Ezekiel 22

1The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2"And you, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then make her know all her abominations. 3You shall say: Thus says the LORD GOD: A city shedding blood in her midst so that her time will come, and making idols that defile her. 4You have become guilty by the blood you have shed and defiled by your idols you have made. You have brought your days near and come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all lands. 5Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you: you who are defiled of name, full of tumult. 6Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, were bent on shedding blood. 7Father and mother are treated lightly in you; the resident alien they have oppressed within you; the orphan and widow they have mistreated. 8You have despised my holy things and profaned my sabbaths. 9Men who slander are in you to shed blood, and in you they eat at the mountains. Within you they commit lewdness. 10They uncover their fathers' nakedness in you; they violate women during their impurity. 11One commits abominations with his neighbor's wife, another defiles his daughter-in-law with lewdness; another violates his sister, his father's daughter, within you. 12They accept bribes in you to shed blood. You take interest and profit and you extort your neighbors for gain, but me you have forgotten, declares the LORD GOD.

13"Behold, I strike my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at the bloodshed which has been in your midst. 14Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong in the days that I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken and will act. 15I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness from you. 16You will be profaned in yourself before the eyes of the nations, and you shall know that I am the LORD."

17The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 18"Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace; they are the dross of silver. 19Therefore thus says the LORD GOD: Because all of you have become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20Like the gathering of silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow the fire upon it to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there and melt you. 21I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. 22As silver is melted in the furnace, so you shall be melted in its midst, and you shall know that I, the LORD, have poured out my wrath upon you."

23The word of the LORD came to me, saying, 24"Son of man, say to her: You are a land not cleansed, not rained upon in the day of indignation. 25A conspiracy of her prophets is within her, like a roaring lion tearing prey; they have devoured souls, taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within her. 26Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, nor have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; they have hidden their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27Her officials within her are like wolves tearing prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. 28Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the LORD GOD,' when the LORD has not spoken. 29The people of the land have oppressed and robbed, and have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner without justice.

30And I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I might not destroy it, but I found none. 31Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the LORD GOD."