Keraia
Major Prophets

Ezekiel 22

The Sins of Jerusalem

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

1And the word of YHWH came to me, saying:

2“As for you, son of man, will you judge her? Will you pass judgment on the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations

2“And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge this city of blood? Then make known to her all her abominations,

3and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘O city who brings her own doom by shedding blood within her walls and making idols to defile herself,

3and say, thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘O city, pouring out blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and she makes idols upon herself to defile herself!

4you are guilty of the blood you have shed, and you are defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close and have come to the end of your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all the lands.

4By the blood that you have poured out, you have become guilty, and by the idols that you have made, you have defiled yourself; and your days you have brought near, and you have come to your years! Upon thus I have made you a reproach for the nations, and of derision for all the lands.

5Those near and far will mock you, O infamous city, full of turmoil.

5Those near and those far from you will mock you, O unclean of name, full of turmoil.

6See how every prince of Israel within you has used his power to shed blood.

6Behold, the princes of Israel, each man to his arm, have come to be among you in order to pour out blood!

7Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.

7The father and mother they have belittled among you; against the sojourner they have acted with oppression in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have mistreated among you.

8You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths.

8My holy things you have despised, and My Sabbaths you have profaned.

9Among you are slanderous men bent on bloodshed; within you are those who eat on the mountain shrines and commit acts of indecency.

9Men of slander are among you in order to pour out blood, and on the mountains they eat among you, and wickedness they do in your midst.

10In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity.

10The nakedness of their fathers they uncover among you; the impurity of the women they violate among you.

11One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.

11And a man with the wife of his neighbor commits an abomination, and another man his daughter-in-law defiles in wickedness; and a man violates his sister, the daughter of his father, among you.

12In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.

12They take Bribes among you in order to pour out blood; usury and increase you take, and you cut off your neighbors by extortion, and Me you have forgotten, a declaration of the Lord YHWH.

13Now look, I strike My hands together against your unjust gain and against the blood you have shed in your midst.

13So behold, I strike My hands against your dishonest gain that you have made, and over the bloodshed that has come to be in your midst!

14Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will act.

14Can your heart stand or can your hands remain strong, in the days when I will be dealing with you? I, YHWH, have spoken, and I will act.

15I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you throughout the lands; I will purge your uncleanness.

15And I will disperse you among the nations, and I will scatter you among the lands, and I will finish off your uncleanness from you.

16And when you have defiled yourself in the eyes of the nations, then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

16And you will profane yourself before the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am YHWH.’”

The Refining Furnace

17Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

17And the word of YHWH came to me, saying:

18“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are but the dross of silver.

18“Son of man, the house of Israel has become to Me as dross; they are all bronze, and tin, and iron, and lead in the midst of a furnace; they have become the dross of silver.

19Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because all of you have become dross, behold, I will gather you into Jerusalem.

19Therefore, thus says the Lord YHWH: ‘Because all of you have become as dross, therefore, behold, I am going to gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

20Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to melt with a fiery blast, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, leave you there, and melt you.

20The gathering of silver, and bronze, and iron, and lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow on it fire to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you and I will melt you!

21Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted within the city.

21And I will gather you and will blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted in its midst.

22As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted within the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath upon you.’”

22As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so will you be melted in its midst. And you will know that I, YHWH, have poured out My fury upon you.’”

Israel’s Wicked Leaders

23And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

23And the word of YHWH came to me, saying,

24“Son of man, say to her, ‘In the day of indignation, you are a land that has not been cleansed, upon which no rain has fallen.’

24“Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that is not cleansed, nor is rain on her, in the day of anger.’

25The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.

25The conspiracy of her princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured the soul; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.

26Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

26Her priests have done violence to My law, and have profaned My holy things; between the holy and the profane they do not separate, and between the unclean and the clean they do not discern; and from My Sabbaths they have hidden their eyes, and I am profaned in their midst!

27Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

27Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy souls, and to break off dishonest gain.

28Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken.

28And her prophets have covered them with whitewash, seeing falsehood and divining for them a lie, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord YHWH,’ and YHWH has not spoken.

29The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.

29The people of the land with oppression have oppressed, and with robbery have robbed, and the poor and the needy they have mistreated; and the sojourner they oppress without justice.

30I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.

30And I sought from them a man walling up the wall and standing in the breach before Me, on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it, and no one did I find.

31So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

31And I have poured out on them My anger; with the fire of My wrath I have consumed them; their deeds have I recompensed on their own heads! An utterance of the Lord YHWH.”