Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “You, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations. You shall say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “A city that sheds blood within herself, that her time may come, and that makes idols against herself to defile her! 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. Those who are near, and those who are far from you, will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.
“ ‘ “Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood. In 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. You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths. Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains. They have committed lewdness among you. In you have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness. In you have they humbled her who was unclean in her impurity. One 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. In 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 Yahweh.
“ ‘ “Behold, therefore I have struck my hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been within you. Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I will deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it. I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you through the countries. I will consume your filthiness out of you. You will be profaned in yourself, in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.” ’ ”
Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are the dross of silver. Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem. As they gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there, and melt you. Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted in the middle of it. As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so you will be melted in the middle of it; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you.’ ”
Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, tell her, ‘You are a land that is not cleansed, nor rained on in the day of indignation.’ There is a conspiracy of her prophets within it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They take treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within it. Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths. So I am profaned among them. Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, ‘The Lord Yahweh says,’ when Yahweh has not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully.
“I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out my indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have brought their own way on their heads,” says the Lord Yahweh.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30 Art thou ready to execute thy charge, which I…
Art thou ready to execute thy charge, which I commit unto thee against Jerusalem, that murdereth the Prophets and them that are godly?
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–31 Eze 22:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came…
Eze 22:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ver. 1. Moreover the word.] See on Eze 18:1.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 Some would have the prophet here to be questioned,…
Some would have the prophet here to be questioned, whether he would, and why he would, plead for such a city. Others, that God doth forbid him to plead for it, or be solicitous about it. I rather think God doth awake: him to more vigorous reproving of this sinful people, and threatening them for sin. The question is doubled to awaken the prophet more fully, and to quicken him to his work.
The bloody city; Jerusalem, which is guilty of the murders of innocent ones, of prophets and holy men.
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Show her; make her know, at least tell her by writing; for the prophet was at Babylon now, and could not speak to then at Jerusalem, but he might and must send word to then what their abominations were.
All her abominations; all the kinds, not all individual acts of them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 17, 23 In these verses the prophet by a commission from…
In these verses the prophet by a commission from Heaven sits as a judge upon the bench, and Jerusalem is made to hold up her hand as a prisoner at the bar; and, if prophets were set over other nations, much more over God's nation, Jer 1:10. This prophet is authorized to judge the bloody city, the city of bloods. Jerusalem is so called, not only because she had been guilty of the particular sin of blood-shed, but because her crimes in general were bloody crimes (Eze 7:23), such as polluted her in her blood, and for which she deserved to have blood given her to drink. Now the business of a judge with a malefactor is to convict him of his crimes, and then to pass sentence upon him for them. These two things Ezekiel is to do here.
I. He is to find Jerusalem guilty of many heinous crimes here enumerated in a long bill of indictment, and it is billa vera - a true bill; so he writes upon it whose judgment we are sure is according to truth. He must show her all her abominations (Eze 22:2), that God may be justified in all the desolations brought upon her. Let us take a view of all the particular sins which Jerusalem here stands charged with; and they are all exceedingly sinful.
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1. Murder: The city sheds blood, not only in the suburbs, where the strangers dwell, but in the midst of it, where, one would think, the magistrates would, if any where, be vigilant. Even there people were murdered either in duels or by secret assassinations and poisonings, or in the courts of justice under colour of law, and there was no care taken to discover and punish the murderers according to the law (Gen 9:6), no, nor so much as the ceremony used to expiate an uncertain murder (Deu 21:1), and so the guilt and pollution remains upon the city. Thus thou hast become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed, Eze 22:4. This crime is insisted most upon, for it was Jerusalem's measure-filling sin more than any; it is said to be that which the Lord would not pardon, Kg2 24:4. (1.) The princes of Israel, who should have been the protectors of injured innocence, every one were to their power to shed blood, Eze 22:6. They thirsted for it, and delighted in it, and whoever came within their power were sure to feel it; whoever lay at their mercy were sure to find none. (2.) There were those who carried tales to shed blood, Eze 22:9. They told lies of men to the princes, to whom they knew it would be pleasing, to incense them against them; or they betrayed what passed in private conversation, to make mischief among neighbours, and set them together by the ears, to bite, and devour, and worry one another, even to death. Note, Those who, by giving invidious characters and telling ill-natured stories of their neighbours, sow discord among brethren, will be accountable for all the mischief that follows upon it; as he that kindles a fire will be accountable for all the hurt it does. (3.) There were those who took gifts to shed blood (Eze 22:12), who would be hired with money to swear a man out of his life, or, if they were upon a jury, would be bribed to find an innocent man guilty. When so much barbarous bloody work of this kind was done in Jerusalem we may well conclude, [1.] That men's consciences had become wretchedly profligate and seared and their hearts hardened; for those would stick at no wickedness who would not stick at this. [2.] That abundance of quiet, harmless, good people were made away with, whereby, as the guilt of the city was increased, so the number of those that should have stood in the gap to turn away the wrath of God was diminished.
2. Idolatry: She makes idols against herself to destroy herself, Eze 22:3. And again (Eze 22:4), Thou hast defiled thyself in thy idols which thou hast made. Note, Those who make idols for themselves will be found to have made them against themselves, for idolaters put a cheat upon themselves and prepare destruction for themselves; besides that thereby they pollute themselves, they render themselves odious in the eyes of the just and jealous God, and even their mind and conscience are defiled, so that to them nothing is pure. Those who did not make idols themselves were yet found guilty of eating upon the mountains, or high places (Eze 22:9), in honour of the idols and in communion with idolaters.
3. Disobedience to parents (Eze 22:7): In thee have the children set light by their father and mother, mocked them, cursed them, and despised to obey them, which was a sign of a more than ordinary corruption of nature as well as manners, and a disposition to all manner of disorder, Isa 3:5. Those that set light by their parents are in the highway to all wickedness. God had made many wholesome laws for the support of the paternal authority, but no care was taken to put them in execution; nay, the Pharisees in their day taught children, under pretence of respect to the Corban, to set light by their parents and refuse to maintain them, Mat 15:5.
4. Oppression and extortion. To enrich themselves they wronged the poor (Eze 22:7): They dealt by oppression and deceit with the stranger, taking advantage of his necessities, and his ignorance of the laws and customs of the country. In Jerusalem, that should have been a sanctuary to the oppressed, they vexed the fatherless and widows by unreasonable demands and inquisitions, or troublesome law-suits, in which might prevails against right. "Thou hast taken usury and increase (Eze 22:12); not only there are those in thee that do it, but thou hast done it." It was an act of the city or community; the public money, which should have been employed in public charity, was put out to usury, with extortion. Thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by violence and wrong. For neighbours to gain by one another in a way of fair trading is well, but those who are greedy of gain will not be held within the rules of equity.
5. Profanation of the sabbath and other holy things. This commonly goes along with the other sins for which they here stand indicted (Eze 22:8): Thou hast despised my holy things, holy oracles, holy ordinances. The rites which God appointed were thought too plain, too ordinary; they despised them, and therefore were fond of the customs of the heathen. Note, Immorality and dishonesty are commonly attended with a contempt of religion and the worship of God. Thou hast profaned my sabbaths. There was not in Jerusalem that face of sabbath-sanctification that one would have expected in the holy city. Sabbath-breaking is an iniquity that is an inlet to all iniquity. Many have owned it to contribute as much to their ruin as any thing.
6. Uncleanness and all manner of seventh-commandment sins, fruits of those vile affections to which God in a way of righteous judgment gives men up, to punish them for their idolatry and profanation of holy things. Jerusalem had been famous for its purity, but now in the midst of thee they commit lewdness (Eze 22:9); lewdness goes bare-faced, though in the most scandalous instances, as that of a man's having his father's wife, which is the discovery of the father's nakedness (Eze 22:10) and is a sin not to be named among Christians without the utmost detestation (Co1 5:1), and was made a capital crime by the law of Moses, Lev 20:11. The time to refrain from embracing has not been observed (Ecc 3:6), for they have humbled her that was set apart for her pollution. They made nothing of committing lewdness with a neighbour's wife, with a daughter-in-law, or a sister, Eze 22:11. And shall not God visit for these things?
7. Unmindfulness of God was at the bottom of all this wickedness (Eze 22:12): "Thou hast forgotten me, else thou wouldst not have done thus." Note, Sinners do that which provokes God because they forget him; they forget their descent from him, dependence on him, and obligations to him; they forget how valuable his favour is, which they make themselves unfit for, and how formidable his wrath, which they make themselves obnoxious to. Those that pervert their ways forget the Lord their God, Jer 3:21.
II. He is to pass sentence upon Jerusalem for these crimes.
1. Let her know that she has filled up the measure of her iniquity, and that her sins are such as forbid delays and call for speedy vengeance. She has made her time to come (Eze 22:3), her days to draw near; and she has come to her years of maturity for punishment (Eze 22:4), as an heir that has come to age and is ready for his inheritance. God would have borne longer with them, but they had arrived at such a pitch of impudence in sin that God could not in honour give them a further day. Note, Abused patience will at last be weary of forbearing. And, when sinners (as Solomon speaks) grow overmuch wicked, they die before their time (Ecc 7:17) and shorten their reprieves.
2. Let her know that she has exposed herself, and therefore God has justly exposed her, to the contempt and scorn of all her neighbours (Eze 22:4): I have made thee a reproach to the heathen, both those who are near, who are eye-witnesses of Jerusalem's apostasy and degeneracy, and those afar off, who, though at a distance, will think it worth taking notice of (Eze 22:5); they shall all mock thee. While they were reproached by their neighbours for their adherence to God it was their honour, and they might be sure that God would roll away their reproach. But, now that they are laughed at for their revolt from God, they must lie down in their shame, and must say, The Lord is righteous. They make a mock at Jerusalem, both because her sins had been very scandalous (she is infamous, polluted in name, and has quite lost her credit), and because her punishment is very grievous - she is much vexed and frets without measure at her troubles. Note, Those who fret most at their troubles have commonly those about them who will be so much the more apt to make a jest of them.
3. Let her know that God is displeased, highly displeased, at her wickedness, and does and will witness against it (Eze 22:13): I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain. God, both by his prophets and by his providence, revealed his wrath from heaven against their ungodliness and unrighteousness, the oppressions they were guilty of, though they got by them, and their murders (the blood which has been in the midst of thee), and all their other sins. Note, God has sufficiently discovered how angry he is at the wicked courses of his people; and, that they may not say that they have not had fair warning, he smites his hand against the sin before he lays his hand upon the sinner. And this is a good reason why we should despise dishonest gain, even the gain of oppressions, and shake our hands from holding bribes, because these are sins against which God shakes his hands, Isa 33:15.
4. Let her know that, proud and secure as she is, she is no match for God's judgments, Eze 22:14. (1.) She is assured that the destruction she has deserved will come: I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it. He that is true to his promises will be true to his threatenings too, for he is not a man that he should repent. (2.) It is supposed that she thinks herself able to contend with God, and so stand a siege against his judgments. She bade defiance to the day of the Lord, Isa 5:19. But, (3.) She is convinced of her utter inability to make her part good with him: "Can thy heart endure, or can thy hand be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? Thou thinkest thou hast to do only with men like thyself, but shalt be made to know that thou fallest into the hands of a living God." Observe here, [1.] There is a day coming when God will deal with sinners, a day of visitation. He deals with some to bring them to repentance, and there is no resisting the force of convictions when he sets them on; he deals with others to bring them to ruin. He deals with sinners in this life, when he brings upon them his sore judgments; but the days of eternity are especially the days in which God will deal with them, when the full vials of God's wrath will be poured out without mixture. [2.] The wrath of God against sinners, when he comes to deal with them, will be found both intolerable and irresistible. There is no heart stout enough to endure it; it is none of the infirmities which the spirit of a man will sustain. Damned sinners can neither forget nor despise their torments, nor have they any thing wherewith to support themselves under their torments. There are no hands strong enough either to ward off the strokes of God's wrath or to break the chains with which sinners are bound over to the day of wrath. Who knows the power of God's anger?
5. Let her know that, since she has walked in the way of the heathen, and learned their works, she shall have enough of them (Eze 22:15): "I will not only send thee among the heathen, out of thy own land, but I will scatter thee among them and disperse thee in the countries, to be abused and insulted over by strangers." And since her filthiness and filthy ones continued in her, notwithstanding all the methods God had taken to refine her (she would not be made clean, Jer 13:27), he will be his judgments consume her filthiness out of her; he will destroy those that are incurably bad and reform those that are inclined to be good.
6. Let her know that God has disowned her and cast her off. He had been her heritage and portion; but now (Eze 22:16), "Thou shalt take thy inheritance in thyself, shift for thyself, make the best hand thou canst for thyself, for God will no longer undertake for thee." Note, Those that give up themselves to be ruled by their lusts will justly be given up to be portioned by them. Those that resolve to be their own masters, let them expect no other comfort and happiness than what their own hands can furnish them with, and a miserable portion it will prove. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward. Thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things. These are the same with this, "Thou shalt take thy inheritance in thyself, and then, when it is too late, shalt own in the sight of the heathen that I am the Lord, who alone am a portion sufficient for my people." Note, Those that have lost their interest in God will know how to value it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–31 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me.....…
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me..... The word of prophecy from the Lord, as the Targum, another prophecy:
saying; as follows:
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 18, 19, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30 A catalogue of the sins of Jerusalem, ver. 1-12.…
A catalogue of the sins of Jerusalem, ver. 1-12. Punishment threatened, ver. 13-16. They are condemned as dross to the fire, ver. 17-22. All orders of men having contributed to the national guilt, must share in the punishment of it, ver. 23-31.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 This chapter contains a recital of the sins of…
CHAPTER XXII
This chapter contains a recital of the sins of Jerusalem, 1-12;
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for which God threatens it with severe judgments, 13-16,
in order to purify it from the dross, 17-22.
And as the corruption is general, pervading prophets, priests,
princes, and people; so, it is declared, shall be the
punishment, 23-31.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXII
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv2, 6, 13, 18, 24, 26, 27, 29 Eze 22:2-5. Wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the…
Eze 22:2-5. Wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? — Wilt thou plead for it? Or rather, Wilt thou not judge? see note on Eze 20:4. The expression is doubled to awaken the prophet more fully, and to quicken him to his work. Jerusalem is termed the bloody city, Hebrew, עיר הדמים, the city of bloods, because of the blood of innocent persons, of children sacrificed to Moloch, and of prophets and righteous men shed in her, and that by courts of justice under colour of law. Yea, thou shalt show her — Make her know; all her abominations — That I may be justified in all the desolations which I have brought, and shall still more fully bring upon her. The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it — Openly and impudently; that her time may come — The time of her destruction, as the consequence of her having filled up the measure of her iniquities; and maketh idols against herself — To her own ruin. Thou hast caused thy days to draw near — The days of thy sorrows and sufferings; and art come even to thy years — To the end of thy years of trial, so that thou shalt be borne with no longer. Therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen — Have exposed thee to their contempt and scorn; and a mocking to all countries — A proverb, and a by-word, and cause of astonishment to all people, according to the prediction of Moses, (Deu 28:37,) and the solemn warning given by the Lord to Solomon, when he appeared to him after the dedication of the temple, 1Ki 9:7. Those that are near — And are eye-witnesses of thy apostacy and degeneracy, as the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines; and those that be far from thee — The Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, &c., to whom thou shalt be carried captive; shall mock thee, which art infamous — Of a most infamous name; and much vexed — Afflicted, empoverished, and ruined: or rather, who art full of tumult and trouble, as רבת המהומה more properly signifies: that is, in which there are continually confusion and disorder, by the commission of acts of violence.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 16, 17, 23 The fourth word of judgment Ezek. 22:1-16. The sins…
The fourth word of judgment Ezek. 22:1-16. The sins which have brought ruin upon Jerusalem are the sins which disgraced the pagan inhabitants of Canaan, whom the Israelites were to cast out (compare Lev. 18). The commission of like sins would insure like judgment.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 24, 25, 28, 30, 31 Blood. Why dost thou cease to admonish and rebuke…
Blood. Why dost thou cease to admonish and rebuke the people? (Worthington) --- Pronounce sentence on Jerusalem, (Haydock) for her cruelties. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 11. The Conviction of Ripeness for Judgment: (a) Of…
11. The Conviction of Ripeness for Judgment: (a) Of Jerusalem’s in particular (Ezekiel 22); (b) and of Judah’s and Israel’s as a whole (Ezekiel 23).
