Ezekiel 22
ZerrCBCEzekiel 22 A SINFUL NATIONIn chs 22-24, Ezekiel continues to hammer away at the theme of Israel’s defilement. Again his underlying premise is that Judah deserves the forthcoming judgment. By means of three oracles, two parables and a symbolic action, the prophet underscores the defilement of the land of Israel in the past and in the present. Each chapter in this section forms a distinct unit that 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). 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. 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). THE BLOODY CITY Ezekiel 22:1-16 As in chs 16 and 20, Ezekiel sets forth Jerusalem’s abominations. Here, however, the prophet exposes present, rather than past sins. Initial Indictment and Threat (Ezekiel 22:1-5) Instructions (Ezekiel 22:1-2): The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (Ezekiel 22:2) As for you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then make known to her all her abominations. Again Ezekiel is asked if he will judge Jerusalem (cf. Ezekiel 20:4). Before he can pronounce such judgment, Ezekiel must inform the inhabitants of the bloody city of the charges against them (Ezekiel 22:2). He therefore lists for them their crimes.
Indictment (Ezekiel 22:3): 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. Jerusalem’s abominable deeds are essentially two. First, the city sheds blood in her midst. This brazen disregard for life indicates the terrible moral debasement of the place. Second, the Jerusalemites had made idols for themselves. Thus they had committed the ultimate sin on the vertical as well as the horizontal dimension of covenant obligation. Result (Ezekiel 22:4-5)The abominations of Jerusalem have five terrible results as listed below:
- Judicially guilty (Ezekiel 22:4 a): You are guilty in the blood that you have shed. The citizens had become judicially guilty, hence deserving of punishment.
- Religiously defiled (Ezekiel 22:4 b): You are defiled by the idols that you have made. They had become defiled, i.e., contaminated by something foreign to Jerusalem’s very nature.
- Politically in jeopardy (Ezekiel 22:4 c): You have caused your days to draw near. You have come unto your years. The bloodshed and idolatry had caused Jerusalem’ s days [i.e., days of retribution] to draw near. The years of dispersion and exile which commenced in 597 B.C., continued until the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.4. Publicly mocked (Ezekiel 22:4-5 a): Therefore, I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all lands! (Ezekiel 22:5) Those that are near and those that are far from you will mock you…
In the eternal counsels of God, Jerusalem already had been made a reproach and an object of mockery to all neighboring lands. The judgment is certain.5. Universally despised (Ezekiel 22:5 b): O you defiled of name and great of tumult. The people of God will become known far and near. They will 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. After this brief aside on the nearness of judgment, Ezekiel continues the catalog of crimes committed by his countrymen. Judah’s Sins Amplified (Ezekiel 22:6-12)
In Ezekiel 22:6-12 the accusations of Eze 22:3-4 are amplified as shown below:
Sins of oppression (Ezekiel 22:6-7): Behold, the princes of Israel, each according to his strength, they have been in you in order to shed blood. (Ezekiel 22:7) 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. Behold introduces the shocking crimes of the princes or leaders of Judah had abused their power even to the point of bloodshed (Ezekiel 22:6). His strength is lit., his arm. Government might was used to oppress rather than uplift people.
In open defiance of the fifth commandment, the people of Judah had ridiculed and mocked their elderly fathers and mothers. Furthermore, oppression of the helpless— the strangers or sojourners, the orphans and widows— was common throughout the land (Ezekiel 22:7). Religious sins (Ezekiel 22:8-9 a): You have despised my holy things. You have profaned my sabbaths. (9) Talebearers have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten upon the mountains. The Jerusalemites had despised the holy things of God by the disrespectful way in which they conducted themselves in the temple. The weekly Sabbath and the special festival days designated as sabbaths had been profaned by the hypocritical conduct of the worshipers (Ezekiel 22:8). Involvement in idolatrous worship had caused a general decline in commitment to truth. Disregarding the prohibition against bearing false witness, talebearers or slanderers had sent many innocent persons to face the death penalty. Many participated in the idolatrous worship exercises upon the hills (Ezekiel 22:9 a).
Sexual sins (Ezekiel 22:9 b-11): In the midst of you they have committed lewdness. Lewdness or unchastity was an integral part of pagan rituals (v 9b). Unlike his contemporary Jeremiah who says virtually nothing about sexual sins, Ezekiel expands the general charge of lewdness with five sexual crimes.
