Ezekielchapter 22
31 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel spoke this to exiles who thought of Jerusalem as holy by definition. It is set out like a legal charge sheet read against a city, with each offence named one after another. The chapter has three parts, and each looks at the same city from another side. Listen for how ordinary most of the charges are, and for the picture from the metal-worker's furnace. At the close, listen for the roll call of the city's leaders and for the one person God looked for and did not find. It asks who will stand in the gap when a society fails.
Context
- Who
- Exiles who thought of the city as holy by definition
- What
- An indictment of Jerusalem as a city of bloodshed, a picture of the city melted in a furnace, and a charge against every class of its leaders.
- Where
- Tel Abib in Babylonia, speaking of Jerusalem.
- When
- About 589 to 588 BC, on the eve of the siege of Jerusalem.
- Why
- To show the exiles that the cause of the city's fall lay in its own injustice and in the failure of its leaders.
Historical context
The chapter is laid out like a legal charge sheet, and the offences are ordinary civic ones. Fathers and mothers treated with contempt. Resident foreigners squeezed. Orphans and widows wronged. Holy things despised and sabbaths ignored. Slander that got men killed. Bribes taken to shed blood. Loans made at interest and profit taken by extortion from neighbours.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
One accusation would have struck hardest at a priest. Her priests have done violence to my law: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, and have taught no difference between the unclean and the clean. That was literally the priest's job description in the Law, to teach the difference. The complaint is not that they taught it badly but that they stopped.
The refining image at the centre is technical. Silver was purified by heating the ore in a furnace with bellows until the lead and other metals oxidized off and the dross could be skimmed away. Ezekiel piles the whole city into the furnace, silver, bronze, iron, lead, tin, and the fire is blown to full heat. What comes out is not silver. The alloy melts and the dross is all there is.
The list of guilty groups at the end is a roll call of the whole establishment: princes like wolves tearing prey, prophets whitewashing over it with false visions, priests violating the law, and the people of the land practising extortion and robbing the poor. God says He looked for a man to build the wall and stand in the breach before Him for the land, and found none.
Significance
The exiles could name plenty of reasons for Babylon's success, better cavalry, bigger empire, Egyptian betrayal. This chapter puts the reason inside the city walls and inside the leadership.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
It is also a mirror for the community by the canal. These were their own classes, their princes, their prophets, their priests, their landowners. If nobody would stand in the gap for Jerusalem, the question hanging over the room was who would stand in it now.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter is read aloud in the synagogue once a year. The site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records Ezekiel 22:1 to 22:19 as the Haftarah of Achrei Mot, the portion of Leviticus 16:1 to 18:30. The Sephardi rite reads the shorter Ezekiel 22:1 to 22:16, and the probe printed the rite as both. A congregation hears the laws of the Day of Atonement and of forbidden unions from the Torah scroll, and then hears Ezekiel name the city of bloodshed.
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The translation is modern, so every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer.
Rashi joins this chapter to the Torah portion it follows, and reads its list of sins against Leviticus. "All the abominations in the section of (Lev. 19, 20) “You shall be holy,” about which they were warned, are enumerated here" (Rashi on Ezekiel 22:7:1). In the site's table Leviticus 19 and 20 are the portion Kedoshim, which comes straight after Achrei Mot, the portion whose Haftarah this chapter is.
The years of the fourth verse are the count Moses set in Deuteronomy 4:25 (Rashi on Ezekiel 22:4:1). The city defiled her own name, "for they were called a holy people, sons of their Creator" (Rashi on Ezekiel 22:5:1).
The dross of the eighteenth verse is dross "mixed in silver and gold, and it is necessary to smelt it in fire to refine it" (Rashi on Ezekiel 22:18:1). Malbim is quoted from the Jerusalem Anthology translated by Rabbi Mike Feuer, reported CC-BY. He reads the gathering into the furnace as the exile, "because through this the good among them will be sorted out and be a remnant" (Malbim on Ezekiel 22:19:1).
