Jerusalem Is Condemned
1 Some time later, the Lord said:
2 Ezekiel, son of man, are you ready to condemn Jerusalem? That city is filled with murderers, so remind the people of their sins 3 and tell them I am saying:
Jerusalem, you have murdered many of your own people and have worshiped idols. You will soon be punished! 4 Those crimes have made you guilty, and the idols have made you unacceptable to me. So your final punishment is near. Other nations will laugh at you and make insulting remarks, 5 and people far and near will make fun of your misery.
6 Your own leaders use their power to murder. 7 None of you honor your parents, and you cheat foreigners, orphans, and widows. 8 You show no respect for my sacred places and treat the Sabbath just like any other day. 9 Some of your own people tell lies, so that others will be put to death. Some of you eat meat sacrificed to idols at local shrines, and others never stop doing vulgar things. 10 Men have sex with their father's wife or with women who are having their monthly period 11 or with someone else's wife. Some men even sleep with their own daughter-in-law or half sister. 12 Others of you accept money to murder someone. Your own people charge high interest when making a loan to other Israelites, and they get rich by cheating. Worst of all, you have forgotten me, the Lord God.
13 I will shake my fist in anger at your violent crimes. 14 When I'm finished with you, your courage will disappear, and you will be so weak that you won't be able to lift your hands. I, the Lord, have spoken and will not change my mind. 15 I will scatter you throughout every nation on earth and put a stop to your sinful ways. 16 You will be humiliated in the eyes of other nations. Then you will know that I, the Lord God, have done these things.
Jerusalem Must Be Purified
17 The Lord said:
18 Ezekiel, son of man, I consider the people of Israel as worthless as the leftover metal in a furnace after silver has been purified. 19 So I am going to bring them together in Jerusalem. 20-21 I will be like a metalworker who collects that metal from the furnace and melts it down. I will collect the Israelites and blow on them with my fiery anger. They will melt inside the city of Jerusalem 22 like silver in a furnace. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have punished them in my anger.
Everyone in Jerusalem Is Guilty
23 The Lord said:
24 Ezekiel, son of man, tell the people of Israel that their country is full of sin, and that I, the Lord, am furious! 25 Their leaders are like roaring lions, tearing apart their victims. They put people to death, then steal everything of value. Husbands are killed, and many women are left as widows.
26 The priests of Israel ignore my Law! Not only do they refuse to respect any of my sacred things, but they don't even teach the difference between what is sacred and what is ordinary or between what is clean and what is unclean. They treat my Sabbath like any other day, and so my own people no longer honor me.
27 Israel's officials are like ferocious wolves, ripping their victims apart. They make a dishonest living by injuring and killing people.
28 And then the prophets in Israel cover up these sins by giving false visions. I have never spoken to them, but they lie and say they have a message from me. 29 The people themselves cheat and rob; they abuse the poor and take advantage of foreigners.
30 I looked for someone to defend the city and to protect it from my anger, as well as to stop me from destroying it. But I found no one. 31 So in my fierce anger, I will punish the Israelites for what they have done, and they will know that I am furious. I, the Lord, have spoken.
1 Moreover, the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying, 2 Now thou sonne of man, wilt thou iudge, wilt thou iudge this bloody citie? wilt thou shew her all her abominations? 3 Then say, Thus sayth the Lord God, The citie sheddeth blood in the middes of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against her selfe to pollute her selfe. 4 Thou hast offended in thy blood, that thou hast shed, and hast polluted thy selfe in thine idols, which thou hast made, and thou hast caused thy dayes to draw neere, and art come vnto thy terme: therefore haue I made thee a reproch to the heathen, and a mocking to all countreys. 5 Those that be neere, and those that be farre from thee, shall mocke thee, which art vile in name and sore in affliction. 6 Beholde, the princes of Israel euery one in thee was ready to his power, to shed blood. 7 In thee haue they despised father and mother: in the middes of thee haue they oppressed the stranger: in thee haue they vexed the fatherlesse and the widowe. 8 Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast polluted my Sabbaths. 9 In thee are men that cary tales to shed blood: in thee are they that eate vpon the mountaines: in ye mids of thee they comit abomination. 10 In thee haue they discouered their fathers shame: in thee haue they vexed her that was polluted in her floures. 11 And euery one hath committed abomination with his neighbours wife, and euery one hath wickedly defiled his daughter in lawe, and in thee hath euery man forced his owne sister, euen his fathers daughter. 12 In thee haue they taken giftes to shed blood: thou hast taken vsurie and the encrease, and thou hast defrauded thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God. 13 Beholde, therefore I haue smitten mine hands vpon thy couetousnesse, that thou hast vsed, and vpon the blood, which hath bene in the middes of thee. 14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the dayes that I shall haue to doe with thee? I the Lord haue spoken it, and will doe it. 15 And I wil scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countreys, and will cause thy filthines to cease from thee. 16 And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thy selfe in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt knowe that I am the Lord. 17 And the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying, 18 Sonne of man, the house of Israel is vnto me as drosse: all they are brasse, and tinne, and yron, and leade in the mids of the fornace: they are euen the drosse of siluer. 19 Therefore, thus sayth the Lord God, Because ye are all as drosse, beholde, therefore I will gather you in the middes of Ierusalem. 20 As they gather siluer and brasse, and yron, and leade, and tinne into the middes of the fornace, to blowe the fire vpon it to melt it, so wil I gather you in mine anger and in my wrath, and wil put you there and melt you. 21 I wil gather you, I say, and blowe the fire of my wrath vpon you, and you shalbe melted in the mids thereof. 22 As siluer is melted in the mids of the fornace, so shall ye be melted in the mids thereof, and ye shall knowe, that I the Lord haue powred out my wrath vpon you. 23 And the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying, 24 Sonne of man, say vnto her; Thou art the land, that is vncleane, and not rained vpon in the day of wrath. 25 There is a conspiracie of her prophets in the mids thereof like a roaring lyon, rauening the praye: they haue deuoured soules: they haue taken the riches and precious things: they haue made her many widowes in the mids thereof. 26 Her Priests haue broken my Lawe, and haue defiled mine holy things: they haue put no difference betweene the holy and prophane, neither discerned betweene the vncleane, and the cleane, and haue hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am prophaned among them. 27 Her princes in the mids thereof are like wolues, rauening the praye to shed blood, and to destroy soules for their owne couetous lucre. 28 And her prophets haue dawbed them with vntempered morter, seeing vanities, and diuining lies vnto them, saying, Thus sayth the Lord God, when the Lord had not spoken. 29 The people of the land haue violently oppressed by spoyling and robbing, and haue vexed the poore and the needy: yea, they haue oppressed the stranger against right. 30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make vp the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. 31 Therefore haue I powred out mine indignation vpon them, and consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their owne wayes haue I rendred vpon their heads, sayth the Lord God.