Ezekiel 22
PATThis chapter contains a catalogue or recital of the s|ns of Jerusalem, and of all orders and degrees of men in it; for which God threatens to inflict his severest judgments upon it, Microsoft® [chap. XXII.
Ezekiel 22:2
TVlLTthou judge the bloody city?. Sco the note upon xx. 4. The bloody city.] See xxiii. 37. 45. xxiv* G. 9. 2 Kings xxi. 16.
Ezekiel 22:3
That her time may come. See vii. 7.
Ezekiel 22:4
Thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years. Thou hast filled up the measure of thine iniquities, and brought the time of vengeance upon thyself. (See vii. 10.) Therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, &c.] See v. 14. xxi. 28. Deut. xxviii. 37. 1 Kings ix. 7.)
Ezekiel 22:5
Tliose that be near, and those that be far off, mock thee. See xvi. 57.
Ezekiel 22:6
Behold, the princes of Israel, &c. These were probably the members of the great Sanhedrin; or the king’s counsellors and chief officers of state. (See Jer. xxvi. 10. xxxvi. 12.)
Ezekiel 22:7
In thee have they set light by father and mother. Against which sin thero is a solemn curse pronounced, Deut. xxvii. 1G.
Ezekiel 22:8
Thou hast despised my holy things, and profaned my sabbatJis. Thou hast profaned the things dedicated to my service, and the times and places set apart for the same purpose. (Compare ver. 26. xxiii. 38. and Lev. xix. 30.)
Ezekiel 22:9
In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood. That bear false witness against men in capital cases. (See Lev. xix. 16.) And in thee tliey eat tipon the mountains.] Se&xviii. 6.
Ezekiel 22:10
In thee have they discovered their fathers’ nakedness. Took their mother-in-law to wife, which St. Paul calls such fornication as is not?iamed among the gentiles, 1 Cor. v. 1.
Ezekiel 22:12
In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood. The judges have taken bribes, not only to pervert justice, but even to take away the lives of the innocent.
Ezekiel 22:13
Tlierefore I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain. I have expressed mine indignation at these unjust practices. (See xxi. 14. 17.)
Ezekiel 22:14
Can thine heart endure, or can thine hattds be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee?. On the contrary, All hearts shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble at the approach of God’s judgments, xxi. 7. J the Lord have spoken it, and will do it.] See xxi v. 14.
Ezekiel 22:15
And will consume thyfdthiness 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, &c. xxiii. 27.)
Ezekiel 22:16
And thou shall take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen. Instead of being mine inheritance, and under my peculiar care and protection, thott shalt be cast out among the heathen, and there eat the fruit of thine own ways, and receive the just reward of thy wickedness. The margin of our Bibles reads, Tliou shalt be profaned in thyself, &c. Which I think expresses the sense much better; taking the verb niltal in the same sense, wherein it is used vii. 24. and xxv. 3. of this prophecy; i.e. 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. (Compare Isa. xlvii. G.)
Ezekiel 22:18
The house of Israel to me is become dross, &c. Their filthincss may fitly be compared to the mixture of dross and baser metals with the pure silver; and as that is purified by being melted in a furnace or crucible, so Jerusalem, when it is set on fire, shall be the furnace wherein I will cast them and their wickedness to be consumed. (Compare Jer. vi. 28. 30.) God’s severe judgments are expressed by tbo furnace of affliction, Isa.xlviii.10. and compared to a refiner’s fire, Isa. i. 25. Mai. iii. 2. because they are designed to purge men from that dross and corruption, which is too often the effect of ease and prosperity.
Ezekiel 22:21
I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath. God’s vengeance is often compared to fire. (See xx. 47.) But here it was so in a literal sense, when both city and temple were consumed by fire, (2 Kings xxv. 9.)
Ezekiel 22:24
Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. God had, in the foregoing verses, compared his anger to fire: in pursuance of which metaphor he adds, That if the wholesome advice and admonition of the prophets (compared to the dew or rain coming from heaven, xx. 46.) had been but duly received, they would have supplied the place of rain, and washed away the filth of the land: so that it needed not to have been purged or cleansed by fire. The Chaldee paraphrase expounds the sense thus, Tliou art the. land in which there have been no good works done to protect it in the day of God’s curse or indignation.
Ezekiel 22:25
Tlvere is a conspiracy of the prophets in tJie midst of Iter. i. e. Of the false prophets. (See the note upon Jer. xxix. 1.) These are often reproved for making a gain of their profession: (See Jer. vi. 13. Micah iii. 5. 11.) They have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things, &c] They make merchandise of men’s souls; or else they take away their lives by false accusations, and then seize upon their substance. (Compare ver. 27. and Matt, xxiii. 14.)
Ezekiel 22:26
Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things. The gifts and sacrifices offered in my service; either by offering them in an undue manner, as the sons of Eli did, (1 Sam. ii. 15.) or without due purification, of themselves; or else eating them as common meats, without regard to the rules prescribed in the law r, (Lev. xxi. xxii.) They have put no difference between the holy andprofane, &c] They have not shewed any regard to the rules the Levitical laws lay down, whereby to distinguish betwixt what is holy or unholy, clean or unclean, and that both with respect to persons and things. And they are guilty of this neglect, in contradiction to an express charge given them concerning this matter, (Lev. x. 10.) And have hid their eyes from my sabbaths.] They have not attended upon my public worship on the sabbath-days, (see 2 Chron. xxix. 7.) and thereby have encouraged my people in the neglect and profanation of that day. (See ver. 8.)
Ezekiel 22:27
Her princes in the midst of her are like wolves ravening the prey, &c. The chief officers of state under the king: (sco Jer. xxxvi. 12. xxxviii. 4.) not excluding tho kiugs themselves, whose oppressions of their subjects the prophet elsewhere severely reproves. (See xi^. 3. 6. xlv. 9.) All those, tho text saith, stick at no method of injustice and oppression, whereby they may increase their substance, though it be by takiug away the lives and estates uiyiiizGu oy iviicrosoii m: CHAP. XXIII.] UPON EZEKIEL. of the innocent. (Compare Isa. i. 23. Micah iii. 1, &c. Zech. iii. 3.).,
Ezekiel 22:28
And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, &c. Have daubed over the evil practices of the great men by palliating devices. (See xiii. 6. 10.)
Ezekiel 22:29
The people of the land have used oppression. See Jer. v. 26. vi. 13. Yea, they liave oppressed the stranger. wrongfully,,] Contrary to an express prohibition of God’s law, frequently repeated and urged upon them from the consideration that they themselves were strangers in Egypt. (See Exod. xxii. 21. xxiii. 9. Lev. xix. 33, 34.)
Ezekiel 22:30
And I sought for a man among them that should makeup the hedge — but I found none. This general complaint may be expounded with some restriction (such as is commonly understood in unlimited expressions). Eor we read ix. 4. that therewere some that did sigh and cry to God, by way of deprecating his wrath, for the abominations done in Jerusalem. (See the like expression Jer. v. I. and the note upon that place.) That should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap, &c.] See xiii. 5:
Ezekiel 22:31
Tlieir own way have I recompensed upon their heads. See ix. 10. xL 21. xvi. 43…