Ezekiel 22:1-31 - Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

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Ezekiel 22:8. Thou hast profaned my sabbaths, the sabbatical days and years. This is repeated in Ezekiel 23:38, to show that the desecration of holy things filled up the measure of Judah's sin: Ezekiel 20:12.

Ezekiel 22:18. They are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: they are even the dross of silver. Both the Vatican and the Alexandrian versions of the Septuagint represent the house of Israel as gold and silver mixed with those baser metals in the midst of the furnace; for silver is mentioned at the twentieth verse.

Ezekiel 22:25. There is a conspiracy of her prophets, even in the city and sanctuary. Alas, when the true faith is lost, when the anointed ones fall under an evil influence, the whole body must be depraved, and sickened with a mortal malady.

Ezekiel 22:28. They have daubed with untempered mortar, as is stated in chap. 13:11.

Ezekiel 22:30. I sought for a man among them that should stand in the gap. A day's man, Psalms 106:23, that should stand in the gap as Moses did; but I found none. When Moses prayed, the contrite worshipped at the door of their tents; but in Jerusalem “they misused the messengers of the Lord.”

2 Chronicles 36:16-17.

REFLECTIONS.

What an impeachment of the bloody city. What can we expect but the severest sentences of justice to follow; but from such a God as the God of Israel, justice is attempered with mercy. The first and great charge is, a prodigal effusion of innocent blood. The firstborn of many families passed through the fire to Moloch. Next, the judges took bribes against the lives of innocent men. Now the history of providence, in a general view, will satisfy all candid enquirers, that God has soon or late become the avenger of innocent blood. The vengeance which pursued Cain for his brother, which pursued the Egyptians for the infants, and Amalek for smiting the hindmost of the Hebrews, has never slumbered in the execution of its functions. And where is the nation which has persecuted and martyred the saints, that did not soon drink of blood in return. Sometimes justice may slumber till the third and fourth generation, as in France, but it is sure to speak in the end. The priests and nobles paid back, in the great revolution of 1789, the blood of the protestants shed by their grandfathers. See Bp. Reynold's book, entitled God's Revenge against Murder and Adultery.

We have here the awful consequences of the drunken and idolatrous feasts. Incest and unutterable mysteries of impurity followed. And if the brave and noble senate of Rome purged their country of the bacchanalians, and their orgies, and desired all families not to know their relatives who had been initiated into those mysteries, how much more would the Lord purge his people of crimes, which even polluted his holy place. Yes, he hasted to purge blood by blood, and to remove the oppressor by oppression.

In former times, the priests and princes had been compared to fine gold: but now, instead of being the precious sons of Zion, they were all but dross and dross of the basest metals. Hence, as there is a small proportion of metal in a mass of dross, the Lord resolved to find it by putting the mass in the hottest furnace of national disaster. And are these thy ways, oh Most Holy, when the crisis of affairs is come? Then may my soul never dare thy judgments, but humbly rejoice in thy mercy and forbearance.

The false prophets are in this, as in other sermons of Ezekiel, charged with misguiding the rulers and the public, and opposing the operation of the faithful warnings delivered by the Lord's prophets. Horrible, and utterly inexcusable then are all ministers, who give the slightest countenance to vice. And when ministers are relax, and the faithful are persecuted, there is no man to stand in the gap. Alas, alas, when a Lot escapes from Sodom, when a Moses ceases to pray, when an Elijah seeks his safety in flight, and when the Saviour says of covenant blessings, now they are hid from thine eyes; the city and nation so circumstanced, are on the verge of hell and destruction. No way seems to be left, but to bring the little silver which remains through the crucible, and to leave all the dross in the furnace of unquenchable fire.

Related Commentaries of Ezekiel 22:1

Ezekiel 22:1-31

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.

17 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

18 Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.f

19 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.

20 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 fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you.

21 Yea, I 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 have poured out my fury upon you.

23 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

24 Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

26 Her priests have violatedg my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken.

29 The people of the land have used oppression,h and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

31 Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.