THE SINS OF JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL: THE GENERAL CORRUPTION OF PROPHETS, PRIESTS, PRINCES, AND PEOPLE (Chap. 22)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—We have here another description of the sins of Jerusalem and Israel; and thus the judgments predicted in the last chapter are clearly justified. Three words of God are here closely connected together in their substance and design, viz.:
(1) The blood-guiltiness and idolatry of Jerusalem hastening the coming of the day of retribution, when the city will be an object of scorn to all nations (Ezekiel 22:1-16).
(2) The house of Israel has become dross, and is doomed to be melted in the fire of God’s righteous anger (Ezekiel 22:17-22).
(3) All ranks of the kingdom—prophets, priests, princes and people have become utterly corrupt, and therefore the threatened judgments are inevitable.
This chapter may be considered as standing in contrast with Chap. 20. In this latter, the whole of Israel’s history was reviewed as revealing a growing corruption which must of necessity bring down God’s judgments upon the people. The present chapter describes the existing condition of Jerusalem. In one case the prophet was commanded to “Make them to know the abominations of their fathers” (Ezekiel 20:4); in the other, he is commanded concerning Jerusalem to “Make her to know her abominations” (Ezekiel 22:2).
Ezekiel 22:2. “Wilt thou judge the bloody city?” The same expression as in chap. Ezekiel 20:4, denoting that the prophet’s reproof still continues. The question implies the idea that judgment can wait no longer, and the prophet must be wakened up to realise fully the great iniquity of his nation.
Ezekiel 22:3. “The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it.” “On account of the murders committed in Jerusalem and the offering of children in sacrifice to Moloch, she might well be denominated ‘the bloody city.’ In this respect she rivalled Nineveh (Nahum 3:1), and might justly anticipate the same doom. Instead of deriving any advantage from their idolatries, they were only involved thereby in ruin” (Henderson). “That her time may come.” The limit of her probation—the crisis of judgment (Isaiah 13:22; Ezekiel 30:3). “Maketh idols against herself to defile herself.” By her persistence in iniquity still heaping upon herself moral defilement with all its consequences.
Ezekiel 22:4. “Thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years.” The full term of days and years when the limit of Divine patience shall be reached. “The Jewish commentators distinguish between the ‘days’ and the ‘years’ here mentioned, interpreting the former of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and the latter of the captivity in Babylon” (Henderson). “A reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.” “Defiled, unclean with regard to the name, i.e. having forfeited the name of a holy city through capital crimes and other sinful abominations.”—(Keil.)
Ezekiel 22:5. “Those that be near” (Heb.). “The women that be near.” The cities of the nations are personified; as in Ezekiel 23:48. “Infamous and much vexed” (Heb.). “Polluted in name, much in vexation. “Her ancient renown had now descended to the dust. She that had been once “great among nations” (Lamentations 1:1) had now only a pre-eminence in calamity and disgrace. “Formerly Jerusalem had been renowned as ‘the holy city.’ Now it had been defiled by every kind of crime. It was also tumultuous, great of confusion, from the seditions and violence which obtained among the inhabitants. To all, both far and near, the Jewish metropolis was to be an object of derision.”—(Henderson.)
Ezekiel 22:6. “To their power.” Heb. “To his own arm.” Each man adopted the principle that might was right. With each man the strength of his own arm was his god. “Instead of reigning according to law and justice, the princes of Judah, in the most despotic manner, crushing by the strong arm of power all who were the objects of their personal displeasure.”—(Henderson). “To shed blood.” “By the repetition of the refrain, to shed blood (Ezekiel 22:6; Ezekiel 22:9; Ezekiel 22:12), the enumeration is divided into three groups of sins, which are placed in the category of blood-guiltiness by the fact that they are preceded by this sentence and the repetition of it after the form of a refrain. The first group (Ezekiel 22:6-8) embraces sins which are committed in daring opposition to all the laws of morality. By the princes of Israel we are to understand primarily the profligate kings who caused innocent persons to be put to death, such for example, Jehoiakim (2 Kings 24:4), Manasseh (2 Kings 21:16), and others. In the second group (Ezekiel 22:9-11), in addition to slander and idolatry, the crimes of lewdness and incest are the principal sins for which the people are reproved, and here the allusion to Leviticus 18:19 is very obvious. The third group (Ezekiel 22:12) is composed of sins of covetousness. For the first clause, compare the prohibition in Exodus 23:2; for the second, Ezekiel 18:8; Ezekiel 18:13. The reproof finishes with forgetfulness of God, which is closely allied to covetousness.—(Keil).
