Indictment of Sinful Jerusalem

22 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “As for you, son of man, will you pass judgment? Will you pass judgment against the city of blood? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.^{(A) 3} You are to say, ‘This is what the Lord God says: A city that sheds blood^(B) within her walls so that her time of judgment has come and who makes idols for herself so that she is defiled! ⁴ You are guilty of the blood you have shed,^(C) and you are defiled from the idols you have made. You have brought your judgment^[a] days near and have come to your years of punishment.^[b] Therefore, I have made you a disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all the lands. ⁵ Those who are near and those far away from you will mock you, you infamous one full of turmoil.

⁶ “‘Look, every prince of Israel^(D) within you has used his strength to shed blood. ⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt,^(E) and the resident alien is exploited within you. The fatherless and widow are oppressed in you.^{(F) 8} You despise my holy things and profane my Sabbaths.^{(G) 9} There are men within you who slander in order to shed blood.^(H) People who live in you eat at the mountain shrines;^[c] they commit depraved acts within you. ¹⁰ Men within you have sexual intercourse with their father’s wife and violate women during their menstrual impurity.^{(I) 11} One man within you commits a detestable act with his neighbor’s wife;^(J) another defiles his daughter-in-law with depravity; and yet another violates his sister, his father’s daughter.^{(K) 12} People who live in you accept bribes in order to shed blood.^(L) You take interest and profit on a loan and brutally extort your neighbors.^(M) You have forgotten me.^(N) This is the declaration of the Lord God.

¹³ “‘Now look, I clap my hands together against the dishonest profit you have made^(O) and against the blood shed among you. ¹⁴ Will your courage endure^(P) or your hands be strong in the days when I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will act.^{(Q) 15} I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you among the countries;^(R) I will purge your uncleanness.^{(S) 16} You^[d] will be profaned in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”^(T)

Jerusalem as God’s Furnace

¹⁷ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become merely dross to me.^(U) All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace;^(V) they are just dross from silver. ¹⁹ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because all of you have become dross, I am about to gather you into Jerusalem. ²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to blow fire^(W) on them and melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and wrath, put you inside, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted within the city. ²² As silver is melted inside a furnace, so you will be melted inside the city. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my wrath on you.”^(X)

Indictment of a Sinful Land

²³ The word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed,^(Y) that has not received rain in the day of indignation.’ ²⁵ The conspiracy of her prophets^(Z) within her is^[e] like a roaring lion tearing its prey: they devour people, seize wealth and valuables, and multiply the widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests do violence to my instruction and profane my holy things.^(AA) They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they do not explain the difference between the clean and the unclean.^(AB) They close their eyes to my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷ “Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives in order to make profit dishonestly. ²⁸ Her prophets plaster for them with whitewash by seeing false visions and lying divinations,^(AC) saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery.^(AD) They have oppressed the poor and needy and unlawfully exploited the resident alien. ³⁰ I searched for a man among them who would repair the wall^(AE) and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land so that I might not destroy it,^(AF) but I found no one. ³¹ So I have poured out my indignation on them and consumed them with the fire of my fury. I have brought their conduct down on their own heads.”^(AG) This is the declaration of the Lord God.

The Two Immoral Sisters

23 The word of the Lord came to me again: ² “Son of man, there were two women,^(AH) daughters of the same mother, ³ who acted like prostitutes in Egypt,^(AI) behaving promiscuously in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their virgin nipples caressed. ⁴ The older one was named Oholah,^[f] and her sister was Oholibah.^[g] They became mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah represents Samaria and Oholibah represents Jerusalem.

⁵ “Oholah acted like a prostitute even though she was mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians:^(AJ) warriors ⁶ dressed in blue, governors and prefects, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on steeds. ⁷ She offered her sexual favors to them; all of them were the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all those she lusted after and with all their idols. ⁸ She didn’t give up her promiscuity that began in Egypt,^(AK) when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin nipples, and poured out their lust on her. ⁹ Therefore, I handed her over to her lovers,^(AL) the Assyrians she lusted for. ¹⁰ They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. Since they executed judgment against her, she became notorious among women.

¹¹ “Now her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was even more depraved in her lust than Oholah, and made her promiscuous acts worse than those of her sister.^{(AM) 12} She lusted after the Assyrians:^(AN) governors and prefects, warriors splendidly dressed, horsemen riding on steeds, all of them desirable young men. ¹³ And I saw that she had defiled herself; both of them had taken the same path. ¹⁴ But she increased her promiscuity when she saw male figures carved on the wall,^(AO) images of the Chaldeans, engraved in bright red,^{(AP) 15} wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers, a depiction of the Babylonians in Chaldea, their native land. ¹⁶ At the sight of them^[h] she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea.^{(AQ) 17} Then the Babylonians came to her,^(AR) to the bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. But after she was defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust. ¹⁸ When she flaunted her promiscuity and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust just as I turned away from her sister.^{(AS) 19} Yet she multiplied her acts of promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth when she acted like a prostitute in the land of Egypt ²⁰ and lusted after their lovers, whose sexual members^[i] were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. ²¹ So you revisited the depravity of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your nipples to enjoy your youthful breasts.^(AT)

²² “Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Lord God says: I am going to incite your lovers against you, those you turned away from in disgust. I will bring them against you from every side: ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans; Pekod, Shoa, and Koa;^(AU) and all the Assyrians with them—desirable young men, all of them governors and prefects, officers and administrators, all of them riding on steeds. ²⁴ They will come against you with an assembly of peoples and with weapons, chariots, and^[j] wagons. They will set themselves against you on every side with large and small shields and helmets. I will delegate judgment to them, and they will judge you by their own standards. ²⁵ When I vent my jealous fury on you,^(AV) they will deal with you in wrath. They will cut off your nose and ears, and the rest of you^[k] will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and daughters, and the rest of you will be consumed by fire. ²⁶ They will strip off your clothes and take your beautiful jewelry.^{(AW) 27} So I will put an end to your depravity and sexual immorality, which began in the land of Egypt, and you will not look longingly at them or remember Egypt anymore.

The Righteousness of God through Faith

²¹ But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed,^(A) attested by the Law and the Prophets.^{[a](B) 22} The righteousness of God is through faith^(C) in Jesus Christ^[b](D) to all who believe,^(E) since there is no distinction.^{(F) 23} For all have sinned^(G) and fall short of the^[c] glory of God; ²⁴ they are justified freely by his grace^(H) through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.^{(I) 25} God presented him as the mercy seat^[d](J) by his blood,^(K) through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God^(L) passed over the sins previously committed.^{(M) 26} God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.