Ezekiel 22:1-16 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Ezekiel 22. The Sins of the Classes and the Masses. The doom which has just been described in such fiercely vivid terms contains only one allusion to the sins which justified it (Ezekiel 21:23 f.). This chapter details those sins, and deals with the present as Ezekiel 22:20 had dealt with the past, incidentally letting us see what Ezekiel means by sin.

Ezekiel 22:1-16. The Sin. The evils denounced are largely social wrongs (cf. ch. 18), but it is significant that the low morality is traced to false religion idolatry (Ezekiel 22:3 f.) and forgetfulness of God (Ezekiel 22:12), cruelty, oppression of the poor and defenceless, immorality, abnormality in the marriage relationship, rapacity these moral wrongs are associated here, as in ch. 18, with cultic misdemeanours, e.g. profanation of the Sabbath.

Ezekiel 22:17-22. The Doom. In the day of doom, now so near, the people from the country will pour for protection into Jerusalem, which, under stress of siege, will become as a furnace in which they shall all be melted by the fierce heat of the Divine anger. No refining process this, for they are all dross, every one, high and low alike.

Ezekiel 22:25-31. Classes and Masses. The princes (i.e. the court) are equally rapacious, the priests make no distinction between the holy and the common, the officials are rapacious and dishonest, the prophets whitewash defects which they ought to expose (cf. Ezekiel 13:10 ff.). But the common people are as bad as their leaders: they, too, wrong wherever they can. Not a good man among them all to save the city from destruction. (The first seven words of Ezekiel 22:25 should read simply whose princes.)

Related Commentaries of Ezekiel 22:1

Ezekiel 22:1-16

1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge,a wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.

3 Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.

4 Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine 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 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 infamousb and much vexed.

6 Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their powerc to shed blood.

7 In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppressiond with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

8 Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.

9 In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.

10 In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.

11 And onee hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.

12 In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.

13 Behold, therefore I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.

14 Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it.

15 And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.

16 And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.