Ezekiel 22:9. “Men that carry tales to shed blood.” Heb. “Men of traffic.” Describing those who travelled about for the purposes of trade, such as pedlars or wandering merchants. Men of this kind would be likely to become notorious for carrying reports from place to place. Hence the phrase came to be used in the sense of talebearers. In the present instance, the reference is plainly to a class of men whom, in the present day, we should call informers. “They eat upon the mountains.” See “Exegetical Notes,” (Ezekiel 18:6.)
Ezekiel 22:10. “Discovered their father’s nakedness.” Mother, or step-mother; (Comp. Leviticus 18:7-8; Leviticus 20:11; Leviticus 1 Cor. Ezekiel 22:1.) “Set apart for pollution.” “This suggests the idea of a female devoted to prostitution, whereas all that the Hebrew expresses is one that is unclean by reason of the menstrual discharge. The character of the Jews, as here described, is aptly given by Tacitus: ‘projectissima ad libidinem gens, alienarum concubitu abstinent, inter se nihil illicitum’ (Hist. lib. v. cap. 5)” (Henderson.)
Ezekiel 22:11. “And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife: and another … and another, &c.” “There were such cases! Impurity in every form. A specimen of the moral atmosphere as a whole (Ezekiel 18:6; Leviticus 18:15; Leviticus 20:12; 2 Samuel 13:12.”—(Lange.)
Ezekiel 22:12. “Taken gifts to shed blood.” “Gifts,”—the word is here used in the sense of bribes. “Hast forgotten Me, saith the Lord God.” “The crowning sin with which the Jews are charged, and that which is strictly speaking the source of all sin, is forgetfulness of God. It is only as God is kept out of view as the omnipresent, omniscient, holy and righteous Governor of the world, that sin can be indulged in”(Henderson.) Two of their prophets describe forgetfulness of God as the root of all their evil (Deuteronomy 32:18; Jeremiah 3:21.
Ezekiel 22:13. “I have smitten Mine hand at thy dishonest gain.” A gesture figuratively describing God’s wrathful indignation. “This verse is closely connected with the preceding. This serves to explain the fact that the only sins mentioned as exciting the wrath of God are coveteousness and blood-guiltiness” (Keil).
Ezekiel 22:14. “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee?” The courage of sinners must fail when the judgment of God reckons with them.
Ezekiel 22:15. “And will consume thy filthiness out of thee.” “The removal of the uncleanness of Jerusalem is effected by the extirpation of the sinful inhabitants” (Hengstenberg). “The object to be attained by the dispersion of the Jews was their recovery from idolatry and from the polluting influences which followed in its train.”—(Henderson).
Ezekiel 22:16. “Thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen.” “The only translation of these words, which suits the connection, is that given in the margin of the common version: and thou shalt be profaned in thyself. The meaning appears to be: thou shalt be inwardly conscious of thy polluted condition, and shalt loathe thyself on account of thy sins. There, among the heathen, thou shalt learn to appreciate my character as a God of holiness, righteousness, and truth” (Henderson). “Jerusalem has desecrated the sanctuaries of the Lord (Ezekiel 22:8); therefore shall it also be desecrated for a requital (Ezekiel 22:16). It has wickedly insulted the dignity of God; for this it must suffer the loss of its own dignity. ‘In thee,’ so that thou must experience in thyself the desecration; whereas before thou didst send it forth from thee. Such things always return to him from whom they proceed.”—(Hengstenberg).
