Aharei Mot

This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh

Ezekiel 22:1-19

Some congregations read Ezekiel 20:1-20

Chapter 22
¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ² Further, O mortal, arraign, arraign the city of bloodshed; declare to her all her abhorrent deeds! ³ Say: Thus said the Lord God: O city in whose midst blood is shed, so that your hour is approaching; within which fetishes are made, so that you have become unclean! ⁴ You stand guilty of the blood you have shed, defiled by the fetishes you have made. You have brought on your day; you have reached your year. Therefore I will make you the mockery of the nations and the scorn of all the lands. ⁵ Both the near and the far shall scorn you, O besmirched of name, O laden with iniquity!

⁶ Every one of the princes of Israel in your midst used his strength for the shedding of blood. ⁷ Fathers and mothers have been humiliated within you; strangers have been cheated in your midst; orphans and widows have been wronged within you. ⁸ You have despised My holy things and profaned My sabbaths.

⁹ Base men in your midst were intent on shedding blood; in you they have eaten upon the mountains; and they have practiced depravity in your midst. ¹⁰ In you they have uncovered their fathers’ nakedness; in you they have ravished women during their impurity. ¹¹ They have committed abhorrent acts with other men’s wives; in their depravity they have defiled their own daughters-in-law; in you they have ravished their own sisters, daughters of their fathers. ¹² They have taken bribes within you to shed blood. You have taken advance and accrued interest; you have defrauded your countrymen to your profit. You have forgotten Me — declares the Lord God.

¹³ Lo, I will strike My hands over the ill-gotten gains that you have amassed, and over the bloodshed that has been committed in your midst. ¹⁴ Will your courage endure, will your hands remain firm in the days when I deal with you? I the Lord have spoken and I will act.¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the lands; I will consume the uncleanness out of you. ¹⁶ You shall be dishonored in the sight of nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

¹⁷ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸ O mortal, the House of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all copper, tin, iron, and lead. But in a crucible, the dross shall turn into silver. ¹⁹ Assuredly, thus said the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into Jerusalem.

Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
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