The land not rained on in the day of wrath is read with the Targum: "Good deeds were not performed in her which would protect her on the day of curse" (Rashi on Ezekiel 22:24:1). The prophets are a conspiracy, "joined together in an evil counsel" (Rashi on Ezekiel 22:25:1).
The corpus carries 6 notes on this chapter without an English text, marked linked. Radak's notes stand at 22:1:1, 22:10:1, 22:11:1, 22:17:1, 22:21:1 and 22:22:1. Each stands cited and unquoted, because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 1 filed under the Talmud and 39 under the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 2 it holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Rabbah 5:1. On verse 4 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:7. On verse 5 it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shoftim 2:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 1:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 2:1 and Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:33. On verse 6 it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shoftim 7:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 8:1. On verse 7 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 74:1, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayishlach 26, Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 1:1:12 and Otzar Midrashim, Pesikta, Pesikta Chadata 19.
On verse 8 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 18:1:1 and Sifrei Bamidbar 116:1. On verse 11 it holds Devarim Rabbah 2:21. On verse 13 it holds Kohelet Rabbah 1:13:1, Kohelet Rabbah 3:10:1, Midrash Lekach Tov on Ecclesiastes 1:13:1 and Vayikra Rabbah 33:3. On verse 14 it holds Kohelet Rabbah 1:16:1, Otzar Midrashim, Chuppah of Eliyahu, Chuppat Eliyahu Rabbah 254 and Pesikta DeRav Kahana 16:2. On verse 18 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20, Bamidbar Rabbah 13:8, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayechi 32 and Midrash Tanchuma, Terumah 1:2.
On verse 20 it holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 2:17:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 719:9. On verse 22 it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 9:33:7. On verse 23 it holds Zevachim 113a:11. On verse 24 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 33:6, Devarim Rabbah 3:6, Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 14:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 8:11:3. On verse 26 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 16:19, Ein Yaakov, Shabbat 16:21 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 5:15:5.
On verse 29 it holds Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 25:6. On verse 30 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 50:1 and Shir HaShirim Rabbah 2:15:3.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 22:4:1 to 22:25:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Malbim, Malbim on Ezekiel 22:19:1, Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 22:1:1 to 22:22:1, cited by ref only: Sefaria holds no English version of the ref; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/22.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Ezekiel 22: the Haftarah of Achrei Mot, Ezekiel 22:1 to 22:19, rite both.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The bloody city and the sins done in her streets
Ezekiel 22:1-2
The Lord renews the prophet's commission, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city. Henry reads the doubled verb as a call to a formal indictment, the prophet standing as a magistrate. Gill notes the title bloody city ties this chapter to the watchman's charge of chapter 3.
Ezekiel 22:1
“The fourth word of judgment Ezek. 22:1-16. The sins which have brought ruin upon Jerusalem are the sins which disgraced the pagan inhabitants of Canaan, whom the Israelites were to cast out (compare Lev. 18). The commission of like sins would insure like judgment.”
the city of bloodshed?: Barnes finds in the abominations that follow the sins of the Canaanites, whom Israel was to drive out of the land, compare Leviticus 18. Like sins would bring like judgment on the city. Clarke reads the judging as a sentence of death on those who shed blood.
Ezekiel 22:2
“Wilt thou judge the bloody city - Pronounce the sentence of death against the murderers. Show her all her abominations - And a most revolting and dreadful catalogue of these is in consequence exhibited.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 22:3-5
The city sheds blood in her own midst and makes idols to defile herself. Clarke reads the phrase that her time may come as judicial language, blood guilt hastening the very judgment the city fears. JFB notes the mockery from nations near and far answers Jerusalem's earlier fame.
Ezekiel 22:3
“Then say thou, thus saith the Lord God,.... For though the prophet was to sit as judge, yet in the name of the King of kings, under whose authority he acted: the city sheddeth blood in the midst of it; openly and impudently, in the face of all, and in great abundance; even innocent blood, as the Targum has it: murders were frequent and common, either through quarrels, or through unrighteous judgments in courts of judicature: that her time may come; to fill up the measure of her iniquity, and to receive the just punishment of her sins.”
