26 her priests do violence to my law, and profane my holy things: they put no difference between the holy and profane, neither do they make known [the difference] between the unclean and the clean, and they hide their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
that ye may put difference between the holy and the unholy, and between unclean and clean,
Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not Jehovah. And the priests' custom with the people was, when any man sacrificed a sacrifice, the priest's servant came, when the flesh was cooked, with a flesh-hook of three prongs in his hand; and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot; the priest took of it all that the flesh-hook brought up. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites that came there. Even before they burned the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest, and he will not accept sodden flesh of thee, but raw. If the man said to him, They will immediately burn the fat entire, then take as thy soul desires; he would say [to him], No, but thou shalt give [it] now; and if not, I will take [it] by force. And the sin of the young men was very great before Jehovah, for men despised the offering of Jehovah.
And they shall teach my people [the difference] between holy and profane, and cause them to discern between unclean and clean.
Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.
And when they came to the nations whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when it was said of them, These are the people of Jehovah, and they are gone forth out of his land.
And Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and that they lay with the women that served at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Ask now the priests [concerning] the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any food -- shall it become holy? And the priests answered and said, No. And Haggai said, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, is it become unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean. Then answered Haggai and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith Jehovah, and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
For the name of God is blasphemed on your account among the nations, according as it is written.
And now, ye priests, this commandment is for you. If ye do not hear, and if ye do not lay [it] to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, I will even send the curse among you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have already cursed them, because ye do not lay [it] to heart. Behold, I will rebuke your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, the dung of your feasts; and they shall take you away with it.
A son honoureth [his] father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith Jehovah of hosts unto you, priests, that despise my name. But ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of Jehovah is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Present it now unto thy governor: will he be pleased with thee? or will he accept thy person? saith Jehovah of hosts.
And the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, took each of them his censer, and put fire in it, and put incense on it, and presented strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them. And there went out fire from before Jehovah, and devoured them, and they died before Jehovah. And Moses said to Aaron, This is what Jehovah spoke, saying, I will be hallowed in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron was silent.
Her princes in the midst of her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, that leave nothing for the morning. Her prophets are vain-glorious, treacherous persons; her priests profane the sanctuary, they do violence to the law.
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet do they lean upon Jehovah, and say, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed [as] a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
And I also gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I [am] Jehovah that hallow them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they rejected mine ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live by them; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned: and I said I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.
[It is] for the sins of her prophets, [and] the iniquities of her priests, who have shed the blood of the righteous in the midst of her.
As a thief is ashamed when he is found, so shall the house of Israel be ashamed -- they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets -- saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth; for they have turned the back unto me, and not the face; and in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us!
Wherefore do ye trample upon my sacrifice and upon mine oblation which I have commanded [in my] habitation? And thou honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the primest of all the oblations of Israel my people.
Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they profane not my holy name in the things that they hallow unto me: I am Jehovah. Say unto them, Every one of all your seed, throughout your generations, that approacheth the holy things, which the children of Israel hallow unto Jehovah, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from before me: I am Jehovah. Whatsoever man of the seed of Aaron is a leper, or hath a flux, he shall not eat of the holy things, until he is clean. And he that toucheth any one that is unclean by a dead person, or a man whose seed of copulation hath passed from him; or a man that toucheth any crawling thing whereby he becometh unclean, or a man by whom he may become unclean, whatever may be his uncleanness, -- a person that toucheth any such shall be unclean until even, and shall not eat of the holy things; but he shall bathe his flesh with water, and when the sun goeth down, he shall be clean, and may afterwards eat of the holy things; for it is his food. Of a dead carcase and what is torn shall he not eat, to make himself unclean therewith: I am Jehovah. And they shall keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it, and die by it, if they profane it: I am Jehovah who do hallow them. And no stranger shall eat the holy thing; the sojourner with the priest, and the hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing. But if a priest buy any one for money, he may eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they may eat of his food. And a priest's daughter who is [married] to a stranger may not eat of the heave-offering of the holy things. But a priest's daughter that becometh a widow, or is divorced, and hath no seed, and returneth unto her father's house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food; but no stranger shall eat thereof. And if a man eat of a holy thing through inadvertence, then he shall put the fifth part thereof unto it, and shall give it unto the priest with the holy thing. And they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel which they offer unto Jehovah, and cause them to bear the iniquity of trespass when they eat their holy things; for I am Jehovah who do hallow them. And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them, Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the sojourners in Israel, that presenteth his offering for any of his vows, and for any of his voluntary offerings, which they present to Jehovah as a burnt-offering, it shall be for your acceptance, without blemish, a male of the oxen, of the sheep, and of the goats. Nothing that hath a defect shall ye present; for it shall not be acceptable for you. And if any present a sacrifice of peace-offering to Jehovah to accomplish a vow, or a voluntary offering of oxen or small cattle, it shall be without blemish to be accepted: there shall be no defect therein. Blind, or broken, or maimed, or ulcerous, or with itch, or scabbed -- ye shall not present these to Jehovah, nor make an offering by fire of them on the altar to Jehovah. A bullock and a sheep that hath a member too long or too short, that mayest thou offer as a voluntary offering; but as a vow it shall not be accepted. That which is bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut shall ye not present to Jehovah; neither in your land shall ye do [the like]. Nor from the hand of the stranger shall ye present the bread of your God, of any of these; for their corruption is in them: a defect is in them; they shall not be accepted for you. And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, An ox, or a sheep, or a goat, when it is brought forth, shall be seven days under its dam; and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering by fire to Jehovah. A cow, or sheep -- it and its young shall ye not slaughter in one day. And when ye sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to Jehovah, ye shall sacrifice it for your acceptance. On that day shall it be eaten: ye shall leave none of it until morning: I am Jehovah. And ye shall observe my commandments and do them: I am Jehovah. And ye shall not profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am Jehovah who do hallow you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am Jehovah.
