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Ezekiel 22
Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2 And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations. 3 And you shall say, In this manner says the Sovereign Yahweh: A city that sheds blood in the middle of her, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her! 4 You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and have come even to your years: therefore have I made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries. 5 Those that are near, and those that are far from you, shall mock you, you infamous one and full of tumult.
6 Behold, the princes of Israel, every one according to his power, have been in you to shed blood. 7 In you have they set light by father and mother; in the middle of you have they dealt by oppression with the sojourner; in you have they wronged the fatherless and the widow. 8 You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my sabbaths. 9 Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood; and in you they have eaten upon the mountains: in the middle of you they have committed lewdness. 10 In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness; in you have they humbled her that was unclean in her impurity. 11 And one has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me, says the Sovereign Yahweh.
13 Behold, therefore, I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the middle of you. 14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it. 15 And I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries; and I will consume your filthiness out of you. 16 And you shall be profaned in yourself, in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
17 And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 18 Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me: all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead, in the middle of the furnace; they are the dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem. 20 As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you. 21 Yes, I will gather you, and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the middle of it. 22 As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the middle of it; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath upon you.
23 And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 24 Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the middle of it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey: they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made her widows many in the middle of it. 26 Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in the middle of it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. 28 And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, In this manner says the Sovereign Yahweh, when Yahweh has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yes, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully. 30 And I sought for a man among them, that should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. 31 Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I brought upon their heads, says the Sovereign Yahweh.
Ezekiel 23
The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying, 2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: 3 and they played the harlot in Egypt; they played the harlot in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity. 4 And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And as for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah. 5 And Oholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, 6 who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. 7 And she bestowed her whoredoms upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whomever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself. 8 Neither has she left her whoredoms since the days of Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their whoredom upon her. 9 Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. 10 These uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters; and her they killed with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they executed judgments upon her.
11 And her sister Oholibah saw this, yet was she more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her whoredoms which were more than the whoredoms of her sister. 12 She doted upon the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. 13 And I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way. 14 And she increased her whoredoms; for she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, 15 girded with girdles upon their loins, with flowing turbans upon their heads, all of them princes to look upon, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their nativity. 16 And as soon as she saw them she doted upon them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea. 17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them. 18 So she uncovered her whoredoms, and uncovered her nakedness: then my soul was alienated from her, like as my soul was alienated from her sister. 19 Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. 20 And she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 21 In this manner you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth.
22 Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side: 23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and rulers all of them, princes and men of renown, all of them riding upon horses. 24 And they shall come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against you with buckler and shield and helmet all around: and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments. 25 And I will set my jealousy against you, and they shall deal with you in fury; they shall take away your nose and your ears; and your residue shall fall by the sword: they shall take your sons and your daughters; and your residue shall be devoured by the fire. 26 They shall also strip you of your clothes, and take away your fair jewels. 27 In this manner will I make your lewdness to cease from you, and your whoredom brought from the land of Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more. 28 For thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated; 29 and they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare; and the nakedness of your whoredoms shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your whoredoms.
30 These things shall be done to you, for that you have played the harlot after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols. 31 You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore will I give her cup into your hand. 32 In this manner said the Sovereign Yahweh: You shall drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large; you shall be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it contains much. 33 You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria. 34 You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw the sherds of it, and shall tear your breasts; for I have spoken it, says the Sovereign Yahweh. 35 Therefore thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore bear you also your lewdness and your whoredoms.
36 Yahweh said moreover to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. 37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire unto them to be devoured. 38 Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. 39 For when they had killed their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the middle of my house. 40 And furthermore you have sent for men that come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and, lo, they came; for whom you did wash yourself, paint your eyes, and deck yourself with ornaments, 41 and sit upon a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, upon which you set my incense and my oil. 42 And the voice of a multitude being at ease was with her: and with men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets upon the hands of them both, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.
43 Then said I of her that was old in adulteries, Now will they play the harlot with her, and she with them. 44 And they went in to her, as they go in to a harlot: so they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. 45 And righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands. 46 For thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed to and fro and robbed. 47 And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. 48 In this manner will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness. 49 And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols; and you shall know that I am the Sovereign Yahweh.
Ezekiel 24
Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, write the name of the day, even of this selfsame day: the king of Babylon drew close to Jerusalem this selfsame day. 3 And utter a parable to the rebellious house, and say to them, In this manner says the Sovereign Yahweh, Set on the caldron, set it on, and also pour water into it: 4 gather the pieces of it into it, even every good piece, the thigh, and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones. 5 Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile of wood for the bones under the caldron; make it boil well; yes, let the bones of it be boiled in the middle of it.
6 Therefore thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city, to the caldron whose rust is in it and whose rust has not gone out of it! Take out of it piece after piece; no lot has fallen upon it. 7 For her blood is in the middle of her; she set it upon the bare rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust. 8 That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon the bare rock, that it should not be covered. 9 Therefore thus says the Sovereign Yahweh: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great. 10 Heap on the wood, make the fire hot, boil well the flesh, and make thick the broth, and let the bones be burned. 11 Then set it empty upon the coals of it, that it may be hot, and the bronze of it may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the rust of it may be consumed. 12 She has wearied herself with toil; yet her great rust goes not forth out of her; her rust goes not forth by fire. 13 In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your filthiness any more, till I have caused my wrath toward you to rest. 14 I, Yahweh, have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to your ways, and according to your doings, shall they judge you, says the Sovereign Yahweh.
15 Also the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 16 Son of man, behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke: yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down. 17 Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind your turban on you, and put your shoes upon your feet, and cover not your lips, and eat not the bread of men. 18 So I spoke to the people in the morning; and at evening my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.
19 And the people said to me, Will you not tell us what these things are to us, that you do so? 20 Then I said to them, The word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 21 Speak to the house of Israel, In this manner says the Sovereign Yahweh: Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind shall fall by the sword. 22 And you shall do as I have done: you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men. 23 And your turbans shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall rot away in Your iniquities, and moan one toward another. 24 In this manner shall Ezekiel be to you a sign; according to all that he has done shall you do: when this comes, then shall you know that I am the Sovereign Yahweh.
25 And you, son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that upon which they set their heart, their sons and their daughters, 26 that in that day he who escapes shall come to you, to cause you to hear it with your ears? 27 In that day shall your mouth be opened to him that has escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more dumb: so shall you be a sign to them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
