Scriptures
Ezekiel 22


Chapter 22

Ezekiel catalogs the sins of the people of Judah in Jerusalem—They will be scattered and destroyed for their iniquities.

1 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

2 Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.

3 Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord God, The city asheddeth bblood in the midst of it, that her ctime may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.

4 Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a areproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.

5 Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed.

6 Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.

7 In thee have they aset light by bfather and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by coppression with the dstranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the ewidow.

8 Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.

9 In thee are men that acarry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit blewdness.

10 In thee have they discovered their fathers’ anakedness: in thee have they bhumbled her that was set capart for dpollution.

11 And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.

12 In thee have they taken agifts to shed blood; thou hast taken busury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.

13 Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy adishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.

14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it.

15 And I will ascatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy bfilthiness out of thee.

16 And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

17 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become adross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the bfurnace; they are even the dross of silver.

19 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye are 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 mine 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 afire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.

22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you.

23 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

24 Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor arained upon in the day of bindignation.

25 There is a aconspiracy of her bprophets in the midst thereof, like a croaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the dtreasure and eprecious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

26 Her apriests have bviolated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no cdifference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my dsabbaths, and I am eprofaned among them.

27 Her aprinces in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest bgain.

28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered amortar, seeing vanity, and bdivining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken.

29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the apoor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not adestroy it: but I found none.

31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I arecompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.