Highlighting the Sins and the Judgments of Israel
1 And the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying},
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"And you, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the {bloody city}? Then you must make known [to] her all of her detestable things!
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And you must say, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "A city pouring out blood in the midst of her; {its time has come}, and it made idols for itself, becoming unclean.
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By your blood that you poured out you have become guilty, and by your idols that you made you have become unclean, and you have brought your days near, {and your appointed years have come}. Therefore I have made you a disgrace for the nations and a laughingstock to all of the countries.
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The [people] near and the [people] far from you will make fun of you, {the unclean and the terrified}.
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Look! The princes of Israel, each [one] according to his strength, they are in you {for the shedding of blood}.
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They have treated father and mother with contempt in you; {they violated} the alien with extortion; in the midst of you they mistreated [the] orphan and widow.
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You despised my holy objects; my Sabbaths you profaned.
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Slanderous men are {among you} to shed blood, and they, {among you}, eat upon the mountains; they do wickedness in the midst of you.
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They uncover [the] nakedness of [a] father among you; they violate [a woman] unclean of menstruation among you.
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And a man does a detestable thing [with] the wife of his neighbor, and a man defiles his daughter-in-law in wickedness, and a man sexually violates among you his sister, the daughter of his father.
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They take a bribe among you in order to shed blood; and you take usury, and you make gain [from] your neighbors by extortion, and [so] you have forgotten me, {declares} the Lord Yahweh.
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And look! I strike my hand for your ill-gotten gain that you [have] made and at your blood that was in the midst of you.
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Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong at the days [in] which I [am] dealing with you? I, Yahweh, I have spoken, and I will act!
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I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your uncleanness from you.
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And I will be profaned by you before [the] eyes of [the] nations, and you will know that I [am] Yahweh." '"
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And the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying},
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"Son of man, the house of Israel has become as silver dross to me; all of them [are as] bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace, [even] [as] silver dross, silver [dross] they became!
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Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'Because all of you have become [as] silver dross, therefore look! I [am] gathering you to the midst of Jerusalem,
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like the gathering of silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin to the middle of a furnace to blow fire on it for melting. Thus I will gather in my anger and in my rage, and I will {deposit} you, and I will melt you.
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And I will gather you, and I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and [so] I will melt [you] in the midst of her.
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Thus you will be melted like [the] melting of silver in the midst of a furnace, and you will know that I, Yahweh, I have poured out my rage on you.'"
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And the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying},
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"Son of man, say to her, 'You [are] a land not cleansed; it is not rained upon [in] [the] day of indignation.'
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The conspiracy of its prophets in the midst of her [is] like a roaring lion [that] is tearing prey. They devour people, and they take wealth and treasure; they make its widows numerous in the midst of her.
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Its priests treat my law violently, and they profane my holy objects; they do not distinguish between [a] holy object and what is unholy, or between the clean and the unclean. They do not teach the difference, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and [so] I am profaned in the midst of them.
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Its officials [are] like wolves tearing prey in its midst, to pour out blood, to destroy people, to make dishonest gain.
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And for them its prophets plaster whitewash; [they are] seeing falseness and [are] practicing divination for them [by] lying, saying, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh,' and Yahweh has not spoken.
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They severely oppress the people of the land, and {they committed robbery}, and they mistreated [the] needy and [the] poor, and they oppressed the alien {without} justice.
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And [so] I sought for them somebody, one repairing [the] wall and standing in the breach {before me} on behalf of the land not to destroy it, but I did not find [anyone],
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and [so] I poured out my indignation on them. With the fire of my wrath I destroyed them; I returned their way upon their head," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.