Ch. 22 New indictment of Jerusalem

The passage has three divisions:

First, Ezekiel 22:1-12. The sins of Jerusalem, especially her two crying ones, idolatry and bloodshed (Ezekiel 22:1-5); along with the dark catalogue of other offences (Ezekiel 22:6-12).

Secondly, Ezekiel 22:13-22. Necessity and certainty of her judgment, which is stated first directly (Ezekiel 22:13-16), and secondly under the figure of a smelting furnace (Ezekiel 22:17-22).

Thirdly, Ezekiel 22:23-31. Renewal of the indictment against all classes of the nation, from the prince to the people of the land.

2. wilt thou judge] See on ch. Ezekiel 20:4, cf. Ezekiel 23:36.

yea, thou shalt shew] Rather: then thou shalt cause her to know … Ezekiel 22:3 and thou shalt say.

3. the city sheddeth] Rather as address: city that sheddeth! ch. Ezekiel 24:6; Ezekiel 24:9. Her “time” is that of her chastisement, cf. Ezekiel 30:3 “the time of the heathen,” Jeremiah 27:7. So Ezekiel 22:4, “days” and “years,” i.e. full number of thy years.

against herself] Rather: unto herself, parallel to “in the midst of it.”

4. The “blood” is not only that of her children sacrificed to the idols, but judicial and other murders, cf. Ezekiel 22:6; Ezekiel 22:9. Cf. Ezekiel 23:37, Ezekiel 24:6; Ezekiel 24:9.

therefore have I made] prophetic perf., cf. “shall mock” Ezekiel 22:5.

5. much vexed] full of tumults, Amos 3:9, and on ch. Ezekiel 5:7.

6–12. Particular enumeration of Jerusalem’s sins

6. The “princes” are those of the royal house.

were … to their power] have been high-handed in thee, to shed. The meaning is not that they shed blood to the utmost of their power, but that they were arbitrary; their power, lit. arm, was the only law.

7. “They” no more refers to the princes, but is said generally. On “father and mother” Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16; Deuteronomy 27:16. On “stranger” ch. Ezekiel 18:18; Exodus 22:21. On “fatherless,” Exodus 22:22.

8. Thou hast despised] Jerusalem or the community is addressed, cf. Ezekiel 22:26, ch. Ezekiel 20:13; Ezekiel 20:16, &c.

9. Informers and false witnesses, Jeremiah 9:3; Exodus 23:1; Leviticus 19:16. Cf. ch. Ezekiel 18:6; Ezekiel 18:11.

commit lewdness] This clause should probably introduce the vices in Ezekiel 22:10. Idolatry is metaphorically “lewdness,” but here it is not the community but individuals who are spoken of, cf. Ezekiel 22:11.

10. Leviticus 18:7; Leviticus 20:11,—defiled their father’s wife, i.e. their stepmother, or some of their father’s concubines; cf. 2 Samuel 16:22.

set apart for pollution] unclean from her impurity, ch. Ezekiel 18:6; Leviticus 18:19; Leviticus 20:18.

11. Leviticus 18:20; Leviticus 20:10. Leviticus 18:15; Leviticus 20:12. Leviticus 18:9; Leviticus 20:17.

12. taken gifts] i.e. bribes, said of judges, Exodus 23:8; Isaiah 1:23; Micah 3:11—Cf. ch. Ezekiel 18:13, Ezekiel 23:35.

by extortion] oppression, or violence, as Ezekiel 22:7. The vices here enumerated follow one another without any strict connexion. 1. The despotic conduct of the princes, whose power is their god (Habakkuk 1:11), Ezekiel 22:6. 2. Irreverence to parents, and want of compassion for the unprotected and helpless, Ezekiel 22:7. 3. Irreligion, Ezekiel 22:8; Ezekiel 9:4. Immoralities and incest, Ezekiel 22:10-11. And finally, greed of gain that overreaches and oppresses, Ezekiel 22:12. The picture is dark enough, and is unmistakeably that of a people whose decline is incurable, and its time at hand (Ezekiel 22:3), cf. Jeremiah 5:7; Jeremiah 6:13; Jeremiah 7:5-6; Jeremiah 22:3; Hosea 7:7; Micah 6:10.

13–22. The judgment on these vices

13. smitten mine hand] clapped my hands, cf. Ezekiel 21:14; Ezekiel 21:17, Ezekiel 6:11. The gesture is expressive of violent agitation, though the agitation may be due to different emotions—here disdain and dislike.