HOMILETICS
THE CATALOGUE OF JERUSALEM’S SINS
I. Consider the sins in detail. The prophet is not now speaking of the sins of their forefathers, but of those of his own day. They were all “abominations” in the sight of God (Ezekiel 22:2), corrupting and daring sins which bring down God’s judgment swiftly upon nations.
1. Blood guiltiness. Jerusalem is called “The bloody city” (Ezekiel 22:3-4; Ezekiel 22:6; Ezekiel 22:9; Ezekiel 22:12). To be guilty of another’s blood is the highest offence which a man can commit against his fellow. When this crime becomes the characteristic of a nation, that nation sinks into a savage and degraded condition.
2. Idolatry. “Maketh idols against herself to defile herself” (Ezekiel 22:3). In forsaking the worship of the true God they taxed their own powers of invention, and this was a greater wickedness than merely adopting the errors and superstitions which had been handed down to them.
3. Destruction of the fundamental idea of justice. “To their power to shed blood” (Ezekiel 22:6). As the Heb. has it, to his own arm, i.e., each man made his own strength the rule of right, made of his arm a god. The notion that might is right destroys the very foundations of justice.
3. Disregard of parental authority (Ezekiel 22:7). The Family is the oldest institution, the most changeless, and it will outlast all others. When the essential laws of the Family are disregarded, the Nation must decay and perish.
4. Oppression of the suffering and defenceless. The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (Ezekiel 22:7).
5. Profanation of God’s ordinances. They profaned the sanctuary and the Sabbath (Ezekiel 22:8).
6. Bearing false witness. “Men that carry tales to shed blood” (Ezekiel 22:9). Base informers and slanderers who scrupled not for their own wicked ends to swear men’s lives away. The fact that there were such men in considerable numbers suggests that there must also have been wicked rulers and judges who encouraged such men.
7. Impurity (Ezekiel 22:10-11). The individual was corrupted, then the family, and, last of all, the state. God sees such sins when man sees them not. Vices of this kind impair the physical energy of nations, and if unchecked must bring them to destruction.
8. Covetousness. This spirit of covetousness led them to take bribes, to become usurers, and extortioners. Thus those in authority became corrupted, and the evil spread fast throughout the whole nation. Jewish tradition ascribes the destruction of Jerusalem to covetousness that being regarded as the root of all evil.
II. Consider these sins in their root-principles.
1. Forgetfulness of God. “And hast forgotten Me, saith the Lord God” (Ezekiel 22:12). Former prophets had reminded them that this forgetfulness of God was the bitter root out of which all their evils grew (Deuteronomy 32:18; Jeremiah 3:21). Whatever was good or great in this people arose from their connection with God, so that by forsaking His worship and service they cut themselves off from a glorious past. They who forsake God are bound to follow evil. The morality of a nation cannot be preserved, even by the best rules and resolutions, if the truths of God and immortality are rejected.
“Truth for truth and good for good! Be good. The true, the pure, the just—
Take the charm for ever from them and they crumble into dust.”
(Tennyson: “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After.”)
2. Selfishness. Having cast off God, each man made himself the centre of all interest, the rule of all duty. Hence covetousness, leading to extortion, oppression, and the taking of bribes, the consequent perversion of justice to the injury of the poor and defenceless. Hence the deification of force—the doctrine that might was right. In such a condition of things each man will regard that which is a benefit to himself as right and good. Whatever a man could get by force would be his, and he would have no right to it longer than he had strength to defend it. Such a doctrine as this would destroy the foundations of morality.
3. Sensuality. This was another root-principle of the nation’s evil. The animal nature was let loose without restraint, and sins were committed which sank men lower than the beast. These sins are described (Ezekiel 22:10) by such words as “abomination,” “lewdness,” “defiling” and “humbling” those whose chastity they were bound in honour to respect.
