Ezekiel 22

Israel’s Shedding of Blood

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 "And you, *See ch. 2:1son of man, *See ch. 20:4will you judge, will you judge *[ch. 16:38;23:37;24:6;2 Kgs. 21:16]; See ch. 7:23the bloody city? *ch. 16:2;20:4Then declare to her all her abominations. 3 You shall say, Thus says the Lord God: A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that *ch. 21:25,29her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself! 4 You have become guilty *[See ver. 2above] by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought *[See ver. 3above] your days near, the appointed time of*22:4 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Targum; most Hebrew manuscripts until your years has come. *See ch. 5:14Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. 5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; *[Isa. 1:21] your name is defiled; *Isa. 22:2you are full of tumult.

6 "Behold, *ver. 27the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. 7 Father and mother *Deut. 27:16;[Eph. 6:2]; See Ex. 20:12are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner *Ex. 22:21,22suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow *Ex. 22:21,22are wronged in you. 8 *[ver. 26] You have despised my holy things and *See ch. 20:13profaned my Sabbaths. 9 *Lev. 19:16;[1 Sam. 22:9-19] There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you *See ch. 18:6who eat on the mountains; *ch. 16:43they commit lewdness in your midst. 10 In you *Lev. 18:7,8;20:11men uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. 11 *Lev. 18:20;Jer. 5:8;[ch. 18:6] One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; *Lev. 18:15;20:12;[Amos 2:7] another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; *Lev. 18:9;20:17another in you violates his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 In you *Deut. 27:25they take bribes to shed blood; *See ch. 18:8you take interest and profit*22:12 That is, profit that comes from charging interest to the poor (compare Leviticus 25:36) and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but *ch. 23:35;See Jer. 2:32me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.

13 "Behold, *ch. 21:14,17I strike my hand at *ver. 27the dishonest gain that you have made, and at *See ver. 2the blood that has been in your midst. 14 *[ch. 21:7] Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? *See ch. 17:24I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. 15 *See ch. 5:10I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and *ch. 24:11;[ver. 21, 22]I will consume your uncleanness out of you. 16 And *[ver. 26; ch. 7:24] you shall be profaned by your own doing *ch. 5:8in the sight of the nations, *See ch. 6:7and you shall know that I am the Lord."

17 And the word of the Lord came to me: 18 *See ch. 2:1"Son of man, the house of Israel has become *Ps. 119:119;Isa. 1:22,25dross to me; all of them are *Jer. 6:28bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are *Isa. 1:25dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, *ch. 21:31;[Mal. 3:3] to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you *Jer. 33:5in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. 21 I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. 22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord; *See ch. 7:8I have poured out my wrath upon you."

23 And the word of the Lord came to me: 24 "Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is *See ver. 2-4not cleansed *[ch. 34:26]; See 1 Kgs. 8:35, 36or rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 *See Jer. 11:9The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is *See ch. 19:3like a roaring lion *ver. 27tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 *[Mal. 2:8] Her priests *Zeph. 3:4have done violence to my law and *[ver. 8] have profaned my holy things. *See Lev. 10:10They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and *[Jer. 17:22,24,27] they have disregarded my Sabbaths, *See ch. 36:20so that I am profaned among them. 27 *ver. 6;Mic. 3:1,2;Zeph. 3:3;[Matt. 7:15] Her princes in her midst are like wolves *ver. 25tearing the prey, *[ver. 13]shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. 28 And *ch. 13:10her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, *See ch. 13:6seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land *[ver. 7]have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and *[ver. 7]have extorted from the sojourner without justice. 30 *Isa. 59:16;Jer. 5:1And I sought for a man among them *See ch. 13:5who should build up the wall *See ch. 13:5and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. 31 Therefore *[ver. 21] I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned *See ch. 7:4their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God."