(a) Jerusalem ripe for Judgment (Ezekiel 22.)
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1, 2And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, And thou, son of man, wilt thou judge? Wilt thou judge the city of blood [blood-shedding]? Then make 3her to know all her abominations. And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, A city that sheds blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and has 4made idols for [over] herself that she may be defiled! In thy blood which thou hast shed thou hast become guilty, and in thine idols which thou hast made thou art defiled; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come to thy years: therefore have I given thee for a reproach to the heathen, 5and for a mocking to all lands. Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall mock at thee as one polluted in name, and full of confusion. 6Behold, the princes of Israel, every one according to his arm, were in thee in 7order to shed blood! Father and mother they lightly esteemed in thee; with [in relation to] the stranger they have acted unjustly in the midst of thee; 8the widow and the orphan they have oppressed in thee. My holy things 9thou hast despised, and hast profaned My sabbaths. Men of slander have been in thee to shed blood, and in thee they have eaten upon the mountains; 10they have committed lewdness in the midst of thee. In thee, one has uncovered a father’s nakedness; in thee they have humbled her that is unclean in 11her separation. And one has committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another has 12humbled [ravished] his sister, his father’s daughter, in thee. They have taken bribes in thee to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and hast overreached thy neighbour by extortion, and thou hast forgotten Me: sentence 13of the Lord Jehovah. And, behold, I have smitten My hand at thy gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood-shedding which was in thy 14midst. Will thy heart endure [be stedfast]? or will thy hands be strong for the days when I shall deal with thee? I, Jehovah, have spoken, and will do 15[have done]. And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume [make to cease] thy filthiness out of thee. 16And thou shalt be profaned in thee [through thee] before the eyes of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah. 17And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 18Son of man, the house of Israel has become to Me dross; the whole of them are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the 19furnace; they have become the dross of silver. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because ye have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather 20you into the midst of Jerusalem, [As] a gathering together of silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it that it may be melted, so will I gather you in My anger and in 21My fury, and I will leave you and melt you. And I will collect you, and will blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. 22As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst of it; and ye shall know that I, Jehovah, have poured out My 23fury upon you. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 24Son of man, say to her, Thou art a land that is not cleansed, that has no rain in the day 25of indignation. The conspiracy of her prophets [is] in her midst; like a roaring lion ravening the prey they have devoured souls, taken treasure [property] and precious things [jewels]; her widows they have multiplied in the midst of her. 26Her priests have done violence to My law, and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between holy and unholy, nor discerned between clean and unclean; and they have hidden their eyes from My sabbaths, and I 27am profaned among them. Her rulers [princes] in the midst of her were like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, to destroy souls, and to make gain. 28And her prophets have daubed for them with whitewash, seeing vanity and divining lies for them, saying, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah hath not spoken. 29The people of the land have practised oppression, and committed robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy, and oppressed the stranger against the right. 30And I sought for a man among them that might build up a wall, and might stand in the breach [step into the gap] before Me for 31the land, that I might not destroy it; and I found none. So I poured [pour] out upon them My indignation, in the fire of My wrath I consumed [consume] them; I have recompensed [recompense] their way upon their head: sentence of the Lord Jehovah.
Eze_22:3. Sept.: ... κατ̓ αὐτης—Vulg.: … contra semetipsam.
Eze_22:4. ... κ. ἠγαγες καιρον ἐτων σου. (The Oriental Jews, etc. read: עת שנותיך.) Many codices: בגוים.
Eze_22:5. ... πολλη ἐν ταις ἀνομιαις—Vulg.: … sordida, nobilis, grandis interitu.
Eze_22:6. ... ἑκαστος προς τους συγγενεις αὐτου συνανεφυροντο ἐν σοι—
Eze_22:9. ... Ἀνδρες λησται—
Eze_22:11. ... την νυμφην αὐτου—
Eze_22:12. ... κ. συνετελεσω συντελειαν κακιας σου την ἐν καταδυναστιια σου, ὁτι ἐμου ἐπελαθου—
Eze_22:16. κ. κατακληρονομησω ἑν σοι—Vulg.: possidebo te.
Eze_22:18. ... ἀναμεμιγμενος χαλκω … ἐν μεσω ἀργυριου ἀναμεμιγμενος ἐστιν.
Eze_22:19. ... … παντες εἰς συγκρασι μιαν—
Eze_22:24. ... γη οὐ βρεχομενη, οὐδε ὑετος καταβησιται σοι—Vulg.: immunda et non compluta—
Eze_22:25. Οἱ ἀφηγουμενοι αὐτης … ὡς λεοντες ἐρευγομενοι … ἐδυναστευσαν ἐν δυναστεια, δωρα ἐλαμβανον ἐν ἀδικια—Sept. and Arab. read: אלמנותיך.
Eze_22:27. Sept.: Οἱ ἀρχοντες … αἱμα, ὁπως—
Eze_22:28. ... πεσουνται—
Eze_22:29. Τον λαον … ἐκπιεξουντες—
Eze_22:30. ... ἀνδρα ἀναστρεφομενον ὀρθως κ. ἑστωτα … το ὀλοσχερες ἐν καιρω της ὀργης μου, του μη εἰς τελος ἐξαλειψαι αὐτην.—
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
[“This chapter stands closely related to the last chapter, and may fitly be regarded as supplementary to it; the former having presented a striking delineation of the Lord’s purpose to execute the severity of His displeasure upon the people of Jerusalem, while this returns to lay open the fearful mass of corruption on account of which such severity was to be inflicted. In what is written here there is nothing properly new; in its general purport, it is a repetition of the charges which were urged in Ezekiel 20; and so the chapter begins much in the same way,—with a call upon the prophet to judge the people, and set before them their iniquities. There, however, the charge took the form of a historical review for the purpose of connecting the present state of wickedness with the past, and showing how continuously the stream of corruption had flowed through all periods of their national existence. Here, on the other hand, the prophet looks exclusively to the present, and brings out in fearful array the many heinous and rampant sins which were crying in heaven’s ear for vengeance.”—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel, p. 249.—W. F.]
Jerusalem becomes especially prominent at the very beginning of the chapter; and to the close, the fundamental reference of the divine discourse is to Jerusalem, in its significance for Judah and the land.—The oft-repeated: “in the midst of,” points significantly to Jerusalem as the place where sin had been, and in which punishment would be, concentrated. Jerusalem was the Paris of the land of Judah.—The chapter comprises three sections.
Eze_22:1-16. Jerusalem’s Abominations, which had made it ripe for Judgment
Eze_22:2. Comp. at Eze_20:4.—The plural, דָּמִים comp. at Eze_7:23), points to bloody acts, and tells of blood-guiltiness (Eze_22:4). The explanation of this title of Jerusalem follows in Eze_22:3 (Eze_9:9). To such a pitch of violence have the abominations reached. (Comp. at Eze_22:3.) Comp. Eze_5:11; Eze_16:2. A summary statement of her abominations is a judging of Jerusalem. Ch. 20 speaks especially of the abominations of their ancestors, this of the abominations of the existing generation, as facts visible to every one,—proving their ripeness for judgment.
Eze_22:3 speaks of shedding blood, as Eze_22:22, on the other hand, of shedding (pouring out) fury. It may refer to murderous deeds generally; specially to judicial murders, consequently to the shedding of the innocent blood of righteous, God-fearing men, prophets, etc. Comp. Mat_23:37. The city which had its name from “peace” has become a city of death to those who require true peace.—לְ, de eventu; it is the inevitable result; while it so acts, it also brings its time,—the final day of judgment (Eze 21:30, 34). The making of idols (comp. at Eze_6:4) explains the “abominations” of Eze_22:2.—עָלֶיהָ simply means the lifting up of the idols over those who worship them. [Keil: as it were, covering the city therewith. Häv.: Jerusalem, as it were, laden with idols, as of an intolerable burden and debt. Hengst.: so that it heaps upon itself defilement with its consequences. Hitz.: “For itself,” in order to make the idols gracious. Others: “Against itself,” i.e. to its hurt, or: “beside itself.”]
Eze_22:4. The deeds of blood are Jerusalem’s blood-guiltiness; the abominations of the idols which have been made are its defilement. The one is rooted (בְּ) in the other. But therewith and thereby the sinful city has herself brought near her days (comp. Eze_22:14; Eze_22:3), thus wantonly shortening the respite of grace; she is the more quickly ripened for judgment (Eze_9:1; Eze_12:23). Phillips.: “As the punishment is first introduced by the therefore, it is intimated that Jerusalem has squandered all her days and years in bloodshed,” etc. (?) According to Hengst., the days and years are those of decision, of the crisis which she brings on by her violent dealing. And art come to thy years, is evidently parallel to the previous sentence; at least the “years” cannot be those of chastisement and judgment (Keil); and Hitzig rightly opposes the idea that there is any parallelism with Jer_11:23 (Eze_23:12). The figure of a person ripe for death (not exactly aged) underlies the expression, as Hitzig puts it: that has arrived at (עַד) their full measure.—Reproach; comp. Eze 21:33; so that what Ammon is there to be punished for, appears here as deserved. (Eze_5:14-15.)
Eze_22:5. Fuller explanation of “mocking to all lands,” which are more precisely described as the near and the far. The mock, since Jerusalem must seem to them sullied, so far as its name is concerned; which is not to be understood morally,—of the sins of the “holy” city, but of its fate, which dooms the city of God to fall into the hands of the heathen. What they themselves have done by sin (Eze_22:3 sq.) is requited to them in a corresponding punishment. The confusion may be internal (through fear) and external overthrow and ruin (Deu_7:23; Deu_28:20); also tumult, like Eze_7:7. [Hitz.: Inward moral and religious confusion.]
Eze_22:6. Instances are now stated; and since violence was first of all referred to, the finger is, as it were, pointed to the example of the princes, as a something patent to the eyes of all. The arm alone was taken into account by them: not right, but might; neither equity nor duty—not even the responsibility of their position. Israel’s princes were princes “according to the arm,”—each according to his own power, not ex gratia Dei. This connects “princes” with “were.” It has also been by some coupled with what follows: “to be there with the intention,” etc. Each, according to his power, strove; and then follows the שְׁפָךְ דָּם, which is constantly repeated in relation to the “city of blood-shedding” (comp. Ezekiel 19).—[Häv.: Directed towards his arm. Ewald: Each according to his own authority, i.e. arbitrarily. Hitz.: Were helpful the one to the other (Psa_83:8).]
Eze_22:7. To the disorder in the higher circles corresponded the complete dissolution of those bonds of subordination between children and their parents (Exo_20:12; Deu_27:16), which must underlie the obedience of subjects to their princes. At all events, as the princes carried it towards the people, so the people carried it towards those who were entitled rather to demand consideration and protection,—as the stranger, the widow, and the orphan, Eze_18:18; Eze_18:7. Comp. Exo_22:20 sq.; Deu_24:14 sq.
Eze_22:8. And, finally, Jerusalem became towards God what it was towards men. Comp. farther, Eze_16:59; Eze_20:12; Eze_20:24.
Eze_22:9. A second group of sins. A comparison with Lev_19:16, to which it is parallel, leads one to think of false witnesses like those mentioned in 1Ki_21:10 sq., who acted as informers in subserviency to the princes. רָכִיל, properly: the slanderer, which fits in admirably with the foregoing. Hengst.: “the slanderer as an ideal person.” A clique of this nature had formed itself into a corporation in Jerusalem. Comp. also Eze_22:6.—Eze_18:6. The relation to God is coupled therewith,—the falsity of the worship of false gods, with lying against one’s neighbour (in thee, to be understood of the inhabitants of Jerusalem), with which worship, “lewdness” (Eze_16:27) of every kind was naturally bound up.
Eze_22:10. Mother or step-mother; comp. Lev_18:7-8; Lev_20:11 (1Co_5:1). An אִישׁ is to be supplied as the subject of the verb.—Eze_18:6. In consequence of child-bearing, as well as during the monthly period. Comp. at Lev_18:19; Lev_20:18.
Eze_22:11. אִישׁ—אִישׁ—וְאִישׁ. There were such cases! Impurity in every form. A specimen of the moral atmosphere as a whole.—Eze_18:6.—Lev_18:15; Lev_20:12.—Lev_18:12 (2Sa_13:12). Tacitus, Hist. Eze_5:5.
Eze_22:12. Third group of sins. As false witnesses (Eze_22:9), so also unrighteous judges, served the “princes.” The corruption of the higher classes is emphasized,—it proceeded from above downwards,—so that the prominence of the rulers of Israel for the judgment of God (Eze_21:17) is justified; while in a sense so very different, all good should have come to Israel from those in authority, and especially through God’s representatives. Comp. Exo_23:8 (1Sa_8:3).—Eze_18:8; Lev_25:36. The discourse now gathers itself for the direct form of address; hence the brevity and the energetic close. Self-seeking, which makes one ignore one’s “neighbour,” finally abolishes the remembrance of God, which is the soul of all moral relations.
Eze_22:13 passes over to the subject of punishment for such conduct. As the guilt is apparent (“Behold,” Eze_22:6), so also is the judgment (Behold), when there is such ripeness for it.—I have smitten My hand, is usually regarded (like Eze_21:22; Eze_21:19) as an indignant gesture at (on account of) thy gain, etc. (Ewald: as a signal that the last hour should come); which neither the words nor the connection can recommend. Hitzig, far more appropriately: Jehovah is in dignantly occupied with the matter of their gain; as being unrighteous, it is brittle, and He shall smite it with the hand, etc. בָּצַע means: to cut off, to plunder, also: to break; so that in the “lightly come,” there may already lie the “lightly go.”—The avenging hand of retributive righteousness strikes the gain first, because this was mentioned first in Eze_22:12; but at once a return is made to the (collective) “shed blood,” עַל very appropriately alternating with אֶל. [Hengst.: הָיוּ, a pluralis multitudinis: “of which there is much in thy midst.”]
