Ezekiel 22

₁The Lord talked to me and He said: ₂‘Son of man, you must judge the city of murderers, the city of Jerusalem. You must judge the people of this city. You must tell them about all the bad things they have done. ₃You must say: “The Lord God says: The people in this city have killed a lot of people, and now the time has come to punish them. They made idols and they became impure. ₄You are guilty because you have murdered people, and you are impure because you have made idols. You have made the day when I will punish you come quickly. You have brought your own death closer. That is why I am giving you to other nations in different lands so that they can laugh at you and mock you. ₅All the nations will laugh at you, the nations who are far away and the nations near you. You have done sinful things and everyone says bad things about you.

₆The leaders_of_Israel became strong, but then they killed a lot of people. ₇Jerusalem, your people hate their fathers and mothers and they oppress the strangers who live in you. They make orphans and widows suffer. ₈You have shown that you hate everything that is holy to Me and you have made my Sabbath days impure. ₉There are people in you who say bad things about other people and cause them to die. There are people who worship_idols on the mountains and eat meal-offerings with them. There are people who are doing things that are very bad. ₁₀There are men who have sex with their fathers' wives and who rape other women, even women who are menstruating and are impure. ₁₁One man is doing sinful things with another man's wife, and another man does the same with his daughter-in-law and he makes her impure, and another man does it with his half-sister, his father's daughter. ₁₂There are people who take bribe money to kill other people. There are people who lend money to other people and then tell them to pay too much interest. There are people who deceive other people and take their money and things. But they have forgotten Me.” ’ This is what the Lord God said.

₁₃‘You must know this: I am surprised and angry because you take things that don't belong to you and you kill people. ₁₄The time is coming when I will punish you. Will you still think that you are strong then? No, you won't. I, the Lord, have spoken and I will do what I have said. ₁₅I will chase you all over the world to other nations and I will send you to live in other lands. I will take away all the impure people in Jerusalem. ₁₆All the nations will know that you have made yourselves impure. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’

₁₇The Lord talked to me and He said:

₁₈‘Son of man, the people of Israel have become worthless to Me, like dirty foam when people melt silver in a furnace. They are not like silver. They are like the dirty parts of copper, tin, iron or lead that are left over when they purify silver.’

₁₉The Lord God says: ‘All of you have become worthless, like dirty foam. That is why I am going to put you together inside Jerusalem. ₂₀People put silver, copper, iron, lead and tin in a furnace to melt it down in a very hot fire. I will do the same to you. I will let you melt down in Jerusalem because I am angry with you, very angry. ₂₁I will burn you together and make you feel how hot my anger is. You will all melt down in Jerusalem. ₂₂You will melt down in the city, like silver melts in a furnace. Then you will know that I, the Lord, am angry with you.’

₂₃The Lord talked to me and He said: ₂₄‘Son of man, you must talk to the land_of_Israel and say: “Israel, you are a land where the people can not become pure again. The day has come for Me to punish you. No rain will fall on you. ₂₅The rulers of Israel are like a lion that roars and kills the animal that it has caught. They have killed a lot of people and they have taken treasures and precious things for themselves. They have killed a lot of men and made their wives widows. ₂₆The priests did not teach my laws like they should. They took my holy things and they made them impure. They worked with the holy things like they do with things that are not holy. They did not tell the people what it means to be pure or impure, they did things on my Sabbath days that they do on every other day, and they talked about Me as if I was not holy. ₂₇The leaders_of_Israel were like wolves that kill people and let their blood flow. They murdered people to take everything they had. ₂₈The prophets did not tell the people about the sins they were doing. They said I had talked to them, but those were false_visions and messages that were not_true. ₂₉The important people in the land cheated those who could not help themselves and they took their things. They did bad things to poor people. They oppressed strangers and were not fair to them.

₃₀I tried to find someone who could protect the people of the land, someone who could stand in front of Me in their place so that I would not have to punish them all, but I could not find anyone who could do that. ₃₁That is why I have punished them and shown them how angry I am. I have destroyed them because of all the things they have done wrong.” ’ This is what the Lord God said.