First degree incest (Ezekiel 22:10 a): In you a father’ s nakedness has been uncovered. Ezekiel accuses the Jews of having uncovered a father’s nakedness of their fathers, i.e., engaged in an incestuous relationship with a stepmother (cf. Leviticus 18:7 f.)Violation of sexual privacy (Ezekiel 22:10 b): In you they have humbled the woman who was unclean in her impurity. The men had humbled the woman, i.e., forced sexual relations with a spouse, during her monthly flow. The law forbade intercourse with a menstruous woman (cf. Leviticus 18:19; Leviticus 20:18). Adultery (Ezekiel 22:11 a): One has committed an abomination with the wife of his neighbor… The Jews had committed the abomination of adultery with a neighbor’s wife. Second degree incest (Ezekiel 22:11 b): while another has defiled his daughter-in-law with lewdness. They had committed incest with a daughter-in-law. Marriage made a woman a sister to every other male in the family. Though not blood kin, sex with a daughter-in-law was equivalent to incest. Rape (Ezekiel 22:11 c): Still another in you has humbled his sister, his father’ s daughter. The Jews had humbled, i.e., raped, their half-sisters (cf. Leviticus 18:9; Leviticus 18:15). Sins of avarice (Ezekiel 22:12): In you they have taken gifts in order to shed blood. Interest and increase you have taken. You have gotten illicit gain from your neighbor by oppression.
You have forgotten me (oracle of the Lord GOD). Bribery of judicial officials leading to the execution of innocent men was common in Judah (Ezekiel 22:12 a). In violation of the laws against usury (cf. Leviticus 25:36 f.), the wealthy had taken undue interest. Thus they had enhanced their personal wealth through greed and oppression (Ezekiel 22:12 b). All of the above sins grew out of one fundamental transgression: Judah forgot God.
To remember God is to respond to his gracious acts by covenant faithfulness. Punishment(Ezekiel 22:13-16) God’s action (Ezekiel 22:13): Behold I have smitten my hand at your illicit gain that you have made, and against your blood that exists in your midst. Behold introduces the shocking response of God to the sin of Judah. In a gesture of anger, God is said to smite his hands, i.e., to clap his hands, to summon the agents of judgment. God’s questions (Ezekiel 22:14): Can your heart endure? Can your hands be strong for the days when I will deal with you ? I the LORD have spoken, and will do it. By means of a rhetorical question, Ezekiel drives home the point that the Jews will not have the fortitude or the physical strength to stand against the enemies by which God will bring judgment upon them. With God the very pronouncement of judgment is tantamount to the act of judgment. What he decrees he will surely bring to pass. God’s intention (Ezekiel 22:15-16): I will scatter you among the nations, and spread you in the lands. I will consume your uncleanness from you. (Ezekiel 22:16) You will be profaned in yourself in the sight of the nations. You will know that I am the LORD. As far as Judah was concerned, judgment involved (ultimately) exile to foreign lands. Those who had escaped the deportation of 597 B.C. were soon to experience that fate. However, this exile will have a positive benefit.
The people of God will be purged of their uncleanness, i.e., their sin and iniquity (Ezekiel 22:15). They then will realize that Yahweh who knows the end from the beginning had brought this calamity to pass. But however beneficial the ultimate result, the exile will not be a pleasant experience. In the sight of the nations, Judah will be profaned, i.e., humiliated and debased. This will generate feelings of shame and remorse. In a certain sense this profanation will also affect Yahweh himself, as Ezekiel 36:20 will explain (Ezekiel 22:16). THE FURNACE Ezekiel 22:17-22 Condition of the People (Ezekiel 22:17-18): The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (Ezekiel 22:18) Son of man, the house of Israel has become to me dross. All of them are bronze, tin, iron and lead in the midst of a furnace. They are the dross of silver. The thought in Ezekiel 22:15 that the exile will purge the filthiness from Judah is amplified in this paragraph. The house of Israel, i.e., Judah, has become like a metallic ore, a mixture of various minerals and impurities that must undergo a smelting process. They once were silver; now they are dross, i.e., worthless. Melt-down of the Nation (Ezekiel 22:19-22) The furnace (Ezekiel 22:19-20): 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. (Ezekiel 22:20) As they gather silver, bronze, iron, 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. I will cast you into [the fire], and melt you. Jerusalem, where the inhabitants will gather to make their last stand, will serve as the symbolic furnace in which the refining process will begin (Ezekiel 22:19).The fire (Ezekiel 22:21): I will gather you. I will breathe upon you with the fire of my wrath. You will be melted in the midst of it. The wrath and fury of the Lord will be the fire that will heat that furnace. The result (Ezekiel 22:22): As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, thus you will be melted in the midst of it. You