Eze_22:14. The judgment is not yet come, hence the future; but the result is absolutely sure, therefore the interrogative forms, which are equivalent to negatives. Comp. therewith Eze_21:12; Eze_21:20; Eze_7:27; Eze_6:5-9; Eze_17:24.
Eze_22:15. Eze_12:15; Eze_20:23.—The complete extinction of Jerusalem’s uncleanness can only be understood as the extinction of its polluted inhabitants, Eze_22:3 sq. Others compare it with Isa_4:4, and think of a purification of the people during the exile.
Eze_22:16. וְנִחַלְתְּ בָּךְ, if from נָתַל, either=“thou possessest thyself,”—while formerly thou wert My inheritance, the heathen shall see that thou art so no more (!); or=“thou art possessed,” either by the heathen who rule over thee; or = I inherit thee, take thee in possession, as all the heathen shall perceive. Altogether forced. Therefore the more recent interpreters derive it from חָלַל; comp. Eze_7:24.—In thee. Hengst.: So that thou must experience in thyself the desecration as punishment for Eze_22:8. Häv.: “Then Jerusalem stands out as an unholy city, which has profaned itself by its own conduct, and as such has received its recompense before the eyes of all peoples, Eze_22:4-5.” [Hitz.: Through all those who belong to her, who through her mournful fate shall tend to her dishonour; thus is she her own spot, Deu_32:5.] Comp. at Eze_22:18.
Eze_22:17-22. The Judgment in Jerusalem a Melting in the Furnace
Eze_22:18. The figure (as to which see Introd. p. 18) in which the discourse clothes itself, in order to rouse and occupy the attention of the hearers all the more, takes its theme from the immediately preceding verses, 15 and 16. According to Eze_22:15, annihilation shall accomplish the cleansing of Jerusalem. Things have come to such a pass with the holy city, that there is for it no other purification. Those who think of any other purification, from what is spoken of in Eze_22:15, must regard it as taking place outside Jerusalem, to wit, in the exile. The house of Israel, as far as it comes into account, has become dross (םוּג here only, elsewhere םִיג, refuse of metals). םִנִּים כֶּםֶף (the reverse order: כֶּםֶף םִנִּים, in Pro_26:23—silver dross which is not yet purified) is not even ore containing silver, but means (Pro_25:4) dross which has been separated from the silver. The figure indeed employs a noble metal, but nothing of it save the ignoble (comp. at Eze_22:20; Eze_22:22) dross—of which a clearer idea is presently given by: the whole of them are brass and tin and iron—continues to exist in Jerusalem (Isa_1:22; Jer_6:27 sq.). Thus—would God say—thus has Jerusalem, anticipating the impending judgment, shown itself as a smelting furnace. Light is hereby thrown on the peculiar phrase of Eze_22:16, וְנִחַלְתְּ בָּךְ: That which Jerusalem shall completely become, through divine punishment, it has already become in itself through its sins; it is already profaned in itself,—according to the figure, it has become the ignoble dross of noble silver. It appears as nothing else to Jehovah (הָיוּ־לִי); it only remains that the fact of its guilt should become evident as a fact, to the eyes of the heathen, through the judgments of God. For this purpose Jerusalem, which had ministered to sin, now becomes the furnace which is employed for its punishment, and the ignoble dross-community is completely consumed; in other words, annihilated. If the text be viewed in this way, no objection can be made to the figure, and all the earlier and later misunderstandings of it may be corrected.
Eze_22:19 clearly expresses the thought underlying the figure employed. As the individual persons are to be thought of as scattered here and there, and as seeking protection in the fortified city on the approach of the enemy, the gathering together of all into Jerusalem by Jehovah is not to be understood in a merely figurative sense—even though in Eze_22:20 the expression is again employed in accordance with the figure of the furnace. The כְּ of comparison (קְבֻצַת) is dropped for the sake of euphony. That silver is still spoken of in regard to the impending judicial process partly arises from the necessities of the figure, as Eze_22:22 shows still more plainly (“as silver is melted”), and partly from the fact that the word contains a significant and painful reminiscence of that which Israel had been, and of that which it could become in the crucible of God-sent tribulation! In the brass, etc. there is still some silver, interpreters say; but this idea is entirely excluded by the “dross” of Eze_22:18. The meaning of the comparison is rather this, that while in other cases there is also silver along with the brass, etc., or that which is cast into the furnace is only silver ore, from which art and skill then extract a noble metal (Mal_3:3, so here a similar process takes place in anger and fury, resulting no more in purification (Umbr. finds the purifying judgment of God prefigured in the complete melting)—at least neither the text nor context points to such an issue—but in complete annihilation. Keil, like Hitzig, is obliged to admit that the “melting” is here regarded as punishment only, and the separation of the ignoble portions is not taken into consideration.
Eze_22:21. Ezekiel 21:36.
ADDITIONAL NOTE ON Eze_22:17-22
[“In modern metallurgy lead is employed for the purpose of purifying silver from other mineral products. The alloy is mixed with lead exposed to fusion upon an earthen vessel, and submitted to a blast of air. By this means the dross is consumed. This process is called the cupelling operation, with which the description in Eze_22:18-22, in the opinion of Mr. Napier (Met. of Bible, pp. 20–24), accurately coincides: ‘The vessel containing the alloy is surrounded by the fire, or placed in the midst of it, and the blowing is not applied to the fire, but to the fused metals. … And when this is done, nothing but the perfect metals, gold and silver, can resist the scorifying influence.’ And in support of his conclusion he quotes Jer_6:28-30, adding, ‘This description is perfect. If we take silver having the impurities in it described in the text, namely, iron, copper, and tin, and mix it with lead, and place it in the fire upon a cupell, it soon melts; the lead will oxidize and form a thick, coarse crust upon the surface, and thus consume away, but effecting no purifying influence. The alloy remains, if anything, worse than before. … The silver is not refined because “the bellows were burned,” there existed nothing to blow upon it,’ ” etc. (Smith, Dict. of the Bible, art. “Lead.”)—W. F.]
Eze_22:23-31. Jerusalem’s Ripeness for Judgment extending to all Classes
This third section runs parallel with the first, Eze_22:1-16. Thus the end returns to the beginning, and the whole is rounded off. There the character of the prevailing corruption is described, here its extent, as one which has penetrated to all classes in Jerusalem.
Eze_22:24. Many interpreters unnecessarily refer לָהּ to אֶרֶץ; Häv.: The pronoun is placed before the noun to which it refers for the sake of emphasis. The whole land is named because the far-reaching extent of their sin is borne in mind. It will be quite sufficient if לָהּ (as is the case throughout the chapter) be referred to Jerusalem. For Jerusalem is constantly taken for the whole land and people, so that this relation scarcely requires, at least here, to be made specially prominent. In that case אַתְּ אֶרֶץ is evidently a figurative form of address; Jerusalem=Judah, is likened to a land in the manner then following. Finally, it can be all the more regarded as a “land” from the fact that everything which is in the land is to be collected into Jerusalem. The land is called not cleansed, namely, from the weeds, briars, and thorns with which it is overgrown; comp. Heb_6:8. [Not, as Hävernick puts it: “unclean, stained with sin,” which lies outside the figure.] לאֹ נֻשְׁמָהּ must contain a corresponding statement. That which best harmonizes with the context is: whose rain is not, i.e. appears not in the day of judgment—namely, the rain belonging to it, and which should have made it fruitful (Heb_6:7). In the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews: found good for nothing, it is nigh unto cursing, and its end is to be burned. [Other interpretations:—Häv.: “Its rain shall not descend on the day of indignation,” namely, that which, as a gracious pledge (Lev_26:4; Deu_11:14; Deu_28:12), was promised to the people. Comp. Joe_2:23; Hos_6:3; Jer_5:24; Zec_10:1; Eze_34:26; Rev_11:6, etc. Thus no trace of grace will appear in the judgment. Hengst.: “that has no rain,” etc., that finds no grace, because impurity is not removed. The rain could extinguish the flame of divine indignation. Or, with Kimchi, גֻשְׁמָהּ is taken as the 3 fem. pret. Pual: that “is not rained upon.” This reading Keil adopts, and (because rain is not a purifying medium according to Hebrew ideas) he makes מְטֹהָרָה = “that is not shone on by light;” so that, enjoying neither sunshine nor shower in the day of wrath, the land falls under the curse of barrenness. Ewald, again, thus gives the sense: While in other case’s fire can be mitigated and extinguished, on the day when the land is overtaken, Eze_22:22 (31), by the fire of God’s indignation, it shall not be freed from its glowing heat nor made fruitful by rain from heaven.]
Eze_22:25. The conspiracy (Isa_8:12; Jer_11:9) of her (false, comp. at Ezekiel 13) prophets, indicates that they acted not merely as separate individuals, but as a corporation, made strong by combination and unity, so that they were careful not to contradict each other’s lies. They appear as a sort of inquisition, everywhere prepared to denounce the servants of God to the animosity of the great, and to hand them over to the sword of the princes. [Hitz.: As the prophets appear again in Eze_22:28 (but comp. there!), as Eze_22:27 says almost the same thing (as Eze_22:25) of civil dignitaries (which, however, is no reason for supposing the same class to be referred to!), while what is said of prophets and priests, Eze_22:26; Eze_22:28, is totally dissimilar (which, however, proves nothing),—on these grounds Hitzig reads נִשִׂאֶיהָ, conjecturing that Zep_3:3 is the original of our passage. He also lays stress on the fact that Eze_22:6 began with the princes, so that instead of the prophets he understands in our verse the royal family, together with the great officers of the crown.] The first section of the chapter, with which the last runs parallel, made prominent, violence on the one hand, and godlessness on the other. To this twofold division there corresponds a twofold class-personification—in Eze_22:25-26, prophets and priests; in Eze_22:27-28, civil officers and prophets. The significance of false prophecy (comp. at Ezekiel 13) is indicated by the fact that it is here referred to at the beginning and at the end. All which is swept away by Hitzig’s unnecessary alteration of the text, to which even Keil assents, in opposition to old authorities. The portraiture of the prophets in regard to their violent dealing, as soul-devourers, is founded on the figure (Eze_19:7) of the “roaring lion” (collective, or each of them). With this compare 1Pe_5:8, and also Eze_13:18-19, which is not very foreign to the subject, and to which the ravening the prey (Eze_19:3) may also contain an allusion. They enrich themselves with the possessions of the pious, whom they surrender to death, thereby increasing the number of the widows of Jerusalem.
Eze_22:26. Her priests. The reference is to godlessness; the transition is made by the word violence. The law of God is violated by the priests in regard to those very things from which it was the duty of the priesthood to debar the people. Laxity in doctrine, as well as laxity in life, was a violation of God’s authority in Israel. (Zep_3:4; comp. also Mar_7:9.) Hitz.: “Not content with making the law a sham, they went in the very teeth of it.”—The very comprehensive expression: holy things (Eze_22:8), is unfolded (a) with a retrospective reference to Lev_10:10-11; (b) with reference to the Sabbaths (Eze_20:12). In regard to the former, they should have watched lest the holy should become profane, as it was also their duty to teach how the unclean could be cleansed; with which latter the mention of the Sabbath is suggestively coupled. The two sets of opposites are not simply placed in contrast, and בֵּין־לְ is not chosen without design; for, besides the matter of their differences, the change of the one into the other is in question, הוֹדִיעוּ (discern) is to a certain extent a judicial expression, since, in relation to the “clean and unclean,” it points to their official determinations (Luk_17:14).—From My Sabbaths, etc., not only means that they saw them desecrated by the people without offering any opposition, but that they did not wish to do so, since they themselves had forsworn, and lived in neglect of, the Sabbath law.
Eze_22:27. שָׂרֶיהָ can also be: her princes, but in Eze_22:6 the word is the precise נְשִׂיאֵי. Comp. at Eze_11:2. It means properly the heads of tribes, families, etc., on whom lay the obligation of administering the laws. [Hengst.: “the political authorities and officials.”] They are described in relation to their “violence.” Comp. Zep_3:3. As to the rest, comp. with Eze_22:12. The authorities of Jerusalem, the judges of the people (this follows from the similar conduct, Eze_22:25), act on the same principle as the false prophets. This is again expressly confirmed in Eze_22:28, where לָהֶם must be referred to what goes immediately before. The false prophets are here mentioned in relation to their godlessness. [Bunsen: “They are depicted in Eze_22:25 principally on the side of their selfishness, and here as the responsible watchmen of the people (Eze_3:17 sq.), appointed by God to prevent them being lulled to sleep.”] Comp. at Eze_13:10; Eze_13:9; Eze_13:7.
Eze_22:29. The common people resemble the dignitaries and authorities at Jerusalem. Comp. Eze_18:18; Eze_16:49. (Exo_22:20; Deu_24:17.)
Eze_22:30. According to the significance of false prophecy (comp. at Eze_22:25), among them is to be referred to the false prophets; Eze_13:5 makes this certain. [Hitz.; Not by intercession, but as a righteous man. But where, then, was Jeremiah! And how is this consistent with Eze_14:12 sq.?] As Jerusalem stands for the land, so one of its prophets ought to have been found, who would intercede for the land, and thus avert its destruction by Jehovah.
Eze_22:31. Eze_7:8; Eze_7:4; Eze_9:10, etc.
THEOLOGICAL REMARKS
1. Here, as in Ezekiel 18, Ezekiel shows an understanding of the law according to the spirit of the Messiah, who is in him, i.e. in Christ’s manner. See. the Sermon on the Mount. The connection between God’s obligations and human duty is treated quite according to Christ’s spirit and manner of apprehending it.
2. “The distinction between religion and morality is a fiction opposed to experience” (Hengst.).
3. The loosening of the bonds of filial obedience, disrespect to the rites of religious worship, a disordered condition of the relations between the sexes, open licentiousness, adultery, a social opinion which tolerates or recognises it, bribery, extortion, the arrogance of wealth, oppression of inferiors, and such like, are in all times the cloud-streaks presaging the gathering storm which will burst on a people.
4. False prophecy leans on civil authority, and therefore flatters and serves it. In God and His law, in human conscience and personal faith, it has neither root nor support. That is always the civil position of false theology, as of every court clergy, however orthodox it may otherwise be.
5. The dissolution of a nation’s life takes place when false doctrine comes into vogue. Going hand in hand with the passions, it banishes conscientiousness from official life. Priests become worldly courtiers, who aim at making a career for themselves; judges become dependent and open to influences, and take their cue from the reigning power and from public opinion. When the Church and the bench take their tone from party spirit, then, along with sound teaching and civil rights, the religious and moral foundations of national life are swept away. The ruling principle becomes mere caprice, which undermines the penal code with frivolous distinctions, shallow conceptions of law, alleviation of penalties, lax views as to responsibility, etc.
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze_22:1 sq. “Thus God’s complaint against His people is ever renewed; and our times are not unlike those. But one should not be weary of administering reproof” (Stck.).
Eze_22:2. Comp. at Eze_20:4.—“The prophets are judges through God’s word, the apostles through the Spirit, who convinces the world of sin, Joh_16:9. The saints judge the whole world, 1Co_6:2 sq. The spiritual man judgeth all things, 1Co_2:15. This judgment-seat is better than a worldly one. This is the employment of the keys in binding and—loosing—the ‘power of the keys’ ” (H. H.).—“A Jerusalem may become a Sodom, a holy city a den of murderers. Let no one think himself so secure as to be in no danger of falling, Rom_11:20-21” (W.).
