Ezekiel 22

REVIEW QUESTIONS

Why does Ezekiel refer to Jerusalem as a bloody city?

How would the Jews come to be defiled of name?

What examples of lewdness in Jerusalem does Ezekiel cite?

What was the fundamental or root sin of Jerusalem?

Why is God said to smite His hand? (Ezekiel 22:13)

What positive effect would the exile have on the sinful nation?

How were Jerusalem’s prophets conspiring against God?

What charges does Ezekiel bring against the priests of his day?

What does it mean to stand in the breach?

Who were Oholah and Oholibah?

How was Oholibah more corrupt than her elder sister?

With what foreign powers did the two sisters commit harlotry?

Explain the parable of the cooking pot.

Why was Ezekiel forbidden to engage in public mourning at the death of his wife?

How does chapter 24 indicate the great love which Jews had for their Temple?

In what sense was Ezekiel’s dumbness terminated when the news of Jerusalem’s fall arrived?

Ezekiel 22:1-16

Chapter Eleven

THE DEFILEMENT OF ISRAEL 22:1-24:27

Chapter s 22-24 form the conclusion of a lengthy section of the Book of Ezekiel which began back in chapter 12. In these Chapter s Ezekiel has been answering all objections articulated and unarticulated which could be raised against his thesis that God must destroy Jerusalem. By means of three oracles, two parables and a symbolic action the prophet here underscores the defilement of the land of Israel in the past and in the present. Each chapter in this section forms a distinct unit which may be titled as follows: (1) A Sinful Nation (Ezekiel 22:1-31); (2) A Sad History (Ezekiel 23:1-49); (3) A Significant Date (Ezekiel 24:1-27).

1. A SINFUL NATION 22:1-31

Chapter 22 contains three separate oracles each of which begins with the phrase, The word of the LORD came to me (Ezekiel 22:1; Ezekiel 22:17; Ezekiel 22:23). These messages originally may have been uttered on separate occasions. However, there is logic in the grouping of these three messages here, for they share the common theme of the defilement of Israel. One might suggest the following titles for these three sermons: (1) The Bloody City (Ezekiel 22:1-16); (2) The Smelting Furnace (Ezekiel 22:17-31); (3) The Corrupt Land (Ezekiel 22:23-31).

A. The Bloody City 22:1-16

TRANSLATION

(1) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (2) And as for you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then make known to her all her abominations. (3) And say: Thus says the Lord GOD: O city that sheds blood in her midst, that her time may come, and that makes idols unto her to defile herself; (4) you are guilty in the blood that you have shed, and you are defiled by the idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and you have come unto your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all lands! (5) Those that are near and those that are far from you shall mock you, you defiled of name and great of tumult. (6) Behold, the princes of Israel, each according to his strength, they have been in you in order to shed blood. (7) In you they have made light of father and mother; in the midst of you they have dealt with the stranger by oppression; in you they have wronged the orphan and widow. (8) You have despised My holy things, and you have profaned My sabbaths. (9) Talebearers have been in you to shed blood; and in you they have eaten upon the mountains; in the midst of you they have committed lewdness. (10) In you a father’s nakedness has been uncovered; in you they have humbled the woman who was unclean in her impurity. (11) And one has committed an abomination with the wife of his neighbor, while another has defiled his daughter-in-law with lewdness; and still another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter. (12) In you they have taken gifts in order to shed blood; interest and increase you hate taken and you have gotten illicit gain from your neighbor by oppression, and you have forgotten Me (oracle of the Lord GOD). (13) Behold I have smitten My hand at your illicit gain which you have made, and against your blood which exists in your midst. (14) Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong for the days when I will deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and will do it. (15) And I will scatter you among the nations, and spread you in the lands; and I will consume your uncleanness from you. (16) And you shall be profaned in yourself in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am the LORD.

COMMENTS

Again Ezekiel is asked if he would judge Jerusalem (cf. Ezekiel 20:4). Before he can pronounce such judgment, Ezekiel must inform the inhabitants of the charges against them (Ezekiel 22:2). He therefore lists for them their crimes:

1. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were guilty of bloodshed openly practiced in the midst of the city. This brazen disregard for life indicates the terrible moral debasement of the place.

