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Chapter 22
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 And you son of man, do you not judge, do you not judge the city of blood?
3 And you shall shew her all her abominations, and shall say: Thus said the Lord God: This is the city that sheds blood in the midst of her, that her time may come: and that has made idols against herself, to defile herself.
4 You are become guilty in your blood which you have shed: and you are defiled in your idols which you have made: and you have made your days to draw near, and have brought on the time of your years: therefore have I made you a reproach to the Gentiles, and a mockery to all countries.
5 Those that are near, and those that are far from you, shall triumph over you: you filthy one, infamous, great in destruction.
6 Behold the princes of Israel, every one has employed his arm in you to shed blood.
7 They have abused father and mother in you, they have oppressed the stranger in the midst of you, they have grieved the fatherless and widow in you.
8 You have despised my sanctuaries, and profaned my sabbaths.
9 Slanderers have been in you to shed blood, and they have eaten upon the mountains in you, they have committed wickedness in the midst of you.
10 They have discovered the nakedness of their father in you, they have humbled the uncleanness of the menstruous woman in you.
11 And every one has committed abomination with his neighbour's wife, and the father in law has wickedly defiled his daughter in law, the brother has oppressed his sister the daughter of his father in you.
12 They have taken gifts in you to shed blood: you have taken usury and increase, and have covetously oppressed your neighbours: and then have forgotten me, said the Lord God.
13 Behold, I have clapped my hands at your covetousness, which you have exercised and at the blood that has been shed: In the midst of you.
14 Shall your heart endure, or shall your hands prevail ill the days which I will bring upon you: I the Lord have spoken, and will do it.
15 And I will disperse you in the nations, and will scatter you among the countries, and I will put an end to your uncleanness in you.
16 And I will possess you in the sight of the Gentiles, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
18 Son of man, the house of Israel is become dress to me: all these are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: they are become the dress of silver.
19 Therefore thus said the Lord God: Because you are all turned into dress, therefore behold I will gather you together in the midst of Jerusalem.
20 As they gather silver, and brass, and tin, and iron, and lead in the midst of the furnace: that I may kindle a fire in it to melt it: so will I gather you together in my fury and in my wrath, and will take my rest, and I will melt you down.
21 And I will gather you together, and will burn you in the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof.
22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be in the midst thereof: and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have poured out my indignation upon you.
23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
24 Son of man, say to her: you are a land that is unclean, and not rained upon in the day of wrath.
25 There is a conspiracy of prophets in the midst thereof: like a lion that roars and catches the prey, they have devoured souls, they have taken riches and hire, they have made many widows in the midst thereof.
26 Her priests have despised my law, and have defiled my sanctuaries: they have put no difference between holy and profane: nor have distinguished between the polluted and the clean: and they have turned away their eyes from my sabbaths, and I was profaned in the midst of them.
27 Her princes in the midst of her, are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood, and to destroy souls, and to run after gains through covetousness.
28 And her prophets have daubed them without tempering the mortar, seeing vain things, and divining lies unto them, saying: Thus said the Lord God: when the Lord has not spoken.
29 The people of the land have used oppression, and committed robbery: they afflicted the needy and poor, and they oppressed the stranger by calumny without judgment.
30 And I sought among them for a man that might set up a hedge, and stand in the gap before me in favour of the land, that I might not destroy it: and I found none.
31 And I poured out my indignation upon them, in the fire of my wrath I consumed them: I have rendered their way upon their own head, said the Lord God.