You have brought your days to a close: Henry calls bloodshed Jerusalem's measure-filling sin, the sin 2 Kings 24:4 says the LORD would not pardon. Barnes reads the days and years as the city's time of judgment arriving. Judah shares the mockery of Ammon.
Ezekiel 22:4
“Thy days, - i. e., of judgment; “thy years,” i. e., of visitation (compare Eze 20:25, Eze 20:39). A reproach ... a mocking - Judah shall be like the Ammonites Eze 21:28.”
Those near and far will mock you: Lamentations 2:15 records the mockery after the fall, as those who pass by ask whether this is the city once called the perfection of beauty. Barnes sets the reproach of Jerusalem beside that of Ammon at 21:28. The turmoil was inside the walls.
Ezekiel 22:5
“Those that be near - Both distant as well as neighboring provinces consider thee the most abandoned of characters; and through thee many have been involved in distress and ruin.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 22:6-12
The list runs through every rank and relation the covenant law protected. Wesley reads the list as a point by point breach of the commandments. Gill notes the closing count, usury and extortion practiced on neighbours, and hast forgotten me, ties every social sin back to the same forgetting.
Ezekiel 22:6
“Rather, "The princes . . . each according to his power, were in thee, to shed blood" (as if this was the only object of their existence). "Power," literally, "arm"; they, who ought to have been patterns of justice, made their own arm of might their only law.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Father and mother are treated with contempt: The fifth commandment stands first in this list, and Deuteronomy 27:16 had set a curse on the man who dishonors father or mother. Exodus 22:21 and 22 guarded the foreign resident, the fatherless and the widow. Henry notes that the princes were to protect the injured.
Ezekiel 22:7
“In thee have they set light - The children do not reverence their parents. Parental affection and filial respect do not exist among you. The stranger is not only not succoured, but he is oppressed. The widows and fatherless are vexed by wrongs and exactions.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
despised My holy things: Gill reads the holy things as the temple, its priests, its sacrifices, the word read there and every ordinance kept in it. The Sabbath stands beside them as holy time. The shortest charge in the list covers all of worship.
Ezekiel 22:8
“Thou hast despised mine holy things,.... The holy place, the temple, and the worship of it; holy persons, the priests that officiated there; holy sacrifices offered up by them; the holy word of God read and explained; and all holy ordinances there administered. These words are directed to Jerusalem, the holy city, and to the inhabitants of it, who ought to have been holy men: and hast profaned my sabbaths; by doing their own work, and neglecting the service of God; and which was an inlet, as it usually is, to all manner of sin.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 22:8
“Sabbath-breaking is an iniquity that is an inlet to all iniquity. Many have owned it to contribute as much to their ruin as any thing. Uncleanness and all manner of seventh-commandment sins, fruits of those vile affections to which God in a way of righteous judgment gives men up, to punish them for their idolatry and profanation of holy things.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
slanderous men bent on bloodshed: Gill notes that the Hebrew word for these slanderous men describes a peddler going from house to house, carrying tales that end in shed blood. Leviticus 19:16 forbids such tales in the same verse that guards a neighbor's life. Naboth died by such tales.
Ezekiel 22:9
“In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood,.... Innocent blood, as the Targum; such who go from house to house, as pedlars do, with their wares or spices, as the word (a) signifies; hence the Syriac version renders it "merchants"; and carry tales and lies of innocent persons, and stir up others against them to wrath and revenge, and shed their blood; or that go to the courts of judicature, and there accuse innocent persons, and bear false witness against them, to the taking away of their lives.”
uncovered the nakedness of their fathers: Leviticus 18:8 forbids a man to uncover his father's wife, and 18:19 forbids approaching a woman in her impurity. Barnes reads the whole list as the sins of the Canaanites that Leviticus 18 names. The land had vomited out its first people for them.
