Doing what is right lifts people up. But sin brings judgment to any nation.

公义使邦国高举；罪恶是人民的羞辱。

公义使邦国高举；罪恶是百姓的羞辱。

公义使邦国高举；罪恶是百姓的羞辱。

公义能叫邦国兴盛，罪恶是人民的耻辱。

正义使国家兴盛，罪恶是人民的羞辱。

公义使国家兴起，罪恶是国民的耻辱。

公義使邦國高舉；罪惡是人民的羞辱。

公義使邦國高舉；罪惡是百姓的羞辱。

公義使邦國高舉；罪惡是百姓的羞辱。

公義能叫邦國興盛，罪惡是人民的恥辱。

正義使國家興盛，罪惡是人民的羞辱。

公義使邦國崇高；罪惡是民族的羞辱。

公義使國家興起，罪惡是國民的恥辱。

公義興國、罪惡辱民、

仁義則邦以興、否則國以辱。

善義使邦興、過惡使國辱、

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

Godliness makes a nation great, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.

Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people.

Righteousness exalteth a nation; But sin is a reproach to any people.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin[ is] a reproach to any people.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

He turned land that produced crops into a salty land where nothing could grow. He did it because the people who lived there were evil.

Make sure you obey the Lord your God completely. Be careful to obey all his commands. I’m giving them to you today. If you do these things, the Lord will honor you more than all the other nations on earth.If you obey the Lord your God, here are the blessings that will come to you and remain with you.You will be blessed in the cities. You will be blessed out in the country.Your children will be blessed. Your crops will be blessed. The young animals among your livestock will be blessed. That includes your calves and lambs.Your baskets and bread pans will be blessed.You will be blessed no matter where you go.Enemies will rise up against you. But the Lord will help you win the battle over them. They will come at you from one direction. But they’ll run away from you in every direction.The Lord your God will bless your barns with plenty of grain and other food. He will bless everything you do. He’ll bless you in the land he’s giving you.The Lord your God will make you his holy people. He will set you apart for himself. He promised to do this. He promised to do it if you would keep his commands and live exactly as he wants you to live.All the nations on earth will see that you belong to the Lord. And they will be afraid of you.The Lord will give you more than you need. You will have many children. Your livestock will have many little ones. Your crops will do very well. All of that will happen in the land he promised to give you. He promised this to your people of long ago.The Lord will open up the heavens. That’s where he stores his riches. He will send rain on your land at just the right time. He’ll bless everything you do. You will lend money to many nations. But you won’t have to borrow from any of them.The Lord your God will make you leaders, not followers. Pay attention to his commands that I’m giving you today. Be careful to obey them. Then you will always be on top. You will never be on the bottom.Don’t turn away from any of the commands I’m giving you today. Don’t turn to the right or the left. Don’t follow other gods. Don’t worship them.But suppose you don’t obey the Lord your God. And you aren’t careful to obey all his commands and rules I’m giving you today. Then he will send curses on you. They’ll catch up with you. Here are those curses.You will be cursed in the cities. You will be cursed out in the country.Your baskets and bread pans will be cursed.Your children will be cursed. Your crops will be cursed. Your calves and lambs will be cursed.You will be cursed no matter where you go.The Lord will send curses on you. You won’t know what’s going on. In everything you do, he will be angry with you. You will be destroyed suddenly and completely. This will happen because you did an evil thing when you deserted the Lord.He will send all kinds of sicknesses on you. He’ll send them until he has destroyed you. He’ll remove you from the land you are entering to take as your own.The Lord will make you sick and very weak. He will strike you with fever and swelling. He’ll send burning heat. There won’t be any rain. The hot winds will completely dry up your crops. All those things will happen until you die.The sky above you will be like bronze. The ground beneath you will be like iron.The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder. It will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.The Lord will help your enemies win the battle over you. You will come at them from one direction. But you will run away from them in every direction. All the kingdoms on earth will be completely shocked when they see you.Birds and wild animals will eat up your dead bodies. There won’t be anyone left to scare them away.The Lord will send boils on you, just like the ones he sent on the Egyptians. You will have growths in your bodies and boils on your skin. You will itch all over. No one will be able to heal you.The Lord will make you lose your mind. He will make you blind. You won’t know what’s going on.Even at noon you will have to feel your way around like a blind person in the dark. You won’t have success in anything you do. Day after day you will be robbed and treated badly. No one will be able to save you.You and a woman will promise to marry each other. But another man will take her and rape her. You will build a house. But you won’t live in it. You will plant a vineyard. But you won’t eat a single grape from it.Your ox will be killed right in front of your eyes. But you won’t eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you by force. And you will never get it back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies. No one will be able to save them.Your children will be given to another nation. Day after day you will watch for them to come back. But you will only wear out your eyes. You won’t be able to help your children.A nation you don’t know anything about will eat what you work to produce on your land. You will only be treated badly as long as you live.The things you see will make you lose your mind.The Lord will send painful boils on your knees and legs. No one will be