2. The Jerusalemites had made idols for themselves which had resulted in ritual and moral defilement (Ezekiel 22:3).

The bloodshed and idolatry had caused Jerusalem’s time (Ezekiel 22:3) and days to draw near, i.e., had hastened the retribution. The years of dispersion and exile were just around the corner. In the eternal counsels of God Jerusalem had already been made a reproach and an object of mockery to all neighboring lands (Ezekiel 22:4). The people of God would be known far and near. They would be defiled of name, i.e., have a bad reputation derived from the fact that their land was full of tumult, i.e., turmoil and confusion caused by war and natural calamity (Ezekiel 22:5). After this brief aside on the nearness of judgment, Ezekiel continues the catalog of crimes committed by his countrymen.

3. The princes or leaders of Judah had abused their power even to the point of bloodshed (Ezekiel 22:6).

4. In open defiance of the fifth commandment the people of Judah had ridiculed and mocked their elderly fathers and mothers (Ezekiel 22:7 a).

5. Oppression of the helpless the strangers or sojourners, the orphans and widows was common throughout the land (Ezekiel 22:7 b).

6. They had despised the holy things of God by the dis respectful way in which they conducted themselves in the Temple (Ezekiel 22:8 a).

7. The weekly sabbath and the special festival days designated as sabbaths had been profaned by the hypocritical conduct of the worshipers (Ezekiel 22:8 b).

8. Talebearers or slanderers had sent many innocent persons to face the death penalty (Ezekiel 22:9 a).

9. Participation in the idolatrous worship exercises upon the hills was common (Ezekiel 22:9 b).

10. Lewdness or unchastity was an integral part of those pagan rituals (Ezekiel 22:9 c). Unlike his contemporary Jeremiah who says virtually nothing about sexual sins, Ezekiel expands the general charge of lewdness in sickening detail in Ezekiel 22:10-11. He accuses the Jews of uncovering the nakedness of their fathers, an expression which refers to incestuous relation ships especially with a stepmother (cf. Leviticus 18:7 f.).[355] They had also committed rape, and that of a menstruous woman whose condition rendered intercourse forbidden (cf. Leviticus 18:19; Leviticus 20:18). Adultery which is an abomination in the sight of God, had been committed. Their lust even drove them to defiling their daughters-in-law and raping their half-sisters (cf. Leviticus 18:9; Leviticus 18:15).

[355] According to a Rabblnic tradition this verse refers to King Amon who is said to have had intercourse with his mother.

11. Bribery of judicial officials leading to the execution of innocent men was common (Ezekiel 22:12 a).

12. In violation of the laws against usury (cf. Leviticus 25:36 f.), the wealthy had taken undue interest and thus had enhanced their personal wealth through greed and oppression (Ezekiel 22:12 b).

13. All of the above sins grew out of one fundamental transgression: Judah forgot God.

Such crimes must be punished! In a gesture of anger God is said to smite His hands, i.e., to clap His hands, to summon the agents of judgment (Ezekiel 22:13). By means of a rhetorical question Ezekiel drives home the point that the Jews would not have the fortitude nor the physical strength to stand against the enemies by which God would bring judgment upon them. With God the very pronouncement of judgment is tantamount to the act of judgment, for what He decrees He will surely bring to pass (Ezekiel 22:14).

As far as Judah was concerned, that judgment involved ultimately exile to foreign lands. However, this exile would have a positive benefit. The people of God would be purged of their uncleanness, i.e., their Sin and iniquity (Ezekiel 22:15), and they would realize that Yahweh who knows the end from the beginning had brought this calamity to pass. But however beneficial the ultimate result, the exile would not be a pleasant experience. In the sight of the nations Judah would be profaned, i.e., humiliated and debased, and this would generate feelings of shame and remorse (Ezekiel 22:16).

Ezekiel 22:17-22

B. The Smelting Furnace 22:17-22

TRANSLATION

(17) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (18) Son of man, the house of Israel has become to Me dross; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of a furnace; they are the dross of silver. (19) Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: Because all of you have become dross, therefore, behold, I am about to gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. (20) As they gather silver, and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the midst of a furnace to blow the fire upon it to melt it, thus I will gather you in My wrath and fury, and I will cast you in, and melt you. (21) And I will gather you, and I will breathe upon you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. (22) As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, thus you shall be melted in the midst of it; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out My wrath upon you.