III. Consider these sins in their punishment. “I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries” (Ezekiel 22:15). This punishment included many afflictions.
1. The sorrows and dangers of exile. They had to leave their beautiful country with all its hallowed asssociations, their homes, their kindred, their religious privileges which had made them great. They would learn to realize the worth of these when once they had lost them.
2. Abandonment of their own evil principles. They were permitted to carry out their own evil principles. They had acted like the heathen, and now they shall learn what heathenism means, in its own proper home. God allows men to work out such experiments for themselves; if haply they may come, at length, to the knowledge of their own helplessness. The discipline of failure prepares the way for the glory of God’s salvation. The prodigal in the parable thought that he could better himself elsewhere. He is allowed to make the trial, he gets his portion and departs. By the smart of the experiment he is brought to a better mind. Hard experience taught him those lessons which the sober convictions of duty failed to teach. Those who refuse to learn by God’s precepts shall learn by His judgments,
3. They would be a reproach among the heathen. The heathen could only despise them for their folly and inconsistency. They would be “a mocking to all countries” (Ezekiel 22:4.) They would witness how great her fall from ancient renown, and point at her the finger of scorn when she had now only the pre-eminence in calamity.
3. The judgments would be severe and effectual. “And will consume thy filthiness out of thee” (Ezekiel 22:15). The trial by fire is the hardest and most searching of all trials. We can, therefore, only understand this threatening to mean the extinction of Jerusalem’s polluted inhabitants. The ungodly are to be separated from the righteous. What a suggestion of the final judgment!
4. No human power could avert the judgment, or courage resist it. “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee?” (Ezekiel 22:14). When sin is committed men imagine themselves strong and full of courage, but how different their bearing when the time of judgment comes! When God once rises up in judgment against sinners, heart and hand, courage and strength fail. There was now no way of escape for the guilty. He against whom they had sinned had uttered His word, and it must be fulfilled to the utmost in dire judgment; “I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it” (Ezekiel 22:14).
5. The agency of man in the judgment. “Son of man, wilt thou judge the bloody city?” (Ezekiel 22:2). The prophets of old judged the world through the word of the Lord, the apostles through the Holy Spirit convincing the world of sin. St. Paul tells us that “the saints shall judge the world” (1 Corinthians 6:2); by which we are to understand, not that they shall sit upon the judgment seat, but rather that they by their righteousness shall condemn those who having the same opportunities yet resisted the grace of God.
1. Sinners are apt to confide in their wisdom, strength, power, riches, or friends. Jerusalem thought that she had wherewith to keep off all judgments or sufficient to enable her to wrestle with them if they came. “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?” Jerusalem thought so, had confidence that way, else the Lord would not have put these questions to her. “Thou didst trust in thy beauty” (Ezekiel 16:15); in thy wealth, in thy walls, in thy soldiers, in thy counsellors, in thy temple, in thy mountains, which were thy beauty. In Jeremiah’s days it is evident that the wise, the rich, and strong men in Jerusalem did too much confide and glory in their wisdom, their riches, and strength (Jeremiah 9:23). Her confidence was in falsehood (Jeremiah 13:25); that was in things which proved false and deceitful: one of this kind was the Egyptian strength (Isaiah 30:2; Ezekiel 17:17). It is not good to lean on our own wisdom, to rest upon our own strength, or strength of others; whoever makes flesh within, or flesh without, his arm, lies under a curse (Jeremiah 17:5); but he that trusts in the Lord, and in Him only, he hath the blessing (Jeremiah 17:7).
2. God hath His times to reckon with sinners. To make them smart for their evil doings. “In the days that I shall deal with thee.” God had His day to deal with Egypt (Ezekiel 30:9), with the Midianites (Isaiah 9:4). Ahab had his day to do wickedly, and God had His day to deal with him (1 Kings 22:34-35). Men sin, and think to hear no more of their sins, but God remembers them, and hath His days to visit for them (Romans 2:6; Romans 2:9).
