Sep 11 - Ezekiel 22-23
Ezekiel
1And the word of the Lord came to me, saying2"And you, son of man, should you not judge, should you not judge the city of blood3And 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 defiled4You 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 lands5Those that are near and those that are far from you will triumph over you. You are filthy, infamous, great in destruction6Behold, the leaders of Israel have each used his arm to shed blood within you7They 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 you8You have spurned my sanctuaries, and you have defiled my Sabbaths9Maligning men were within you, in order to shed blood, and they have eaten upon the mountains within you. They have worked wickedness in your midst10They have uncovered the nakedness of their father within you. They have debased the uncleanness of the menstruous woman within you11And 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 you12They 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 God13Behold, I have clapped my hands over your avarice, which you have worked, and over the blood that has been shed in your midst14How 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 act15And 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 you16And I will possess you in the sight of the Gentiles. And you shall know that I am the Lord.17And the word of the Lord came to me, saying18"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 silver19Because 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 Jerusalem20just 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 down21And I will gather you together, and I will burn you in the fire of my fury, and you will be melted in its midst22Just 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.23And the word of the Lord came to me, saying24"Son of man, say to her: You are a land unclean and not rained upon, in the day of fury25There 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 midst26Her 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 midst27Her leaders in her midst are like wolves seizing the prey: to shed blood, and to perish souls, and to continually pursue profit with avarice28And 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 spoken29The 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 judgment30And 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 one31And 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.
1And the word of the Lord came to me, saying2"Son of man, two women were daughters of one mother3and they fornicated in Egypt; they committed fornication in their youth. In that place, their breasts were conquered; the breasts of their adolescence were subdued4Now their names were Oholah, the elder, and Oholibah, her younger sister. And I held them, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names: Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem5And then, Oholah committed fornication against me, and she acted madly with her lovers, with the Assyrians who approached her6who were clothed with hyacinth: rulers and magistrates, passionate youths and all of the horsemen, mounted on horses7And she distributed her fornications to those chosen men, all of them sons of the Assyrians. And she defiled herself with the uncleanness of all those whom she madly desired8Moreover, she also did not abandon her fornications, which she had done in Egypt. For they also slept with her in her youth, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication upon her9Because of this, I have delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the sons of the Assur, whom she has lustfully desired10They uncovered her shame; they took away her sons and daughters; and they slew her with the sword. And they became infamous women. And they carried out judgments in her11And when her sister, Oholibah, had seen this, she was even more mad with lust than the other. And her fornication was beyond the fornication of her sister12She shamelessly offered herself to the sons of the Assyrians, to the rulers and magistrates who brought themselves to her clothed with colorful garments, to the horsemen who were carried by horses, and to the youths, all of them exceptional in appearance13And I saw that she had been defiled, and that they both took the same path14And she increased her fornications. And when she had seen men depicted on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans, expressed in colors15with belts wrapped around the waist, and with dyed headdresses on their heads, having seen the appearance of all the rulers, the likenesses of the sons of Babylon and of the land of the Chaldeans in which they were born16she became mad for them with the desire of her eyes, and she sent messengers to them in Chaldea17And when the sons of Babylon had gone to her, to the bed of breasts, they defiled her with their fornications, and she was polluted by them, and her soul was gorged by them18Also, her fornications were uncovered, and her shame was revealed. And my soul withdrew from her, as my soul had withdrawn from her sister19For she multiplied her fornications, remembering the days of her youth, in which she fornicated in the land of Egypt20And she was mad with lust after lying with them, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose flow is like the flow of horses21And you have revisited the crimes of your youth, when your breasts were conquered in Egypt, and the breasts of your adolescence were subdued22Because of this, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will raise up against you all of your lovers, with whom your soul has been gorged. And I will gather them together against you all around23the sons of Babylon, and all the Chaldeans, the nobles, the sovereigns and princes, all the sons of the Assyrians, youths of exceptional form, all the rulers and magistrates, the leaders among leaders, and the renowned riders of horses24And they will overwhelm you, well-equipped with chariot and wheel, a multitude of peoples. They will be armed against you on every side with armor and shield and helmet. And I will give judgment to their eyes, and they will judge you with their judgments25And against you, I will set my zeal, which they will execute upon you with fury. They will cut off your nose and your ears. And what remains will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and your daughters, and your youngest will be devoured by fire26And they will strip you of your vestments, and take away the articles of your glory27And I will cause your wickedness to cease from you, and your fornication to cease from the land of Egypt. Neither shall you lift up your eyes toward them, and you shall no longer remember Egypt28For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you have hated, into the hands by which your soul has been gorged29And they will act toward you with hatred, and they will take away all your labors, and they will send you away naked and filled with disgrace. And the shame of your fornication will be revealed: your crimes and your fornications30They have done these things to you, because you have fornicated after the Gentiles, among whom you were defiled by their idols31You have walked in the way of your sister, and so I will give her chalice into your hand32Thus says the Lord God: You will drink the chalice of your sister, deep and wide. You will be held in derision and in ridicule, to a very great extent33You will be filled with inebriation and sorrow, by the chalice of grief and sadness, by the chalice of your sister Samaria34And you will drink it, and you will empty it, even to the dregs. And you will consume even its particles. And you will wound your own breasts. For I have spoken, says the Lord God35Because of this, thus says the Lord God: Since you have forgotten me, and you have cast me behind your body, so also will you bear your wickedness and your fornications.36And the Lord spoke to me, saying: "Son of man, should you not judge Oholah and Oholibah, and announce to them their crimes37For they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands, and they have fornicated with their idols. Moreover, they have offered even their children, whom they bore for me, to them to be devoured38But they have done even this to me: They have defiled my sanctuary on the same day, and they have profaned my Sabbaths39And when they immolated their children to their idols, they also entered my sanctuary on the same day, so that they defiled it. They have done these things, even in the midst of my house40They sent for men who were coming from far away, to whom they had sent a messenger. And so, behold, they arrived, those for whom you washed yourself, and smeared cosmetics around your eyes, and were adorned with feminine ornaments41You sat upon a very beautiful bed, and a table was adorned before you, on which you placed my incense and my ointment42And the voice of a multitude was exulting within her. And concerning certain men, who were being led out of a multitude of persons, and who were arriving from the desert, they placed bracelets on their hands and beautiful crowns on their heads43And I said about her, as she was being worn away by her adulteries, ‘Even now, she continues in her fornication!44And they entered to her, as if to a kept woman. So did they enter to Oholah and Oholibah, nefarious women45But there are just men; these shall judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of those who shed blood. For they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands46For thus says the Lord God: Lead upon them a multitude, and hand them over to tumult and to pillaging47And may they be stoned with the stones of the peoples, and may they be pierced with their own swords. They will put to death their sons and daughters, and they will burn their houses with fire48And I will take away wickedness from the land. And all women shall learn not to act according to their wickedness49And they will set your own crimes upon you, and you will bear the sins of your idols. And you shall know that I am the Lord God.