Study Desk

The word of the LORD came to me:

"Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practices

and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by making idols,

you have become guilty because of the blood you have shed and have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close, and the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries.

Those who are near and those who are far away will mock you, O infamous city, full of turmoil.

" 'See how each of the princes of Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood.

In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and the widow.

You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths.

In you are slanderous men bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts.

In you are those who dishonor their fathers' bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean.

In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor's wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father's daughter.

In you men accept bribes to shed blood; you take usury and excessive interest ^(F46) and make unjust gain from your neighbors by extortion. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD .

" 'I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have made and at the blood you have shed in your midst.

Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.

I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you through the countries; and I will put an end to your uncleanness.

When you have been defiled ^(F47) in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the LORD .' "