Ezekiel 22 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Then the word of Yahweh came to me:

"Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city drenched in blood? Then make her face every disgusting thing she has done.

Then say: This is what Yahweh, the Sovereign One, declares — a city that spills blood within her own walls, bringing her time of reckoning closer, a city that makes idols to defile herself:

You carry guilt for the blood you have spilled, and you are contaminated by the idols you have made. You have dragged your final days closer; you have reached the end of your years. So I will make you an object of mockery to the nations, a joke to every land.

Those near and those far away will mock you — you whose name is ruined, you who are drowning in chaos.

Look — every leader in Israel within you uses their power to spill blood.

Within you, fathers and mothers are treated with contempt. Within you, the immigrant is exploited. Within you, orphans and widows are crushed.

You have despised what is sacred to me and violated my days of rest.

Within you are slanderers hungry for blood. Within you are those who feast at mountain shrines. Within you are those drowning in depravity.

Within you are those who expose their father's nakedness. Within you are those who force themselves on women during their period of bleeding.

One man commits a disgusting act with his neighbor's wife. Another defiles his daughter-in-law with depravity. Another within you forces himself on his own sister, his father's daughter.

Within you, people take bribes to spill blood. You charge interest and profit off your own people, extorting your neighbors for gain. And me — you have forgotten entirely, declares Yahweh, the Sovereign One.

Now look — I am striking my hands together at the dishonest profit you have made and at the blood spilled among you.

Can your courage hold? Can your hands stay strong in the days when I deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken — and I will act.

I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you across foreign lands. I will burn your defilement right out of you.

You will be degraded in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am Yahweh."

Then the word of Yahweh came to me:

"Son of man, the house of Israel has become worthless slag to me. All of them — bronze, tin, iron, and lead inside a smelting furnace — they are just the slag left over from silver.

So this is what Yahweh, the Sovereign One, declares: Because all of you have become slag, watch — I am gathering you into the middle of Jerusalem.

The way silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin are gathered into a furnace to have fire blown on them and melt them down — that is how I will gather you in my anger and my fury. I will put you inside and melt you down.

I will gather you and blow the fire of my fury on you, and you will be melted down right there inside the city.

Like silver melted in a furnace, you will be melted inside her. Then you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my fury on you."

Then the word of Yahweh came to me:

"Son of man, say to her: You are a land that has not been cleansed, that has received no rain in the day of fury.

Her prophets conspire within her like a roaring lion tearing apart its prey. They devour lives. They seize wealth and valuables. They multiply widows within her.

Her priests violate my instructions and treat what is sacred to me as common. They make no distinction between what is set apart and what is ordinary, and they do not teach the difference between what is contaminated and what is clean. They ignore my days of rest. I am treated as nothing among them.

Her officials within her are like wolves tearing apart prey — spilling blood, destroying lives to make dishonest profit.

And her prophets whitewash over all of it — seeing false visions and giving lying readings of the future, saying, 'This is what Yahweh, the Sovereign One, declares' when Yahweh has not spoken at all.

The common people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery. They crush the poor and the desperate, and they exploit the immigrant — denying them justice.

I searched for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not have to destroy it — but I found no one.

So I have poured out my fury on them. I have consumed them with the fire of my rage. I have brought their own ways down on their heads, declares Yahweh, the Sovereign One."