1 Then the word of the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Lord} came to me, saying {lemor: introducing direct speech}.
2 And you, Son of Man {ben-adam: human representative}, are you to judge—are you to judge—the city of blood? Then make known to her all her abominations {toevot: detestable acts}.
3 And you shall say, “Thus says the Lord GOD {Adonai YHWH, Sovereign Judge}: A city that pours out blood in its midst so that its appointed time may come, and that fashions idols {gillulim: abominable objects} on itself to defile itself.”
4 You are guilty because of the blood you have shed, and you have defiled yourself by the idols you made. You have drawn your days near and come to your allotted years; therefore I {YHWH, Divine Judge} have made you a reproach {kherpah: public shame} among the nations and a mockery in every land.
5 Those near you and those far from you will ridicule you; your name is defiled {teme’at: ritually impure}, and you are full of tumult {mehumah: chaotic uproar}.
6 Look, the princes {nesi’ei: aristocratic leaders} of Israel in you—each according to his arm—have been set on shedding blood {shefokh-dam: commit violence}.
7 In you they treat father and mother with contempt {heqalu: treated lightly, despised}; in your midst they oppress the sojourner {ger: non-Israelite resident}; in you they wrong the orphan and the widow.
8 You have treated my holy things {qadashai: sacred items} as worthless, and you have profaned my Sabbaths {shabb'totai: rest days}.
9 In you are men of slander {rakhil: tale bearers} in order to shed blood, and on the mountains within you they eat; lewdness {zimmah: depraved conduct} they commit in your midst.
10 In you they uncover the nakedness {erwat-av: prohibited paternal exposure} of a father; in you they violate women who are unclean because of menstruation {niddah: woman in impurity}.
11 In you one commits abomination {toevah: detestable offense} with the wife of his neighbor; another defiles his daughter-in-law with lewdness {zimmah: sexual depravity}; another humiliates his sister, the daughter of his father, in you.
12 Among you they accept bribes for bloodshed; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion{baosheq: oppressive taking}; and you have forgotten Me, declares the Lord GOD{Adonai YHWH, Sovereign Judge}.
13 Behold, I {YHWH, Righteous Judge} have struck my hand at your unjust gain {bitzeekh: ill-gotten profit} that you have done and at your blood that has been in your midst.
14 Will your heart {libbekha: inner resolve} stand firm, and will your hands be strong in the days when I act against you? I, the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge}, have spoken, and I will do it.
15 I {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} will scatter you to the nations and disperse you throughout the regions, and I will eradicate your uncleanness {tumah: ritual impurity} from you.
16 And you will be profaned {venichalt: self-inflicted defilement} by your own doing, in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge}.
17 Then the word of the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Lord} came to me {elai: direct recipient}, saying:
18 Son of Man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me {YHWH, Righteous Judge}; all of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead within the furnace, and they have become the dross of silver {kesef: precious metal}.
19 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD {Adonai YHWH, Sovereign Judge}: Because you have all turned into dross {lesigim: worthless residue}, therefore, behold, I Myself am gathering you into the heart of Jerusalem.
20 As silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin are assembled into a furnace {kur: smelting chamber}, and fire is blown upon them to liquefy them, so I {YHWH, Supreme Judge} will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will set you there and melt you.
21 And I {YHWH, Covenant Judge} will gather you and send the fire of my wrath {evrati: fierce anger} upon you, and you will melt within it.
22 When silver is melted down in a furnace, so shall you be melted within it, and you shall know that I, the LORD {YHWH, Refining Judge}, have poured out My wrath {khamati: burning anger} upon you.
23 Then the word of the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Lord} came to me, saying {leʾemor: introducing direct speech}.
24 Son of Man, say to her, “You are a land that has not been cleansed {metoharah: purified}, nor has rain fallen on you in the day of indignation {zaam: divine wrath}.”
25 The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing prey; they have devoured souls {nefesh: essential life}, they have seized treasure {ḥō-sen: stored wealth} and precious things, and they have made many widows in her midst.
26 Her priests have done violence to my {YHWH, Righteous Judge} law and have profaned my holy things; they have not set apart the holy from the common {chol: ordinary}, nor have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have turned their eyes from my Sabbaths; so I am profaned among them.
27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing prey, to pour out blood and to destroy souls {nefashot: individual lives}, in order to make unjust profit {batza: dishonest gain}.
28 Her prophets have covered them with whitewash, seeing vanity {shav: utter emptiness} and practicing divination, saying, “Thus says the Lord GOD {Adonai YHWH, Supreme Judge},” though the LORD has not spoken.
29 The people of the land have practiced oppression{osheq: intensifying cruelty} and committed robbery; they have mistreated the poor and the needy, and they have oppressed the sojourner without justice{mishpat: lawful fairness}.
30 I searched among them for a man who would repair the wall {goder-gader: wall restorer} and stand in the breach before Me {YHWH, Divine Judge} on behalf of the land, so that I would not ruin it, but I found none.
31 So I have poured out my indignation {zaami: Fierce Anger} upon them; with the fire of my wrath I have consumed them; I have repaid their way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD {Adonai YHWH, Sovereign LORD}.