will know that I the LORD have poured out my wrath upon you. Through the holocaust, the precious silver— the spiritual remnant— will become evident. All the inhabitants of Jerusalem will know that they had experienced the judgmental fury of the one true and living God.THE CORRUPT LAND Ezekiel 22:23-31 Corruption of the Religious Leaders (Ezekiel 22:23-26) The prophets (Ezekiel 22:23-25): The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (Ezekiel 22:24) Son of man, say to her: You are a land not cleansed, or rained upon in the day of indignation. (Ezekiel 22:25) 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. The Lord regarded Judah as defiled (a land not cleansed), spiritually desolate (nor rained upon) and deserving of judgment (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 will 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. In exchange for treasure and precious things, they will paint the future in the most optimistic hues. But the results of this kind of prognostication were disastrous. Lives will be lost and widows made numerous by the ruinous national policy that they encouraged (Ezekiel 22:25). The priests (Ezekiel 22:26): Her priests have done violence to my law. They have profaned my holy things. They have not distinguished between the holy and the common. They have not taught the difference between the unclean and clean. They have hidden their eyes from my sabbaths. I am profaned among them.
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. They violated its teaching. They profaned the holy things of God by not adhering to the regulations that 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 eyes 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 done violence to God’s law. They had profaned, i.e., treated disrespectfully, the Lord God (Ezekiel 22:26).Corruption of Societal Leaders (Ezekiel 22:27-29): The princes (Ezekiel 22:27-28): Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey: to shed blood, and to destroy souls, in order to acquire illicit gain. (Ezekiel 22:28) 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. 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). Prophets were supposed to rebuke wicked men, expose national corruption and warn of impending disaster. Judah’ s prophets, however, had whitewashed the leadership. They supported their dangerous international policy by proclaiming falsehood. They used pagan divination to conjure up some of their lies. Yet they brazenly announced their prophecies with Thus says the Lord (Ezekiel 22:28; cf. Ezekiel 13:10). The landowners (Ezekiel 22:29): The people of this land have engaged in oppression. They have been involved in theft. They have wronged the poor and needy. They have oppressed the stranger unlawfully. The people of the land, i.e., the wealthy landholders, unlawfully had resorted to robbery and oppression against the helpless element of society and the strangers who sojourned in the land. Total Corruption (Ezekiel 22:30-31): I sought for a man among them to build up the wall, one to stand in the breach before me for the land that I should not destroy it.
I found none. (Ezekiel 22:31) Therefore, I have poured out upon them my wrath. In the fire of the my anger, I have consumed them. Their way I have placed upon their head (oracle of the Lord GOD). 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 (cf. Ezekiel 13:5).
Morality is like a wall that shields a people from divine wrath. 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. None was available (Ezekiel 22:30).
The moral collapse of a nation is inevitably followed by its physical destruction. So certain is the judgment that God uses the past tense to describe what will yet befall Judah. There was no escape! (Ezekiel 22:31).
Ezeiel Chapter Twenty-TwoVerse 1
LIST OF ‘S CURRENT SINSWhereas the previous chapter gave a record of the historical apostasies of the nation of Israel, this one focuses upon the sins that Jerusalem was then in the act of committing when Ezekiel delivered this chapter, the tremendous implication being that there could no longer be any hope of God’s sparing the “bloody city.”
Also, the specific enumeration of so many transgressions, “Gives us a true picture of what Ezekiel means by sins'."[1]The chapter naturally falls into three divisions, presenting three oracles, each of which begins with the solemn words: "The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man ..." (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/1" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:1</a>; <a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/17" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:17</a> and <a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/23" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:23</a>). Only the first of these is directed against Jerusalem, in the words, the bloody city,’; and Keil objected to applying the last two oracles to Jerusalem only, because they appear to be addressed against “the house of Israel.” Nevertheless, Jerusalem as the capital and final remainder of the whole house of Israel would seem to have been the principal addressee of the whole chapter.