Ezekiel 22:10
“Set apart for pollution - Or, “unclean by reason of impurity” Lev 12:2.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 22:10
“In thee have they discovered - They are guilty of the most abominable incest and unnatural lust. On thee have they humbled - In their unholy and unnatural connexions, they have not abstained from those set apart because of their infirmities. The catalogue of crimes that follow is too plain to require comment.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
violates his sister: The three cases match Leviticus 18:20, 18:15 and 18:9, the neighbor's wife, the daughter-in-law and the sister. Amnon's crime against Tamar in 2 Samuel 13 was the last of these. Barnes reads such sins as the reason Canaan fell.
But Me you have forgotten: A bribe to shed innocent blood carried a curse at Deuteronomy 27:25. Henry ties the forgetting to Jeremiah 3, where those who pervert their ways forget the LORD their God. Every sin in the list ends here.
Ezekiel 22:12
“Those that pervert their ways forget the Lord their God, Jer. iii. He is to pass sentence upon Jerusalem for these crimes. Let her know that she has filled up the measure of her iniquity, and that her sins are such as forbid delays and call for speedy vengeance.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 22:13-16
The Lord answers the catalogue with a gesture of finished patience, I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain. Henry reads the clenched hand as the sign of a decision made rather than merely threatened. Barnes notes the scattering among the heathen answers the covenant curses of the law.
Will your courage endure: Henry reads the question as aimed at a city that thought itself able to stand against God. The LORD who keeps His promises keeps His threats as well. Numbers 23:19 says the same of His word.
I will disperse you among the nations: The scattering carries a purpose. The exile would purge the uncleanness the city had refused to put away, and 36:25 promises the clean water that completes the work. Barnes reads the dross of verse 18 the same way, as a figure of future purification.
defiled yourself in the eyes of the nations: The King James renders the verse that Israel would take its inheritance in itself, and Gill reads it as a people left with themselves. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown follow the reading of defilement, the nations treating Israel as a polluted thing. Both readings end in knowing the LORD.
Ezekiel 22:16
“And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the Heathen,.... No longer be the inheritance of God, but their own; and not have God to be their portion and inheritance, but themselves; and a poor portion and inheritance that must be, being in captivity, poverty, and distress; enjoying neither their civil nor religious liberties, as heretofore; it would be now manifest to the Heathens that they were forsaken of God, and left to themselves.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 22:16
“FAIRBAIRN and others needlessly take the Hebrew from a different root, "thou shalt be polluted by ('in,' [HENDERSON]) thyself," &c.; the heathen shall regard thee as a polluted thing, who hast brought thine own reproach on thyself.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Melted in the furnace like worthless dross
Ezekiel 22:17-22
The house of Israel becomes dross in the Lord's furnace. Keil reads the figure against actual metallurgy, dross is what refining is meant to remove. Fairbairn notes the coming siege is pictured in advance under this same figure, the city gathered and blown upon in the fire of my wrath.
Ezekiel 22:17
“The fifth word of judgment. The furnace. In the besieged city the people shall be tried and purged. Eze 22:18 Dross - A frequent metaphor which denotes not only the corruption of the people, who have become like base metal, but also a future purification whereby, the “dross” being burned away, the remnant of good may appear.”
the house of Israel has become dross: Henry traces the fall, a head of gold under David and Solomon, silver after the kingdom divided, and now brass, tin, iron and lead. Wesley reads the silver as the years when Israel loved mercy and walked humbly with God. Micah 6:8 supplies his words.
Ezekiel 22:18
“The house of Israel is to me become dross - They are all like base metal - brass, tin, iron, and lead alloyed together with silver. Ye must be put in the furnace, and subjected to the most intense fire, till your impurities are consumed away. No ordinary means will avail any thing; the most violent must be resorted to.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 22:18
“That state, in David's and Solomon's time, had been a head of gold; when the kingdoms were divided it was as the arms of silver. It has degenerated into baser metal, of no value in comparison with what it formerly was: They are all brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, which some make to signify divers sorts of sinners among them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 22:18
“Dross - Utterly degenerate, and base metal. The furnace - The afflictions I have laid upon them have not bettered them. The dross - While they loved mercy, did justly, walked humbly with their God, they were as silver; now they are but dross.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
I will gather you into Jerusalem: Clarke calls Jerusalem the fining pot. The people of Judah would crowd into the city ahead of the Chaldean army, and the siege would become the fire. Jeremiah 35:11 shows the Rechabites entering Jerusalem for fear of that army.