COMMENTS

The thought in Ezekiel 22:15 that the exile would purge the filthiness from Judah is amplified in the present paragraph. The house of Israel, i.e., Judah, has become like a metallic ore, a mixture of various minerals and impurities which must undergo a smelting process. They once were silver; now they are dross, i.e., worthless (Ezekiel 22:18). Jerusalem where the inhabitants would gather to make their last stand would serve as the symbolic furnace in which the refining process would begin (Ezekiel 22:19). The wrath and fury of the Lord would be the fire which would heat that furnace (Ezekiel 22:20-21). But through the holocaust the precious silver the spiritual remnant would become evident. All the inhabitants of that place would know that they had experienced the judgmental fury of the one true and living God (Ezekiel 22:22).

Ezekiel 22:23-31

C. The Corrupt Land 22:23-31

TRANSLATION

(23) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (24) Son of man, say to her: You are a land not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. (25) There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst, like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured souls, they have taken treasure and precious things, they have multiplied her widows in the midst of her. (26) Her priests have done violence to My law, and have profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and the common, nor have they taught the difference between the unclean and clean, and they have hidden their eyes from My sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. (27) Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey: to shed blood, and to destroy souls, in order to acquire illicit gain. (28) And her prophets have daubed for them with white plaster, seeing falsehood and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says the Lord GOD, when the LORD has not spoken. (29) The people of this land have engaged in oppression, and they have been involved in theft, and they have wronged the poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger unlawfully. (30) And I sought for a man among them to build up the wall, and one to stand in the breach before Me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found none. (31) Therefore have I poured out upon them My wrath, in the fire of My anger I have consumed them; their way I have placed upon their head (oracle of the Lord GOD).

COMMENTS

The land of Judah was defiled (a land not cleansed) and spiritually desolate (nor rained upon) at the time divine judgment was about to fall (Ezekiel 22:23). This condition existed primarily because of the actions of her national leaders.

The prophets had entered into a conspiracy, a solemn pact that they would predict only peace and security for the nation. Their loud oratory, like the roar of a lion, was only the prelude to national disaster. The character of these men was indicated by their greed. For treasure and precious things they would paint the future in the most optimistic hues. But the results of this kind of prognostication were disastrous. Lives would be lost and widows made numerous by the ruinous national policy which they encouraged (Ezekiel 22:25). Prophets were supposed to rebuke wicked men, expose national corruption and warn of impending disaster. But Judah’s prophets had whitewashed the leadership and supported their dangerous international policy by proclaiming falsehood. They used pagan divination to conjure up some of their lies and boldly announced them with Thus says the Lord (Ezekiel 22:28; cf. Ezekiel 13:10).

The priests were not one whit better than the prophets. Instead of teaching the Law of God and exemplifying its contents, they had done violence to God’s Law. They failed to teach it and violated its teaching. They profaned the holy things of God by not adhering to the regulations which served to underscore the sanctity of the Temple. They failed both in their private lives and in their public teaching to differentiate between holy and common, i.e., they allowed holy things to be used in profane ways (cf. Leviticus 10:10 f.). Likewise the Mosaic distinction between clean and unclean was ignored both as regards meat fit for food, and as regards the ritual purity of worshipers. They hid their eves from the sabbaths of God, i.e., they looked on indifferently as God’s people desecrated those sacred days. By means of all the above named transgressions the priests had profaned, i.e., treated disrespectfully the Lord God (Ezekiel 22:26).

The princes, like fierce wolves, shed blood and destroyed lives so as to enrich themselves. Probably these men used legal machinery to achieve their ends (Ezekiel 22:27).

The people of the land, i.e., the wealthy landholders, had unlawfully resorted to robbery and oppression against the helpless element of society and the strangers who sojourned in the land (Ezekiel 22:29).

The population was thoroughly corrupt. God could find no moral leader to stand in the breach in the moral wall that protected Judah from judgment. Morality is like a wall that shields a people from divine wrath. But where that wall breaks down, judgment enters. Judah needed a national leader of the highest quality to use his influence for good to repair that broken wall; but none was available (Ezekiel 22:30). The moral collapse of a nation is inevitably followed by their physical destruction. So certain is the judgment that God uses the past tense to describe what would yet befall Judah. There was no escape!