Eze 22:2 "And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations.

Eze 22:3 You shall say, 'Thus says the Lord God, "A city shedding blood in her midst, so that her time will come, and that makes idols, contrary to her interest, for defilement!

Eze 22:4 You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and defiled by your idols which you have made. Thus you have brought your day near and have come to your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all the lands.

Eze 22:5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you of ill repute, full of turmoil.

Eze 22:6 "Behold, the rulers of Israel, each according to his power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood.

Eze 22:7 They have treated father and mother lightly within you. The alien they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have wronged in you.

Eze 22:8 You have despised My holy things and profaned My sabbaths.

Eze 22:9 Slanderous men have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood, and in you they have eaten at the mountain shrines. In your midst they have committed acts of lewdness.

Eze 22:10 In you they have uncovered their fathers' nakedness; in you they have humbled her who was unclean in her menstrual impurity.

Eze 22:11 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.

Eze 22:12 In you they have taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and profits, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by oppression, and you have forgotten Me," declares the Lord God.

Eze 22:13 "Behold, then, I smite My hand at your dishonest gain which you have acquired and at the bloodshed which is among you.

Eze 22:14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong in the days that I will deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken and will act.

Eze 22:15 I will scatter you among the nations and I will disperse you through the lands, and I will consume your uncleanness from you.

Eze 22:16 You will profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am the Lord."'"

Eze 22:17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

Eze 22:18 "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 furnace; they are the dross of silver.

Eze 22:19 Therefore, thus says the Lord God, 'Because all of you have become dross, therefore, behold, I am going to gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

Eze 22:20 As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the furnace to blow fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in My anger and in My wrath and I will lay you there and melt you.

Eze 22:21 I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted in the midst of it.

Eze 22:22 As silver is melted in the furnace, so you will be melted in the midst of it; and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out My wrath on you.'"

Eze 22:23 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

Eze 22:24 "Son of man, say to her, 'You are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.'

Eze 22:25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in the midst of her.

Eze 22:26 Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Eze 22:27 Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to get dishonest gain.

Eze 22:28 Her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord God,' when the Lord has not spoken.

Eze 22:29 The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner without justice.

Eze 22:30 I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.

Eze 22:31 Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads," declares the Lord God.

--------

Eze 23:1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying,

Eze 23:2 "Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother;

Eze 23:3 and they played the harlot in Egypt. They played the harlot in their youth; there their breasts were pressed and there their virgin bosom was handled.

Eze 23:4 Their names 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 is Oholibah.

Eze 23:5 "Oholah played the harlot while she was Mine; and she lusted after her lovers, after the Assyrians, her neighbors,

Eze 23:6 who were clothed in purple, governors and officials, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.

Eze 23:7 She bestowed her harlotries on them, all of whom were the choicest men of Assyria; and with all whom she lusted after, with all their idols she defiled herself.

Eze 23:8 She did not forsake her harlotries from the time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their lust on her.

Eze 23:9 Therefore, I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, after whom she lusted.

Eze 23:10 They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, but they slew her with the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgments on her.

Eze 23:11 "Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lust than she, and her harlotries were more than the harlotries of her sister.

Eze 23:12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officials, the ones near, magnificently dressed, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

Eze 23:13 I saw that she had defiled herself; they both took the same way.

Eze 23:14 So she increased her harlotries. And she saw men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,

Eze 23:15 girded with belts on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers, like the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.

Eze 23:16 When she saw them she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.

Eze 23:17 The Babylonians came to her to the bed of love and defiled her with their harlotry. And when she had been defiled by them, she became disgusted with them.

Eze 23:18 She uncovered her harlotries and uncovered her nakedness; then I became disgusted with her, as I had become disgusted with her sister.

Eze 23:19 Yet she multiplied her harlotries, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the harlot in the land of Egypt.

Eze 23:20 She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

Eze 23:21 Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom because of the breasts of your youth.

Eze 23:22 "Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord God, 'Behold I will arouse your lovers against you, from whom you were alienated, and I will bring them against you from every side:

Eze 23:23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; desirable young men, governors and officials all of them, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.

Eze 23:24 They will come against you with weapons, chariots and wagons, and with a company of peoples. They will set themselves against you on every side with buckler and shield and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their customs.

Eze 23:25 I will set My jealousy against you, that they may deal with you in wrath. They will remove your nose and your ears; and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and your survivors will be consumed by the fire.

Eze 23:26 They will also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels.

Eze 23:27 Thus I will make your lewdness and your harlotry brought from the land of Egypt to cease from you, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.'

Eze 23:28 For thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I will give you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those from whom you were alienated.

Eze 23:29 They will deal with you in hatred, take all your property, and leave you naked and bare. And the nakedness of your harlotries will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotries.

Eze 23:30 These things will be done to you because you have played the harlot with the nations, because you have defiled yourself with their idols.

Eze 23:31 You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.'

Eze 23:32 Thus says the Lord God, 'You will drink your sister's cup, Which is deep and wide. You will be laughed at and held in derision; It contains much.

Eze 23:33 'You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, The cup of horror and desolation, The cup of your sister Samaria.

Eze 23:34 'You will drink it and drain it. Then you will gnaw its fragments And tear your breasts; for I have spoken,' declares the Lord God.

Eze 23:35 Therefore, thus says the Lord God, 'Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, bear now the punishment of your lewdness and your harlotries.'"

Eze 23:36 Moreover, the Lord said to me, "Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.

Eze 23:37 For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. Thus they have committed adultery with their idols and even caused their sons, whom they bore to Me, to pass through the fire to them as food.

Eze 23:38 Again, they have done this to Me: they have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My sabbaths.

Eze 23:39 For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary on the same day to profane it; and lo, thus they did within My house.

Eze 23:40 "Furthermore, they have even sent for men who come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and lo, they came--for whom you bathed, painted your eyes and decorated yourselves with ornaments;

Eze 23:41 and you sat on a splendid couch with a table arranged before it on which you had set My incense and My oil.

Eze 23:42 The sound of a carefree multitude was with her; and drunkards were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort. And they put bracelets on the hands of the women and beautiful crowns on their heads.

Eze 23:43 "Then I said concerning her who was worn out by adulteries, 'Will they now commit adultery with her when she is thus?'

Eze 23:44 But they went in to her as they would go in to a harlot. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.

Eze 23:45 But they, righteous men, will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.

Eze 23:46 "For thus says the Lord God, 'Bring up a company against them and give them over to terror and plunder.

Eze 23:47 The company will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords; they will slay their sons and their daughters and burn their houses with fire.

Eze 23:48 Thus I will make lewdness cease from the land, that all women may be admonished and not commit lewdness as you have done.

Eze 23:49 Your lewdness will be requited upon you, and you will bear the penalty of worshiping your idols; thus you will know that I am the Lord God.'"