The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel
Ezekiel 22
Chapter XXII · Vol. III, pp. 1343–1344
1 A catalogue of sins committed in Jerusalem. 17 God will burn them as dross in the furnace. 23 The general corruption of prophets, priests, princes, and people.
1 Moreover, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Now, thou son of man, awilt thou 1judge,2 wilt thou judge the bloody city?3 yea, thou shalt bshow her4 allc her abominations.
a ch.20.4; 23.36. Je.1.10.
1 Or, plead for or condemn.
2 Wilt thou judge! 'Wilt thou not judge?' (Boothroyd). Comp. ch.20.4.—C.
3 Heb. city of bloods, ch.23.37,45; 24.6,9. Ho.4.2. 2 Ki.21.6; 24.3,4.
b ch.3.17-21; 16.2; 23.36; 33.8,9. Is.58.1. 1 Ti.5.20.
4 Heb. make her know.
c ch.8.9-17; xvi.xx.xxii.-xxiv. Mi.ii.iii. Je.ii.-xix. Is.i.-iii.v.ix.lix.
3 Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood din the midst of it, that eher time may come;5 and gmaketh idols against herself to defile herself.
d ver.2,4,27; ch.16.20,21; 24.6-9. Is.3.9. Je.6.15; 8.12.
e ver.4; ch.vii.; 21.25,26; 12.22-28. Ps.37.13. 2 Pe.2.3.
5 That her time may come—her time of God's forbearance—her time of judgment for her sins— especially her idolatry and murders, ver.3.—C.
g Mi.6.16. 2 Ki.21.2-9,15,16; 23.3.32,37; 24.9,19. Je.ii.iii. ch.8.9-17; 6.15-43; xxiii.
4 Thouh art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and ithou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee ja reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.
5 Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous and much vexed.6
6 Heb. polluted of name, much in vexation, Je.15.23. ch.5.13; 15.7; 20.47.
6 Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power7 tok shed blood.8
7 Heb. arm.
k ver.27. Is.1.23. Mi.3.2,3. Zep.3.3. Je.26.11,23; 38.4.
8 'The princes of Israel (every one according to his power) were in thee shedding blood.'—Boothroyd.
7 In thee have they set llight9 by father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by noppression1 with the stranger; in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
9 To honour father and mother being the first commandment with promise, to 'set light by' them, is to disregard all the promises of God—yea to disregard God himself; for since the first promise of 'the seed of the woman'—in promise, for exercise of his people's faith—has God continued to make himself known.—C.
1 Or, deceit.
n Ex.22.21,22. ch.18.12. De.27.19. Je.7.6. Ps.58.2.
8 Thouo hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.
o ver.26; ch.23.38. Le.19.30. ch.20.13,21,24.
9 In pthee are men that carry tales2 to shed blood; and in thee they qeat upon the mountains;3 in the midst of thee they rcommit lewdness;
A.M. cir. 3412. B.C. cir. 592.
p ch.18.6, &c.
2 Heb. men of slanders, Le.19.16. Ex.20.16; 23.1.
q ch.18.6,11,15. Ps.106.28. 2 Ki.17.10,11. ch.20.23.
3 Eat of the sacrifices offered to idols at the 'high places.'—Note, It is a curious fact that the attachment to 'high places' seems hereditary and unalterable among the Jews. In Daghinistan, where the descendants of the 'ten tribes' appear to exhibit characteristic and unquestionable marks of their origin, the passover, the feast of weeks, the feast of tabernacles, are all celebrated on the mountains. See The Remnant Found, p.50,54,61.—C.
10 In thee have they sdiscovered their fathers' nakedness; in thee have they thumbled her that was set apart for pollution.
11 And one4 hathu committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another5 hath lewdly6 defiledv his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.
12 In thee xhave they taken gifts to shed blood;7 thou hast ytaken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast zforgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.
7 The bribing of judges and hiring of assassins.—C.
y ch.18.8. Ex.22.25,26. Le.23.35,36. De.23.19. Ne.5.1-7. 1 Co.6.9; 5.11.
z De.32.18. Ps.106.13,21. Je.2.32; 32.33. ch.23.35.
13 Behold, therefore, I have asmitten mine hand8 at thy bdishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.
14 Canc thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? dI the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.
c ch.21.7. 1 Co.10.22. Is.31.3. Job 9.4; 40.2. ch.28.9. Je.13.9,23. Zep.3.2.
d ch.24.14; 5.13; 17.24. Nu.23.19. 1 Sa.15.29.
