1MOREOVER the word of the LORD came to me, saying. 2Now, Son of man, judge the bloody city and declare to her all her abominations; 3Then say, Thus says the LORD God: The city where blood is shed in the midst, her time has come. and the city that makes idols in the midst of her has defiled herself. 4You have become guilty in the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself by the idols which you have made; now your days have drawn near, and the time of your years has come; therefore I have made you a reproach to the Gentiles and a derision to all cities. 5Those that are near and those that are far from you shall mock you and shall say, O you filthy one, infamous and full of iniquity.

6Behold, the princes of Israel, every one according to his own tribe, were in you to shed blood. 7In you have they cursed father and mother; in the midst of you have they oppressed the proselytes; in you have they wronged the fatherless and the widows. 8You have despised my holy things and have profaned my sabbaths. 9In you were merchants to shed blood, and in you have they eaten sacrifices upon the mountains; in the midst of you they committed lewdness. 10In you have they uncovered the nakedness of their fathers' concubines; in you have they lain with menstruous women. 11And one has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law in committing adultery with her; and another in you has defiled his sister, his father's daughter. 12In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; in you have they taken usury and exorbitant gains, and they have deceived their friends by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the LORD God.

13Behold, therefore I will strike my hands together with anger because of the iniquity which you have done and because of the blood which has been shed in the midst of you. 14Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I deal with you? I the LORD have spoken it and will do it. 15And I will scatter you among the Gentiles and disperse you in the countries. 16And I will chastise you in the sight of the Gentiles, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

17And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 18Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross; all they are like brass and like tin, and like iron and lead in the midst of the furnace when they are mixed with silver. 19Therefore thus says the LORD God: Because you have all become mixed together, behold, therefore I will gather you in the midst of Jerusalem. 20As they gather silver and brass and iron and tin and lead into the midst of the furnace, and blow the fire upon it to melt it; so will I gather you in my anger, and in my fury will I melt you. 21Yea, I will blow upon you the fire of my anger, and I will cause you to melt in the midst of it. 22As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst of it; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you.

23And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 24Son of man, say to her, You are the land that is not cleansed, and have refused to receive moisture, nor has rain come down upon you. 25Her prophets in the midst of her have conspired; they are like a lion that roars and tears the prey; they have devoured lives with their might; they have taken the precious things of their palaces. 26Her priests have violated my law and have profaned my holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and the profane, neither have they distinguished between the unclean and the clean, and have refused to keep my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood and to destroy lives, to get dishonest gain. 28And her prophets have daubed her walls with untempered mortar which will fall off, seeing for them visions of falsehood, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the LORD, when the LORD has not spoken. 29They have oppressed the people of the land and humiliated them; and have extorted from the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed wrongfully the proselyte. 30And I sought for a man among them who would build up the fence and stand in the gap before me for the sake of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. 31Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; their own ways have I recompensed upon their heads, says the LORD God.