Ezekiel 22:19
“I will gather you - Jerusalem is represented here as the fining pot; all the people are to be gathered together in it, and the Chaldean fire is to knelt the whole. And God will increase thy sufferings: as the refiner blows the fire with his bellows, so God will blow upon you with the fire of his wrath, Eze 22:21.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
to melt with a fiery blast: Gill notes that refiners melt each metal apart, and here all are thrown into the furnace together. The mixture shows how far the people had fallen from silver. Wrath supplies the heat.
Ezekiel 22:20
“As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace,.... As refiners of metal do; though not together, as here, but each metal apart.”
blow on you with the fire of My wrath: Gill reads the blowing as wrath stirring the fire hotter, and notes that the city and the temple were burned with real fire. Second Kings 25:9 records the burning of the house of the LORD, the palace and every great house. The figure became literal.
Ezekiel 22:21
“Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath,.... Not only gather them in wrath, as before; but blow upon them in wrath, which is often compared to fire in Scripture; and besides, the city and temple of Jerusalem were to be burnt, and were burnt with material fire, in consequence of God's displeasure against his people: and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof; of the city of Jerusalem; be destroyed by one judgment or another in it; or perish in the conflagration of it.”
As silver is melted in a furnace: Silver is the one metal in the list the furnace is meant to keep. Isaiah 1:25 promised to smelt away Jerusalem's dross, and Malachi 3:3 pictures the LORD as a refiner of silver. Clarke expects the fire to burn until the impurities are consumed.
Princes, priests, prophets: and no one to stand in the gap
Ezekiel 22:23-29
A second word indicts every order of leadership, prophets, priests who put no difference between the holy and the profane, princes, and the people. Henry reads the fourfold list as deliberate, since the very officers meant to guard holiness are named as its worst offenders.
Ezekiel 22:23
“The sixth word of judgment. The special sins of princes, priests, and people. Eze 22:26 Violated - Better as in margin; to offer “violence” to the Law is to misinterpret it. It was the special office of the priests to keep up the distinction between “holy” and “unholy,” “clean” and “unclean” Lev 10:10. Eze 22:28 See the marginal reference note.”
a land that has not been cleansed: Clarke pictures a land without rain, where nothing is cleansed and nothing grows. Wesley reads it as a land the fires of judgment had left unclean. Deuteronomy 11:17 names withheld rain as a curse.
Ezekiel 22:24
“Son of man, say unto her, thou land,.... Thou land of Israel, as the Targum: thou art not cleansed; from filthiness, by the fire of divine judgments; or reformed from sins, by the instructions, cautions, and exhortations of the prophets; none of these things had any effect upon her to make her wiser and better.”
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 22:24
“Thou art the land that is not cleansed - Thou art like a country where there is no rain, either to cleanse the garments, or fertilize the ground.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 22:24
“Her - The land of Israel. Not cleansed - Though God's judgments have been as violent floods; and as hottest fires. Nor rained upon - Yet neither thy filth hath been carried away, nor thy dross melted out of thee.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
like a roaring lion tearing its prey: The King James reads prophets here, where the Berean reads princes. Wesley and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the conspiracy as false prophets promising peace, whose counsel prolonged the war and made many widows. Henry sees prophets and murderers sharing the spoil.
Ezekiel 22:25
“They are mentioned first, as their bad influence extended the widest. prey--Their aim was greed of gain, "treasure, and precious things" (Ho 6:9; Mt 23:14). made . . . many widows--by occasioning, through false prophecies, the war with the Chaldeans in which the husbands fell.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 22:25
“A conspiracy - A contrivance, to speak all alike, smooth words, and give out promises of peace and safety. The treasure - As a reward of their lies. Made her - By persuading Zedekiah to hold out the war, which filled Jerusalem with dead husbands, and forlorn widows.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 22:25
“Satan is not divided against himself. The prophets are in conspiracy with the murderers and oppressors, to patronise and protect them in their wickedness, and justify what they did with their false prophecies, provided they may come in sharers with them in the profits of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
no distinction between the holy and the common: Leviticus 10:10 gave the priests this exact duty, to distinguish the holy from the common and the unclean from the clean. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown define the terms, holy as dedicated to God and common as ordinary use. The teachers had stopped teaching.
