, the reading of the LXX certainly fits the context well. For a defense of the emendation, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32. Yet the MT is not an unreasonable reading since uncleanness in the land also fits the context. A poetic connection between rain and the land being uncleansed may be feasible since washing with water is elsewhere associated with cleansing (Num 8:7; 31:23; Ps 51:7).
  32. Ezekiel 22:24 tn Heb “in a day of anger.”
  33. Ezekiel 22:25 tn Heb “a conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst.” The LXX reads “whose princes” rather than “a conspiracy of prophets.” The prophets are mentioned later in the paragraph (v. 28). If one follows the LXX in verse 25, then five distinct groups are mentioned in vv. 25-29: princes, priests, officials, prophets, and the people of the land. For a defense of the Septuagintal reading, see L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:32, and D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:720, n. 4.
  34. Ezekiel 22:25 tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.
  35. Ezekiel 22:26 tn Or “between the consecrated and the common.”
  36. Ezekiel 22:26 tn Heb “hide their eyes from.” The idiom means to disregard or ignore something or someone (see Lev 20:4; 1 Sam 12:3; Prov 28:27; Isa 1:15).
  37. Ezekiel 22:28 tn Heb “Her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.
  38. Ezekiel 22:29 tn Heb “and the resident foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”
  39. Ezekiel 22:30 tn Heb “I did not find.”
  40. Ezekiel 22:31 tn Heb “their way on their head I have placed.”
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以西結書 22
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Traditional)

耶路撒冷的罪惡

22 耶和華對我說： 2 「人子啊，你要審判耶路撒冷這殺人流血的城。你要審判她，使她知道自己一切可憎的行為。 3 你要向她宣告主耶和華的話，說，『唉，你這殺人流血、製造偶像玷污自己的城啊，你的末日到了。 4 你既犯罪殺人、製造偶像玷污自己、自招審判，我要使你成為列國列邦侮辱和譏諷的對象。 5 你這聲名狼藉、混亂不堪的城將要受到遠近各國的恥笑。

6 「『看啊，在你城中的以色列首領各逞權勢，殺人流血。 7 他們輕慢父母，壓迫寄居者，欺負孤兒寡婦。 8 他們藐視我的聖物，褻瀆我的安息日。 9 在你這城中，有人好誹謗、殺人流血，有人在山上吃祭物，有人淫亂， 10 有人與繼母通姦，羞辱父親，有人姦污經期不潔的婦女， 11 有人與鄰居的妻子幹出可憎之事，有人玷污自己的兒媳婦，有人姦污自己的同父姊妹。 12 在你這城中，他們受賄殺人，放債取利，壓榨鄰居，早把我忘了。這是主耶和華說的。

13 「『我見你謀財害命，就擊掌歎息。 14 在我懲罰你的日子，你還有勇氣和力量嗎？我耶和華言出必行， 15 我要把你驅散到列國，分散到列邦，我要除掉你的污穢。 16 你必在列國面前受凌辱，你便知道我是耶和華。』」

17 耶和華對我說： 18 「人子啊，在我看來，以色列人已經變成了渣滓。他們是爐中的銅、錫、鐵、鉛，都是銀渣滓。 19 所以主耶和華說，『你們既是渣滓，我要把你們聚集在耶路撒冷城。 20 我要在烈怒中把你們聚集在城裡熔化，就像人把銀、銅、鐵、鉛、錫聚在高溫的爐中熔化一樣。 21 我要聚集你們，把我的怒火倒在你們身上，熔化你們。 22 你們要在城中熔化，就像銀在煉爐中熔化。你們就知道我耶和華已將我的烈怒傾倒在你們身上。』」

