Bloody city

22 The Lord’s word came to me: ² You, human one, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then explain all her detestable practices to her. ³ Say, The Lord God proclaims: City, self-destructive blood-letter, self-defiling idol maker: ⁴ All the blood that you’ve shed is your punishment, and all the idols that you’ve made are your defilement. This is how you’ve shortened your days and hastened the end^[a] of your years! For this reason I’ve given you over to the ridicule of nations and the derision of every land. ⁵ Those from near and far will mock your infamous name and great chaos. ⁶ Look, Israel’s princes, every one of them, have joined forces to shed blood in you. ⁷ In you they treat father and mother with contempt. In you they oppress immigrants and deny the rights of orphans and widows. ⁸ You despise my holy things and degrade my sabbaths. ⁹ In you slanderers show up to shed blood. In you they eat on the mountains. In you they do obscene things. ¹⁰ In you a father’s nakedness is uncovered. In you menstruating women are violated. ¹¹ Every man engages in detestable practices with his neighbor’s wife, every man defiles his daughter-in-law with obscene acts, and every man violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. ¹² In you they take bribes to shed blood. You collect interest and fees, you profit by extorting your neighbor, and you neglect even me! This is what the Lord God says.

¹³ I now strike my hands over your ill-gotten gain and blood that’s been shed in you. ¹⁴ Will your strength and courage endure when I deal with you? I am the Lord: I speak, and I act! ¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you throughout the lands, and so I will remove your uncleanness from you. ¹⁶ When you are degraded^[b] like this in the sight of the nations, then you will know that I am the Lord.