22 ¶ Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

² Now, thou son of man, wilt thou not judge, wilt thou not judge the city that spills innocent blood and cause her to know all her abominations?

³ Then thou shalt say, Thus hath the Lord GOD said, City that sheds blood in the midst of thyself, that thy time may come, and that has made idols against thyself to defile thyself!

⁴ In thy blood that thou hast shed thou hast sinned and hast defiled thyself with thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near and art come even unto thy years; therefore I have given thee in reproach unto the Gentiles, and in shame unto all the countries.

⁵ Those that are near and those that are far from thee shall mock thee, who art infamous and much vexed.

⁶ Behold, the princes of Israel, each one according to their power, were in thee to shed blood.

⁷ In thee they have despised father and mother; in the midst of thee they have dealt by oppression with the stranger; in thee they have vexed the fatherless and the widow.

⁸ Thou hast despised my holy things and hast profaned my sabbaths.

⁹ In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood; and in thee they eat upon the mountains; in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.

¹⁰ In thee they have discovered their fathers’ nakedness; in thee they have forced the unclean menstruous woman.

¹¹ And one has committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee has forced his sister, his father’s daughter.

¹² In thee they have taken bribes to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion and hast forgotten me, said the Lord GOD.

¹³ Behold, therefore I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made and at thy blood which has been in the midst of thee.

¹⁴ Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it and will do it.

¹⁵ And I will scatter thee among the Gentiles and disperse thee in the countries and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.

¹⁶ And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the Gentiles, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

¹⁷ ¶ And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

¹⁸ Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross; they are all brass and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are become the dross of silver.

¹⁹ Therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said: Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

²⁰ As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace to blow the fire upon it to melt it, so will I gather you in my anger and in my fury, and I will cause you to rest, and melt you.

²¹ I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.

²² As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.

²³ ¶ And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

²⁴ Son of man, say unto her, Thou art not clean land, nor art thou sprinkled with rain in the day of indignation.

²⁵ There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken treasures and honour; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

²⁶ Her priests have violated my law by force and have profaned my holy things; they have made no difference between the holy and the profane, neither have they showed the difference between the unclean and the clean and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷ Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to follow their own greed.

²⁸ And her prophets have plastered them over with loose mud, prophesying vanity and divining lies unto them, saying: Thus hath the Lord GOD said, when the LORD has not spoken.

²⁹ The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have done violence unto the poor and needy; they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

³⁰ And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found no one.

³¹ Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; I have recompensed their own way upon their heads, said the Lord GOD.