1. Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2. Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? yea, you shall show her all her abominations.
3. Then say, Thus says the Lord GOD, The city sheds blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself.
4. You have 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 of punishment to draw near, and have come even to your years: therefore have I made you a reproach to the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
5. Those that be near, and those that be far from you, shall mock you, who are infamous and much troubled.
6. Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in you according to their power to shed blood.
7. In you have they lightly regarded father and mother: in the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in you have they troubled the fatherless and the widow.
8. You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my sabbaths.
9. In you are men who tell tales to shed blood: and in you they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of you they commit lewdness.
10. In you have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness: in you have they humbled her that was set apart because of uncleanness.
11. And 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.
12. In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and unjust gain, and you have greedily gained from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD.
13. Behold, therefore I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the midst of you.
14. Can 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.
15. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and disperse you in the countries, and will consume your filthiness out of you.
16. And you shall receive your inheritance in yourself in the sight of the heathen, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
17. And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
18. Son of man, the house of Israel has to me become dross: all of them are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.
19. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you have all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
20. As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon 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.
21. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof.
22. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst thereof; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.
23. And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
24. Son of man, say to her, You are the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.
25. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her, like a roaring lion devouring the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made for her many widows in the midst of her.
26. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shown any difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27. Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves devouring the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
28. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the Lord GOD, when the LORD has not spoken.
29. The people of the land have used oppression, and committed robbery, and have troubled the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.
30. And I sought for a man among them that would build up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
31. Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, says the Lord GOD.
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