The City of Blood, the Corruption of Power, and the Potter’s Fire
Ezekiel 22
1 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 “You, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations.
3 You shall say, The Lord Yahweh says: A city that sheds blood within herself, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile herself!
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 I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries.
5 Those who are near, and those who are far from you, shall mock you, you infamous one and full of tumult.
6 Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.
7 In you have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the foreigner; 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 on the mountains: in the midst of you they commit lewdness.
10 In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness; in you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity.
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.
12 In you have they taken bribes to shed blood; you have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained from your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord 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 midst 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 I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries; and I will consume your filthiness out of you.
16 You shall be profaned in yourself, in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.”
17 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me: all of them are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are the dross of silver.
19 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
20 As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire on 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 on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst.
22 As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you.”
23 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
24 “Son of man, tell her, You are a land that is not cleansed, nor rained on in the day of indignation.
25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst of it, like a roaring lion that tears the prey; they have devoured souls; they take treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in its midst.
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 hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27 Her princes in the midst of it are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.
28 Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, The Lord Yahweh says; when Yahweh has not spoken.
29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.
30 I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.
31 Therefore have I poured out my indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I brought on their heads,” says the Lord Yahweh.
Ezekiel 23
1 Yahweh’s word came to me again, saying,
2 “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
3 and they played the prostitute in Egypt; they played the prostitute in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there was the handling of their virgin bosom.
4 Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.
5 Oholah played the prostitute 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 on horses.
7 She bestowed her prostitution on them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and on whoever she doted, with all their idols she defiled herself.
8 Neither has she left her prostitution brought from Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled her virgin bosom; and they poured out their prostitution on her.
9 Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on 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 on her.
11 Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her doting than she, and in her prostitution which was more than the prostitution of her sister.
12 She doted on the Assyrians, governors and rulers, her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.
13 I saw that she was defiled; they both took one way.
14 She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion,
15 dressed with belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them having the appearance of officers, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth.
16 As soon as she saw them she doted on them, and sent messengers to them into Chaldea.
17 The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution, and she was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them.
18 So she uncovered her prostitution, 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 prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt.
20 She doted on their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.
21 Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the handling of your bosom by the Egyptians for the breasts of your youth.
22 Therefore, Oholibah, the Lord Yahweh says: 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, officers and men of renown, all of them riding on horses.
24 They shall come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples; they shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler and shield and helmet; and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments.
25 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 remnant 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 beautiful jewels.
27 Thus I will make your lewdness to cease from you, and your prostitution brought from the land of Egypt; so that you shall not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.
28 For the Lord Yahweh says: Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of those whom you hate, into the hand of those 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 prostitution shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution.
30 These things shall be done to you, because you have played the prostitute 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 The Lord Yahweh says: 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 horror and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw its broken pieces, and shall tear your breasts; for I have spoken it,” says the Lord Yahweh.
35 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.”
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 they have committed adultery; and they have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to 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 slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, thus have they done in the midst of my house.
40 Furthermore you have sent for men who come from far, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you washed yourself, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments,
41 and sat on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you set my incense and my oil.
42 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 on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads.
43 Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, Now will they play the prostitute with her, and she with them.
44 They went in to her, as they go in to a woman who plays the prostitute: so they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women.
45 Righteous men, they shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.
46 For the Lord Yahweh says: I will bring up a company against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed.
47 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 Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.
49 They shall recompense your lewdness on you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols; and you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.
Ezekiel 24
1 Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 “Son of man, write the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon drew close to Jerusalem this same day.
3 Utter a parable to the rebellious house, and tell them, The Lord Yahweh says: Set on the pot, set it on, and also pour water into it.
4 Gather its pieces 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 burn the bones under it; make it boil well; yes, let its bones be boiled in its midst.
6 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose rust is in it, and whose rust has not gone out of it! Take out of it piece after piece; no lot is fallen on it.
7 For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it on the bare rock; she didn’t pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust.
8 That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood on the bare rock, that it should not be covered.
9 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great.
10 Heap on the wood, kindle the fire, boil the flesh well, and empty out the broth, and let the bones be burned.
11 Then set it empty on its coals, that it may be hot, and its brass may burn, and that its filthiness may be melted in it, that its rust may be consumed.
12 She has wearied herself with toil; yet her great rust doesn’t go out of her; her rust doesn’t go out by fire.
13 In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have cleansed you and you were not cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.
14 I, Yahweh, have spoken it: it shall happen, 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 Lord Yahweh.
15 Also Yahweh’s word 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 headdress on you, and put your shoes on your feet, and don’t cover your lips, and don’t eat 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 The people said to me, “Won’t you tell us what these things are to us, that you do so?”
20 Then I said to them, “Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
21 ‘Speak to the house of Israel, The Lord Yahweh says: 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 You shall do as I have done: you shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
23 Your headdresses shall be on your heads, and your shoes on your feet: you shall not mourn nor weep; but you shall pine away in your iniquities, and moan one toward another.
24 Thus Ezekiel shall be a sign to you; according to all that he has done you shall do: when this comes, then you shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.’
25 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 on which they set their minds, 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 your mouth shall be opened to him who has escaped, and you shall speak, and be no more mute: so you shall be a sign to them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.”
Scripture: World English Bible Classic (WEB), a public-domain translation. Available for free copying and sharing at eBible.org.