able to heal them. They will cover you from head to toe.The Lord will drive you out of the land. And he will drive out the king you place over yourselves. All of you will go to another nation. You and your people of long ago didn’t know anything about them. There you will worship other gods. They will be made out of wood and stone.You will look very bad to all the nations where the Lord sends you. They will be completely shocked when they see you. They will mock you and make fun of you.You will plant many seeds in your field. But you will gather very little food. Locusts will eat it up.You will plant vineyards and take care of them. But you won’t drink the wine. You won’t gather the grapes. Worms will eat them up.You will have olive trees through your whole country. But you won’t use the oil. The olives will drop off the trees.You will have children. But you won’t be able to keep them. They’ll be taken away as prisoners.Large numbers of locusts will eat up the leaves on all your trees. They will also eat up the crops on your land.Outsiders who live among you will become your leaders. They will rise higher and higher. But you will sink lower and lower.They will lend money to you. But you won’t be able to lend money to them. They will be the leaders. But you will be the followers.The Lord your God will send all these curses on you. They will follow you everywhere. They’ll catch up with you. You will be under the Lord’ s curse until you are destroyed. That’s because you didn’t obey him. You didn’t keep the commands and rules he gave you.These curses will remain as signs and awful judgments against you and your children after you forever.You didn’t serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness when times were good.So he will send enemies against you. You will have to serve them. You will be hungry and thirsty. You will be naked and poor. The Lord will put the iron chains of slavery around your necks until he has destroyed you.The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away. It will come from the ends of the earth. It will dive down on you like an eagle. You won’t understand that nation’s language.Its people will look mean. They won’t have any respect for old people. They won’t show any kindness to young people.They will eat up the young animals among your livestock. They’ll eat up the crops on your land. They’ll destroy you. They won’t leave you any grain, olive oil or fresh wine. They won’t leave you any calves or lambs. They’ll destroy you.They’ll surround all the cities throughout your whole land. They’ll attack those cities until the high, strong walls you trust in fall down. That’s what will happen to the cities in the land the Lord your God is giving you.Your enemies will surround you and attack you. They will make you suffer greatly. So you will eat your own children. You will eat the dead bodies of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you.There may be a gentle and caring man among you. But he will treat his own brother badly. He’ll be just as mean to the wife he loves and to any of his children who are still alive.He won’t give to a single one of them any part of the dead bodies of his children that he’s eating. It will be all he has left to eat. That’s how much your enemies will make you suffer when they surround all your cities and attack them.There may be a gentle and caring woman among you. She wouldn’t even touch the ground with her feet without first putting her sandals on. But she will not share anything with the husband she loves. She won’t share with her own children either.She will eat what comes out of her body after she has a baby. Then she’ll even eat her baby. She won’t share it with anyone in her family. In her great hunger she’ll plan to eat it in secret. There won’t be anything else for her to eat because the city she lives in will be surrounded. That’s an example of how much your enemies will make you suffer when they are attacking your cities.Be careful to follow all the words of this law. They are written in this scroll. Have respect for the glorious and wonderful name of the Lord your God. If you don’t,he will send terrible plagues on you and your children after you. He’ll send horrible and lasting troubles. He’ll make you very sick for a long time.He’ll bring on you all the sicknesses you were afraid of getting when you were in Egypt. You won’t be able to get rid of them.The Lord will also bring on you all other kinds of sickness and trouble. I haven’t even written those down in this Book of the Law. You will be destroyed.At one time you were as many as the stars in the sky. But there will only be a few of you left. That’s because you didn’t obey the Lord your God.It pleased the Lord to give you success and to cause there to be many of you. But it will please him just as much to wipe you out and destroy you. You will be removed from the land you are entering to take as your own.Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations. He’ll spread you around from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship statues of gods made out of wood and stone. You and your people of long ago hadn’t known anything about those gods.Among those nations you won’t find any peace. There won’t be any place where you can make your home and rest your feet. The Lord will give you minds filled with worry. He’ll give you eyes worn out from looking for help. You won’t have any hope in your hearts.Your lives will always be in danger. You will be filled with fear night and day. You will never be sure you are safe.In the morning you will say,“ We wish it were evening!” In the evening you will say,“ We wish it were morning!” Your hearts will be filled with fear. The things you see will terrify you.The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships. He’ll send you on a journey I said you should never have to make again. You will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves in Egypt. But no one will buy you.