14. Cf. Ezekiel 21:7, “every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble.”

15. Cf. ch. Ezekiel 23:27-28, Ezekiel 36:25; Ezekiel 36:29.

16. take thine inheritance] According to the points: and thou shalt be profaned in (through) thyself. The idea that Jehovah “profanes” his people by casting them out of their land is not uncommon, Isaiah 43:28; Isaiah 47:6, cf. Ezekiel 24:21 (Ezekiel 28:16). It is doubtful if it be anywhere said that this casting out of the people is a profanation of them “in the sight of the heathen.” On the other hand that phrase is often used when Jehovah himself, or his name, is spoken of as being profaned, ch. Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 20:14; Ezekiel 20:22. Particularly it is said that Israel’s dispersion among the nations profaned Jehovah’s name, ch. Ezekiel 36:20-23, and in Ezekiel 39:7 Jehovah says, I will not pollute (let be polluted) my name any more (by the humiliation of his people). A slight change of reading gives: and I will be profaned in thee in the sight.… The whole passage speaks of the chastisement of Israel, not of the purging away their uncleanness (Ezekiel 22:15), which is mentioned incidentally (cf. Ezekiel 22:22). This chastisement is dispersion among the nations, by which Jehovah is profaned and by which Israel learns to know that he who disperses them is the Lord. Corn. suggests: by which (uncleanness) I have been profaned in thee. Does the idea appear in the prophet that Jehovah was profaned in the eyes of the nations by Israel’s idolatries?

17–22. Judgment on Israel under the figure of a smelting furnace. Israel is dross and base metal, which must be flung into the furnace.

18. dross of silver] In construction “silver” is in apposition with dross. For the figure cf. Isaiah 1:22; Isaiah 48:10; Jeremiah 6:28-30; Malachi 3:2-3.

19. midst of Jerusalem] Cf. ch. 24.

22. The figure of the furnace expresses mainly the idea of the terrible trials approaching; it is not intimated that pure silver was obtained from the process. In a prophet toward the end of the exile Jehovah complains that his casting Israel into the furnace had been barren of result, Isaiah 48:10.

Ezekiel 22:23-31. New indictment of all classes of the nation: the royal house, Ezekiel 22:25; the priests, Ezekiel 22:26; the princes, Ezekiel 22:27; the prophets, Ezekiel 22:28, and the people of the land, Ezekiel 22:29. Among all the people not one is found to stand in the breach, therefore his wrath must be poured out upon them to the uttermost.

24. the land … not cleansed] A land. The words “not cleansed” are parallel to “not rained upon.” In the east, however, raining upon is not a figure for cleansing, but for removing the curse and judgment, and blessing with fertility (Jeremiah 3:3). LXX. has “not wetted by rain” here, which most moderns accept, cf. ch. Ezekiel 34:26; Leviticus 26:4; Deuteronomy 11:14; 1 Kings 8:35-36.

25. conspiracy of her prophets] More probably with LXX., whose princes in the midst of her are like … The prophets are spoken of Ezekiel 22:28. The “princes” are those of the royal house, ch. Ezekiel 19:1, Ezekiel 21:12, Ezekiel 22:6, Ezekiel 45:8-9; those called “princes” in Ezekiel 22:27 are the chiefs or heads of the people.

have taken the treasure] i.e. by violence from others, Jeremiah 20:5.

her many widows] her widows many. Corn, their palaces, cf. ch. Ezekiel 19:7, Jeremiah 22:13-17. The change is unnecessary, Jeremiah 15:8.

26. The great influence possessed by the priests in this age appears from the place they occupy next the royal house. Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 2:26; Jeremiah 4:9; Jeremiah 8:1; Jeremiah 13:13; Jeremiah 26:11.

between the holy and profane] ch. Ezekiel 44:23; Jeremiah 15:19; Leviticus 10:10.

27. Her princes] The “princes” here are the chiefs or leaders of the people, cf. Jeremiah 26:10; Jeremiah 36:12.

get dishonest gain] Cf. Jeremiah 6:13; Jeremiah 8:10. The term is used pretty generally, of selfish advantage.

28. have daubed them] daubed for them, seconding them. The persons called “princes” may be referred to, but not exclusively. Cf. ch. Ezekiel 13:10, and Ezekiel 13:6-7.

29. people of the land] The phrase for the common people already, Jeremiah 37:2, and common in Ezekiel 7:27; Ezekiel 12:19, &c. The “people of the land” is certainly subject here, cf. Ezekiel 22:7, ch. Ezekiel 18:12; Jeremiah 23:34; Jeremiah 26:7.

30. All classes (Ezekiel 22:25-29) are alike corrupt; a man to stand in the breach in behalf of the people is looked for in vain, cf. Jeremiah 5:1.

For “hedge” better fence, cf. on Ezekiel 13:5. A “man” here is not a man to intercede, but a man to interpose, to stem the tide of ruin and turn the fortunes of the people. The moral energies of the nation were wholly exhausted; it could no more put forth out of itself a saviour to retrieve its fortunes. Cf. Isaiah 59:16, “and he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was none to interpose” (Isaiah 63:5).

31. have I poured] Prophetic perfect; the end is as good as come, Ezekiel 22:3-4. The result of this moral paralysis of the people must be its destruction. In the passages cited from Isaiah, written later and at a different juncture, the Lord himself interposes as saviour, there being none else.