Eze_22:3. “God has meted out to sinners the time of forbearance, the day of grace” (Cocc.).—The sinner imagines that he can go on without end, and so hastens on all the faster to the end.
Eze_22:4. He who wantonly wages war makes himself blood-guilty.—“They made idols for themselves, which is even worse than cherishing the ordinary superstition of the idolatry which has been handed down to us” (L.).—Whoever mocks God, is mocked by God in His own time, through men.
Eze_22:5. “We bear the name of evangelical, we believe that we possess the pure doctrine; therefore we should be the more careful to keep the gospel before our eyes, and to remain far from pollution and false doctrine” (L.).—“Every one shrinks from a polluted name, but not from a polluted life, which makes one dishonourable before God” (B. B.).—Sin brings the best order into confusion.
Eze_22:6. “See how it is laid on the conscience of teachers and preachers to condemn the sins even of those who are high in station” (Tüb. Bib.).—Since their example is so much taken notice of, princes should look more intently to God’s word and law than to their own authority.—Civil power-should be for a terror to evil-doers, but should not minister to the gratification of the flesh.—Blood-stains may be seen even upon the purple.—Might goes before right—even an Old Testament experience.
Eze_22:7. Parents are themselves to blame for the disobedience of their children, but at last a whole people is required to bear the blame.—God is assailed in the persons of the stranger, widow, and fatherless; they are God’s wards.—A man should be most on his guard against, and especially sensitive to, that which most easily leads him astray.
Eze_22:8. Jehovah’s holy, things were places, things, persons, times, etc.—“The idea of the sanctuary is as wide as that of the Jewish religion” (Hengst.).—Comp. at Eze_20:12.—He profanes the Sabbath who does not celebrate it, who celebrates it ill or who consecrates it to the service of sin.
Eze_22:9. “The slanderer is a thief” (Stck.).—Where the ruler is wicked, false tongues are plentiful.—Where there are wicked judges, false witnesses are not wanting.—False speech is base coin. Compare at Eze_18:16; Eze_16:16.—Impurity and idolatry in their combination.
Eze_22:10 sq. Custom and morals go together.—Impurity ruins the individual, the family, and the state, in body and soul.—God sees when we suppose ourselves unseen.—Though the ruler be still, God is not silent.—There are sins which sink man, who was made in the image of God, lower than the beasts. Parents, watch over the members of your families from earliest years.
Eze_22:12. Every man has his price, for which he can be bought.—“Men in authority, counsellors of kings, take heed of covetousness, of gifts, of violence and misuse of your office, otherwise God’s vengeance will surely smite you and your houses!” (Tüb. Bib.)—Jewish tradition ascribes the destruction of Jerusalem to covetousness, because it is the root of all evil.—“Not only he who demands more than is just, but he also who shows no forbearance, oppresses his neighbour, Mat_18:28 sq.” (Stck.)—“Avarice spares neither friend nor foe, its rule is self-interest” (Stck.).—He who loves not his neighbour as himself has forgotten God.—“Forgetfulness of God opens the window to every wicked action” (H. H.).
Eze_22:13. How God’s hand in the end strikes upon all the hands of men!
Eze_22:14. In sin and in the time of God’s judgment how different is the bearing of men !—When God is against us, heart and hand, courage and power, fail.—“God speaks not in vain, and will do more than terrify” (B. B.).
Eze_22:15. Awful cleansing—the extirpation of the ungodly!—When we make no end, God makes it.
Eze_22:16. God hides His own from men, but here sinners are given up to the heathen.
Eze_22:17 sq. Threefold smelting furnace: Of sin, in which one can become dross;—of trial, where the silver is tested;—of judgment, where even the dross is consumed.—The dross-communities.—“Oh that a salt may still continue among us, that we may be preserved from utter corruption!” (Tüb. Bib.)
Eze_22:18. The dross does not typify hypocrites; but where what one had, has been taken away, there the past may have been very noble.
Eze_22:19. The heaping up of sins, and the gathering of sinners for judgment.
Eze_22:20 sq. God’s anger and fury—sad smelters! Unsavoury salt is trodden under foot, Mat_5:13.
Eze_22:23 sq. The judgment-day considers whether cleansing has taken place and fruit been brought forth.—Not merely the soil, but much more the heart of man, yields all manner of weeds. God has denied rain to no soul, His word has been richly bestowed on us.
Eze_22:25. It should not impose on godly men that false prophets keep together; falsity must be aided by falsity.—Satan the great conspirator to the end of time.—The avarice and worldliness of false theology.—“A hireling is never a soul-seeker” (Stck.).
Eze_22:26. Not only by direct transgression, but also by false explanation and interpretation of the law of God, is violence done to it.—The sacred boundary-guard between Christ and Belial.—“The teacher who does not make a marked difference between the godly and ungodly in applying saving truth, profanes the name of the Lord in the sanctuary” (St.).
Eze_22:27. No one is placed so high as to be beyond the reach of divine punishment. The loss of a single soul over against the gaining of the whole world.
Eze_22:28. Comp. at Ezekiel 13.
Eze_22:29. Where prophecy does no good, a people must become a waste.
Eze_22:30 sq. The pious are the lightning-conductors of God’s judgments.—“The want of pious people is a terrible want, the premonition of judgment” (Cocc.).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 sheddeth blood . . . that her time may…
sheddeth blood . . . that her time may come--Instead of deriving advantage from her bloody sacrifices to idols, she only thereby brought on herself "the time" of her punishment.
against herself-- (Pro 8:36).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 2. Wilt thou judge [see Eze_20:4] the bloody city…
DESCRIPTION OF THE GROSS SINS OF THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM, INCLUDING EVEN THE PROPHETS AND PRIESTS OF JEHOVAH.
2. Wilt thou judge [see Eze_20:4] the bloody city — What a name for the holy sanctuary, now filled with child sacrifices (Eze_20:26) and murders (Eze_22:6; Eze_22:9; Eze_9:10; Eze_16:38; Eze_23:37; Eze_23:45).
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Yea, thou shalt show — Literally, then cause her to know.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 2. wilt thou judge] See on ch. Eze_20:4, cf.…
2. wilt thou judge] See on ch. Eze_20:4, cf. Eze_23:36.
yea, thou shalt shew] Rather: then thou shalt cause her to know … Eze_22:3 and thou shalt say.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 (2) Wilt thou judge.—The same expression as in Eze_20:4.…
(2) Wilt thou judge.—The same expression as in Eze_20:4. (See Note there.) The sense of the margin, “plead for,” is not appropriate here.
Bloody city.—In Eze_22:2-6 crimes of bloodshed and idolatry are dwelt upon, between which there seems always to have been a close connection. The same words are used in Eze_24:6; Eze_24:9, and in Nah_3:1.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 Vers. 1, 2. Moreover, etc. The word connects what…
Vers. 1, 2. Moreover, etc. The word connects what follows with the word of the Lord which began in Eze_20:2. That connection is, indeed, sufficiently indicated by the recurrence of the formula, "Wilt thou judge?" (see note on Eze_20:4) In obedience to the commands which that question implied, Ezekiel has once more to go through the catalogue of the sins of Judah and Jerusalem. It is not without significance that he applies the very epithet of bloody city (Hebrew, oily of bloods) which Nahum (Nah_3:1) had applied to Nineveh.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Vers. 1-12. The reproach of Jerusalem.
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Patriot as he was, Ezekiel was not, like some sincere patriots, blind to his country"s faults. His conscience and judgment were enlightened, and his emotional nature was rendered especially sensitive, so that a just and deep impression was made upon his mind by the contemplation of his countrymen"s errors and iniquities. Leaders of public opinion, teachers of the time, are ever in danger of flattering those among whom their lot is cast, with whom their interests are identified. Yet Ezekiel proves himself to have the true spirit of the prophet, who rises superior to this temptation, and whose motto is, "Be just, and fear not!
I THE REASONS FOR REPROACH EXISTING IN THE MORAL CONDITION OF THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM. The catalogue of the people"s sins is both a long and an awful one. It suffices to mention these as boldly charged upon them by the faithful prophet of the Lord.
1. Idolatry.
2. Violence and murder.
3. Disregard of parents.
4. Oppression of strangers, of the widows and fatherless.
5. Profanation of the sabbath.
6. Lewdness and vile indulgence of lust.
7. Bribery.
8. Extortion.
Was ever such an indictment brought against a community? The marvel is, not that the threatened judgment came, but that it was so long delayed.
II THE REPROACH AS BROUGHT BY MEN AGAINST THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM. It certainly seems strange, all but incredible, that the highly favored Jerusalem should be famed among the very heathen for degradation in iniquity and moral debasement. But the language of Ezekiel is explicit; and he would be more likely to soften than to exaggerate the charge. Jerusalem a reproach, a mocking, infamous, defiled, full of tumult! How are the mighty fallen! The city of the great King, the seat of the temple of Jehovah, the home of the consecrated priesthood, infamous among the surrounding idolaters for flagitious violation of those very moral laws which the city was consecrated to conserve!
III THE REPROACH BROUGHT BY GOD AGAINST THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM. The simple dignity of the Divine reproach is beyond all rhetoric, all denunciation. "Thou hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God." Here, indeed, was the real secret of the defection and rebellion, of the vices and crimes of the sons of Israel Had they kept Jehovah in memory, they would have kept themselves free from the errors and. the follies into which they fell. After all that the Lord had done for them, after all his forbearance and long-suffering, they nevertheless forgot him! There was but one hope for Jerusalem, but one way of recovery and restoration that they should bring again to memory him whom they had not only forsaken, but forgotten. T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES Vers. 1-16. The prophet on the judgment-seat.
As among men there occurs, now and again, a great assize, when flagitious deeds are examined and flagrant offenders judged, so God has his seasons when high-handed crime is arrested, and the offenders feel the reality of Divine justice. Penalties are not awarded in the dark. Good men see clearly the equity of the proceeding and the extreme patience of the Judge. God places his doings in the public light.
I THE INDICTMENT. It is a long indictment, and embraces all classes of people.
1. Gross abuse of power. The princesi.e. heads of tribes used their power for the destruction of life, not to preserve it. The scepter was turned into a dagger. Even neglect to protect innocent life becomes murder.
2. Idolatry. "The city maketh idols against herself." In Israel idolatry was treason. It was the rejection and humbling of their proper King.
3. Murder. "The city sheddeth blood." He who begins to despise God soon learns to under-value human life. Their children were made to pass through the fire. Violence against property and life abounded.
4. Filial disobedience. "In thee have they set light by father and mother." The slaughter of innocent children soon produced its natural fruit. Children grew up without natural affection. If the central sun be destroyed, the planets will soon rush headlong to mutual destruction.
5. Tyranny. "They have dealt by oppression with the stranger: they have vexed the fatherless and the widow." All regard for humane virtues, for common morality, had vanished. It is the custom throughout the East to show hospitality to strangers. This is considered a virtue of the first order; yet even this ordinary virtue was trampled underfoot.
6. Profanity. "Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths." In Israel this was a most flagrant sin. God had given them tokens of his presence and favor which he had not given unto others; therefore to profane these sacred tokens was to disgrace God in the eyes of the surrounding heathen. It was as if a soldier on the battle-field trailed his country"s flag in the mire. It was as if a married woman should fling her wedding ring into the fire.
7. Murderous intrigues. "Men carry tales to shed blood." Untruthfulness is a common sin among the Orientals. Lying intrigues, to encompass a rival"s death, are plentiful as laws. This sin the Hebrews had copied from their neighbors.
8. Unchastity and adultery. "They commit lewdness." The sanctity of the marriage-tie disappeared. Virtuous affection was strangled by animal lust. Incest and other abominations followed. The people gradually sank to the level of the beasts. All the special dignity and nobleness of manhood died out. Degradation of humanity spread.
9. Judicial bribery. "They have taken gifts to shed blood." Not an upright judge remained. Wickedness, like an epidemic, spread and infected every office and every rank. The fountain of justice became a fountain of corruption and death.
10. Avarice. There were gains that were dishonest. Extortion was on every side. Avarice, like a cancer, had eaten out all the healthy flesh of honor and sincerity. Gold became to them a god.
11. Forgetfulness of God. This was the root and the crown of their sins. The very memory which God created refused to entertain him; as if a house which a man himself had built should shut its doors against him. When God is driven out, all his retinue purity, strength, unity, peace, honor go with him. This is a long and dismal catalogue of crimes.
II THE ASSIZE-DAY. "Thou hast caused thy days to draw near.
1. This assize is certain. "I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it." As surely as night succeeds to day, the reckoning-day of God"s justice comes. It has never yet failed. Neither the man nor the nation that has defied God has on any occasion escaped.
2. The proceeding will be strictly equitable. The people had made alliance with the gods of the heathen, therefore among the heathen shall they dwell.
3. The irresistibleness of Gods judicial act. "Can thine hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee?" From his bar there is no appeal. Against his power it is vain to strive.
III THE VERDICT. "Thou shall show her all her abominations." Here is threatened:
1. Self-discovery. All sin has a subtle potency to blind the judgment. Men are prone to measure themselves only by others, or to look at their conduct only in the mirror of their neighbors" conduct. But when the clear light of eternal truth flashes upon the soul, past sins start into gigantic magnitude; they are like mountains for their size.
2. Public shame. "Therefore I have made thee a reproach unto the heathen." This is a stinging verdict. Even the heathen, so much more barbarous and degraded than were the Hebrews aforetime, shall now reproach them for their flagitious deeds. The fall is all the greater if we have first climbed to some stupendous height.
3. Overwhelming affliction. Can thine heart endure in the days that I shall deal with thee?" When Cain felt the full stress of his sentence, he cried out," My punishment is greater than I can bear!" The just wrath of the Creator: how can frail man endure it?
4. Banishment. "I will disperse thee in the countries." In the same measure in which the Hebrews had been confident and boastful in their own land, was the gravamen of the sentence that scattered them among many nations. To be shut out from one"s own land and home is a heavy stroke.
5. Abandonment. "Thou shall take thine inheritance in thyself." In other words, thou shalt shift for thyself: thou shall find no good beyond thyself. When men persist in saying to God, Depart from me!" God will say to them, "Depart from me!" To be left to ourselves is heaviest doom.
IV THE ULTIMATE DESIGN. "I will consume thy filthiness out of thee.
1. Purification. This abandonment is only for a time. When penalty and suffering have accomplished their end, God promised to return to them in mercy. Meanwhile, alas! many would be cut off by death. Only a remnant would partake of the distant grace. So it came to pass. The seventy years" banishment purged out effectually the spirit of idolatry. It was a severe, yet a successful, remedy!
2. Surrender. "Thou shall know that I am the Lord." This knowledge would be not only intellectual, but practical. It was a knowledge of God as Supreme King and Judge. It was a knowledge that produced fruits of obedience. "A burnt child dreads the fire:" so the painful experiences through which that generation passed left wholesome effects upon their children, Full surrender is the only safety. D.
