Then the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Now you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Therefore make her know all her abominations.

And you shall say, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, A city that sheds blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that makes idols, against her own good, that she may defile herself!

You are guilty for the blood which you have shed and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near and have come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all the countries.

Those who are near and those who are far off from you will mock you, who are ill-reputed and in great tumult.

Indeed the princes of Israel, each according to his power, were within you to shed blood.

They have lightly esteemed father and mother within you; they have treated the stranger with oppression in the midst of you, and the orphan and the widow they have ill-treated within you.

You have despised My holy things and have profaned My Sabbaths.

Slanderous men are within you in order to shed blood, and within you they have eaten upon the mountains; in the midst of you they have committed lewdness.

In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their father; they have humbled women in their uncleanness within you.

And one has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another has humbled his sister, his father's daughter, within you.

Within you they have taken bribes in order to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase and have wrested unjust gain from your neighbors by extortion and have forgotten Me, declares the Lord Jehovah.

Therefore I have now struck My hand against your wrested unjust gain which you have made and at the bloodshed which is in the midst of you.

Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days when I will deal with you? I, Jehovah, have spoken, and I will do it.

And I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you among the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness from you.

And you will be profaned through yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am Jehovah.

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; all of them are brass and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.

Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah, Because all of you have become dross, therefore I am now gathering you into the midst of Jerusalem.

As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace to blow fire upon it and smelt it, so will I gather you in My anger and in My wrath; and I will lay you there and smelt you.

Yes, I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of My overflowing wrath, and you will be smelted in the midst of it.

As silver is smelted in the midst of the furnace, so will you be smelted in the midst of it; and you will know that I, Jehovah, have poured out My wrath upon you.

And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation.

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of her, like a roaring lion taking prey: They have devoured souls; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have increased the number of her widows in the midst of her.

Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, nor have they made the difference known between the unclean and the clean; and from My Sabbaths they have hidden their eyes; and I am profaned in the midst of them.

Her rulers within her are like wolves taking prey, by shedding blood and destroying souls in order to wrest unjust gain.

And her prophets have plastered over their deeds with whitewash for them, seeing vain visions and deceptive divination for them, saying, Thus says the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah has not spoken.

The people of the land have practiced extortion and have committed plunder and have oppressed the poor and needy and have mistreated the stranger without justice.

And I sought a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the breach before Me for the sake of the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.

Therefore I have poured out My indignation upon them; in the fire of My overflowing wrath I have consumed them; I have brought their own way upon their heads, declares the Lord Jehovah.