Ezekiel 22:1-5“Moreover the word of Jehovah 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 abominations. And thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: A city that sheddeth blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and that maketh idols against herself to defile her. Thou hast become guilty in the blood that thou hast shed, and art defiled in the 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 among the nations, and a mocking to all the countries. Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall mock thee, thou infamous one, and full of tumult.““Wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge …?” (Ezekiel 22:2). The repetition indicates the strong emphasis of the command. The word “judge” here is a reference to an arraignment with a statement of the charges, as in the case of a prosecutor in a law suit. God only, in the strictest sense, is the “judge” of all men.
“The bloody city …” (Ezekiel 22:2). “This epithet applied here to Jerusalem equates the capital of the Once Chosen People with Nineveh, that infamous whore, the savage lion’s den, and corrupt center of heathen abominations,"[2] which God also designated with this same eloquent word of shameful guilt (Nahum 3:1), “the bloody city.” Note that Jerusalem has already forfeited all of her glorious names, such as “faithful city, and beloved city.”
“That her time may come …” (Ezekiel 22:3). “This means the time of her retribution, the time when God will judge and punish her."[3] God did not punish either individuals or nations until their “iniquity was full,” The meaning of this seems to be that, as long as there was hope of a change, God was always willing to spare the punishment a while longer.
“Thou hast caused thy days to come near, and art come even unto thy years . …” (Ezekiel 22:4). “Thy days” is a reference to the days of Jerusalem’s punishment, and “thy years,’ speaks of the years of her captivity.
“I have made thee a reproach among the nations …” (Ezekiel 22:5). This is a prophecy of what will soon happen, as indicated in the future tense used in the next verse, “Those that are near, and those that are far from thee, shall mock thee.”
“Thou infamous one, and full of tumult …” (Ezekiel 22:5). When any civilization reaches the condition in which the whole land is “full of tumult,” “violence,” and wholesale bloodshed, the end of it cannot be long delayed. It will be remembered that prior to the Great Deluge, the universal bloodshed and violence were cited as the reason for the destruction of the world in the flood. “And God said, The end of all flesh is before me; for the earth is filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:13). The near-universal violence of our own times should be a reason for the most acute concern and apprehension on the part of the leaders of our world. Only God, of course, could know at what point the land “is filled” with violence; but when that point is reached, who can doubt that God will terminate it?
Jerusalem had certainly reached such a point, as indicated here. “Manasseh had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood (2 Kings 21:2-15)."[4]Verse 6
“Behold the princes of Israel, every one 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 sojourner; in thee have they wronged the fatherless and the widow. Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths. Slanderous men have been in thee to shed blood; and in thee have they eaten upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they have committed lewdness. In thee have they uncovered their fathers’ nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was unclean in her impurity. And one hath committed abominations with his neighbor’s wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.
In thee have they taken bribes to shed blood; thou hast taken interest and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by oppression, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord Jehovah.““Some of the sins listed here relate to violations of the Decalogue, but the most of them relate to chapters 17-26 of the Book of Leviticus, where is recorded the so-called Holiness Code.'"[5] We appreciate the exceedingly significant observation of McFadyen here: "Although most of the evils listed here are social wrongs, it is significant that the low morality is traced to false religion."[6] Amen! The false notion that the prophets of God were concerned only with social wrongs has made many of the comments of radical critics worthless, because, "All sin, in the final analysis, is nothing but a failure on the part of men to maintain the correct relation with the Heavenly Father." "The First and Great Commandment is to love God" (<a href="/bible/parallel/MRK/12/28" class="green-link">Mark 12:28</a>). The student is referred to our commentaries on the Pentateuch and upon the Minor Prophets for a discussion of the sacred laws violated by these various sins. Despite the "princes of Israel" being cited here as the perpetrators of such atrocious evils, it may not be doubted that all of the people were equally as sinful. It is amazing that "even the princes" were the notoriously guilty ones. Naboth was murdered and his vineyard confiscated by Jezebel the Queen, Tamar was raped and dishonored by her brother Amnon, a prince of Israel, indeed, the first son of king David by Ahinoam. Reuben, one of the Twelve patriarchs "uncovered his father's nakednesss" by his adultery with one of Jacob's concubines. It is of interest that this latter sin does not seem to have been very unusual, because of the plural "fathers" in 5:10. In the New Testament, it is stated that the taking of one's step-mother was an evil, "found not even among the Gentiles" (<a href="/bible/parallel/1CO/5/1" class="green-link">1 Corinthians 5:1</a>). The disobedience and despising of father and mother always accompany the ruin of any culture. In the final hardening of Israel, in the times of Christ, the religious leaders of Israel, namely the Pharisees, taught that children, under pretense of respect to the Corban, had the right to despise and neglect their parents;[7] and Our Lord specifically condemned them for their teaching. Their old evils of the times of Ezekiel were still practiced in the days shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. "They have eaten upon the mountains ..." (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/9" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:9</a>). This refers to the widespread worship indulged by the Israelites in their participation in the licentious orgies of the "high places," where the ancient Canaanite gods of fertility were shamelessly worshipped by Israel. "Slanderous men have been in thee to shed blood ..." (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/9" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:9</a>) Cooke tells us that, "It was a common practice of those times to get rid of persons obnoxious to those in power by the device of false accusations."