HOMILIES BY W. JONES
Vers. 1-16. An appalling indictment and a just judgment.
the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city?" etc. "This chapter," says Fairbaim, "stands closely related to the last chapter, and may fitly be regarded as supplementary to it; the former having presented a striking delineation of the Lord"s purpose to execute the severity of his displeasure upon the people of Jerusalem, while this returns to lay open the fearful mass of corruption on account of which such severity was to be inflicted. In what is written here there is nothing properly new; in its general purport it is a repetition of the charges which were urged in Eze 20; and so the chapter begins much in the same way with a call upon the prophet to judge the people, and set before them their iniquities. There, however, the charge took the form of a historical review for the purpose of connecting the present state of wickedness with the past, and showing how continuously the stream of corruption had flowed through all periods of their national existence. Here, on the other hand, the prophet looks exclusively to the present, and brings out in fearful array the many heinous and rampant sins which were crying in Heaven"s ear for vengeance." We have in the text
I AN APPALLING CATALOGUE OF THE PEOPLE"S SINS.
1. The nature of these sins.
(1) Forgetfulness of God. "Thou hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God." We mention this first, because it was the root-sin out of which all the others sprang. Men forget God"s holy authority, his constant and universal presence, and his great goodness, and thus the principal restraints from sin are removed. "Forgetfulness of God opens the window to every wicked action.
(2) Blood-guiltiness. This charge is repeatedly and variously stated. "The bloody city A city that sheddeth blood in the midst of her Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed." This may refer, as Schroder suggests, to murderous deeds generally; specially to judicial murders, consequently to the shedding of the innocent blood of righteous, God-tearing men, prophets, etc.. (cf. Mat_23:37) The city which had its name from "peace" has become a city of death to those who require true peace." Even the princes were guilty of violence and bloodshed. "Behold, the princes of Israel, every one according to his power, have been in thee to shed blood" (Ver. 6). They did not recognize the sacred duties or the solemn accountabilities of their exalted station. They ruled not in accordance with right, but according to their might; and that might they exercised barbarously and bloodily. And there were these who were guilty of bloodshedding by reason of their false witness. Slanderous men have been in thee shed blood." They were malignant slanderers of the innocent, who because of their slanders were adjudged to death. Moreover, mercenary and unjust judges condemned men to death for bribes. "In thee have they taken bribes to shed blood" (Ver. 12). And it is probable that Schroder is correct in his opinion that both the false witnesses and the unrighteous judges were thus wickedly employed by the violent and murderous princes. Thus in Jerusalem, "the holy city," human life was no longer regarded as a sacred thing. It was ruthlessly slaughtered in defiance of law, in defiance of the feelings of our common humanity, and in defiance of the Creator and Father of men.
(3) Idolatry. "A city that maketh idols against herself to defile her. Thou art defiled in thine idols which thou hast made.... And in thee they have eaten upon the mountains." (On the extent of their idolatry and the pollutions thereof, see Eze_8:10, and our notes thereon.) The eating upon the mountains, the seats of idol-worship, refers to the eating of things sacrificed unto idols. (cf. Eze_18:6, Eze_18:11)
(4) Disregard of the tenderest and most sacred obligations towards their fellow-men. "In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they wronged the fatherless and the widow." Loving respect to parents is commanded and encouraged in the Law of the Lord. (Exo_20:12; Lev_19:3; Deu_5:16) The New Testament enforces the same obligation (Mat_15:4 Mat_19:19; Eph_6:1-3) and the best feelings of the human heart plead for its observance. But in Jerusalem there were those who set at naught this obligation. God had made the cause of" the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless in a special manner his own, and repeatedly enjoined righteousness and kindness in the treatment of them. (Exo_22:21-24; Deu_10:18, Deu_10:19; Psa_10:14, 18 68:5 146:9; Jer_7:6; Zec_7:9, Zec_7:10) Yet there were these in Jerusalem who opposed and wronged them.
(5) Profanation of Divine institutions. "Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths." The holy things comprise "all that the Holy One has instituted, consecrated, and commanded" the priests, the temple, the sacred vessels, the sacrifices and sacraments, and all other religions ordinances of his appointment. These they had despised. And the sabbath they had profaned. (cf. Eze_20:12, Eze_20:24) "He profanes the sabbath who does not celebrate it, who celebrates it ill, or who consecrates it to the service of sin" (Schroder).
(6) Unchastity in its most revolting forms (Vers. 10, 11). On the first clause of Ver. 10, cf. Lev_18:8 Lev_20:11; 1Co_5:1; on the second, cf. Lev_18:19 Lev_20:18; on the first clause of Ver. 11, cf. Lev_18:20 Lev_20:10; on the second, cf. Lev_18:15 Lev_20:12; and on the third, cf. Lev_18:9 Lev_20:17.
(7) Covetousness in its worst manifestations. "In thee have they taken bribes to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by oppression" (Ver. 12). Covetousness in their judges was so extreme that they accepted bribes to condemn the innocent to death. "Usury is the profit exacted for the loan of money, increase that which is taken for goods; both are alike forbidden." (Lev_25:36; Deu_23:19) Yet in Jerusalem they bad taken both. And taking advantage of their neighbors" distress and need, they had oppressed them by exacting exorbitant interest on any loan granted for their help. Such were the sins charged against the people of Judah at this time.
1. The scene of these sins. Jerusalem. In this paragraph we have the words, "in thee," or "in the midst of thee," not less than twelve times. This was a grievous aggravation of their sins that they were committed in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was spoken of as "the holy city;" it was the seat of the worship of the true and holy God; it was celebrated in sacred song as the dwelling-place of the Most High; (Psa_76:2) and it was favored religiously above any other city in the world. But now it had become "the bloody city," the "defiled" city, the home of the foulest crimes, "A Jerusalem may become a Sodom, a holy city a den of murderers." And if it do so, its former privileges aggravate its guilt and augment its doom. (cf. Mat_11:20-24; Luk_12:47, Luk_12:48)
2. The maturity of these sins. "Thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years." (Ver. 4; cf. Eze_21:25, Eze_21:29) By reason of its sins Jerusalem had grown ripe for the sickle of the Divine judgment. By the extent and enormity of its transgressions it had hastened the time of its doom. In the history of persistent wickedness there comes a crisis when the evil-doers are ripe for judgment; and then the Divine executioners go forth against them.
II THE DIVINE VISITATION ON ACCOUNT OF THE PEOPLE"S SINS.
1. They become a reproach among the nations. "Therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the nations, and a mocking to all the countries. Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, thou infamous one and full of tumult." We noticed (on Eze_21:28) how the Ammonites reproached the people of Judah, and were to be punished for so doing. Yet although the people of Ammon had no right to reproach their suffering neighbors, the Jews deserved reproach. Jerusalem had made itself infamous by its wickedness before it became a reproach and a mocking unto the nations. "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.
2. They shall be dispersed among the nations. "And I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee through the countries." We have noticed this point in Eze_5:12 Eze_12:1-16 Eze_20:23. (cf. Deu_4:27 Deu_28:25, Deu_28:64)
3. They shall be dishonored in the sight of the nations. "And thou shalt be profaned in thyself, in the sight of the nations," etc. (Ver. 16). "Thou shalt by thine own fault forfeit the privileges of a holy nation." Mark the retributiveness of this. "Jerusalem has desecrated the holy things of the Lord (Ver. 8); therefore shall it also be desecrated for a requital (Ver. 16). It has wickedly insulted the dignity of God; for this it must suffer the loss of its own dignity" (Hengstenberg).
4. They would be unable to withstand this visitation of judgment. "Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee?" (Ver. 14). Says Greenhill, "O Jerusalem! be thine heart never so stout or strong, my judgments will be too heavy for thee to bear them; when they come, thine heart will fail thee, fail thee of counsel, that thou shalt not know what to do, and fail thee of strength, that thou shalt not be able to do what thou knowest." When God in judgment visits any one, "heart and hand, courage and power, fail." (cf. Job_40:9; Nah_1:6)
CONCLUSION. Many are the lessons deducible from our subject. We mention three.
1. The fearful growth of sin. Forgetfulness of God may develop into idolatry, adultery, murder.
2. The essential ruinousness of sin. It is of its very nature to blight and destroy everything that is true and beautiful, wise and good, right and strong, both in individuals and communities. "Sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death.
3. The righteous judgment of God against sin. W.J. (Rom_2:2-11)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv16, 18, 24 Thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself.
Eze_22:16
Thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself.
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Inheritance in thyself
Man, as a moral being, cannot have happiness or misery independently of his inner life. Each man in some sense farms his own nature, and reaps the harvest planted by his own hands. Man is a wealthy proprietor. No lordly acres, no wide domain of forest land can ever equal the enclosure of his own heart.
I. In a human sense we take our inheritance in ourselves. Most certainly we are inheritors of our past human delinquencies, or of the joy of duties fulfilled. All other inheritances drop off from us; like gathered flowers they fade! These are rooted in our hearts. Men may blame us and be wrong, or praise us and be wrong! But our conscience is a true rest, and happy the man whose smile is as bright, whose voice as cheery, and whose step is as elastic, whether the world crowns him with garlands or stones him with scorn!
II. In a mental sense we take our inheritance in ourselves. Mind is a most productive soil. Tend it well, and do not hurry the crops, and there is nothing so wonderful in the universe of God. When you enter the British Museum, remember that from year to year every little and every large volume has to be received and registered there. What a registry it is, but it is nothing to the registry of the human brain! How easily it works, how quickly it shelves for future use the rarest thoughts, how wonderfully at call it brings the fact or the illustration, not by some stately messenger, but by the swift telegraphy of its own sensations.
III. In a moral sense we take our inheritance in ourselves.
1. How true it is of national life. Rome took her inheritance when, ceasing the virtues of simplicity, honour, and home life, she chose luxury, pleasure, and the pomp of war. Greece took her inheritance when, choosing philosophic disquisitions and sophistical debates, she darkened the moral sense by mere casuistry. Jerusalem took her inheritance when, forsaking the sublime simplicity and tender spirituality of her faith, she became rabbinical in her theology, inhuman in her neglect of the needy, and proud in the speciality of her privileges. In each ease the inheritance came: the military strength of the northern armies crushed the power of Rome; the enfeeblement of Epicureanism and refined libertinism seized upon the heart of Greece; and the pride, prejudice, and pernicious formalism of the Pharisees slew the soul of Hebrew piety.
2. We, too--each of us--take the inheritance in ourselves; the harvests of life are either tares or wheat, according to our past sowing. Nor does the Gospel of Jesus Christ interfere with this law. When we become Christians our past sins are forgiven us through the precious blood of Christ., but their influence on our after character and life growth is not hereby destroyed. Old habits, old pursuits, old readings, old companionships are not dead and forgotten in a day. They, too, still will be helping or hindering our progress in the Divine life, and elevating or depressing the spirituality of our minds.
IV. In all these aspects of life we mark the Divine fitness of things. If men tell us that we have no business to occupy our thoughts with moral fitnesses, that Gods yea is yea, and Gods nay is nay, whatever we may judge, we answer that God is more considerate than such critics, for He has condescended to appeal to us, that we may judge between Him and His vineyard; He has permitted the record of those early cries--This be far from Thee, Lord, to destroy the righteous with the wicked. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? And he has sanctioned St. Pauls appeal not to every mans blind obedience, but to every mans conscience in the sight of God. Thus we can rest our arguments upon the unimpeachable bases of Scripture and conscience.
V. In the ministry of Christ we see this great fact recognised. The Divine Lord saw, as we never can, the hearts of men. He not only saw rich publicans and lowly Nazarenes, not only lordly Pharisees and impoverished Samaritans, but He saw the great heart burthens men were everywhere bearing.. Surely He was a Prophet, and more than a Prophet; for prophets came to warn and to condemn, to lift up the cry, Repent! repent! But this face was not like one of the old prophets. No! There were touches of tenderness in it such as they had not, womanly almost, yet weak. Out, out, they went to Christ. Surely the voice was strange, for great souls fill words with love as well as thought, and what would not the Divine soul do? Yes! they heard Jesus. Never man spake as He spake. And what was His theme? Ah! it is well that we know it. Come, ye inheritors of shame and woe and ill-gotten wealth, and long-repented lives of sensual sin! Come! you cannot lose your memories of life, you cannot cut off their influence on mind and heart; but the bitter, bitter inheritance of shame and agony and woe and guilt--you, even you, may lose all these! Listen to me: I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
VI. In the future days the inheritance will work itself out. Yes! Thou shalt take it. As a pilgrim of eternity, you take the life burthen with you. He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; and he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. This is in exact harmony with moral law. (W. M. Statham.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Ezekiel 22, 24
FINAL ORACLES AGAINST JERUSALEM
Ezekiel 22, 24
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THE close of the first period of Ezekiels work was marked by two dramatic incidents, which made the day memorable both in the private life of the prophet and in the history of the nation. In the first place it coincided exactly with the commencement of the siege of Jerusalem. The prophets mysterious knowledge of what was happening at a distance was duly recorded, in order that its subsequent confirmation through the ordinary channels of intelligence might prove the divine origin of his message. {Eze_24:1-2} That Ezekiel actually did this we have no reason to doubt. Then the sudden death of his wife on the evening of the same day, and his unusual behaviour under the bereavement, caused a sensation among the exiles which the prophet was instructed to utilise as a means of driving home the appeal just made to them. These transactions must have had a profound effect on Ezekiels fellow-captives. They made his personality the centre of absorbing interest to the Jews in Babylon; and the two years of silence on his part which ensued were to them years of anxious foreboding about the result of the siege.
At this juncture the prophets thoughts naturally are occupied with the subject which hitherto formed the principal burden of his prophecy. The first part of his career accordingly closes, as it had begun, with a symbol of the fall of Jerusalem. Before this, however, he had drawn out the solemn indictment against Jerusalem which is given in chapter 22, although the finishing touches were probably added after the destruction of the city. The substance of that chapter is so closely related to the symbolic representation in the first part of chapter 24 that it will be convenient to consider it here as an introduction to the concluding oracles addressed more directly to the exiles of Tel-abib.
I.
The purpose of this arraignment-the most stately of Ezekiels orations-is to exhibit Jerusalem in her true character as a city whose social condition is incurably corrupt. It begins with an enumeration of the prevalent sins of the capital (Eze_22:2-16); it ends with a denunciation of the various classes into which society was divided (Eze_22:23-31); while the short intervening passage is a figurative description of the judgment which is now inevitable (Eze_22:17-22).
1. The first part of the chapter, then, is a catalogue of the "abominations" which called down the vengeance of heaven upon the city of Jerusalem. The offences enumerated are nearly the same as those mentioned in the definitions of personal righteousness and wickedness given in chapter 18. It is not necessary to repeat what was there said about the characteristics of the moral ideal which had been formed in the mind of Ezekiel. Although he is dealing now with a society, his point of view is quite different from that represented by purely allegorical passages like chapters 16 and 23. The city is not idealised and treated as a moral individual, whose relations with Jehovah have to he set forth in symbolic and figurative language. It is conceived as an aggregate of individuals bound together in social relations; and the sins charged against it are the actual transgressions of the men who are members of the community. Hence the standard of public morality is precisely the same as that which is elsewhere applied to the individual in his personal relation to God; and the sins enumerated are attributed to the city merely because they are tolerated and encouraged in individuals by laxity of public opinion and the force of evil example. Jerusalem is a community in which these different crimes are perpetrated: "Father and mother are despised in thee; the stranger is oppressed in the midst of thee; orphan and widow are wronged in thee; slanderous men seeking blood have been in thee; flesh with the blood is eaten in thee; lewdness is committed in the midst of thee; the fathers shame is uncovered in thee; she that was unclean in her separation hath been humbled in thee." So the grave and measured indictment runs on. It is because of these things that Jerusalem as a whole is "guilty" and "unclean" and has brought near her day of retribution (Eze_22:4). Such a conception of corporate guilt undoubtedly appeals more directly to our ordinary conscience of public morality than the more poetic representations where Jerusalem is compared to a faithless and treacherous woman. We have no difficulty in judging of any modern city in the very same way as Ezekiel here judges Jerusalem; and in this respect it is interesting to notice the social evils which he regards as marking out that city as ripe for destruction.
