The Sins of Jerusalem

1Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? yes, you shall show her all her abominations. 3Then say you, Thus said the Lord GOD, The city sheds blood in the middle of it, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself. 4You are become guilty in your blood that you have shed; and have defiled yourself in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and are come even to your years: therefore have I made you a reproach to the heathen, and a mocking to all countries. 5Those that be near, and those that be far from you, shall mock you, which are infamous and much vexed.

6Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in you to their power to shed blood. 7In you have they set light by father and mother: in the middle of you have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in you have they vexed the fatherless and the widow. 8You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my sabbaths. 9In you are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in you they eat on the mountains: in the middle of you they commit lewdness. 10In you have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in you have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution. 11And one has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father's daughter. 12In you have they taken gifts to shed blood; you have taken usury and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten me, said the Lord GOD.

13Behold, therefore I have smitten my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the middle of you. 14Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it. 15And I will scatter you among the heathen, and disperse you in the countries, and will consume your filthiness out of you. 16And you shall take your inheritance in yourself in the sight of the heathen, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

The Refining Furnace

17And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 18Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the middle of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. 19Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; Because you are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem. 20As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it; so will I gather you in my anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. 21Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the middle therof. 22As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the middle thereof; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury on you.

The Sins of Prophets, Priests, Princes

23And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 24Son of man, say to her, You are the land that is not cleansed, nor rained on in the day of indignation. 25There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the middle thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the middle thereof. 26Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27Her princes in the middle thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. 28And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus said the Lord GOD, when the LORD has not spoken. 29The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yes, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. 30And 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 none. 31Therefore have I poured out my indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed on their heads, said the Lord GOD.