[8] Plumptre agreed, citing the case of, "Naboth in <a href="/bible/parallel/1KI/21/10" class="green-link">1 Kings 21:10</a>,"[9] as an example. "They have forgotten me, saith Jehovah ..." (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/12" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:12</a>). "Social morality always depends upon the remembrance of God."[10] In the last analysis, all correct human behavior is derived from the recognition of Almighty God as the giver of life and the only legitimate regulator of human actions. Why is it wrong to kill? This is true only because man is created in God's image, and God has forbidden it. Apart from the knowledge of God, it is not a sin to kill, to steal, to commit adultery, or to do any other deed that pleases the doer. Apart from the knowledge and remembrance of God, there is no such thing as either "right" or "wrong." It must indeed be feared that in our culture today, this fundamental criterion for determining what is right or wrong has been obscured by the increasing unbelief of our times. Verse 13 "Behold, therefore, I have smitten my hand, at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee. Can thy heart endure, or can thy hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I, Jehovah, have spoken, and will do it. And I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee through the countries; and I will consume thy filthiness out of thee. And thou shalt be profaned in thyself, in the sight of the nations; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah.""I have smitten my hands at thy dishonest gain ..." (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/13" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:13</a>). "This figuratively describes God's indignation"[11] at the crooked dealings of Israel. "Can thy heart endure ..." (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/14" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:14</a>)? No matter how bold and daring wicked men may pretend to be, when God's judgment falls upon them, all of their alleged courage evaporates! It will be true especially upon the final day of judgment depicted in <a href="/bible/parallel/REV/6/14" class="green-link">Revelation 6:14-17</a>. "I will consume thy filthiness out of thee ..." (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/15" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:15</a>). This will be accomplished by the total destruction of all of the wicked sinners in Jerusalem, who are, themselves, the "filthiness" of the city. "And thou shalt be profaned in thyself, in the sight of the nations ..." (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/16" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:16</a>). This is admittedly a difficult expression. "The meaning appears to be that Thou shalt be inwardly conscious of thy polluted condition, and shall loathe thyself on account of thy sins.’"[12] It should be remembered here, that, “Although God allowed his people to be profaned for a time, and allowed the nations to mock them, concluding that God was powerless to save them; nevertheless, the scattering of His people was remedial in God’s intention; and, in God’s own time, The holiness of God's name' would yet be vindicated (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/36/23" class="green-link">Ezekiel 36:23</a>)."[13]Verse 17 "And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel is become dross unto me: all of them are brass and fin and iron and lead, in the midst of the silver; they are the dross of the silver. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: 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 wrath, 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, Jehovah, have poured out my wrath upon you. The figure of this illustration is that of a smelter or furnace in which dross is separated from silver; "But this is no refining’ operation which we have here, because Israel is all dross, every one, high and low alike."[14]“I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem …” (Ezekiel 22:19). Keil thought that this reference to Jerusalem, “Is somewhat out of place, inasmuch as the preceding Word of God referred not to the city, but to The House of Israel' (<a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/18" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:18</a>)."[15] Keil failed to take into consideration that God here promised to "gather" the House of Israel into Jerusalem for the purpose of making a smelting furnace of the whole city; thus, the reference to Jerusalem is absolutely correct. (see <a href="/bible/parallel/EZK/22/19" class="green-link">Ezekiel 22:19</a>). When the siege of Jerusalem began by the king of Babylon, the whole population of Palestine, encompassing all of the House of Israel’ that remained, poured into Jerusalem for protection. This is a prophecy that, “Under the stress of the siege, Jerusalem would become a furnace in which they all shall be melted by the fierce heat of the Divine anger."[16]Verse 23
“And the word of Jehovah 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 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 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. And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah, when Jehovah 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 sojourner wrongfully.
