Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 22:1 - 22:1

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 22:1 - 22:1


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Blood-guiltiness of Jerusalem and the burden of its sins. Eze 22:1-5 contain the principal accusation relating to bloodshed and idolatry; and Eze 22:6-16 a further account of the sins of the people and their rulers, with a brief threatening of punishment. - Eze 22:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 22:2. And thou, son of man, wilt thou judge? wilt thou judge the city of blood-guiltiness? then show it all its abominations, Eze 22:3. And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, City, which sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols within itself for defilement. Eze 22:4. Through thy blood which thou hast shed hast thou made thyself guilty, and through thine idols which thou hast made hast thou defiled thyself, and hast drawn thy days near, and hast come to thy years; therefore I make thee a scorn to the nations, and ridicule to all lands. Eze 22:5. Those near and those far off from thee shall ridicule thee as defiled in name, rich in confusion. - The expression 'הֲתִשְׁפֹּט וגו proves this address to be a continuation of the reproof of Israel's sins, which commenced in Eze 20:4. The epithet city of blood-guiltiness, as in Ezekiel Eze 24:6, Eze 24:9 (compare Nah 3:1), is explained in Eze 22:3. The apodosis commences with וְהֹודַעְתָּהּ, and is continued in Eze 22:3 (וְאָמַרְתָּ). לָבֹוא עִתָּהּ, that her time, i.e., her time of punishment, may come: עִתָּהּ, like יֹומֹו in Eze 21:30. וְעָשְׂתָּה is not a continuation of the infinitive לָבֹוא, but of the participle שֹׁפֶכֶת. עָלֶיהָ, of which different renderings have been given, does not mean “over itself,” i.e., as a burden with which it has laden itself (Hävernick); still less “for itself” (Hitzig), a meaning which עַל never has, but literally “upon,” i.e., in itself, covering the city with it, as it were. וַתַּקְרִיבי, thou hast brought near, brought on thy days, that is to say, the days of judgment, and hast come to, arrived at thy years, sc. the years of visitation and punishment (cf. Jer 11:23). This meaning is readily supplied by the context. טְמֵאַת הַ, defiled, unclean with regard to the name, i.e., having forfeited the name of a holy city through capital crimes and other sinful abominations. מְהוּמָה is internal confusion, both moral and religious, as in Amo 3:9 (cf. Psa 55:10-12).

In Eze 22:6-12 there follows an enumeration of a multitude of sins which had been committed in Jerusalem. - Eze 22:6. Behold, the princes of Israel are every one, according to his arm, in thee to shed blood. Eze 22:7. Father and mother they despise in thee; toward the foreigner they act violently in the midst of thee; orphans and widows they oppress in thee. Eze 22:8. Thou despisest my holy things, and desecratest my Sabbaths. Eze 22:9. Slanderers are in thee to shed blood, and they eat upon the mountains in thee; they practise lewdness in thee. Eze 22:10. They uncover the father's nakedness in thee; they ravish the defiled in her uncleanness in thee. Eze 22:11. They take gifts in thee to shed blood; interest and usury thou takest, and overreachest thy neighbours with violence, and thou forgettest me, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - By the repetition of the refrain, to shed blood (Eze 22:6, Eze 22:9, and Eze 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 (Eze 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, as Jehoiakim (2Ki 24:4), Manasseh (2Ki 21:16), and others. The words אִישׁ are rendered by Hitzig and Kliefoth, they were ready to help one another; and in support of the rendering they appeal to Psa 83:9. But in that case אִישׁ לִזְרֹעֹו would stand for לִזְרֹעַ אִישׁ rof dnat, or rather for אִישׁ זְרֹועַ לָאִישׁ, - a substitution which cannot be sustained. Nor can they be taken in the sense proposed by Hävernick, every one relying upon his arm, i.e., looking to physical force alone, but simply every one according to his arm, i.e., according to his strength or violence, are they in thee. In this case הָיוּ does not require anything to be supplied, any more than in the similar combination in Eze 22:9. Followed by לְמַעַן with an infinitive, it means to be there with the intention of doing anything, or making an attempt, i.e., to direct his efforts to a certain end. In Eze 22:7 it is not the princes who are the subject, but the ungodly in general. הֵקַלּוּ is the opposite of כַּבֵּד (Exo 20:12). In the reproofs which follow, compare Exo 22:20.; Lev 19:13; Deu 24:14. With insolence and violence toward men there is associated contempt of all that is holy. For Eze 22:8, see Eze 20:13. - In the second group, Eze 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 Lev 18 and 19 is very obvious. The reproof of slander also points back to the prohibition in Lev 19:16. Slander to shed blood, refers to malicious charges and false testimony in a court of justice (vid., 1Ki 21:10-11). For eating upon the mountains, see Eze 18:6. The practice of zimmâh is more specifically described in Eze 22:10 and Eze 22:11. For the thing itself, compare Lev 18:7-8; Lev 19:15 and Lev 19:9. The threefold אִישׁ in Eze 22:11 does not mean every one, but one, another, and the third, as the correlative רֵעֵהוּ shows. - The third group, Eze 22:12, is composed of sins of covetousness. For the first clause, compare the prohibition in Exo 23:2; for the second, Eze 18:8, Eze 18:13. The reproof finishes with forgetfulness of God, which is closely allied to covetousness.

Eze 22:13-16

The Lord is enraged at such abominable doings. He will interfere, and put an end to them by scattering Judah among the heathen. - Eze 22:13. And, behold, I smite my hand because of thy gain which thou hast made, and over thy bloodguiltiness which is in the midst of thee. Eze 22:14. Will thy heart indeed stand firm, or will thy hands be strong for the day when I shall deal with thee? I Jehovah have spoken it, and also do it. Eze 22:15. I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee in the lands, and will utterly remove thine uncleanness from thee. Eze 22:16. And thou wilt be desecrated through thyself before the eyes of the nations, and know that I am Jehovah. - Eze 22:13 is closely connected with the preceding verse. This serves to explain the fact that the only sins mentioned as exciting the wrath of God are covetousness and blood-guiltiness. הִכָּה , as 2Ki 11:12 clearly shows, is a contracted expression for הִכָּה כַּף אֶל (Eze 21:19), and the smiting of the hands together is a gesture indicative of wrathful indignation. For the form דָּמֵךְ, contracted from דָּמַיִךְ, see the comm. on Eze 16:45. - As Eze 22:13 leads on to the threatening of judgment, so does Eze 22:14 point in anticipation to the terrible nature of the judgment itself. The question, “will thy heart stand firm?” involves a warning against security. עָמַד is the opposite of נָמֵס (cf. Eze 21:12), as standing forms the antithesis to passing away (cf. Psa 102:27). עָשָׂה אֹותָךְ, as in Eze 16:59 and Eze 7:27. The Lord will scatter them (cf. Eze 12:15; Eze 20:23), and remove the uncleanness of sin, namely, by purifying the people in exile (cf. Isa 4:4). הֵתֵם, from תָּמֵם, to cause to cease, with מִן, to take completely away. נִחַלְתְּ, Niphal of חָלַל fo lahpiN ,נִחַלְתְּ ., connected with לְעֵינֵי גֹּויִם, as in Eze 20:9, not from נָחַל, as many of the commentators who follow the Septuagint and Vulgate suppose. בָּךְ, not in te, in thyself, but through thee, i.e., through thy sinful conduct and its consequences.