Isaiah 59:12

⁶and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.

⁵The pride of Israel testifies to his face. Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity. Judah also will stumble with them.

⁷Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, LORD; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you.

⁶She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.’

⁴Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring^[+] of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.

²There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.

⁸Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig now in the wall.” When I had dug in the wall, I saw a door.

⁹He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.”

¹⁰So I went in and looked, and saw every form of creeping things, abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall. ¹¹Seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel stood before them. In the middle of them Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan stood, every man with his censer in his hand; and the smell of the cloud of incense went up.

¹²Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, ‘The LORD doesn’t see us. The LORD has forsaken the land.’” ¹³He said also to me, “You will again see more of the great abominations which they do.”

¹⁴Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’s house which was toward the north; and I saw the women sit there weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? You will again see yet greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and I saw at the door of the LORD’s temple, between the porch and the altar, there were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the LORD’s temple and their faces toward the east. They were worshiping the sun toward the east.

⁶“‘Therefore the Lord GOD 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 without casting lots for it. ⁷“‘“For the blood she shed is in the middle of her. She set it on the bare rock. She didn’t pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust. ⁸That it may cause wrath to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood on the bare rock, that it should not be covered.”

⁹“‘Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Woe to the bloody city! I also will make the pile great. ¹⁰Heap on the wood. Make the fire hot. Boil the meat well. Make the broth thick, and let the bones be burned. ¹¹Then set it empty on its coals, that it may be hot, and its bronze may burn, and that its filthiness may be molten in it, that its rust may be consumed. ¹²She is weary with toil; yet her great rust, rust by fire, doesn’t leave her.

¹³“‘“In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I have cleansed you and you weren’t cleansed, you won’t be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.

¹⁴“‘“I, the LORD, have spoken it. It will happen, and I will do it. I won’t go back. I won’t spare. I won’t repent. According to your ways and according to your doings, they will judge you,” says the Lord GOD.’”

²“You, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations. ³You shall say, ‘The Lord GOD says: “A city that sheds blood within herself, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her! ⁴You 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 to the end of your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mocking to all the countries. ⁵Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

⁶“‘“Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood. ⁷In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. ^[+] Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow. ⁸You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths. ⁹Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains. They have committed lewdness among you. ¹⁰In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness. In you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity. ¹¹One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. Another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter. ¹²In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by oppression, and have forgotten me,” says the Lord GOD.

⁸Behold, you trust in lying words that can’t profit. ⁹Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered,’ that you may do all these abominations?