Ezekiel 22

Revised Geneva Translation

22 Moreover, the Word of the LORD came to me, saying:

² “Now, you son of man, will you judge? Will you judge this bloody city? Will you show her all her abominations?

³ “Then say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “The city sheds blood in the midst of herself, so that her time may come, and makes idols near herself, to pollute herself.

⁴ “You have offended in your blood, so that you have shed, and have polluted yourself in your idols which you have made. And you have caused your days to draw near and have come to your term. Therefore, I have made you a reproach to the heathen, and a mockery to all countries.

⁵ “Those who are near and those who are far from you shall mock you, vile in name and great in affliction.

⁶ “Behold the princes of Israel. Each has used his power to shed blood.

⁷ “In you they have despised father and mother. In the midst of you they have oppressed the stranger. In you they have troubled the fatherless and the widow.

⁸ “You have despised My holy things and have polluted My Sabbaths.

⁹ “In you are men who carry tales to shed blood. In you are those who eat upon the mountains. In your midst they commit abomination.

¹⁰ “In you they have discovered their fathers’ shame. In you have they defiled her who was polluted in her impurity.

¹¹ “And everyone has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, and everyone has wickedly defiled his daughter-in-law, and in you has every man forced his own sister, his father’s daughter.

¹² “In you they have taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and the increase, and you have defrauded your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten Me,” says the Lord GOD.

¹³ “Behold, therefore, I have stricken My Hands at your covetousness that you have used, and upon the blood which has been in your midst.

¹⁴ “Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong in the days that I shall have to do with you? I, the LORD, have spoken it and will do it.

¹⁵ “And I will scatter you among the heathen, and disperse you in the countries, and will cause your filthiness to cease from you.

¹⁶ “And you shall take your inheritance in yourself in the sight of the heathen. And you shall know that I am the LORD.”’”

¹⁷ And the Word of the LORD came to me, saying:

¹⁸ “Son of man, the House of Israel is to me as dross. All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the midst of the furnace. They are the dross of silver.”

¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Because you are all like dross, behold, therefore, I will gather you in the midst of Jerusalem.

²⁰ “As they gather silver and bronze, and iron, and lead, and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it to melt it, so I will gather you in My anger and in My wrath and will put you there and melt you.

²¹ “I will gather you, I say, and blow the fire of My wrath upon you. And you shall be melted in its midst.

²² “As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst. And you shall know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath upon you.”

²³ And the Word of the LORD came to me, saying:

²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are the land that is unclean, not rained upon on the day of wrath.’

²⁵ “A conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion, ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the riches and precious things. They have made her many widows in her midst.

²⁶ “Her priests have broken My Law and have defiled My holy things. They have put no difference between the holy and profane or discerned between the unclean and the clean. They have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷ “Her princes in her midst are like wolves, ravening the prey to shed blood, to destroy souls for their own unjust gain.

²⁸ “And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanities, and divining lies to them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD had not spoken.

²⁹ “The people of the land have violently oppressed by plundering and robbing and have violently mistreated the poor and the needy. Yea, they have wrongfully oppressed the stranger.

³⁰ “And I sought for a man among them who would make up the hedge and stand in the gap before Me, for the land, so that I would not destroy it. But I found none.

³¹ “Therefore, I have poured out My indignation upon them, and consumed them with the fire of My wrath. I have rendered their own ways upon their heads,” says the Lord GOD.