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And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
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“And you, son of man, should you not judge, should you not judge the city of blood?
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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.
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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.
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Those that are near and those that are far from you will triumph over you. You are filthy, infamous, great in destruction.
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Behold, the leaders of Israel have each used his arm to shed blood within you.
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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.
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You have spurned my sanctuaries, and you have defiled my Sabbaths.
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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.
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They have uncovered the nakedness of their father within you. They have debased the uncleanness of the menstruous woman within you.
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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.
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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.
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Behold, I have clapped my hands over your avarice, which you have worked, and over the blood that has been shed in your midst.
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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.
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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.
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And I will possess you in the sight of the Gentiles. And you shall know that I am the Lord.”
The Refining Furnace
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And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
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“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.
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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,
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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.
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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.
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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.”
Israel’s Wicked Leaders
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And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
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“Son of man, say to her: You are a land unclean and not rained upon, in the day of fury.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”