23 耶和華對我說： 24 「人子啊，你要對以色列說，『在我發怒的日子，將沒有雨水滋潤你這不潔之地。 25 你的首領圖謀惡事，好像咆哮著撕碎獵物的獅子，他們草菅人命，搶奪財寶，使多人變成寡婦。 26 你的祭司強解我的律法，褻瀆我的聖物。他們聖俗不分，也不教導人分辨潔淨的和污穢的。他們藐視我的安息日，褻瀆我。 27 你的首領好像撕碎獵物的豺狼，殺人流血，謀取不義之財。 28 你的先知對他們說虛假的異象和占卜，像用白灰刷牆一樣掩蓋他們的罪惡，說，耶和華這樣說，其實耶和華沒有說。 29 你的居民強取豪奪，欺壓貧困的，虐待寄居的，無法無天。 30 我想在他們中間尋找一位重修城牆的人，站在我面前為這地方堵住缺口，免得我毀滅這裡。可是，我一個也找不到。 31 因此，我要向他們傾倒我的烈怒，用怒火滅盡他們，照他們的所作所為報應他們。這是主耶和華說的。』」

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Ezekiel 22
New King James Version

Sins of Jerusalem

22 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Now, son of man, (A)will you judge, will you judge (B)the bloody city? Yes, show her all her abominations! 3 Then say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “The city sheds (C)blood in her own midst, that her time may come; and she makes idols within herself to defile herself. 4 You have become guilty by the blood which you have (D)shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made. You have caused your days to draw near, and have come to the end of your years; (E)therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all countries. 5 Those near and those far from you will mock you as [a]infamous and full of tumult.

6 “Look, (F)the princes of Israel: each one has used his [b]power to shed blood in you. 7 In you they have (G)made light of father and mother; in your midst they have (H)oppressed the stranger; in you they have mistreated the [c]fatherless and the widow. 8 You have despised My holy things and (I)profaned My Sabbaths. 9 In you are (J)men who slander to cause bloodshed; (K)in you are those who eat on the mountains; in your midst they commit lewdness. 10 In you men (L)uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are (M)set apart during their impurity. 11 One commits abomination (N)with his neighbor’s wife; (O)another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; and another in you violates his sister, his father’s (P)daughter. 12 In you (Q)they take bribes to shed blood; (R)you take usury and increase; you have made profit from your neighbors by extortion, and (S)have forgotten Me,” says the Lord God.

13 “Behold, therefore, I (T)beat My fists at the dishonest profit which you have made, and at the bloodshed which has been in your midst. 14 (U)Can your heart endure, or can your hands remain strong, in the days when I shall deal with you? (V)I, the Lord, have spoken, and will do it. 15 (W)I will scatter you among the nations, disperse you throughout the countries, and (X)remove your filthiness completely from you. 16 You shall defile yourself in the sight of the nations; then (Y)you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

Israel in the Furnace

17 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 18 “Son of man, (Z)the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a (AA)furnace; they have become dross from silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to (AB)melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. 21 Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. 22 As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have (AC)poured out My fury on you.’ ”

Israel’s Wicked Leaders

23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 24 “Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that is (AD)not [d]cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.’ 25 (AE)The conspiracy of her [e]prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they (AF)have devoured [f]people; (AG)they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 (AH)Her priests have [g]violated My law and (AI)profaned My holy things; they have not (AJ)distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her (AK)princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy [h]people, and to get dishonest gain. 28 (AL)Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, (AM)seeing false visions, and divining (AN)lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord had not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully (AO)oppress the stranger. 30 (AP)So I sought for a man among them who would (AQ)make a wall, and (AR)stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. 31 Therefore I have (AS)poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed (AT)their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God.

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 22:5 Lit. defiled of name
  2. Ezekiel 22:6 Lit. arm
  3. Ezekiel 22:7 Lit. orphan
  4. Ezekiel 22:24 So with MT, Syr., Vg.; LXX showered upon
  5. Ezekiel 22:25 So with MT, Vg.; LXX princes; Tg. scribes
  6. Ezekiel 22:25 Lit. souls
  7. Ezekiel 22:26 Lit. done violence to
  8. Ezekiel 22:27 Lit. souls
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