1Moreover, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2“Now, son of man, will you judge, will you judge this bloody city? Yes, you shall confront her about all her abominations. 3And say, ‘Thus says the Sovereign LORD: “This city sheds blood in the center of it, hastening her time of doom, as she makes idols to defile herself. 4You (Jerusalem, and, by extension, its occupants) are guilty of shedding innocent blood, and have defiled yourself with your idols which you have made; causing the end of your days to draw near; and the end of your years has come. I have made you (Jerusalem) an object of scorn and mocking among the nations and all countries. 5Those near and far from you shall mock you as an infamous city of turmoil.

6“Just look how every leader of Israel uses his power to shed blood. 7In you (the city), fathers and mothers are treated with contempt; foreigners are extorted within you; and orphans and widows are abused and mistreated. 8You have despised My holy things, and have profaned My Sabbaths. 9In you (the city) are slanderers bent on shedding blood; and those that eat at the mountain shrines; and commit lewd acts. 10In you (the city) are those that have uncovered their fathers' nakedness; and those that have violated women during their menstrual period, when considered unclean. 11In you one man has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and yet another in you has humbled his sister, his father's daughter. 12In you are people that have taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained from your neighbors by extortion, and you have forgotten Me, says the LORD God.

13“Therefore, I will surely beat My fists at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the blood which has been shed in your midst. 14Can you endure, or your hands be strong, in the day that I shall deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken it, and will do it. 15And I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you in the countries, and will purge the filthiness out of you. 16And when you have disgraced yourself in the sight of the nations, you shall know that I am the LORD.”’”

17And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 18“Son of man, the people of Israel have become dross to Me; all of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead, inside a furnace; they are but the dross of silver. 19Therefore, thus says the LORD God: ‘Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into the center of Jerusalem. 20As they gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin, into the center of the furnace, to blow a fiery blast upon it, to melt it; even so I will gather you in My anger and fury, and I will put you there, and melt you. 21Yes, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the center of it. 22As silver is melted in the furnace, so shall you be melted inside 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, 24“Son of man, say to the land, ‘You are the land that has not been cleansed, nor rained on in the day of My indignation’. 25There is a conspiracy among the prophets in her midst; like a roaring lion tearing its prey, they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; and have made many widows within her. 26Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned My holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the profane, nor between the clean and the unclean, and have shut their eyes to keeping My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, they shed blood, and destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. 28And her prophets whitewash these evil deeds for them, seeing false visions, and lying divinations by which, they say, ‘Thus says the LORD God’ when the LORD has not spoken. 29The people of the land have exercised oppression, and committed robbery, and have mistreated the poor and needy; and they have unjustly oppressed the sojourner (stranger). 30And I looked for someone among them that would build up the wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found none. 31Therefore I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My wrath; bringing their own way down upon their heads”, says the LORD God.