1 The word of the LORD came to me:
2 "You, Son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations.
3 Say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: You city that sheds blood inside yourself so that your time comes, and that makes idols for yourself to become defiled!
4 By the blood you have shed you have become guilty, and by the idols you have made you have become defiled. You have brought your days near; you have reached the end of your years. So I have made you an object of scorn to the nations and of mockery to all the lands.
5 Those near and those far from you will mock you, you of the defiled name, full of tumult.
6 "'Look at the princes of Israel within you: each one uses his power to shed blood.
7 Within you father and mother are treated lightly; in your midst the foreigner is oppressed; within you the orphan and the widow are mistreated.
8 You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.
9 Within you are slanderers bent on shedding blood; within you they eat at the mountain shrines; in your midst they practice lewdness.
10 Within you they expose their fathers' nakedness; within you they force women who are unclean from their impurity.
11 One man commits abomination with his neighbor's wife, another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law, and another within you forces his sister, his father's daughter.
12 Within you they take bribes to shed blood. You take interest and profit and exploit your neighbors by extortion, and me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.
13 "'So I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made and at the blood shed in your midst.
14 Will your heart hold out, will your hands be strong, in the days when I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it.
15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the lands and burn your uncleanness out of you.
16 And you shall be profaned by your own doing before the eyes of the nations, and you shall know that I am the LORD.'"
17 The word of the LORD came to me:
18 "Son of man, the house of Israel has turned into dross for me. All of them are bronze, tin, iron and lead inside the furnace; they are the dross of silver.
19 So thus says the Lord GOD: 'Because all of you have turned into dross, I am going to gather you inside Jerusalem.
20 As people gather silver, bronze, iron, lead and tin into a furnace to blow fire on it and melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and my wrath, put you in and melt you.
21 I will collect you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted inside it.
22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside it, and you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my wrath on you.'"
23 The word of the LORD came to me:
24 "Son of man, tell her, 'You are a land not cleansed, not rained on in the day of fury.'
25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets within her; like a roaring lion ripping its prey, they devour souls, they seize wealth and valuables, they make many widows within her.
26 Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they make no distinction between holy and common, they do not teach the difference between unclean and clean, and they shut their eyes to my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.
27 Her princes within her are like wolves ripping their prey, shedding blood and destroying souls to make dishonest gain.
28 Her prophets coat it all over for them with whitewash, seeing emptiness and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' when the LORD has not spoken.
29 The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they mistreat the poor and needy and unjustly oppress the foreigner.
30 I looked among them for a man who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I did not find one.
31 So I have poured out my fury on them; with the fire of my wrath I have finished them off. Their conduct I have brought down on their heads, declares the Lord GOD."