And I sought for a man among them, that should build on the wall, 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 Jehovah.“This reveals the utter corruption of the prophets, and the priests, and the princes of Israel.
There remained not a single one of them who was true to the obligations of his holy office. They were best described as a pack of wild animals, devouring men as wantonly as a wolf or a lion would tear the body of an animal they were eating. The language here reminds us of Zephaniah. Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they leave nothing until the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have profaned the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law! (Zephaniah 3:3-4). The charges made against Israel here by Ezekiel have been made so frequently, and have been commented upon already numerous times in our series of commentaries, that it is unnecessary at this point to elaborate any further the gross sins and corruptions of the Chosen People. Their apostasy was complete; they had already sustained the judicial hardening of God Himself; and the hour of the nation’s terminal punishment was at hand. Special attention should be given the magnificent prophecy in the last verse here. The verbs in this verse are the “prophetic present.” They speak of what God “will do,” not about what has already been done. Alexander properly understood this: “God concluded this message (Ezekiel 22:31) with a judgment, that he would consume (future tense) the people with fire from his mouth, and that the people themselves were responsible for the judgment coming (future tense) upon them."[17]Of course, no radical scholar can allow such a prophecy, due to their incorrect and ridiculous rule that there are no “predictive prophecies” in the Bible, Based on that false rule, Cooke stated that, “In any case Ezekiel 22:30-31 were written after 586 B.C. (that is, after the fall of Jerusalem)."[18] Did Cooke offer any proof of this? Indeed no! There is no proof or evidence whatever of the truth of such a canard. Such a statement is without any doubt whatever incorrect.
Ezekiel 22:1
Ezekiel 22:1-2. The prophet is again told to direct his writing against the bloody city which means Jerusalem which was still standing. He was to recall to her the many abominations of which she was guilty, both physical and spiritual.
Ezekiel 22:3
Ezekiel 22:3. The city of Jerusalem not only harbored many idols, but also shielded men who were guilty of bloodshed against the helpless citizens.
Ezekiel 22:4
Ezekiel 22:4. Caused thy days to draw near referred to the closeness of the final downfall of the city. Made thee a reproach is past tense in form and to some extent it was so, for the bulk of the men of Judah were already in Babylon. However, the last act of the great drama was yet to come when tiie city would he destroyed by the army of the Babylonians.
Ezekiel 22:5
Ezekiel 22:5. When a great city like Jerusalem is utterly destroyed it always causes much comment from the people of tiie countries. Some might make remarks that were prompted by sincere regret that so great a city should come to ruin. Others would speak in derision and exultation as over the downfall of a dreaded rival.
Ezekiel 22:6
Ezekiel 22:6. The princes or leading men in Israel (Judah) used their advantage of position and prestige to carry out their personal wicked designs. Such a course included the shedding of innocent blood of which they were frequently accused by the inspired prophets and other teachers.
Ezekiel 22:7
Ezekiel 22:7. Set light means to make light of or belittle, and these wicked leaders in Jerusalem lost almost all “natural affection.” If a man would lose respect for his own parents it might be expected that he would have very little regard for others. Hence these wicked lenders used oppressive measures against the visitors to their city, and also took advantage of the fatherless and widows.
Ezekiel 22:8
Ezekiel 22:8. These men despised (belittled) the holy things pertaining to the services of the temple. They profaned the sabbaths by ignoring the observance due the sacred days and by using the time in carrying out their wicked devices for gain.
Ezekiel 22:9
Ezekiel 22:9. There are three unrighteous practices mentioned in this verse. One is the peddling of gossip that led to the shedding of innocent blood. Another is to eat upon the mountains which means to participate in idolatrous feasts, and the other pertains to practices of immorality.
Ezekiel 22:10
Ezekiel 22:10. Ordinary lewdneas was not enough for these wicked men, but they invaded the sacred rights of their nearest relations. They were so vicious in their immoral indulgencies that they violated Leviticus 18:19.
Ezekiel 22:11
Ezekiel 22:11. This verse refers to the general and promiscuous practice of immorality. No rank of social or blood connection furnished any protection against the assaults of theSe abominable characters who were blind to ail sense of decency.
Ezekiel 22:12
Ezekiel 22:12. It is bad enough to shed blood in anger or on the spur of the moment, but these men deliberately did so for the sake of bribes. Their greed for gain was so great that they violated the law against usury in order to obtain It. They also took advantage of the urgency of a man’ s condition to extort money from him.