There are three features of the state of things in Jerusalem in which the prophet recognises the symptoms of an incurable social condition. The first is the loss of a true conception of God. In ancient Israel this defect necessarily assumed: the form of idolatry. Hence the multiplication. of idols appropriately finds a place among the marks of the "uncleanness" which made Jerusalem hateful in the eyes of Jehovah (Eze_22:3). But the root of idolatry in Israel was the incapacity or the unwillingness of the people to live up to the lofty conception of the Divine nature which was taught by the prophets. Throughout the ancient world religion was felt to be the indispensable bond of society, and the gods that were worshipped reflected more or less fully the ideals that swayed the life of the community. To Israel the religion of Jehovah represented the highest social ideal that was then known on earth. It meant righteousness, and purity, and brotherhood, and compassion for the poor and distressed. When these virtues decayed she forgot Jehovah (Eze_22:12)-forgot His character even if she remembered His name-and the service of false gods was the natural and obvious expression of the fact. There is therefore a profound truth in Ezekiels mind when he numbers the idols of Jerusalem amongst the indications of a degenerate society. They were the evidence that she had lost the sense of God as a holy and righteous spiritual presence in her midst, and that loss was at once the source and symptom of widespread moral declension. It is one of the chief lessons of the Old Testament that a religion which was neither the product of national genius. nor the embodiment of national aspiration, but was based on supernatural revelation, proved itself in the history of Israel to be the only possible safeguard against the tendencies which made for social disintegration.
A second mark of depravity which Ezekiel discovers in the capital is the perversion of certain moral instincts which are just as essential to the preservation of society as a true conception of God. For if society rests at one end on religion, it rests at the other on instinct. The closest and most fundamental of human relations depend on innate perceptions which may be easily destroyed, but which when destroyed can scarcely be recovered. The sanctities of marriage and the family will hardly bear the coarse scrutiny of utilitarian ethics; yet they are the foundation on which the whole social fabric is built. And there is no part of Ezekiels indictment of Jerusalem which conveys to our minds a more vivid sense of utter corruption than where he speaks of the loss of filial piety and; revolting forms of sexual impurity as prevalent sins in the city. Here at least he carries the conviction of every moralist with him. He instances no offence of this kind which would not be branded as unnatural by any system of ethics as heartily as it is by the Old Testament. It is possible, on the other hand, that he ranks on the same level with these sins ceremonial impurities appealing to feelings of a different order, to which no permanent moral value can be attached. When, for example, he instances eating with the blood as an "abomination," he appeals to a law which is no longer binding on us. But even that regulation was not so worthless, from a moral point of view at that time as we are apt to suppose. The abhorrence of eating blood was connected with certain sacrificial ideas which attributed a mystic significance to the blood as the seat of animal life. So long as these ideas existed no man could commit this offence without injuring his moral nature and loosening the Divine sanctions of morality as a whole. It is a false illuminism which seeks to disparage the moral insight of the prophet on the ground that he did not teach an abstract system of ethics in which ceremonial precepts were sharply distinguished from duties which we consider moral.
The third feature of Jerusalems guilty condition is lawless violation of human rights. Neither life nor property was secure. Judicial murders were frequent in the city, and minor forms of oppression, such as usury, spoliation of the unprotected, and robbery, were of daily occurrence. The administration of justice was corrupted by systematic bribery and perjury, and the lives of innocent men were ruthlessly sacrificed under the forms of law. This after all is the aspect of things which bulks most largely in the prophets indictment. Jerusalem is addressed as a "city shedding blood in her midst," and throughout the accusation the charge of bloodshed is that which constantly recurs. Misgovernment and party strife, and perhaps religious persecution, had converted the city into a vast human shambles, and the blood of the innocent slain cried aloud to heaven for vengeance. "Of what avail," asks the prophet, "are the stores of wealth piled up in the hands of a few against this damning witness of blood? Jehovah smites His hand [in derision] against her gains that she has made, and against her blood which is in her midst. How can her heart stand or her hands be strong in the days when He deals with her?" (Eze_22:13-14). Drained of her best blood, given over to internecine strife, and stricken with the cowardice of conscious guilt, Jerusalem, already disgraced among the nations, must fall an easy victim to the Chaldaean invaders, who are the agents of Jehovahs judgments.
2. But the most serious aspect of the situation is that which is dealt with in the peroration of the chapter (Eze_22:23-31). Outbursts of vice and lawlessness such as has been described may occur in any society, but they are not necessarily fatal to a community so long as it possesses a conscience which can be roused to effective protest against them. Now the worst thing about Jerusalem was that she lacked this indispensable condition of recovery. No voice was raised on the side of righteousness, no man dared to stem the tide of wickedness that swept through her streets. Not merely that she harboured within her walls men guilty of incest and robbery and murder, but that her leading classes were demoralised, that public spirit had decayed among her citizens, marked her as incapable of reformation. She was "a land not watered," "and not rained upon in a day of indignation" (Eze_22:24); the springs of her civic virtue were dried up, and a blight spread through all sections of her population. Ezekiels impeachment of different classes of society brings out this fact with great force. First of all the ancient institutions of social order, government, priesthood, and prophecy were in the hands of men who had lost the spirit of their office and abused their position for the advancement of private interests. Her princes have been, instead of humane rulers and examples of noble living, cruel and rapacious tyrants, enriching themselves at the cost of their subjects (Eze_22:25). The priests, whose function was to maintain the outward ordinances of religion and foster the spirit of reverence, have done their utmost, by falsification of the Torah, to bring religion into contempt and obliterate the distinction between the holy and the profane (Eze_22:26). The nobles had been a pack of ravening wolves, imitating the rapacity of the court, and hunting down prey which the royal lion would have disdained to touch (Eze_22:27). As for the professional prophets-those degenerate representatives of the old champions of truth and mercy-we have already seen what they were worth (chapter 13). They who should have been foremost to denounce civil wrong are fit for nothing but to stand by and bolster up with lying oracles in the name of Jehovah a constitution which sheltered crimes like these (Eze_22:28).
From the ruling classes the prophets glance turns for a moment to the "people of the land," the dim common population, where virtue might have been expected to find its last retreat. It is characteristic of the age of Ezekiel that the prophets begin to deal more particularly with the sins of the masses as distinct from the classes. This was due partly perhaps to a real increase of ungodliness in the body of the people, but partly also to a deeper sense of the importance of the individual apart from his position in the state. These prophets seem to feel that there had been anywhere among rich or poor an honest response to the will of Jehovah it would have been a token that God had not altogether rejected Israel. Jeremiah puts this view very strongly when in the fifth chapter he says that if one man could be found in Jerusalem who did justice and sought truth the Lord would pardon her; and his vain search for that one man begins among the poor. It is this same motive that leads Ezekiel to include the humble citizen in his survey of the moral condition of Jerusalem. It is little wonder that under such leaders they had cast off the restraints of humanity, and oppressed those who were still more defenceless than themselves. But it showed nevertheless that real religion had no longer a foothold in the city. It proved that the greed of gain had eaten into the very heart of the people and destroyed the ties of kindred and mutual sympathy, through which alone the will of Jehovah could be realised. No matter although they were obscure householders, without political power or responsibility; if they had been good men in their private relations, Jerusalem would have been a better place to live in. Ezekiel indeed does not go so far as to say that a single good life would have saved the city. He expects of a good man that he be a man in the full sense-a man who speaks boldly on behalf of righteousness and resists the prevalent evils with all his strength: "I sought among them a man to build up a fence, and to stand in the breach before Me on behalf of the land, that it might not be destroyed; and I found none. So I poured out My indignation upon them; with the fire of My wrath I consumed them: I have returned their way upon their head, saith the Lord Jehovah" (Eze_22:30-31).
3. But we should misunderstand Ezekiels position if we supposed that his prediction of the speedy destruction of Jerusalem was merely an inference from his clear insight into the necessary conditions of social welfare which were being violated by her rulers and her citizens. That is one part of his message, but it could not stand alone. The purpose of the indictment we have considered is simply to explain the moral reasonableness of Jehovahs. action in the great act of judgment which the prophet knows to be approaching. It is no doubt a general law of history that moribund communities are not allowed to die a natural death. Their usual fate is to perish in the struggle for existence before some other and sounder nation. But no human sagacity can foresee how that law will be verified in any particular case. It may seem clear to us now that Israel must have fallen sooner or later before the advance of the great Eastern empires, but an ordinary observer could not have foretold with the confidence and precision which mark the predictions of Ezekiel in what manner and within what time the end would come. Of that aspect of the prophets mind no explanation can be given save that God revealed His secret to His servants the prophets.
Now this element of the prophecy seems to be brought out by the image of Jerusalems fate which occupies the middle verses of the chapter (Eze_22:17-22). The city is compared to the crucible in which all the refuse of Israels national life is to undergo its final trial by fire. The prophet sees in imagination the terror-stricken provincial population swept into the capital before the approach of the Chaldeans: and he says, "Thus doth Jehovah cast His ore into the furnace-the silver, the brass, the iron, the lead, and the tin; and He will kindle the fire with His anger, and blow upon it till He have consumed the impurities of the land." The image of the smelting-pot had been used by Isaiah as an emblem of purifying judgment, the object of which was the removal of injustice and the restoration of the state to its former splendour: "I will again bring My hand upon thee, smelting out thy dross with lye and taking away all thine alloy; and I will make thy judges to be again as aforetime, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: thereafter thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city" (Isa_1:25-26). Ezekiel, however, can hardly have contemplated such a happy result of the operation. The whole house of Israel has become dross, from which no precious metal can be extracted; and the object of the smelting is only the demonstration of the utter worthlessness of the people for the ends of Gods kingdom. The more refractory the material to be dealt with the fiercer must be the fire that tests it; and the severity of the exterminating judgment is the only thing symbolised by the metaphor as used by Ezekiel. In this he follows Jeremiah, who applies the figure in precisely the same sense: "The bellows snort, the lead is consumed of the fire; in vain he smelts and smelts: but the wicked are not taken away. Refuse silver shall men call them, for the Lord hath rejected them." {Jer_6:29-30} In this way the section supplements the teaching of the rest of the chapter. Jerusalem is full of dross-that has been proved by the enumeration of her crimes and the estimate of her social condition. But the fire which consumes the dross represents a special providential intervention bringing the history of the state to a summary and decisive conclusion. And the Refiner who superintends the process is Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, whose righteous will is executed by the march of conquering hosts, and revealed to men in His dealings with the people whom He had known of all the families of the earth.
II.
The chapter we have just studied was evidently not composed with a view to immediate publication. It records the view of Jerusalems guilt and punishment which was borne in upon the mind of the prophet in the solitude of his chamber, but it was not destined to see the light until the whole of his teaching could be submitted in its final form to a wider and more receptive audience. It is equally obvious that the scenes described in chapter 24 were really enacted in the full view of the exiled community. We have reached the crisis of Ezekiels ministry. For the last time until his warnings of doom shall be fulfilled he emerges from his partial seclusion, and in symbolism whose vivid force could not have failed to impress the most listless hearer he announces once more the destruction of the Hebrew nation. The burden of his message is that that day-the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year-marked the beginning of the end. "On that very day"-a day to be commemorated for seventy long years by a national fast (Zec_8:19; Zec_7:5)-Nebuchadnezzar was drawing his lines around Jerusalem. The bare announcement to men who knew what a Chaldaean siege meant must have sent a thrill of consternation through their minds. If this vision of what was happening in a distant land should prove true, they must have felt that all hope of deliverance was now cut off. Sceptical as they may have been of the moral principles that lay behind Ezekiels prediction, they could not deny that the issue he foresaw was only the natural sequel to the fact he so confidently announced.
The image here used of the fate of Jerusalem would recall to the minds of the exiles the ill-omened saying which expressed the reckless spirit prevalent in the city: "This city is the pot, and we are the flesh." {Eze_11:3} It was well understood in Babylon that these men were playing a desperate game, and did not shrink from the horrors of a siege. "Set on the pot," then, cries the prophet to his listeners, "set it on, and pour in water also, and gather the pieces into it, every good joint, leg, and shoulder; fill it with the choicest bones. Take them from the best of the flock, and then pile up the wood under it; let its pieces be boiled and its bones cooked within it" (Eze_24:3-5). This part of the parable required no explanation; it simply represents the terrible miseries endured by the population of Jerusalem during the siege now commencing. But then by a sudden transition the speaker turns the thoughts of his hearers to another aspect of the judgment (Eze_24:6-8). The city itself is like a rusty caldron, unfit for any useful purpose until by some means it has been cleansed from its impurity. It is as if the crimes that had been perpetrated in Jerusalem had stained her very stones with blood. She had not even taken steps to conceal the traces of her wickedness; they lie like blood on the bare rock, an open witness to her guilt. Often Jehovah had sought to purify her by more measured chastisements, but it has now been proved that "her much rust will not go from her except by fire" (Eze_24:12). Hence the end of the siege will be twofold. First of all the contents of the caldron will be indiscriminately thrown out-a figure for the dispersion and captivity of the inhabitants; and then the pot must be set empty on the glowing coals till its rust is thoroughly burned out-a symbol of the burning of the city and its subsequent desolation (Eze_24:11). The idea that the material world may contract defilement through the sins of those who live in it is one that is hard for us to realise, but it is in keeping with the view of sin presented by Ezekiel, and indeed by the Old Testament generally. There are certain natural emblems of sin, such as uncleanness or disease or uncovered blood, etc., which had to be largely used in order to educate mens moral perceptions. Partly these rest on the analogy between physical defect and moral evil; but partly, as here, they result from a strong sense of association between human deeds and their effects or circumstances. Jerusalem is unclean as a place where wicked deeds have been done, and even the destruction of the sinners cannot, in the mind of Ezekiel, clear her from the unhallowed associations of her history. She must lie empty and dreary for a generation, swept by the winds of heaven, before devout Israelites can again twine their affections round the hope of her glorious future.
