Ezekiel 22:2

For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.

All Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall not do any more wickedness like this among you.

“Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.

Therefore Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, I will melt them and test them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

It shall be that whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his head, and we will be guiltless. Whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand is on him.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.

For, behold, I have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land.

I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen!’

Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to reverse your captivity, but have seen for you false revelations and causes of banishment.

“Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations;

Yahweh said moreover to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.

As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come on us. Yet we have not entreated the favor of Yahweh our God, that we should turn from our iniquities and have discernment in your truth.

As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man, so the company of priests murder on the path toward Shechem, committing shameful crimes.

Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

saying, “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood on us.”

who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,

preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all patience and teaching.

This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”

“ ‘If by these things you won’t be turned back to me, but will walk contrary to me,

David said to him, “Your blood be on your head; for your mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have slain Yahweh’s anointed.’ ”

He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

“Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has also made Judah to sin with his idols;

and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and Yahweh would not pardon.

but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.

O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.

if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt;

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall. They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you,” says Yahweh.

Because they have forsaken me, and have defiled this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods that they didn’t know, they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents,

They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, So that men can’t touch their garments.

“ ‘Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by.

“ ‘Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Woe to the bloody city, to the cauldron whose rust is in it, and whose rust hasn’t gone out of it! Take out of it piece after piece. No lot is fallen on it.

“ ‘Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great.

They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill, and his dens with prey.

Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn’t depart.

Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!

from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!

He said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.

of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.

Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; in addition to his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.

The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.

“ ‘Make chains; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

“Will you judge them, son of man? Will you judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers.

You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and are defiled in your idols which you have made! You have caused your days to draw near, and have come even to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries.

Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.

When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, also the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the gang of robbers ravages outside.

The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.

Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

All the people answered, “May his blood be on us, and on our children!”

Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

Those who sin, reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear.

Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one despise you.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.

“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You didn’t find them breaking in, but it is because of all these things.

“I have made you a tester of metals and a fortress among my people, that you may know and try their way.

But as for me, I am full of power by Yahweh’s Spirit, and of judgment, and of might, to declare to Jacob his disobedience, and to Israel his sin.

that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.

that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;