And ye shall make a separation between the clean beast and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean, and ye shall not make yourselves an abomination by beast, or by fowl, or by anything that creepeth on the ground which I have separated for you, declaring [it] as unclean.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Ezekiel 22
Commentary on Ezekiel 22 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 22
Eze 22:1-31. God's Judgment on the Sinfulness of Jerusalem.
Repetition of the charges in the twentieth chapter; only that there they were stated in an historical review of the past and present; here the present sins of the nation exclusively are brought forward.
2. See Eze 20:4; that is, "Wilt thou not judge?" &c. (compare Eze 23:36).
the bloody city—literally, "the city of bloods"; so called on account of murders perpetrated in her, and sacrifices of children to Molech (Eze 22:3, 4, 6, 9; 24:6, 9).
3. sheddeth blood … that her time may come—Instead of deriving advantage from her bloody sacrifices to idols, she only thereby brought on herself "the time" of her punishment.
against herself—(Pr 8:36).
4. thy days—the shorter period, namely, that of the siege.
thy years—the longer period of the captivity. The "days" and "years" express that she is ripe for punishment.
5. infamous—They mockingly call thee, "Thou polluted one in name (Margin), and full of confusion" [Fairbairn], (referring to the tumultuous violence prevalent in it). Thus the nations "far and near" mocked her as at once sullied in character and in actual fact lawless. What a sad contrast to the Jerusalem once designated "the holy city!"
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.
7. set light by—Children have made light of, disrespected, father … (De 27:16). At Eze 22:7-12 are enumerated the sins committed in violation of Moses' law.
9. men that carry tales—informers, who by misrepresentations cause innocent blood to be shed (Le 19:16). Literally, "one who goes to and fro as a merchant."
10. set apart for pollution—that is, set apart as unclean (Le 18:19).
12. forgotten me—(De 32:18; Jer 2:32; 3:21).
13. smitten mine hand—in token of the indignant vengeance which I will execute on thee (see on Eze 21:17).
14. (Eze 21:7).
15. consume thy filthiness out of thee—the object of God in scattering the Jews.
16. take thine inheritance in thyself—Formerly thou wast Mine inheritance; but now, full of guilt, thou art no longer Mine, but thine own inheritance to thyself; "in the sight of the heathen," that is, even they shall see that, now that thou hast become a captive, thou art no longer owned as Mine [Vatablus]. 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.
18. dross … brass—Israel has become a worthless compound of the dross of silver (implying not merely corruption, but degeneracy from good to bad, Isa 1:22, especially offensive) and of the baser metals. Hence the people must be thrown into the furnace of judgment, that the bad may be consumed, and the good separated (Jer 6:29, 30).
23. From this verse to the end he shows the general corruption of all ranks.
24. land … not cleansed—not cleared or cultivated; all a scene of desolation; a fit emblem of the moral wilderness state of the people.
nor rained upon—a mark of divine "indignation"; as the early and latter rain, on which the productiveness of the land depended, was one of the great covenant blessings. Joel (Joe 2:23) promises the return of the former and latter rain, with the restoration of God's favor.
25. conspiracy—The false prophets have conspired both to propagate error and to oppose the messages of God's servants. 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; Zep 3:3, 4; Mt 23:14).
made … many widows—by occasioning, through false prophecies, the war with the Chaldeans in which the husbands fell.
26. Her priests—whose "lips should have kept knowledge" (Mal 2:7).
violated—not simply transgressed; but, have done violence to the law, by wresting it to wrong ends, and putting wrong constructions on it.
put no difference between the holy and profane, &c.—made no distinction between the clean and unclean (Le 10:10), the Sabbath and other days, sanctioning violations of that holy day. "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.
I am profaned among them—They abuse My name to false or unjust purposes.
27. princes—who should have employed the influence of their position for the people's welfare, made "gain" their sole aim.
wolves—notorious for fierce and ravening cruelty (Mic 3:2, 3, 9-11; Joh 10:12).
28. Referring to the false assurances of peace with which the prophets flattered the people, that they should not submit to the king of Babylon (see on Eze 13:10; Eze 21:29; Jer 6:14; 23:16, 17; 27:9, 10).
29. The people—put last, after the mention of those in office. Corruption had spread downwards through the whole community.
wrongfully—that is, "without cause," gratuitously, without the stranger proselyte giving any just provocation; nay, he of all others being one who ought to have been won to the worship of Jehovah by kindness, instead of being alienated by oppression; especially as the Israelites were commanded to remember that they themselves had been "strangers in Egypt" (Ex 22:21; 23:9).
30. the hedge—the wall (see on Eze 13:5); image for leading the people to repentance.
the gap—the breach (Ps 106:23); image for interceding between the people and God (Ge 20:7; Ex 32:11; Nu 16:48).
I found none—(Jer 5:1)—not that literally there was not a righteous man in the city. For Jeremiah, Baruch, &c., were still there; but Jeremiah had been forbidden to pray for the people (Jer 11:14), as being doomed to wrath. 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.
31. their own way … recompensed upon their heads—(Eze 9:10; 11:21; 16:43; Pr 1:31; Isa 3:11; Jer 6:19).