Even while delivering this message of doom to the people the prophets heart was burdened by the presemiment of a great personal sorrow. He had received an intimation that his wife was to be taken from him by a sudden stroke, and along with the intimation a command to refrain from all the usual signs of mourning. "So I spake to the people" (as recorded in Eze_24:1-14) "in the morning, and my wife died in the evening" (Eze_24:18). Just one touch of tenderness escapes him in relating this mysterious occurrence. She was the "delight of his eyes": that phrase alone reveals that there was a fountain of tears sealed up within the breast of this stern preacher. How the course of his life may have been influenced by a bereavement so strangely coincident with a change in his whole attitude to his people, we cannot even surmise. Nor is it possible to say how far he merely used the incident to convey a lesson to the exiles, or how far his private grief was really swallowed up in concern for the calamity of his country. All we are told is that "in the morning he did as he was commanded." He neither uttered loud lamentations, nor disarranged his raiment, nor covered his head, nor ate the "bread of men," nor adopted any of the customary signs of mourning for the dead. When the astonished neighbours inquire the meaning of his strange demeanour, he assures them that his conduct now is a sign of what theirs will be when his words have come true. When the tidings reach them that Jerusalem has actually fallen, when they realise how many interests dear to them have perished-the desolation of the sanctuary, the loss of their own sons and daughters-they will experience a sense of calamity which will instinctively discard all the conventional and even the natural expressions of grief. They shall neither mourn nor weep, but sit in dumb bewilderment, haunted by a dull consciousness of guilt which yet is far removed from genuine contrition of heart. They shall pine away in their iniquities. For while their sorrow will be too deep for words, it will not yet be the godly sorrow that worketh repentance. It will be the sullen despair and apathy of men disenchanted of the illusions on which their national life was based, of men left without hope and without God in the world.
Here the curtain falls on the first act of Ezekiels ministry. He appears to have retired for the space of two years into complete privacy, ceasing entirely his public appeals to the people, and waiting for the time of his vindication as a prophet. The sense of restraint under which he has hitherto exercised the function of a public teacher cannot be removed until the tidings have reached Babylon that the city has fallen. Meanwhile, with the delivery of this message, his contest with the unbelief of his fellow captives comes to an end. But when that day arrives "his mouth shall be open, and he shall be no more dumb." A new career will open out before him, in which he can devote all his powers of mind and heart to the inspiring work of reviving faith in the promises of God, and so building up a new Israel out of the ruins of the old.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 17, 23 THE SINS OF JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL: THE GENERAL CORRUPTION…
THE SINS OF JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL: THE GENERAL CORRUPTION OF PROPHETS, PRIESTS, PRINCES, AND PEOPLE (Chap. 22)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—We have here another description of the sins of Jerusalem and Israel; and thus the judgments predicted in the last chapter are clearly justified. Three words of God are here closely connected together in their substance and design, viz.:
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(1) The blood-guiltiness and idolatry of Jerusalem hastening the coming of the day of retribution, when the city will be an object of scorn to all nations (Eze_22:1-16).
(2) The house of Israel has become dross, and is doomed to be melted in the fire of God’s righteous anger (Eze_22:17-22).
(3) All ranks of the kingdom—prophets, priests, princes and people have become utterly corrupt, and therefore the threatened judgments are inevitable.
This chapter may be considered as standing in contrast with Chap. 20. In this latter, the whole of Israel’s history was reviewed as revealing a growing corruption which must of necessity bring down God’s judgments upon the people. The present chapter describes the existing condition of Jerusalem. In one case the prophet was commanded to “Make them to know the abominations of their fathers” (Eze_20:4); in the other, he is commanded concerning Jerusalem to “Make her to know her abominations” (Eze_22:2).
Eze_22:2. “Wilt thou judge the bloody city?” The same expression as in chap. Eze_20:4, denoting that the prophet’s reproof still continues. The question implies the idea that judgment can wait no longer, and the prophet must be wakened up to realise fully the great iniquity of his nation.
Eze_22:3. “The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it.” “On account of the murders committed in Jerusalem and the offering of children in sacrifice to Moloch, she might well be denominated ‘the bloody city.’ In this respect she rivalled Nineveh (Nah_3:1), and might justly anticipate the same doom. Instead of deriving any advantage from their idolatries, they were only involved thereby in ruin” (Henderson). “That her time may come.” The limit of her probation—the crisis of judgment (Isa_13:22; Eze_30:3). “Maketh idols against herself to defile herself.” By her persistence in iniquity still heaping upon herself moral defilement with all its consequences.
Eze_22:4. “Thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years.” The full term of days and years when the limit of Divine patience shall be reached. “The Jewish commentators distinguish between the ‘days’ and the ‘years’ here mentioned, interpreting the former of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and the latter of the captivity in Babylon” (Henderson). “A reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.” “Defiled, unclean with regard to the name, i.e. having forfeited the name of a holy city through capital crimes and other sinful abominations.”—(Keil.)
Eze_22:5. “Those that be near” (Heb.). “The women that be near.” The cities of the nations are personified; as in Eze_23:48. “Infamous and much vexed” (Heb.). “Polluted in name, much in vexation. “Her ancient renown had now descended to the dust. She that had been once “great among nations” (Lam_1:1) had now only a pre-eminence in calamity and disgrace. “Formerly Jerusalem had been renowned as ‘the holy city.’ Now it had been defiled by every kind of crime. It was also tumultuous, great of confusion, from the seditions and violence which obtained among the inhabitants. To all, both far and near, the Jewish metropolis was to be an object of derision.”—(Henderson.)
Eze_22:6. “To their power.” Heb. “To his own arm.” Each man adopted the principle that might was right. With each man the strength of his own arm was his god. “Instead of reigning according to law and justice, the princes of Judah, in the most despotic manner, crushing by the strong arm of power all who were the objects of their personal displeasure.”—(Henderson). “To shed blood.” “By the repetition of the refrain, to shed blood (Eze_22:6; Eze_22:9; Eze_22:12), the enumeration is divided into three groups of sins, which are placed in the category of blood-guiltiness by the fact that they are preceded by this sentence and the repetition of it after the form of a refrain. The first group (Eze_22:6-8) embraces sins which are committed in daring opposition to all the laws of morality. By the princes of Israel we are to understand primarily the profligate kings who caused innocent persons to be put to death, such for example, Jehoiakim (2Ki_24:4), Manasseh (2Ki_21:16), and others. In the second group (Eze_22:9-11), in addition to slander and idolatry, the crimes of lewdness and incest are the principal sins for which the people are reproved, and here the allusion to Leviticus 18, 19 is very obvious. The third group (Eze_22:12) is composed of sins of covetousness. For the first clause, compare the prohibition in Exo_23:2; for the second, Eze_18:8; Eze_18:13. The reproof finishes with forgetfulness of God, which is closely allied to covetousness.—(Keil).
Eze_22:9. “Men that carry tales to shed blood.” Heb. “Men of traffic.” Describing those who travelled about for the purposes of trade, such as pedlars or wandering merchants. Men of this kind would be likely to become notorious for carrying reports from place to place. Hence the phrase came to be used in the sense of talebearers. In the present instance, the reference is plainly to a class of men whom, in the present day, we should call informers. “They eat upon the mountains.” See “Exegetical Notes,” (Eze_18:6.)
Eze_22:10. “Discovered their father’s nakedness.” Mother, or step-mother; (Comp. Lev_18:7-8; Lev_20:11; 1 Cor. Eze_22:1.) “Set apart for pollution.” “This suggests the idea of a female devoted to prostitution, whereas all that the Hebrew expresses is one that is unclean by reason of the menstrual discharge. The character of the Jews, as here described, is aptly given by Tacitus: ‘projectissima ad libidinem gens, alienarum concubitu abstinent, inter se nihil illicitum’ (Hist. lib. v. cap. 5)” (Henderson.)
Eze_22:11. “And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife: and another … and another, &c.” “There were such cases! Impurity in every form. A specimen of the moral atmosphere as a whole (Eze_18:6; Lev_18:15; Lev_20:12; 2Sa_13:12.”—(Lange.)
Eze_22:12. “Taken gifts to shed blood.” “Gifts,”—the word is here used in the sense of bribes. “Hast forgotten Me, saith the Lord God.” “The crowning sin with which the Jews are charged, and that which is strictly speaking the source of all sin, is forgetfulness of God. It is only as God is kept out of view as the omnipresent, omniscient, holy and righteous Governor of the world, that sin can be indulged in”(Henderson.) Two of their prophets describe forgetfulness of God as the root of all their evil (Deu_32:18; Jer_3:21.
Eze_22:13. “I have smitten Mine hand at thy dishonest gain.” A gesture figuratively describing God’s wrathful indignation. “This verse is closely connected with the preceding. This serves to explain the fact that the only sins mentioned as exciting the wrath of God are coveteousness and blood-guiltiness” (Keil).
Eze_22:14. “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee?” The courage of sinners must fail when the judgment of God reckons with them.
Eze_22:15. “And will consume thy filthiness out of thee.” “The removal of the uncleanness of Jerusalem is effected by the extirpation of the sinful inhabitants” (Hengstenberg). “The object to be attained by the dispersion of the Jews was their recovery from idolatry and from the polluting influences which followed in its train.”—(Henderson).
Eze_22:16. “Thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen.” “The only translation of these words, which suits the connection, is that given in the margin of the common version: and thou shalt be profaned in thyself. The meaning appears to be: thou shalt be inwardly conscious of thy polluted condition, and shalt loathe thyself on account of thy sins. There, among the heathen, thou shalt learn to appreciate my character as a God of holiness, righteousness, and truth” (Henderson). “Jerusalem has desecrated the sanctuaries of the Lord (Eze_22:8); therefore shall it also be desecrated for a requital (Eze_22:16). It has wickedly insulted the dignity of God; for this it must suffer the loss of its own dignity. ‘In thee,’ so that thou must experience in thyself the desecration; whereas before thou didst send it forth from thee. Such things always return to him from whom they proceed.”—(Hengstenberg).
HOMILETICS
THE CATALOGUE OF JERUSALEM’S SINS
I. Consider the sins in detail. The prophet is not now speaking of the sins of their forefathers, but of those of his own day. They were all “abominations” in the sight of God (Eze_22:2), corrupting and daring sins which bring down God’s judgment swiftly upon nations.
1. Blood guiltiness. Jerusalem is called “The bloody city” (Eze_22:3-4; Eze_22:6; Eze_22:9; Eze_22:12). To be guilty of another’s blood is the highest offence which a man can commit against his fellow. When this crime becomes the characteristic of a nation, that nation sinks into a savage and degraded condition.
2. Idolatry. “Maketh idols against herself to defile herself” (Eze_22:3). In forsaking the worship of the true God they taxed their own powers of invention, and this was a greater wickedness than merely adopting the errors and superstitions which had been handed down to them.
3. Destruction of the fundamental idea of justice. “To their power to shed blood” (Eze_22:6). As the Heb. has it, to his own arm, i.e., each man made his own strength the rule of right, made of his arm a god. The notion that might is right destroys the very foundations of justice.
3. Disregard of parental authority (Eze_22:7). The Family is the oldest institution, the most changeless, and it will outlast all others. When the essential laws of the Family are disregarded, the Nation must decay and perish.
4. Oppression of the suffering and defenceless. The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (Eze_22:7).
5. Profanation of God’s ordinances. They profaned the sanctuary and the Sabbath (Eze_22:8).
6. Bearing false witness. “Men that carry tales to shed blood” (Eze_22:9). Base informers and slanderers who scrupled not for their own wicked ends to swear men’s lives away. The fact that there were such men in considerable numbers suggests that there must also have been wicked rulers and judges who encouraged such men.
7. Impurity (Eze_22:10-11). The individual was corrupted, then the family, and, last of all, the state. God sees such sins when man sees them not. Vices of this kind impair the physical energy of nations, and if unchecked must bring them to destruction.
8. Covetousness. This spirit of covetousness led them to take bribes, to become usurers, and extortioners. Thus those in authority became corrupted, and the evil spread fast throughout the whole nation. Jewish tradition ascribes the destruction of Jerusalem to covetousness that being regarded as the root of all evil.
II. Consider these sins in their root-principles.
1. Forgetfulness of God. “And hast forgotten Me, saith the Lord God” (Eze_22:12). Former prophets had reminded them that this forgetfulness of God was the bitter root out of which all their evils grew (Deu_32:18; Jer_3:21). Whatever was good or great in this people arose from their connection with God, so that by forsaking His worship and service they cut themselves off from a glorious past. They who forsake God are bound to follow evil. The morality of a nation cannot be preserved, even by the best rules and resolutions, if the truths of God and immortality are rejected.
“Truth for truth and good for good! Be good. The true, the pure, the just—
Take the charm for ever from them and they crumble into dust.”
(Tennyson: “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After.”)
2. Selfishness. Having cast off God, each man made himself the centre of all interest, the rule of all duty. Hence covetousness, leading to extortion, oppression, and the taking of bribes, the consequent perversion of justice to the injury of the poor and defenceless. Hence the deification of force—the doctrine that might was right. In such a condition of things each man will regard that which is a benefit to himself as right and good. Whatever a man could get by force would be his, and he would have no right to it longer than he had strength to defend it. Such a doctrine as this would destroy the foundations of morality.
3. Sensuality. This was another root-principle of the nation’s evil. The animal nature was let loose without restraint, and sins were committed which sank men lower than the beast. These sins are described (Eze_22:10) by such words as “abomination,” “lewdness,” “defiling” and “humbling” those whose chastity they were bound in honour to respect.
III. Consider these sins in their punishment. “I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries” (Eze_22:15). This punishment included many afflictions.
1. The sorrows and dangers of exile. They had to leave their beautiful country with all its hallowed asssociations, their homes, their kindred, their religious privileges which had made them great. They would learn to realize the worth of these when once they had lost them.
2. Abandonment of their own evil principles. They were permitted to carry out their own evil principles. They had acted like the heathen, and now they shall learn what heathenism means, in its own proper home. God allows men to work out such experiments for themselves; if haply they may come, at length, to the knowledge of their own helplessness. The discipline of failure prepares the way for the glory of God’s salvation. The prodigal in the parable thought that he could better himself elsewhere. He is allowed to make the trial, he gets his portion and departs. By the smart of the experiment he is brought to a better mind. Hard experience taught him those lessons which the sober convictions of duty failed to teach. Those who refuse to learn by God’s precepts shall learn by His judgments,
3. They would be a reproach among the heathen. The heathen could only despise them for their folly and inconsistency. They would be “a mocking to all countries” (Eze_22:4.) They would witness how great her fall from ancient renown, and point at her the finger of scorn when she had now only the pre-eminence in calamity.
3. The judgments would be severe and effectual. “And will consume thy filthiness out of thee” (Eze_22:15). The trial by fire is the hardest and most searching of all trials. We can, therefore, only understand this threatening to mean the extinction of Jerusalem’s polluted inhabitants. The ungodly are to be separated from the righteous. What a suggestion of the final judgment!
4. No human power could avert the judgment, or courage resist it. “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee?” (Eze_22:14). When sin is committed men imagine themselves strong and full of courage, but how different their bearing when the time of judgment comes! When God once rises up in judgment against sinners, heart and hand, courage and strength fail. There was now no way of escape for the guilty. He against whom they had sinned had uttered His word, and it must be fulfilled to the utmost in dire judgment; “I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it” (Eze_22:14).
5. The agency of man in the judgment. “Son of man, wilt thou judge the bloody city?” (Eze_22:2). The prophets of old judged the world through the word of the Lord, the apostles through the Holy Spirit convincing the world of sin. St. Paul tells us that “the saints shall judge the world” (1Co_6:2); by which we are to understand, not that they shall sit upon the judgment seat, but rather that they by their righteousness shall condemn those who having the same opportunities yet resisted the grace of God.
