Jerusalem's Corruption and the Search for a Righteous Remnant
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Chapter 22
1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying.2And you, son of man, judge, judge the city of bloods and make her know all her abominations.3And you shall say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A city that has poured blood within her to bring her time, and she has made idols upon her to ritually defile her.4In your blood that you poured out is guilt, and in your idols that you made you became ritually impure, and you bring near your days and you come to your years; therefore I have given you as shame to the nations and derision to all the earth.5Those nearby and those far away from you will mock you, you impure of name, you abounding in uproar.6Behold, the princes of Israel, each man according to his offspring, were in you in order to shed blood.7They cursed father and mother in you; they did oppression to the sojourner in your midst; they oppressed orphan and widow in you.8You have despised my holy things, and you have profaned my Sabbaths.9Men of slander were in you in order to shed blood, and on the mountains they ate lewdness in you; they did it in your midst.10They uncovered their father's nakedness in you; they afflicted the menstruant in her impurity in you.11One man has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife, and another has defiled his daughter-in-law with lewdness, and another has afflicted his sister, his father's daughter.12They have taken a bribe in you in order to shed blood. Usury and increase you have taken, and you have greedily oppressed your companions in extortion. And you have forgotten me, utterance of Lord GOD.13And behold, I have struck my palm at your greed that you have done and at your blood that was in your midst.14Will your heart stand? Will your hands be strengthened in the days when I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it.15I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the lands, and I will make your ritual impurity pass from you.16You will be an inheritance before the eyes of the nations, and you shall know that I am the LORD.17The word of the LORD came to me, saying.18Son of Adam, the house of Israel has all become dross to me; bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace of silver—dross they are.19Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you are all dross, therefore, behold, I am gathering you into the midst of Jerusalem.20I have gathered silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin to the midst of a furnace to blow fire on it to melt it. In this way I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will rest them and I will melt you.21And I will gather you and blow on you in the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted in its midst.22As silver is in the midst of a furnace, so you will be melted in her midst, and you will know that I am the LORD. I have poured out my wrath on you.23And the word of the LORD came to me, saying.24Son of man, say to her: The land is not cleansed; it does not rain on it in the day of my indignation.25A conspiracy of her prophets is in her midst like a roaring lion tearing prey. They have torn souls; they have eaten the mighty and the precious; they have taken her widows. Her chief officers have multiplied in her midst.26Her priests have done violence to my Torah, and they have profaned my holy things. They have not distinguished between holy and common, and they have not made known the difference between the unclean and the clean. They have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned in their midst.27Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing prey, tearing prey, to shed blood, to destroy lives, in order to gain unjust gains, unjust gains.28And their prophets daubed for them, seers of worthlessness and diviners for them of a lie, saying, “Thus says the Lord GOD,” but the LORD did not speak.29The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy. They have oppressed the resident alien without justice.30I searched among them for a man to build up the wall and to stand in the breach before the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.31So I poured out my indignation on them in the fire of my outburst; I gave it on their head in all their ways, says the Lord GOD.