3. God’s judgments discover the vanity and rottenness of human confidences “Can thine heart endure? can thine hands be strong?” In the days when I shall deal with thee, when I shall bring the sword, plague and famine, thy heart will be faint and thy hands feeble. God’s judgments are fires which consume man’s confidences, and make them see their own weakness. If footmen, horsemen, and the swellings of Jordan weary and sink men, what will the Lord of Hosts do (Jeremiah 12:5)? If they cannot bear the lesser judgments, how will they bear the greater? If briars and thorns conceit themselves to be oaks and cedars, can they endure the fire? They will be burnt to ashes (Isaiah 27:4).
4. The word of the Lord shall take place, whatever men’s thoughts are. They thought Nebuchadnezzar would not come, or if he did, that they and the Egyptians should be able to deal with them, and prevent those evils which were threatened by the prophets; but “I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it. “Neither will the Lord revoke what He hath said, and so prevent judgments intended: “He is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back His words” (Isaiah 31:2). Men often speak, threaten, and then after eat their words, call back their threatenings, saying they were uttered in passion, inconsiderately, and so show their folly; but God when He speaks, it is in wisdom, His words shall stand, and not be removed or called back (Amos 6:11). Hence it is that the Lord saith, “They shall know whose word shall stand, mine or theirs” (Jeremiah 44:28).
5. The Lord by His judgment doth purge out of cities and nations the wicked, and makes them and their wickedness to cease. “I will consume thy filthiness out of thee,” i. e., thy filthy ones. God brought the sword, famine, and pestilence upon Jerusalem, and by these did cut off and consume, the filthy ones there (Jeremiah 14:15; Jeremiah 16:4; Ezekiel 8:14). By His judgments the Lord consumes the filthy out of the city and land, and filthiness out of the saints.
6. The wickedness of God’s people doth disinterest them in God; it makes God disown them, and leave them to themselves. They might think and say they were still the people, the “inheritance” of God, that they had an interest in Him; but “thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself; “I disclaim thee, I cast thee off as profane, and look upon thee no otherwise than I do upon heathens. Israel had cast off the thing that was good, viz., the worship of God (Hosea 8:3); and, therefore, the prophet said, “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off” (Hosea 8:5); that is, thy false worship hath made Me to cast thee off, to declare thee to be none of my city, and thy people to be none of mine. The prophet Jeremiah tells us, that the Jews were once very dear to God, even as dear as a wife can be to a husband; but because, like lions, they carried it stoutly against God, and cried out against Him and His prophets, therefore He forsook them, and gave them into the hands of the Babylonians; and because Jerusalem was as a “speckled bird” in the eye of God, through her variety of gods, altars, superstitions and idolatries, therefore God caused the birds of all the nations to hoot at and hate her, even as birds do a speckled bird, inviting them and all the beasts of the field to come and devour her. And all this because they dealt treacherously, they were hypocritical, they were wicked (Jeremiah 12:1-2; Jeremiah 12:4; Jeremiah 12:7-9). The Jews had been a people precious in the sight of God, and honourable (Isaiah 43:4); Jerusalem His habitation, and the people of it His inheritance and His glory, whom He protected (Isaiah 4:5); yet, by their sins they provoked God, so that He gave “His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand” (Psalms 78:61).
7. That God’s judgments bring people to the knowledge of God. God would scatter them, consume them, cast them off, leave them to themselves, and they should know that he is the Lord. “The Lord is known by executing judgments” (Psalms 9:16); His power, His justice, and sovereignty are known thereby, and so men are made to fear and stand in awe of Him. When God is silent, and speaks not by His judgments, men think He is like themselves (Psalms 50:21); and are emboldened to sin (Ecclesiastes 8:11); but when God thunders by His judgments, they have other apprehensions of Him (1 Samuel 6:19-20).—(Greenhill).