Ezekiel 22

Ezekiel 22:3

3. And they committed whoredoms in Egypt;] Idolatry; see chap. xx. 7, 8.

Ezekiel 22:6

6. Behold, the princes of Israel.] These were probably the members of the great Sanhedrim, or the king’s counsellors and chief officers of state. See Jer. xxvi. 10; xxxvi. 12. W. Lowth.

— every one were in thee to their power to shed blood. The Hebrew reads, “with his arm to shed blood.” See the margin: and the sense may be, “they have employed all the force of their arms to shed blood in the midst of thee.” Calmet.

9. In thee they eat upon the mountains. In the midst of thee there are those that offer idolatrous sacrifices to their false gods, in their high places. Bp. Hall.

10. In thee have they discovered their fathers’ nakedness. That is, taken their mother in law to wife, which St. Paul calls, “such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles,” 1 Cor. v. 1. W. Lowth.

11. — gifts to shed blood. Innocent blood. Abp. Secker. The judges may be here particularly meant. W. Lowth.

— and hast forgotten me.] The forgetfulness of God is the source of the greatest disorders; for as St. Jerome well observes, The remembrance of God excludes all sin. Men rush into crimes in proportion as they forget God. Calmet.

tion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.

Ezekiel 22:15

15. — will consume thy filthiness out of thee.] I will purge thee in the furnace of afflictions, and take that method to consume thy dross, and put an end to thy idolatrous practices. Compare ver. 18, 19; chap. xxiii. 27. W. Lowth.

16. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen. The margin of our Bible reads, “Thou shalt be profaned in thyself;” which expresses the sense much better; that is, thou shalt no longer enjoy the privileges of a city called by my name, and set apart for my residence, but shalt be laid open as common ground, to be profaned by infidels. See Isa. xlvii. 6. W. Lowth.

17. — dross. The house of Israel is in my sight like silver alloyed with several baser metals. I am about to act towards them as a refiner, who purifies and separates the metals in the fire. Calmet.

Ezekiel 22:19

19, 20. — Because ye are all become dross, &c.] Because you are thus depraved, I will deal with you accordingly; I will gather you all up as into one furnace, which shall be Jerusalem, and there I will send the fire of my judgment upon you. Bp. Hall.

¶ Chap. 21. 17. The general corruption of prophets, priests, princes, and people. Before CHRIST 593. wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.

Ezekiel 22:24

24. — Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.] Thou art a land notoriously unclean with thy abominable sins, and therefore shall be seized upon by my judgments without mitigation; when my fire shall flame up to consume thee, there shall not be so much as a shower of rain for the quenching thereof. Bp. Hall.

The metaphor of fire, which had been used in the foregoing verses, seems to be pursued here; and the admonition of the Prophets is to be understood under the figure of rain. Calmet, W. Lowth. See chap. xx. 46.

Ezekiel 22:25

25. — a conspiracy of her prophets] That is, of the false prophets. These are often reproved for making a gain of their profession. See Jer. vi. 13; Micah iii. 5. 11. W. Lowth. Probably they agreed together in supporting each other’s false prophecies. See chap. xiii. 11, 12. Calmet.

— they have devoured souls;] They make merchandise of men’s souls; or else they take away their lives by false accusation, and then seize upon their substance. Compare ver. 27, and Matt. xxiii. 14. W. Lowth. Or, the consequence of their false prophecies, the destruction of men’s lives by the judgments which fall on impenitence, is charged on them.

Ezekiel 22:26

26. — and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths.] Absenting themselves from the holy rites to be performed in my courts. Abp. Newcome.

Ezekiel 22:28

28. And her prophets have daubed them &c.] Have soothed them in their sins; and in a base flattery have spoken plausible things to them, no less false than pleasing. Bp. Hall. See chap. xiii. 6—10, and the note there.

Ezekiel 22:30

30 — but I found none.] The Jews had generally given themselves up to idolatry, injustice, uncleanness, and abominations of every kind; and had profaned in the most shocking manner the religion and the service of God. The corruption spread among persons in a publick character: the prophet seduced the people; the priests broke the law, and profaned the holy things; the magistrates were addicted to injustice, dishonest gain, fraud, and violence. This deprived them of the Divine protection, and obliged God, as it were, to put his threatenings into execution. These sins, no doubt, God does still abhor, and much more in Christians: to whom the punishments of the Jews should be a warning, and especially to pastors and governours, that they be not the authors of corruption and of publick calamities, and so, in the end, of eternal perdition to those, whom God has placed under their care. Ostervald.

Chap. XXIII. ver. 2. — there were two women.] The style of this chapter, like that of chap. xvi, is adapted to men among whom, at that time, no refinement subsisted. Large allowance must be made for language addressed to an ancient Eastern people, in the worst period of their history; all whose ideas were sensual, and whose grand inducement to idolatry seems to have been, the brutal impurities which it encouraged. Abp. Newcome.

— the daughters of one mother.] Samaria and Jerusalem are described in this chapter as sisters, the offspring of the same land or country. Compare chap. xvi. 46; Jer. iii. 7, 8. W. Lowth.