Ezekiel 22:13
Ezekiel 22:13. Have smitten mine hand refers to the gesture that was used in ancient times to emphasize the intensity of God’ s feelings against wicked men.
Ezekiel 22:14
Ezekiel 22:14. Can thine hands be strong was the Lord’ s way of telling them they would not be able to resist the wrath that He would soon bring against them.
Ezekiel 22:15
Ezekiel 22:15. This verse has direct reference to the captivity. It was to be accomplished in the Babylonian Empire which is a singular word, but that great institution was composed of many countries, hence the mention of that subject in connection with the scattering among the heathen. Consume thy filthiness applies specifically to the cure of idolatry which the captivity was to accomplish.
Ezekiel 22:16
Ezekiel 22:16. Inheritance is from chalai. which Strong defines, “To bore, i.e. (by implication) to wound, to dissolve; figuratively to profane a person.” The verse means that Judah would he humiliated in the sight of the heathen by her corrupt conduct.
Ezekiel 22:17-18
Ezekiel 22:17-18. Dross is the worthless material that is found in silver ore, and the article is used to illustrate the sunken value of Judah in the Lord’ s sight.
Ezekiel 22:19
Ezekiel 22:19. These evil men of Judah were destined to be put through the fire of God’ s chastisement, and they were to be seized upon while in the midst ot Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 22:20
Ezekiel 22:20. Not that these people were to be left in Jerusalem, except until they would be subjected to the siege and made to feel the heat of God’ s wrath.
Ezekiel 22:21
Ezekiel 22:21. The comparison of these verses is drawn from the work of the smelter, where fire is used to separate the dross from the silver.
Ezekiel 22:22
Ezekiel 22:22. The men of Judah were to be subjected to the test in order to learn about the wrath of the Lord. The warnings that had been repeatedly given them by the Lord through the prophets had fallen on deaf ears, so a physical test of chastisement was necessary to bring them to their Benses.
Ezekiel 22:23-24
Ezekiel 22:23-24. Land not cleansed has reference to the many pollutions both physical and moral of which the land was guilty. Nor rained upon. In those times God sometimes punished the land by withholding the rain (1 Kings 8:35; Deuteronomy 11:17).
Ezekiel 22:25
Ezekiel 22:25. These were the false prophets who joined with other leading men in a conspiracy to defraud the people. They had practiced their wicked devices for personal gain even to the shedding of innocent blood.
Ezekiel 22:26
Ezekiel 22:26. These priests had some encouragement for their unlawful conduct In the false teaching of the prophets. Jeremiah 5:31 shows a conspiracy between the evil priests and prophets. One of the surest in-dications of degeneracy is the confusing of clean and unclean things. Profane things might mean simply the things of a temporal nature and not necessarily wrong. But when the holy or sacred things are put on a basis with the profane or temporal, great corruption results.
Ezekiel 22:27
Ezekiel 22:27. Ravening is from TARAPH and Strong defines it, “ To pluck off or pull to pieces.” The idea is the princes were vicious in their activities against, the helpless. The terrible nature of this situation Is shown in the fact that all this violence against the victims was for the sake of temporal gain.
Ezekiel 22:28
Ezekiel 22:28. This comparison to untempered mortar in the case of false teaching was used in Ezekiel 13:9-11 and commented upon in that place. The false prophets claimed to have received some vision from the Lord, whereas He would not even make any use of such persons in such important matters as pertained to the welfare of the nation.
Ezekiel 22:29
Ezekiel 22:29. The people of the land would have reference to those citizens who had advantages over the others. Oppression is from a word that is defined “fraud” in the lexicon. They used deceitful means to get hold of the possessions of the poor and needy. They did not stop at defrauding their fellow citizens, but extended their fraudulent dealings to the strangers which means people who were visiting the country.
Ezekiel 22:30
Ezekiel 22:30. Make up the hedge is figurative and means to build up the weakened condition of the city. No man could be found who was able to remedy the condition.
Ezekiel 22:31
Ezekiel 22:31. Have poured out was both history and prophecy. Most of the national ruin had taken place but some of it was still in the future. Own way have I recompensed means the Lord imposed upon his unfaithful people the judgment that was due them in view of the way they had acted. The Lord is always compassionate toward the creatures of His care, but when they become impenitent, and ungrateful for divine favors, they must expect to receive the punishment their sins deserve.