Ezekiel 22

1The word of the LORD came to me: 2As for you, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practices. 3Say, The Lord GOD says this: A city that sheds blood within her walls and so brings on her time of doom, that makes idols for herself and so defiles herself! 4You have become guilty by the blood you have shed, and made unclean by the idols you have made. You have hastened your days and come to the end of your years. So I have made you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries. 5Those who are near and those who are far away will mock you, you city with a stained name, full of turmoil. 6Look at the princes of Israel within you: each of them uses his power to shed blood. 7In you, father and mother are treated with contempt; in your midst the foreigner is oppressed; in you the orphan and the widow are wronged. 8You have despised my holy things and dishonored my Sabbaths. 9In you are slanderers who are out to shed blood. In you are those who eat at the mountain shrines. In your midst they commit depraved acts. 10In you men have sexual relations with their father’s wife; in you they violate women who are unclean during their monthly period. 11One man commits a detestable act with his neighbor’s wife; another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law; and another in you violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. 12In you people take bribes to shed blood. You charge interest and take profit, you make gain from your neighbors by extortion, and you have forgotten me, declares the Lord GOD. 13Look, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made and at the bloodshed in your midst. 14Will your courage hold, or your hands stay strong, in the days when I take action against you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it. 15I will scatter you among the nations, spread you through the countries and burn away your uncleanness. 16Because of your own doing you will be dishonored before the nations. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

17The word of the LORD came to me: 18Son of man, in my sight the house of Israel has become dross. All of them are bronze, tin, iron and lead left in the furnace; they have become the dross from silver.

19Therefore the Lord GOD says this: Because all of you have become dross, I am about to gather you into Jerusalem. 20As silver, bronze, iron, lead and tin are gathered into a furnace and fire is blown on them to melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and my wrath, put you in and melt you. 21I will gather you and blow the fire of my wrath on you, and you will melt inside the city. 22As silver melts in a furnace, so you will melt inside the city. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who have poured out my wrath on you.

23The word of the LORD came to me: 24Son of man, say to the land, You are a land that has not been cleansed, that has had no rain on the day of wrath. 25Her prophets within her have joined in a conspiracy. Like a roaring lion tearing its prey, they devour people; they seize treasure and precious things and make many widows in the land. 26Her priests do violence to my instruction and profane my holy things. They do not separate the holy from the common, and do not teach the difference between the unclean and the clean. They shut their eyes to my Sabbaths, and so I am dishonored among them. 27Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey. They shed blood and destroy lives to make dishonest gain. 28Her prophets cover these deeds with whitewash. They see false visions and practice lying divination for them, saying, “The Lord GOD says this,” when the LORD has not spoken. 29The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery. They wrong the poor and needy and oppress the foreigner, denying them justice. 30I looked for someone among them who would repair the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. 31So I have poured out my indignation on them; I have finished them off with the fire of my wrath and brought their conduct down on their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.