 1 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 You, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? And you shall make her know all her abominations. 3 You shall say, Thus says the Lord God: The city sheds blood in her midst that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself. 4 You are guilty in your blood that you have shed. And you have defiled yourself in your idols you have made. And your days are brought near, and have come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all lands. 5 Those who are near and those far from you shall mock against you, O defiled of name, abounding in tumult. 6 Behold, the rulers of Israel, each man by his might, have been in you in order to shed blood. 7 In you they have despised father and mother. In your midst they have dealt with the stranger by oppression. In you they oppressed the orphan and the widow. 8 You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths. 9 In you are men of slander to shed blood. And in you they eat on the mountains. In your midst they do unchaste acts. 10 In you they have uncovered their fathers' nakedness. In you they have humbled her defiled by impurity. 11 A man has done abomination with his neighbor's wife. And a man has defiled his daughter in law in unchaste acts. And a man has humbled within you his sister, his father's daughter. 12 In you they have taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken usury and increase, and you gained by extortion of your neighbors, and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God. 13 Behold, I have struck my palm against your unjust gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in your midst. 14 Can your heart stand, or can your hands be strong, in the day that I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will act. 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you in the lands, and will destroy your uncleanness out of you. 16 You will be profaned before the eyes of the nations and you will know that I am the Lord. 17 The 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 middle of the furnace. They are even the dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem. 20 As they gather silver, and bronze, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire on it to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. 21 I will gather you and blow on you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the middle of it. 22 As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so you will be melted in the middle of it. Then you will know that I the Lord have poured out my fury on you. 23 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 24 Son of man, say to her: You are a land not being cleansed, nor rained on in the day of disgust. 25 A plot by her prophets is in her midst, like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They multiplied 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 the common, and have not taught between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am defiled among them. 27 Her rulers in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls, to get unjust gain. 28 Her prophets have covered themselves with lime+, seeing false visions+ and divining lies for them saying, Thus says the Lord God. When the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppression and robbery. They have troubled the poor and needy. Yes, they have oppressed the stranger without right. 30 I sought for a man among them who should wall up a wall for the land, and stand in the break before me, that I should not destroy it. But I did not find one. 31 Therefore I have poured out my fury on them. I have burned them up with the fire of my wrath. I have given their way on their heads, says the Lord God.
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