Ezekiel 22

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,	1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 'Son of man, are you ready to judge? Are you ready to judge the blood-stained city? Confront her withal her loathsome practices!	2 “And you, son of man, should you not judge, should you not judge the city of blood?
3 Say, "The Lord Yahweh says this: City shedding blood inside yourself to hasten your doom, makingfoul idols on your soil to defile yourself,	3 And you shall reveal to her all her abominations. And you shall say: Thus says the Lord God: This is the city which sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and which has made idols against herself, so that she may be defiled.
4 you have incurred guilt by the blood you have shed, you have defiled yourself with the foul idols youhave made, you have shortened your days, you have come to the end of your years. This is why I have madeyou an object of scorn to the nations and a laughing-stock to every country.	4 You have offended by your blood, which you shed from yourself. And you have been defiled by your idols which you yourself made. And you have caused your days to approach, and you have brought on the time of your years. Because of this, I have made you a disgrace to the Gentiles, and a derision to all the lands.
5 From far and near they will taunt you with your infamous disorders.	5 Those that are near and those that are far from you will triumph over you. You are filthy, infamous, great in destruction.
6 "Look! In you the princes of Israel, one and all, have furthered their own interests at the cost ofbloodshed;	6 Behold, the leaders of Israel have each used his arm to shed blood within you.
7 in you people have despised their fathers and mothers; in you they have il -treated the settler; in youthey have oppressed the widow and orphan.	7 They have abused father and mother within you. The new arrival has been oppressed in your midst. They have grieved the orphan and the widow among you.
8 You have treated my sanctuary with contempt, you have profaned my Sabbaths.	8 You have spurned my sanctuaries, and you have defiled my Sabbaths.
9 In you informers incite to bloodshed; in you people eat on the mountains and act licentiously;	9 Maligning men were within you, in order to shed blood, and they have eaten upon the mountains within you. They have worked wickedness in your midst.
10 in you they have sexual intercourse with their fathers; in you they force themselves on women in theirperiods;	10 They have uncovered the nakedness of their father within you. They have debased the uncleanness of the menstruous woman within you.
11 in you one man engages in loathsome practices with his neighbour's wife, another lewdly defiles hisdaughter-in-law, another violates his sister, his own father's daughter.	11 And each one has committed abomination with the wife of his neighbor. And the father-in-law has heinously defiled his daughter-in-law. The brother has oppressed his sister, the daughter of his father, within you.
12 In you people take bribes for shedding blood; you lend for profit and charge interest, you profit fromyour fel ow by extortion and have forgotten about me -- declares the Lord Yahweh.	12 They have accepted bribes among you to shed blood. You have received usury and superabundance, and in avarice you have oppressed your neighbors. And you have forgotten me, says the Lord God.
13 "Now I shal clap my hands at your acts of banditry and the blood that flows in you.	13 Behold, I have clapped my hands over your avarice, which you have worked, and over the blood that has been shed in your midst.
14 Wil your heart be able to resist, will your hands be steady, the day when I cal you to account? I,Yahweh, have spoken and shall act.	14 How can your heart endure, or your hands prevail, in the days that I will bring upon you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will act.
15 I shal scatter you among the nations and disperse you in foreign countries, and so put an end to thefilthiness now inside you;	15 And I will disperse you among the nations, and I will scatter you among the lands, and I will cause your uncleanness to fade away from you.
16 through your own fault, you wil be profaned in the eyes of the nations, and you wil know that I amYahweh!" '	16 And I will possess you in the sight of the Gentiles. And you shall know that I am the Lord.”
17 The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as fol ows,	17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
18 'Son of man, for me, the House of Israel has become dross: copper, tin, iron, lead, al mixed uptogether in the melting-pot; they are dross.	18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become like dross to me. All these are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead in the midst of the furnace; they have become like the dross of silver.
19 And so, Lord Yahweh says this, "Since you have al become dross, right! I shall collect you insideJerusalem.	19 Because of this, thus says the Lord God: Since you have all turned into dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you together in the midst of Jerusalem,
20 As silver, copper, iron, lead and tin are col ected in the melting-pot, and the fire is blown underneathto melt them down, so I shal collect you in my furious anger and have you melted down;	20 just as they gather silver, and brass, and tin, and iron, and lead in the midst of the furnace, so that I may kindle in it a fire to melt it. So will I gather you together in my fury and in my wrath, and I will be quieted, and I will melt you down.
21 I shal collect you and blow up the fire of my rage for you and have you melted down inside the city.	21 And I will gather you together, and I will burn you in the fire of my fury, and you will be melted in its midst.
22 As silver is melted in the melting-pot, so you will be melted down inside the city, and you wil knowthat I, Yahweh, have vented my fury on you." '	22 Just as silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so will you be in its midst. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I will have poured out my indignation upon you.”
23 The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as fol ows,	23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
24 'Son of man, say to her, "You are a land that has not received rain or shower on the day of anger.	24 “Son of man, say to her: You are a land unclean and not rained upon, in the day of fury.
25 In you, the princes are like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They have eaten the people, seized wealthand jewels and widowed many inside her.	25 There is a conspiracy of prophets in her midst. Like a lion, roaring and seizing the prey, they have devoured souls. They have taken riches and a price. They have multiplied widows in her midst.
26 Her priests have violated my law and desecrated my sanctuary; they have made no distinctionbetween sacred and profane, they have not taught people the difference between clean and unclean; they haveturned their eyes away from my Sabbaths and I have been dishonoured by them.	26 Her priests have despised my law, and they have defiled my sanctuaries. They have held no distinction between holy and profane. And they have not understood the difference between defiled and clean. And they have averted their eyes from my Sabbaths. And I was profaned in their midst.
27 In her the leaders are wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood and killing people to steal theirpossessions.	27 Her leaders in her midst are like wolves seizing the prey: to shed blood, and to perish souls, and to continually pursue profit with avarice.
28 Her prophets have plastered these things over with their empty visions and lying prophecies, saying:Yahweh says this, although Yahweh has not spoken.	28 And her prophets have covered them without tempering the mortar, seeing emptiness, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken.
29 The people of the country have taken to extortion and banditry; they have oppressed the poor andneedy and il -treated the settler in a way that is unjustifiable.	29 The people of the land have oppressed with slander and have seized with violence. They have afflicted the needy and the poor, and they have oppressed the new arrival by accusations without judgment.
30 I have been looking for someone among them to build a barricade and oppose me in the breach, todefend the country and prevent me from destroying it; but I have found no one.	30 And I sought among them for a man who might set up a hedge, and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I might not destroy it; and I found no one.
31 Hence I have vented my fury on them; I have put an end to them in the fire of my rage. I have madetheir conduct recoil on their own heads -- declares the Lord Yahweh." '	31 And so I poured out my indignation upon them; in the fire of my wrath I consumed them. I have rendered their own way upon their head, says the Lord God.”