Be careful to keep them. That will show the nations how wise and understanding you are. They will hear about all these rules. They’ll say,“ That great nation certainly has wise and understanding people.”The Lord our God is near us every time we pray to him. What other nation is great enough to have its gods that close to them?I’m giving you the laws of the Lord today. What other nation is great enough to have rules and laws as fair as these?

Make sure there isn’t a man or woman among your families or tribes who turns away from the Lord our God. No one must worship the gods of those nations. Make sure that kind of worship doesn’t spread like bitter poison through your whole community.Some people who worship those gods will hear the promise that seals the covenant I’m making. They think they can escape trouble by what they’re saying. They say,“ We’ll be safe, even though we’re stubborn and go our own way.” But they will bring trouble on the whole land.The Lord will never be willing to forgive those people. His great anger will blaze out against them. All the curses I’ve written down in this book will fall on them. And the Lord will erase any mention of them from the earth.He will find those people in all the tribes of Israel and give them nothing but trouble. That will agree with all the curses of the covenant. They are written down in this Book of the Law.Even your children’s children will see the troubles that have fallen on the land. They’ll see the sicknesses the Lord has brought on it. People who come from countries far away will also see those things.The whole land will be burned up. Nothing but salt and sulfur will be left. Nothing will be planted there. Nothing will grow there. In fact, nothing will even start to grow there. The land will be like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim after they were destroyed. The Lord wiped out those cities because he was very angry.All the nations will ask,“ Why has the Lord done this to the land? What could have made him so very angry?”And they will hear the answer,“ It’s because the people living there have broken the covenant of the Lord. He’s the God of their people of long ago. He made that covenant with them when he brought them out of Egypt.They went off and worshiped other gods. They bowed down to them. They hadn’t known anything about those gods before. The Lord hadn’t given those gods to them.So the Lord became very angry with this land. He brought on it all the curses written down in this book.The Lord’ s anger blazed out against his people. So he pulled them up out of their land. He threw them into another land. And that’s where they are now.”

“ Go. Announce my message to the people in Jerusalem. I want everyone to hear it. Tell them,“ Here is what the Lord says.“‘ I remember how faithful you were to me when you were young. You loved me as if you were my bride. You followed me through the desert. Nothing had been planted there.Your people were holy to me. They were the first share of my harvest. All those who destroyed them were held guilty. And trouble came to their enemies,’ ” announces the Lord.People of Jacob, hear the Lord’ s message. Listen, all you tribes of Israel.The Lord says,“ What did your people of long ago find wrong with me? Why did they wander so far away from me? They worshiped worthless statues of gods. Then they themselves became worthless.They did not ask,‘ Where is the Lord? He brought us up out of Egypt. He led us through a dry and empty land. He guided us through deserts and deep valleys. It was a land of total darkness where there wasn’t any rain. No one lived or traveled there.’But I brought you into a land that has rich soil. I gave you its fruit and its finest food. In spite of that, you made my land impure. You turned it into something I hate.The priests did not ask,‘ Where is the Lord?’ Those who taught my law did not know me. The leaders refused to obey me. The prophets prophesied in the name of Baal. They worshiped worthless statues of gods.“ So I am bringing charges against you again,” announces the Lord.“ And I will bring charges against your children’s children.Go over to the coasts of Cyprus and look. Send people to the land of Kedar and have them look closely. See if there has ever been anything like this.Has a nation ever changed its gods? Actually, they are not even gods at all. But my people have traded away their glorious God. They have traded me for worthless statues of gods.Sky above, be shocked over this. Tremble with horror,” announces the Lord.“ My people have sinned twice. They have deserted me, even though I am the spring of water that gives life. And they have dug their own wells. But those wells are broken. They can’t hold any water.Are you people of Israel servants? You were not born as slaves, were you? Then why have you been carried off like stolen goods?Lions have roared. They have growled at you. They have destroyed your land. Your towns are burned and deserted.The men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skulls.Haven’t you brought this on yourselves? I am the Lord your God, but you deserted me. You left me even while I was leading you.Why do you go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile River? Why do you go to Assyria to drink from the Euphrates River?You will be punished because you have sinned. You will be corrected for turning away from me. I am the Lord your God. If you desert me, bad things will happen to you. If you do not respect me, you will suffer bitterly. I want you to understand that,” announces the Lord who rules over all.“ Long ago you broke off the yoke I put on you. You tore off the ropes I tied you up with. You said,‘ I won’t serve you!’ In fact, on every high hill you lay down like a prostitute. You worshiped other gods under every green tree.You were like a good vine when I planted you. You were a healthy plant. Then how did you turn against me? How did you become a bad, wild vine?You might wash yourself with soap. You might use plenty of strong soap. But I can still see the stains your guilt covers you with,” announces the Lord and King.“ You say,‘ I am“ clean.” I haven’t followed the gods that are named Baal.’ How can you say that? Remember how you acted in the valley. Consider what you have done. You are like a female camel running quickly here and there.You are like a wild donkey that lives in the desert. She smells the wind when she longs for a mate. Who can hold her back? The males that run after her do not need to wear themselves out. At mating time they will easily find her.Do not run after other gods until your sandals are worn out and your throat is dry. But you said,‘ It’s no use! I love those gods. I must go after them.’

