Ezekiel
Chapter 22
1 Also, God’s message came to me, saying,
2 Now, you human, will you judge the city of bloodshed? Yes, you will show her all her terrible sins.
3 Then say, “This is what God says: The city spills blood within itself to hasten its end and creates false gods, polluting itself.”
4 You are guilty because of the blood you shed; you have made yourself unclean with the idols you created; you brought your end near and reached the end of your life. So, I have made you a disgrace to other nations and an object of ridicule to all countries.
5 Both close and far people will mock you, as you are known for trouble and distress.
6 Look, the leaders of Israel, each one in you used their power to kill.
7 They disrespect their parents because of you; they mistreat foreigners among you; they trouble orphans and widows in your midst.
8 You have shown disrespect for my holy things and have treated my Sabbaths with contempt.
9 Among you are people who spread rumors to cause harm, and you eat at the mountains; you act improperly among yourselves.
10 In you, they exposed their fathers’ shame; in you, they violated the woman kept for impurity.
11 One did something very wrong with his neighbor’s wife; another acted indecently with his daughter-in-law; and another here has shamed his sister, his father’s daughter.
12 People have given you gifts to kill others; you have charged high interest and made profits, you’ve unfairly taken wealth from your neighbors, and you have forgotten me, says God.
13 See, I have struck my hand because of the dishonest profit you made and the bloodshed that has been among you.
14 Can your heart last, or can your hands stay strong, when I confront you? I have said it, and I will make it happen.
15 I will spread you among the nations, scatter you across the lands, and remove your uncleanness from you.
16 You will receive your inheritance in front of other nations, and you will know that I am God.
17 God’s message came to me, saying,
18 Human, the people of Israel have become worthless to me: they are all like cheap metals—brass, tin, iron, and lead—mixed in with the slag of silver.
19 So God says: Because you have all become worthless, I will bring you together in Jerusalem.
20 Just as people collect silver, brass, iron, lead, and tin to melt in a furnace with a fire, I will bring you together in my anger and rage, leave you there, and melt you.
21 Yes, I will bring you together and breathe on you with the fire of my anger, and you will melt in the middle of it.
22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so will you be melted in it; and you will know that I, God, have unleashed my anger upon you.
23 God’s message came to me, saying,
24 Human, tell her, “You are the land that is not cleaned or rained on when anger comes.”
25 Her prophets are plotting together inside the city, like a lion roaring and tearing apart its catch. They have destroyed lives. They have stolen valuable and expensive items. They have caused many women to lose their husbands in the city.
26 Her priests broke my laws and dishonored my sacred things. They did not separate the holy from the unholy or the clean from the unclean, and they closed their eyes to my Sabbaths. So I am not respected among them.
27 Its leaders are like wolves tearing apart their catch, spilling blood and destroying lives for greedy profit.
28 Her prophets have covered them with weak plaster, seeing false visions, and telling them lies, saying, “God says this,” when God has not spoken.
29 The people in the land have been unfair and stolen things, causing trouble for the poor and needy; indeed, they have wrongly treated outsiders harshly.
30 I looked for someone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.
31 So I showed them my anger and destroyed them with the fire of my fury. I have given them what they deserved for their actions, says God.