Haftarah Portion for 06/24/2023

In Ezekiel chapter 22, Yahweh tells Ezekiel to judge the city of blood and reveal its abominations. The city sheds blood and worships idols, bringing guilt upon itself. As a result, Yahweh will make the city a reproach and a mockery. The leaders of Israel have shed blood, oppressed others, and committed various sins. They have also neglected what is sacred and forgotten Yahweh. Ezekiel chapter 22 verses 1-12 And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, And now, son of man, judge, judge the city of blood, and you shall show her all her abominations. And you shall say, Thus said the master Yahweh, The city sheds blood in her midst that her time might come, and she hath made idols within herself to become defiled. You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and have defiled yourself, with the idols which you have made. Thus you have brought your days near, and have come to the end of your years. Therefore I shall make you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all lands. Those near and those far from you mock you. Defiled is your name, and great the confusion. See the leaders of Israel. Each one has used his arm to shed blood in you. They have despised father and mother within you. They have oppressed the stranger in your midst. They have wronged the fatherless and the widow within you. You have despised that which is set apart to me, and you have profaned my Sabbaths. Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood, and in you are those who eat on the mountains. They have done wickedness in your midst. In you they have uncovered the nakedness of a father. In you they have humbled women who are defiled during their uncleanness. And the one has done abomination with his neighbor's wife, and another has wickedly defiled his daughter-in-law. And another within you has humbled his sister, his father's daughter. In you they have taken a bribe to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase. You have cut off your neighbor by extortion, and you have forgotten me, declares the master Yahweh.