Ezekiel 22:1-13 ▼

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

2 “And you, son of man [Ezekiel], will you judge, will you judge the city of bloodshed? Then make her recognize all her repulsive acts.

3 You shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time [of doom] will come, and makes idols to defile her, contrary to her interest!

4 You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and you are defiled by the idols which you have made. Thus you have caused your day [of judgment and punishment] to approach and have arrived at [the completion of] your years; therefore, I have made you an object of scorn to the [pagan] nations and a thing to be mocked by all countries.

5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you [infamous one] of ill repute, full of turmoil.

6 “Behold, the princes of Israel, every one according to his power, have been intending to shed blood in you.

7 In you they have treated father and mother lightly. They have oppressed the stranger among you; and in your presence they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.

8 You have despised and scorned My sacred things and have profaned My Sabbaths.

9 In you are men who slander for the purpose of shedding blood, and in your presence they have eaten [food offered to idols] at the mountain shrines; in your midst they have committed acts of lewdness.

10 In you men have uncovered their fathers’ nakedness [the nakedness of mother or stepmother]; in you they have violated women who are [set apart as ceremonially] unclean during their menstrual impurity [or after childbirth].

11 In you one has committed a shameful act with his neighbor’s wife, another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another has violated his sister, his father’s daughter.

12 In you they have accepted bribes to shed blood; you have taken [forbidden] interest and [a percentage of] profits, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by oppression and extortion, and you have forgotten Me,” says the Lord GOD.

13 “Behold, therefore, I strike My hands [together] at your dishonest gain which you have acquired and at the bloodshed which is among you.