Ezekiel 22:26
"Holy" means, what is dedicated to God; "profane," what is in common use; "unclean," what is forbidden to be eaten; "clean," what is lawful to be eaten.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 22:26
“My holy things - Sacrifices, and oblations. Put no difference - Neither have they in their practice, differenced holy and profane, nor in their teaching acquainted the people with the difference, nor in the exercise of their authority, separated the profane from the holy, either persons, or things. Hid their eyes - Despised, and would not see the holiness of the sabbaths.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
like wolves tearing their prey: Verse 25 had lions, and here the officials are wolves. Henry names their aims as pride, ambition, malice and revenge, served by shedding blood and destroying lives. Zephaniah 3:3 uses the same two beasts for the rulers of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 22:27
“All their business was to gratify, [1.] Their own pride and ambition, by making themselves arbitrary and formidable. [2.] Their own malice and revenge, by shedding blood and destroying souls, sacrificing to their cruelty all those that stood in their way or had in any thing disobliged them. [3.] Their own avarice; all they aim at is to get dishonest gain, by crushing and oppressing their subject.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
whitewash these deeds: The whitewash recalls 13:10, where the false prophets coated a flimsy wall and called it peace. Gill reads it as covering the bloodshed and theft of the officials with a word from God. Henry calls their visions vanity.
Ezekiel 22:28
“They pretend to be seers, but they see vanity; they pretend to be diviners, but they divine lies; they pretend a warrant from Heaven for what they say, and that it is all as true as gospel; they say, Thus saith the Lord God, but it is all a sham, for the Lord has not spoken any such thing.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 22:28
“And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar,.... Palliated their sins, declared it to be right to shed the blood they did; and seize on the estates of men; but this, though it might for a while satisfy the consciences of these princes, and stop the clamours of the people against them; yet would not last long, but be like the building of a wall with bad stuff, which will not stand; and daubing it with mortar, which will soon wash off.”
The people of the land: are the common landholders, and the sins of the princes have spread to them. Henry lists the rich oppressing the poor, masters their servants and landlords their tenants. A whole nation had learned oppression.
Ezekiel 22:29
“The rich oppress the poor, masters their servants, landlords their tenants, and even parents their own children; nay, the buyers and sellers will find some way to oppress one another. This is such a sin as, when it is national, is indeed a national judgment, and is threatened as such.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 22:30-31
The Lord says he sought a man to make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, and found none. Clarke reads the figure from siege warfare, a breach in a city wall that one defender might have held, applied here to intercession.
Ezekiel 22:30
“I sought for a man - I saw that there was a grievous breach made in the moral state and feeling of the people, and I sought for a man that would stand in the gap; that would faithfully exhort, reprove and counsel with all long-suffering and doctrine. But none was to be found!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 22:30
“In these sobering verses from Ezekiel, God was unable to find anyone to release the necessary intercession and, tragically, had to send judgment.”
Ezekiel 22:30
“None now, of the godly, knowing the desperate state of the people, and God's purpose as to them, was willing longer to interpose between God's wrath and them. And none "among them," that is, among those just enumerated as guilty of such sins (Eze 22:25-29), was morally able for such an office.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
I have poured out My indignation upon them: Gill names the fire as sword, famine, pestilence and captivity. The past tense speaks of the fall of Jerusalem as already settled, though the city still stood when Ezekiel spoke. Their own ways came back on their heads.
Ezekiel 22:31
“Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them,.... Like a mighty torrent, carrying all before it: I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; by the sword, famine, pestilence, and captivity: their own way have I recompensed on their heads, saith the Lord; brought just punishment upon them, such as their ways and works deserved; "the vengeance of their way,'' as the Targum.”
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.