Joshua sent the Israelites away. Then they went to take over the land. All of them went to their own shares of land.The people served the Lord as long as Joshua lived. They also served him as long as the elders lived. Those were the elders who lived longer than Joshua did. They had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.Joshua, the servant of the Lord, died. He was the son of Nun. He was 110 years old when he died.His people buried him on his own property at Timnath Heres. It’s north of Mount Gaash in the hill country of Ephraim.All the people of Joshua’s time joined the members of their families who had already died. Then those who were born after them grew up. They didn’t know the Lord and what he had done for Israel.The Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They served gods that were named Baal.They deserted the Lord, the God of their people. He had brought them out of Egypt. But now the Israelites served other gods and worshiped them. They served the gods of the nations that were around them. They made the Lord angrybecause they deserted him. They served Baal. They also served female gods that were named Ashtoreth.The Lord became angry with the Israelites. So he handed them over to robbers. The robbers stole everything from them. The Lord handed the Israelites over to their enemies all around them. Israel wasn’t able to fight against them anymore and win.

A message from the Lord came to me. The Lord said,“ Son of man, tell the people of Jerusalem the evil things they have done. I hate those things.Tell them,‘ The Lord and King speaks to Jerusalem. He says,“ Your history in the land of Canaan goes back a long way. Your father was an Amorite. Your mother was a Hittite.On the day you were born your cord was not cut. You were not washed with water to clean you up. You were not rubbed with salt. And you were not wrapped in large strips of cloth.No one took pity on you. No one was concerned enough to do any of these things for you. Instead, you were thrown out into an open field. You were hated on the day you were born.“‘ “I was passing by. I saw you kicking around in your blood. As you were lying there, I said to you,‘ Live!’I made you grow like a plant in a field. Soon you had grown up. You became a young adult. Your breasts had formed. Your hair had grown. But you were completely naked.“‘ “Later, I was passing by again. I looked at you. I saw that you were old enough for love. So I married you and took good care of you. I covered your naked body. I made a firm promise to you. I entered into a covenant with you. And you became mine,” announces the Lord and King.“‘ “I bathed you with water. I washed the blood off you. And I put lotions on you.I put a beautiful dress on you. I gave you sandals made out of fine leather. I dressed you in fine linen. I covered you with expensive clothes.I decorated you with jewelry. I put bracelets on your arms. I gave you a necklace for your neck.I put rings on your nose and ears. And I gave you a beautiful crown for your head.So you were decorated with gold and silver. Your clothes were made out of fine linen. They were made out of expensive and beautiful cloth. Your food was made out of honey, olive oil and the finest flour. You became very beautiful. You became a queen.You were so beautiful that your fame spread among the nations. The glory I had given you made your beauty perfect,” announces the Lord and King.“‘ “But you trusted in your beauty. You used your fame to become a prostitute. You offered your body freely to anyone who passed by. In fact, you gave yourself to anyone who wanted you.You used some of your clothes to make high places colorful. That is where people worshiped other gods. You were a prostitute there. You went to your lover and he took your beauty.I had given you fine jewelry. It was made out of gold and silver. You used it to make for yourself statues of male gods. You worshiped those gods. You were not faithful to me.You put your beautiful clothes on them. You offered my oil and incense to them.You also offered them food. It was made out of olive oil, honey and the finest flour. I had given it to you to eat. You offered it as sweet- smelling incense to them. That is what you did,” announces the Lord and King.“‘ “Then you took your sons and daughters who belonged to me. And you sacrificed them as food to other gods. Wasn’t it enough for you to be a prostitute?You killed my children. You sacrificed them to other gods.You did not remember the days when you were young. At that time you were completely naked. You were kicking around in your blood. But now you have done evil things. I hate them. You have worshiped other gods. You have not been faithful to me.“‘ “How terrible it will be for you!” announces the Lord and King.“ How terrible for you! You continued to sin against me.Your people built up mounds for themselves in every market. They put little places of worship on them.They set them up at every street corner. Jerusalem, you misused your beauty. You offered your body to anyone who passed by. You did it again and again.You committed shameful acts with the people of Egypt. They were your neighbors who were ready to have sex with you. You offered yourself to them again and again. That made me very angry.So I reached out my powerful hand against you. I made your territory smaller. I handed you over to your Philistine enemies. The people in their towns were shocked by your impure conduct.You also committed shameful acts with the people of Assyria. Nothing ever seemed to satisfy you. You could never get enough.Then you offered yourself to the people of Babylon. But that did not satisfy you either. There are many traders in the land of Babylon.“‘ “I am filled with great anger against you,” announces the Lord and King.