Ezekiel 22
ButlerThe prediction of the destruction of the Ammonites, which was effected by Nebuchadnezzar about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, seems to come in here upon occasion of the king of Babylon’s diverting his design against Rabbath, when he turned it upon Jerusalem; upon this the Ammonites grew very insolent, and triumphed over Jerusalem; but the prophet must let them know that forbearance is no acquittance; the reprieve is not a pardon; their day also is at hand; their turn comes next, and it will be but a poor satisfaction to them that they are to be devoured last, to be last executed. H.
30. Cause it to return into its sheath. The verb is to be taken as imperative. Let the sword return back to its sheath. Its work is over. Here ends the stanza of the Lay of the Sword, which, like the other part, is in the form of poetry:
The sword, the sword is drawn;
It is furbished to slay,
To consume, to flash forth,
In spite of thy false visions and lying divinations,
To give thee over to the heaps of the slain,
Of the wicked whose day is come, the time for the close of their iniquity.
Back, back to thy sheath.
The prophet in the name of Jehovah now turns to address the Ammonites, and reverts to the metaphor of a consuming fire which he had employed before (20:47). B. C.
22:1, 2 MOREOVER the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, And thou, son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? then cause her to know all her abomina 3 tions. And thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord God: A city that sheideth blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that maketh idols against herself to defile her! 4 Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed, and art defiled in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years; therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the nations, and a mocking to 5 all the countries. Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock 6 thee, thou infamous one and full of tumult. Behold, the princes of Israel, every one 7 according to his power, have been in thee to shed blood. In thee have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stran 8 ger: in thee have they wronged the fatherless and the widow. Thou hast despised mine 9 holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths. Slanderous men have been in thee to shed blood: and in thee they have eaten upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they have com 10 mitted lewdness. In thee have they discovered their fathers’ nakedness: in thee have they 11 humbled her that was unclean in her separation. And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in 12 thee hath humbled his sister, his father’s daughter. In thee have they taken bribes to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours 13 by oppression, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God. Behold, therefore, I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in 14 the midst of thee. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I 15 shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it. And I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee through the countries; and I will consume thy filth 16 ness out of thee. And thou shalt be profaned in thyself, in the sight of the nations; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. 17, 18 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel is be come dross unto me : all of them are brass and tin and iron and lead, in the midst of the furnace ; they are the dross of silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord God : Because ye are all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it ; so will I gather you in mine anger and in my fury, and I will lay you there, and melt you. Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof ; and ye shall know that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you. 23, 24 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto her, Thou art a land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey : they have devoured souls ; they take treasure and precious things ; they have made her widows many in the midst thereof. Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned mine holy things : they have put no difference between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey ; to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. 28 And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the LORD hath not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery ; yea, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the fence, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it : but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them ; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath : their own way have I brought upon their heads, saith the Lord God.
Chap. 22. The word of the Lord in this chapter sets forth the varied and enormous wickedness of Jerusalem and of Judah. It shows that they were guilty of other sins besides idolatry—indeed, of every other sin named in the Decalogue or known in this depraved world. Here let us bear in mind that this rehearsal and exposé of the sins of the Jews still resident in Jerusalem and Judah and now on the eve of their destruction are made before the exiles in Chaldea for the sake specially of the resulting moral influence toward the reformation of those exiles. God would have them understand why those terrible judgments were sent on their brethren and fathers and on the city and land of their early homes and early love. H. C.
1-16. In these verses the prophet, by a commission from heaven, is set 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. 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 bloodshed, but because her crimes in general were bloody crimes (chap. 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. H.
The sins which have brought ruin upon Jerusalem. In this catalogue of sins special reference is made to Lev. 18, and this because the sins there mentioned were especially those which disgraced the heathen inhabitants of Canaan, whom the Israelites were to cast out. The very fact of the commission of like sins would insure like judgment. B. C.
7. In thee have they set light. The children do not reverence their parents. Parental affection and filial respect do not exist among you. The stranger is not only not succored, but he is oppressed. The widows and fatherless are vexed by wrongs and exactions.
8. Thou hast despised. All My ordinances are not only neglected, but treated with contempt ; and My Sabbaths profaned. A. C.
13-15. “Smitten My hand at thy dishonest gain” is a significant gesture, indicating His purpose to scatter those gains to the winds of heaven and to make solemn requisition for that blood. It was God’s own intimation that He would call her to account for those horrible sins. When the hour of her judgment should come, “Could her heart endure or her hands be strong” against the Infinite God? Alas, she