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Indictment of Sinful Jerusalem

¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² “As for you, son of man, will you pass judgment? Will you pass judgment against the city of blood? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.^{(C1) 3} You are to say, ‘This is what the Lord God says: A city that sheds blood^(C1) within her walls so that her time of judgment has come and who makes idols for herself so that she is defiled! ⁴ You are guilty of the blood you have shed,^(C1) and you are defiled from the idols you have made. You have brought your judgment^(F1) days near and have come to your years of punishment.^(F2) Therefore, I have made you a disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all the lands. ⁵ Those who are near and those far away from you will mock you, you infamous one full of turmoil.

⁶ “‘Look, every prince of Israel^(C1) within you has used his strength to shed blood. ⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt,^(C1) and the resident alien is exploited within you. The fatherless and widow are oppressed in you.^{(C2) 8} You despise my holy things and profane my Sabbaths.^{(C1) 9} There are men within you who slander in order to shed blood.^(C1) People who live in you eat at the mountain shrines;^(F1) they commit depraved acts within you. ¹⁰ Men within you have sexual intercourse with their father’s wife and violate women during their menstrual impurity.^{(C1) 11} One man within you commits a detestable act with his neighbor’s wife;^(C1) another defiles his daughter-in-law with depravity; and yet another violates his sister, his father’s daughter.^{(C2) 12} People who live in you accept bribes in order to shed blood.^(C1) You take interest and profit on a loan and brutally extort your neighbors.^(C2) You have forgotten me.^(C3) This is the declaration of the Lord God.

¹³ “‘Now look, I clap my hands together against the dishonest profit you have made^(C1) and against the blood shed among you. ¹⁴ Will your courage endure^(C1) or your hands be strong in the days when I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will act.^{(C2) 15} I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you among the countries;^(C1) I will purge your uncleanness.^{(C2) 16} You^(F1) will be profaned in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”^(C1)

Jerusalem as God’s Furnace

¹⁷ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become merely dross to me.^(C1) All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace;^(C2) they are just dross from silver. ¹⁹ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because all of you have become dross, I am about to gather you into Jerusalem. ²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to blow fire^(C1) on them and melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and wrath, put you inside, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted within the city. ²² As silver is melted inside a furnace, so you will be melted inside the city. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my wrath on you.”^(C1)

Indictment of a Sinful Land

²³ The word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed,^(C1) that has not received rain in the day of indignation.’ ²⁵ The conspiracy of her prophets^(C1) within her is^(F1) like a roaring lion tearing its prey: they devour people, seize wealth and valuables, and multiply the widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests do violence to my instruction and profane my holy things.^(C1) They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they do not explain the difference between the clean and the unclean.^(C2) They close their eyes to my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷ “Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives in order to make profit dishonestly. ²⁸ Her prophets plaster for them with whitewash by seeing false visions and lying divinations,^(C1) saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery.^(C1) They have oppressed the poor and needy and unlawfully exploited the resident alien. ³⁰ I searched for a man among them who would repair the wall^(C1) and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land so that I might not destroy it,^(C2) but I found no one. ³¹ So I have poured out my indignation on them and consumed them with the fire of my fury. I have brought their conduct down on their own heads.”^(C1) This is the declaration of the Lord God.