“ Just look at all the things you are doing! You are acting like a prostitute who has no shame at all.Your people built up mounds at every street corner. You put little places of worship on them in every market. But you did not really act like a prostitute. That’s because you refused to let your lovers pay you anything.“‘ “You unfaithful wife! You would rather be with strangers than with your own husband!Every prostitute receives gifts. Instead, you give gifts to all your lovers. You offer them money to come to you from everywhere. You want them to sleep with you. You are not faithful to me.As a prostitute, you are the opposite of others. No one runs after you to sleep with you. You are exactly the opposite. You pay them. They do not pay you.” ’ ”You prostitute, listen to the Lord’ s message.The Lord and King says,“ You poured out your desire on your lovers. You took off your clothing and slept with them. You did it again and again. You worshiped other gods. I hate them. You even sacrificed your children to them.So I am going to gather together all the lovers you found pleasure with. They include those you loved and those you hated. I will gather them against you from everywhere. I will take your clothes off right in front of them. Then they will see you completely naked.I will hand down my sentence against you. You will be punished like women who commit adultery and sacrifice their children to other gods. I am so angry with you. So I will sentence you to death for everything you have done.Then I will hand you over to your lovers. They will tear down those mounds you built. They will destroy the little places of worship you put on them. They will take your clothes off. They will remove your fine jewelry. And they will leave you completely naked.They will bring a crowd against you. The crowd will put you to death by throwing stones at you. And they will chop you to pieces with their swords.They will burn down your houses and punish you. Many women will see it. I will not let you be a prostitute anymore. You will no longer pay your lovers.Then my great anger against you will die down. My jealous anger will turn away from you. I will be calm. I will not be angry anymore.“ You did not remember the days when you were young. The things you did made me very angry. So anything that happens to you will be your own fault,” announces the Lord and King.“ You added impure conduct to all the other evil things you did. I hate all those things.“ All those who use proverbs will use this one about you. They will say,‘ Like mother, like daughter.’You are a true daughter of your mother. She hated her husband and children. And you are a true sister of your sisters. They hated their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite. Your father was an Amorite.Your older sister was Samaria. She lived north of you with her daughters. Your younger sister was Sodom. She lived south of you with her daughters.You lived exactly the way they did. You copied their evil practices. I hate those practices. Everything you did was so sinful that you soon became even worse than they were.Your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done. And that is just as sure as I am alive,” announces the Lord and King.“ Here is the sin your sister Sodom committed. She and her daughters were proud. They ate too much. They were not concerned about others. They did not help those who were poor and in need.They were very proud. They did many things that were evil in my eyes. I hated those things. So I got rid of Sodom and her daughters, just as you have seen.Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You sinned even more than they did. I hate those sins. Compared to what you did, you made your sisters seem godly.So you will be dishonored. You have given your sisters an excuse for what they did. Your sins were far worse than theirs. In fact, your sisters appear to be more godly than you. So then, be ashamed. You will be dishonored. You have made them appear to be godly.“ I will not only give you back what you had before. I will also do the same thing for Sodom and her daughters. And I will do the same for Samaria and her daughters.That will make you feel dishonored. You will be ashamed of everything you have done. You have made them feel better because you sinned more and were punished more than they were.Your sisters Sodom and Samaria and their daughters will return to what they were before. And you and your daughters will return to what you were before.In the past you would not even mention your sister Sodom. You were proud at that time.That was before your sin was uncovered. Now the daughters of Edom make fun of you. So do all her neighbors and the daughters of the Philistines. Everyone who lives around you hates you.You will be punished for your impure conduct. I will also punish you for the other evil things you have done. I hate all those things,” announces the Lord.The Lord and King says,“ I will punish you in keeping with what you have done. I sealed with a promise the covenant I made with you. You hated that promise. And you broke my covenant.But I will remember my covenant with you. I made it with you when you were young. Now I will make a new covenant with you. It will last forever.Then you will remember how you have lived. You will be ashamed when I give you Samaria and Sodom. Samaria is your older sister. Sodom is your younger one. I will give them and their daughters to you as daughters. That can’t happen based on my old covenant with you.So I will make my new covenant with you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.I will pay for all the sins you have committed. Then you will remember what you have done. You will be ashamed of it. Because of your shame, you will never speak against me again,” announces the Lord and King.