15 And I will escatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and gwill consume9 thy filthiness out of thee.
16 And thou shalt 1take thine hinheritance2 in thyself in the sight of the heathen, iand thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
17 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become jdross: all they are kbrass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the lfurnace; they are even the dross3 of silver.
j Ps.119.119. Is.1.22,25. Je.6.28,30.
k Is.3.9; 48.4. ch.3.7. Zec.7.11,12.
l Is.31.9; 48.10; 27.9; 1.25. Mal.3.2,3; 4.1.
3 Heb. drosses, Je.6.30.
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore, In will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.
n ch.11.7; 15.7; ver.20,21.
20 As they gather4 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 leave you there, and melt you.
4 Heb. According to the gathering of.
21 Yea, oI will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.
22 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 havep poured out my fury upon you.
23 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
24 Son of man, say unto her, qThou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon5 in the day of indignation.
A.M. cir. 3412. B.C. cir. 592.
q ver.18-20. 2 Ch.36.14-16; 28.22. Is.9.18. Zep.3.2. Je.52.4; 39.1. Zep.1.14,15.
5 Not cleansed nor rained upon—neither weeded nor watered.—C.
25 There is ra conspiracy6 of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey: they shave devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.
r Je.6.13; 20.2; 26.8; 23.25,26. La.4.13; 2.14. Ho.6.9.
6 A conspiracy or combination, first formed by the false prophets among themselves, and then with the princes and priests; and, finally, contaminating the mass of the people by the contagious influence of their example.—C.
s ch.13.18-20; 34.3. Mat.23.14. Mi.3.11. 2 Pe.2.1,2. Ro.2.21,22. ver.27. Is.56.10-12. Ac.20.29,30. Zep.3.3,4.
26 Her priests have violated7 my law, and thave profaned mine holy things: uthey have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and vhave hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
27 Her xprinces in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
x Mi.3.2,3,11. Zep.3.3. Je.36.12; 38.4. ch.19.3,6; 45.9. 2 Ki.21.16. Is.1.23.
28 And her prophets have ydaubed 8them with untempered mortar, zseeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.
y ch.13.6,10. Mi.3.11; 2.11. Is.30.10.
8 Her prophets have daubed them (those who ought to be bulwarks and high towers of truth and godliness) with untempered mortar. They have urged and effected coalitions of parties that cannot continue to cohere, because their principles and practices being contrary to the law of God, must finally bring down a curse and terminate in disunion.—C.
z La.2.14. ch.13.6,7; 21.29. Je.5.12; 28.10; 23.32; 29.8-10,16.
29 The people of the land have used oppression,9 and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.1
9 Or, deceit, ver.7. Je.5.26-31; 6.13; 4.31. Ho.4.9. ch.18.12; ver.7,25-29.
1 Heb. without right, Ex.22.21; 23.9. Le.19.33,34. ver.7.
30 And I asought for a man among them, that should bmake up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.
a Je.5.1. Is.59.16; 63.5. Mi.7.1.
b Ge.18.23-32. Ex.32.10. Ps.106.23,30. ch.13.5.
Notes
Ver. 16. I, who was once your inheritance, have cast you off, and now you may support yourselves in your notorious wretchedness in the best way you can. 18-22. They are even growing worse and worse in the midst of my judgments upon them, and therefore shall be terribly punished and destroyed. 24-30. They are not refined nor washed by the judgments which I have inflicted. Their prophets combine against upright persons, and persecute, rob, and murder such as oppose them. Their priests wrest my laws to countenance their oppression and impiety: they irreverently officiate in my service; and neither in preaching nor in practice make any difference between right or wrong, clean or unclean: they take no care to have my sabbaths observed; and thus dishonour me by their infamous conduct. Their princes have abandoned themselves to cruelty, murder, oppression, and extortion. Their prophets, by false reasonings and unstudied discourses, pretended visions, and presages of peace and prosperity, flatter them in their sinful courses. And there is none among them who either apply themselves to reform the nation, or to supplicate the prevention of my judgments.
Ver. 30. The national defection and corruption was extreme—as in Sodom and Gomorrah, where no citizen was spared—because none was uninfected; and Lot alone, a stranger, was mercifully delivered—an extreme example of the blessed fact, that, in the worst of times, all are never lost; a remnant, however small, still testifies to the power of grace and the salvation of God. C.
Reflections.—Lord, what are men, that they, that professors of the true religion, should be such monsters! And what an awful connection there is between the different forms of wickedness! There is nothing so abominable, but forgetfulness of God, and of his relations and favours, may produce it. But very base and contemptible before God are degenerate and hypocritical professors. Dreadful is the case of a nation, when prophets, priests, and princes are accomplices and ringleaders in guilt. And when there is scarcely a faithful opposer or importunate intercessor. God's judgment must break in upon them, and render them impotent and miserable. Then shall they tremble under his hand, and feel what a wretched exchange they have made by their apostasy from him. And as their stations aggravated their offences, they shall enhance their misery and ruin.