(Eze_22:14-16)
1. Sinners are apt to confide in their wisdom, strength, power, riches, or friends. Jerusalem thought that she had wherewith to keep off all judgments or sufficient to enable her to wrestle with them if they came. “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?” Jerusalem thought so, had confidence that way, else the Lord would not have put these questions to her. “Thou didst trust in thy beauty” (Eze_16:15); in thy wealth, in thy walls, in thy soldiers, in thy counsellors, in thy temple, in thy mountains, which were thy beauty. In Jeremiah’s days it is evident that the wise, the rich, and strong men in Jerusalem did too much confide and glory in their wisdom, their riches, and strength (Jer_9:23). Her confidence was in falsehood (Jer_13:25); that was in things which proved false and deceitful: one of this kind was the Egyptian strength (Isa_30:2; Eze_17:17). It is not good to lean on our own wisdom, to rest upon our own strength, or strength of others; whoever makes flesh within, or flesh without, his arm, lies under a curse (Jer_17:5); but he that trusts in the Lord, and in Him only, he hath the blessing (Jer_17:7).
2. God hath His times to reckon with sinners. To make them smart for their evil doings. “In the days that I shall deal with thee.” God had His day to deal with Egypt (Eze_30:9), with the Midianites (Isa_9:4). Ahab had his day to do wickedly, and God had His day to deal with him (1Ki_22:34-35). Men sin, and think to hear no more of their sins, but God remembers them, and hath His days to visit for them (Rom_2:6; Rom_2:9).
3. God’s judgments discover the vanity and rottenness of human confidences “Can thine heart endure? can thine hands be strong?” In the days when I shall deal with thee, when I shall bring the sword, plague and famine, thy heart will be faint and thy hands feeble. God’s judgments are fires which consume man’s confidences, and make them see their own weakness. If footmen, horsemen, and the swellings of Jordan weary and sink men, what will the Lord of Hosts do (Jer_12:5)? If they cannot bear the lesser judgments, how will they bear the greater? If briars and thorns conceit themselves to be oaks and cedars, can they endure the fire? They will be burnt to ashes (Isa_27:4).
4. The word of the Lord shall take place, whatever men’s thoughts are. They thought Nebuchadnezzar would not come, or if he did, that they and the Egyptians should be able to deal with them, and prevent those evils which were threatened by the prophets; but “I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it. “Neither will the Lord revoke what He hath said, and so prevent judgments intended: “He is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back His words” (Isa_31:2). Men often speak, threaten, and then after eat their words, call back their threatenings, saying they were uttered in passion, inconsiderately, and so show their folly; but God when He speaks, it is in wisdom, His words shall stand, and not be removed or called back (Amo_6:11). Hence it is that the Lord saith, “They shall know whose word shall stand, mine or theirs” (Jer_44:28).
5. The Lord by His judgment doth purge out of cities and nations the wicked, and makes them and their wickedness to cease. “I will consume thy filthiness out of thee,” i. e., thy filthy ones. God brought the sword, famine, and pestilence upon Jerusalem, and by these did cut off and consume, the filthy ones there (Jer_14:15; Jer_16:4; Eze_8:14). By His judgments the Lord consumes the filthy out of the city and land, and filthiness out of the saints.
6. The wickedness of God’s people doth disinterest them in God; it makes God disown them, and leave them to themselves. They might think and say they were still the people, the “inheritance” of God, that they had an interest in Him; but “thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself; “I disclaim thee, I cast thee off as profane, and look upon thee no otherwise than I do upon heathens. Israel had cast off the thing that was good, viz., the worship of God (Hos_8:3); and, therefore, the prophet said, “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off” (Hos_8:5); that is, thy false worship hath made Me to cast thee off, to declare thee to be none of my city, and thy people to be none of mine. The prophet Jeremiah tells us, that the Jews were once very dear to God, even as dear as a wife can be to a husband; but because, like lions, they carried it stoutly against God, and cried out against Him and His prophets, therefore He forsook them, and gave them into the hands of the Babylonians; and because Jerusalem was as a “speckled bird” in the eye of God, through her variety of gods, altars, superstitions and idolatries, therefore God caused the birds of all the nations to hoot at and hate her, even as birds do a speckled bird, inviting them and all the beasts of the field to come and devour her. And all this because they dealt treacherously, they were hypocritical, they were wicked (Jer_12:1-2; Jer_12:4; Jer_12:7-9). The Jews had been a people precious in the sight of God, and honourable (Isa_43:4); Jerusalem His habitation, and the people of it His inheritance and His glory, whom He protected (Isa_4:5); yet, by their sins they provoked God, so that He gave “His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand” (Psa_78:61).
7. That God’s judgments bring people to the knowledge of God. God would scatter them, consume them, cast them off, leave them to themselves, and they should know that he is the Lord. “The Lord is known by executing judgments” (Psa_9:16); His power, His justice, and sovereignty are known thereby, and so men are made to fear and stand in awe of Him. When God is silent, and speaks not by His judgments, men think He is like themselves (Psa_50:21); and are emboldened to sin (Ecc_8:11); but when God thunders by His judgments, they have other apprehensions of Him (1Sa_6:19-20).—(Greenhill).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Section 3 (Eze 22:1-31).
Section 3 (Eze 22:1-31).
The corruption in Jerusalem manifest.
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We return now to see once more in Jerusalem the manifest corruption which is bringing in the judgment. As has been said elsewhere, God does not judge until the corruption is fully manifest. Evil is allowed to come to its head before God smites upon it, for He will be justified in its judgment, and be clear when He is judged. What we have here, therefore, is no more history: it is not the sins of the fathers, even, as showing themselves in the children. It is the present condition of things -the causes which necessitated that which was at hand.
1. We need not spend many words upon interpretation of what is manifest. The evil speaks for itself, and what we have is an enumeration of crimes in high and in low; crimes of which the apostle says, with reference to them, that the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles through them. We need not wonder at this. It is according to the constant rule of perverted privileges, and that which is done in the darkness elsewhere, is now done in the full light. Along with this, and instead of the anticipation of a sure judgment coming, that there was hardening of the heart against it is in entire harmony with all the rest. Nothing but the actual infliction of wrath would now avail. Words merely were useless. They must be replaced by deeds.
2. Accordingly, Jerusalem has become a furnace which melts down the various things exposed to it into one mass of manifest dross. God surely has purification in mind, but what is here is the wrath itself -a wrath by which what cannot be changed may yet be limited and kept under. And such will be the fire of hell; corruption, at last, will be permitted no longer; none of the rioting will be there which has been in men’s shameful imaginations of what is to come; Satan, then, is the arch-tormentor no more, but himself the most tormented. Suited and necessitated penalty, carefully discriminated, will be God’s decisive repression of that which can be no more permitted to break out at all. Man’s ways come to an end then, and God comes to His own finally and fully.
3. The final word returns once again to the corruption itself. It is complete, among all classes, and especially are the prophets and priests brought into the dark catalogue here; for in their corruption hope is gone entirely. Among all these not a man was left ("and I sought for such," says the Lord), that can make up a fence to keep out the incoming desolation, or stand in the breach before Him, that He might not destroy the land. Thus, then, the indignation, so long warned of, is at last to be poured out: "I will consume them in the fire of my wrath. Their own way will I recompense upon their head, saith the Lord Jehovah."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Another Indictment of Jerusalem
Another Indictment of Jerusalem
The various religious and social evils that prevail in the city are recited (Eze_22:1-11). Their coming punishment is then predicted, first in direct terms (Eze_22:13-16), and next under the figure of a smelting furnace (Eze_22:17-22). Lastly, all classes in Jerusalem, prophets, priests, princes, and people, are included in the general condemnation (Eze_22:23-31).
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2. The bloody city] referring to those unjustly put to death by the wicked rulers of Jerusalem: so in Eze_22:3, Eze_22:6, Eze_22:12, Eze_22:27 see also Eze_11:6.
5. Much vexed] RV 'full of tumult.'
6. To their power] RV 'according to his power.'
13. I have smitten mine hand] God's gesture of indignation.
16. Take thine inheritance] RV 'be profaned.'
18. Dross] the baser metals from which silver has to be purified.
19-22. Jerusalem will be heated like a furnace for smelting silver, and all that it contains will be melted in the fire of God's wrath. Though silver is mentioned in Eze_22:20, Eze_22:22, it is not suggested that any of the precious metal will be left after the refining process. The whole nation is 'dross.'
24. Not rained upon] not blessed with fertilising showers.
28, 30. The same figures as in Eze_13:5, Eze_13:10-15.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Eze 22:1-31; Eze 23:1-49. Before the sharpened sword of…
Eze 22:1-31; Eze 23:1-49. Before the sharpened sword of justice and retribution does its dreadful work, the Lord uncovers the guilt and vileness of the city and lays bare the corruption of her prophets, priests, and princes, as well as of the people. The violence and abomination of Jerusalem are revealed in Eze 22:1-16; the smelting furnace in Eze 22:17-23 is the symbol of Jehovah’s fiery indignation against Jerusalem and its inhabitants. The corruption of the prophets, priests, and princes is fully uncovered in the closing section of chapter 22 (Eze 22:23-31).
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 17 The Weight of Jerusalem’s Guilt
The Weight of Jerusalem’s Guilt
v. 1. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
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v. 2. Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge, the bloody city? so called on account of the murders committed in her and the sacrifices of children to Molech. Yea, thou shalt show her all her abominations, so that she was bound to acknowledge them, even if she was lacking in repentance.
v. 3. Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord God, who excels in the might of His sovereignty, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, in bloody sacrifices to idols, in judicial murders, and in civil war, that her time may come, namely, the time of her punishment, and maketh idols against herself, literally, "over herself," that is, throughout her boundaries, to defile herself, the burden and debt of idolatry bringing defilement.
v. 4. Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed, which placed the stamp of murder upon the entire city, and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made, the one growing forth out of the other, the defilement out of the abomination; and thou, by such transgressions, hast caused thy days to draw near, the time when sentence would be executed upon her, and art come even unto thy years, the measure of her guilt being full; therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen and a mocking to all countries, namely, by the overthrow of Jerusalem and the captivity of Judah.
v. 5. Those that be near and those that be far from thee, the neighboring nations as well as those at a distance, shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed, literally, "polluted in name and full of confusion," an object of derision and loathing.
v. 6. Behold, the princes of Israel, every one, were in thee to their power, literally, "every one according to his arm," that is, to the best of his ability, to shed blood, this being their object and the end of their desire.
v. 7. In thee have they set light by father and mother, a transgression which was most sharply reproved and punished at that time; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger, treating him with injustice and deceit; in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow, although both, as helpless and depending upon others for support and protection, should have had special consideration.
v. 8. Thou hast despised Mine holy things, treating matters of which the Lord thought highly, which He had set apart to be revered properly, with contempt, and hast profaned My Sabbaths, by refusing to hallow them according to Old Testament regulations. Cf Exo 22:20; Lev 19:13; Deu 24:14.
v. 9. In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood, slanderers, whose object is to bring harm upon others, preferably death; and in thee they eat upon the mountains, some of her inhabitants having become guilty of partaking of meals consecrated to idols; in the midst of thee they commit lewdness, immorality of every kind and description.
v. 10. In thee have they discovered their fathers’ nakedness, in sins of incest, Leviticus 18, 19; in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution, forcing a woman at the time of her uncleanness, Lev 18:19.
v. 11. And one hath committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, in base adultery, and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, another instance of revolting immorality; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father’s daughter, his step-sister, who was within the prohibited degrees, Lev 18:9.
v. 12. In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood, accepting bribes to commit murder; thou hast taken usury and increase, the enriching of men at the cost of their neighbors being the usual thing, a form of graft in which the great majority indulged, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extortion, overreaching them in business dealings and at all other times, and hast forgotten Me, saith the Lord God. There was evidence indeed of this fact, for men sound in faith and love toward God cannot become guilty of such terrible trespasses.
v. 13. Behold, therefore I have smitten Mine hand, striking them both together in dismay and horror at such manifestations of wickedness, at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee, the guilt of the shedding of blood which rested upon the whole city and country.
v. 14. Can thine heart endure, be steadfast, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? when God’s sentence of punishment would go into effect. It is a last warning against false security. I, the Lord, have spoken it and will do it, there being no doubt either as to His determination or to His ability to perform His sentence of punishment.
v. 15. And I will scatter thee among the heathen, Eze 12:15; Eze 20:23, and disperse thee in the countries, in captivity and exile, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee, namely, by the purging power of this sentence of punishment.
v. 16. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, literally, "thou shalt be profaned in thyself before the eyes of time heathen," all of them being witnesses of the shameful plight and degradation of Judah on account of her sins, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. The shame and disgrace which are heaped upon the sinner in the eyes of the witnesses of his downfall should at least be one point which he ought to keep in mind to deter him from further sinning.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 10, 13, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 30 the word of Yahweh came
the word of Yahweh came
This is an idiom that is used to introduce something that God told his prophets or his people. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 3:16. AT: "Yahweh spoke this message" or "Yahweh spoke these words" (See: Idiom)
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Now you, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the city of blood?
This rhetorical question functions as a command. AT. "Son of man, go and judge. Go and judge the city of blood." (See: Rhetorical Question)
son of man
"son of a human being" or "son of humanity." God calls Ezekiel this to emphasize that Ezekiel is only a human being. God is eternal and powerful, but humans are not. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 2:1. AT: "mortal person" or "human"
the city of blood
The word "blood" is a metonym for murder. AT: "the city where many people murder their neighbors" (See: Metonymy)
her ... herself
The word "her" refers to Jerusalem. Cities were often thought of as a woman. This continues through verse 32. (See: When Masculine Words Include Women and Personification)
This is a city that pours ... her midst
Here the "city" represents the people who live there. AT: "The people who live in this city pour ... its midst" (See: Metonymy)
that pours out blood in her midst
The word "blood" is a metonym for murder. AT: "where many people murder their neighbors" (See: Metaphor)
so that her time may come
This refers to the time when Yahweh will destroy them. AT: "so that the time of her destruction may come" or "so that the time may come for her to be destroyed" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
unclean
A person who God considers spiritually unacceptable or defiled is spoken of as if the person were physically unclean. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word of God
Son of Man
judge
blood
know
abomination
Lord Yahweh
false god
clean
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 6, 7, 10, 13, 16, 17, 23, 25, 30 22:1-31 Jerusalem, the holy city where God had placed…
22:1-31 Jerusalem, the holy city where God had placed his name, was the spiritual heart of Judah. It had been corrupted and defiled; instead of being filled with God, Jerusalem was filled with bloodshed. As a result, God’s wrath would certainly fall on the city.
22:1-5 Now Ezekiel was called upon to act as a prosecutor by detailing the indictment against Jerusalem that would bring about its judgment. The city was guilty of sins against fellow human beings, including the blood they had shed (see Gen 9:5-6), and of sins against God, such as making idols (see Exod 20:4-6). These two classes of sin defiled the city and made it guilty, liable to judgment and unfit to appear in the presence of the holy God. As a result, Jerusalem faced guaranteed destruction and scorn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.