When the tribe of Ephraim spoke, the other tribes trembled with fear. Ephraim was honored in Israel. But its people sinned by worshiping Baal. So they were as good as dead.

A message from the Lord came to me. The Lord said,“ Son of man, are you going to judge Jerusalem? Will you judge this city that has so many murderers in it? Then tell its people they have done many evil things. I hate those things.Tell them,‘ The Lord and King says,“ Your city brings death on itself. You spill blood inside its walls. You make yourselves‘ unclean’ by making statues of gods.You are guilty of spilling blood. Your statues have made you‘ unclean.’ You have brought your days to a close. The end of your years has come. So the nations will make fun of you. All the countries will laugh at you.Those who are near you will tell jokes about you. So will those who are far away. Trouble fills the streets of your sinful city.“‘ “The princes of Israel are in your city. All of them use their power to spill blood.They have made fun of fathers and mothers alike. They have crushed outsiders. They have treated badly the children whose fathers have died. They have done the same thing to widows.You have looked down on the holy things that were set apart to me. You have misused my Sabbath days.You have spread lies about others so you can spill someone’s blood. You eat at the mountain temples. You commit impure acts.You bring shame on your fathers by having sex with their wives. You have sex with women during their monthly period. That is when they are‘ unclean.’One of you has sex with another man’s wife. I hate that sin. Another brings shame on his daughter- in- law by having sex with her. Still another has sex with his sister, even though she is his own father’s daughter.You accept money from people who want special favors. You do this to spill someone’s blood. You charge interest to poor people when you lend them money. You make money from them. You get rich by cheating your neighbors. And you have forgotten me,” announces the Lord and King.“‘ “I will clap my hands because I am so angry. You got rich by cheating others. You spilled blood inside the walls of your city.Will you be brave on the day I deal with you? Will you be strong at that time? I have spoken. I will do this. I am the Lord.I will scatter you among the nations. I will send you to other countries. I will put an end to your‘ uncleanness.’You will be‘ unclean’ in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”A message from the Lord came to me. The Lord said,“ Son of man, the people of Israel have become like scum to me. All of them are like the copper, tin, iron and lead left inside a furnace. They are only the scum that is removed from silver.”So the Lord and King says,“ People of Israel, all of you have become like scum. So I will gather you together in Jerusalem.People put silver, copper, iron, lead and tin into a furnace. They melt it with a blazing fire. In the same way, I will gather you. I will pour out my burning anger on you. I will put you inside the city and melt you.I will gather you together. My burning anger will blaze out at you. And you will be melted inside Jerusalem.Silver is melted in a furnace. And you will be melted inside the city. Then you will know that I have poured out my burning anger on you. I am the Lord.”Another message from the Lord came to me. The Lord said,