Ezekiel 22:12-13

22:12 They take bribes within you to shed blood. You engage in usury and charge interest; 1  you extort money from your neighbors. You have forgotten me, 2  declares the sovereign Lord. 3 

22:13 “‘See, I strike my hands together 4  at the dishonest profit you have made, and at the bloodshed 5  they have done among you.

Ezekiel 22:27-29

22:27 Her officials are like wolves in her midst rending their prey – shedding blood and destroying lives – so they can get dishonest profit. 22:28 Her prophets coat their messages with whitewash. 6  They see false visions and announce lying omens for them, saying, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 22:29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. 7 

1 tn Heb “usury and interest you take.” See 18:13, 17. This kind of economic exploitation violated the law given in Lev 25:36.

2 sn Forgetting the Lord is also addressed in Deut 6:12; 8:11, 14; Jer 3:21; 13:25; Ezek 23:35; Hos 2:15; 8:14; 13:6.

3 tn The second person verb forms are feminine singular in Hebrew, indicating that the personified city is addressed here as representing its citizens.

4 sn This gesture apparently expresses mourning and/or anger (see 6:11; 21:14, 17).

5 tn Heb “the blood which was in you.”

6 tn Heb “her prophets coat for themselves with whitewash.” The expression may be based on Ezek 13:10-15.

7 tn Heb “and the foreigner they have oppressed without justice.”