Ezekiel 22 commentary

The prophet is to judge the bloody city; the city of bloods. Jerusalem is so called, because of her crimes. The sins which Jerusalem stands charged with, are exceeding sinful. Murder, idolatry, disobedience to parents, oppression and extortion, profanation of the sabbath and holy things, seventh commandment sins, lewdness and adultery. Unmindfulness of God was at the bottom of all this wickedness. Sinners provoke God because they forget him. Jerusalem has filled the measure of her sins. Those who give up themselves to be ruled by their lusts, will justly be given up to be portioned by them. Those who resolve to be their own masters, let them expect no other happiness than their own hands can furnish; and a miserable portion it will prove.

Israel, compared with other nations, had been as the gold and silver compared with baser metals. But they were now as the refuse that is consumed in the furnace, or thrown away when the silver is refined. Sinners, especially backsliding professors, are, in God's account, useless and fit for nothing. When God brings his own people into the furnace, he sits by them as the refiner by his gold, to see that they are not continued there any longer than is fitting and needful. The dross shall be wholly separated, and the good metal purified. Let those who suffer pains, or lingering sickness, and find that their hearts can scarcely bear these light and momentary afflictions, take warning to flee from the wrath to come; for if these trials are not sanctified by the power of the Holy Spirit, to the cleansing their hearts and hands from sin, far worse things will come upon them.

All orders and degrees of men had helped to fill the measure of the nation's guilt. The people that had any power abused it, and even the buyers and sellers find some way to oppress one another. It bodes ill to a people when judgments are breaking in upon them, and the spirit of prayer is restrained. Let all who fear God, unite to promote his truth and righteousness; as wicked men of every rank and profession plot together to run them down.

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; Jr 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, Is 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 (Jr 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 (Mi 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; Jr 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 (Psa 106:23); image for interceding between the people and God (Ge 20:7; Ex 32:11; Nu 16:48).

I found none--(Jr 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 (Jr 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; Is 3:11; Jr 6:19).

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.

Her time may come - Till now, it was my long-suffering; she has fulfilled her days - completed the time of her probation; has not mended, but is daily worse; therefore her judgment can linger no longer.

Thou art become guilty in thy blood - Thou art guilty of blood.

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.

Behold, the princes - Ye are a vile and murderous people, and your princes have been of the same character. Like people, like prince.

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.

Thou hast despised - All my ordinances are not only neglected, but treated with contempt; and my Sabbaths profaned. There is not only no power of godliness among you, but there is no form.

In thee are men that carry tales - Witnesses that will swear any thing, even where life is concerned.

They eat upon the mountains - Sacrifice to idols, and celebrate their festivals.

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.

Thou shalt know that I am the Lord - I shall so deal with and punish thee, that thou shalt be obliged to own the vindictive hand of a sin-avenging God.

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.

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.

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.

There is a conspiracy - The false prophets have united together to say and support the same things; and have been the cause of the destruction of souls, and the death of many, so that widows, through their means, are multiplied in thee.

Her priests - Even they whose lips should preserve knowledge, have not instructed the people: they have violated my law, not only in their private conduct, but in their careless and corrupt manner of serving in my temple.

Her princes - Are as bad as her priests; they are rapacious, and grievously oppress the people by unjust impositions in order to increase their revenues.

Her prophets - Even those who profess themselves to be my prophets, have been unfaithful in the discharge of their office; have soothed the people in their sins, and pretended to have oracles of peace and safety when I had not spoken to them.

The people - All that have power or authority have abused it; vexed and oppressed the poor, the needy, and the stranger.

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!

Therefore - Because of the profligacies already mentioned; because of the false worship so generally practiced; because of the false prophets tolerated; because of the unholy and profane priesthood; because of the oppressive princes; because of the unfaithful and deceiving prophets; because of the oppressions of petty officers; and because of the total corruption of manners in all ranks, places, offices, etc.: -

Have I poured out mine indignation - consumed them with the fire of my wrath - Considering the above, has there not been sufficient reason why I should abandon such a people, and pour out upon them such a destructive storm of calamities?

Judge - The question is doubled, to awaken the prophet more fully, and to quicken him to his work.

Her time - The time of ripeness in her sins, and of execution of judgments on her. To defile - For this does more defile them, and provoke God to wrath against them.

Thy days - The days of thy sorrows, and punishment. Art come - Thou art grown up to the eldest years in sin, beyond which thou art not to go.

Much vexed - Afflicted, impoverished, and ruined.

Every one - Not one to be found of a more merciful temper. To their power - According to their ability.

In thee - In Jerusalem.

Thou - O Jerusalem. Mine holy things - All mine institutions, temple, sacrifices, feasts.

Carry tales - Informers, or persons that for money, give in false witness against the innocent. They eat - Offer sacrifice on the mountains and feast there, in honour of their idols.

Discovered - Defiled their fathers bed.

Smitten mine hand - In testimony of my abhorrence.

Endure - Withstand the evils that are coming, or bear them when come.

In thyself - Whereas I was thine inheritance so long as thou wert a holy, obedient people; now be an inheritance to thyself, if thou canst.

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.

Gather you - From all parts. I will, by a secret over - ruling providence, bring you into Jerusalem, as into a furnace, where you may be consumed.

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. Therefore thou shalt be deprived of the rain, that should cool thy thirsty land.

A conspiracy - A contrivance, to speak all alike, smooth words, and give out promises of peace and safety. Thereof - Of the land. 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.

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. Profaned - Contemned, dishonoured, disobeyed.

Destroy souls - Ruin families; cutting off the fathers, and impoverishing the widow, and fatherless.

Daubed them - Flattered them, in their ways of sin. Untempered mortar - With promises that like ill - tempered mortar, will deceive them, though all seems at present smooth and safe.

I sought - God speaks after the manner of men. A man - Any one, among princes, prophets, priests, or people, to repair the breach. And stand - Interpose between a sinful people, and their offended God, and intreat for mercy. But - All were corrupted.

2. Now thou, son of man, wilt thou judge , wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.

Some would have the Prophet here to be questioned, whether he would, and why he would, plead for such a City. Other, that God doth forbid him to plead for it, or be solicitous about it. I rather think God doth awaken him to more vigorous reproving of this sinful people, and threatning them for sin.

The question is doubled to awaken the Prophet more fully, and to quicken him to his work.

Make her know, at lest tell her by writing: For the Prophet was at Babylon now, and could not speak to them at Ierusalem, but he might, and must send word to them what their abominations were.

All the kinds not all individual acts of them

Ierusalem, which is guilty of the murthers of innocent ones, of Prophets and holy men.

Marginal references: chap. [illegible: 2 letters].[illegible: 1 letter] and 23.36.; Or, [illegible: 1 span]; chap. 24.[illegible: 2 letters] Nah. 3.1.; Or, city of bloods.; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] know.

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 her self to defile her self.

Ierusalem.

Is shedding blood, 'tis her present practice as well as her former, murthers are committed by her, and 'tis said the City did it, 'twas done with publick consent, and probably under, pretext of judiciary process to colour it, as in Naboths case, and as they would have done to Ieremiah.

This aggravates their murthers, and makes them more bloody, in that 'twas done where so many were, that should have been safety to the innocent, 'twas not done in a Wilderness.

The time of ripeness in her sins, and of execution of judgments on her for them.

This they did not design, they rather took away innocents, whom they surmised were dangerous to their state, to prevent, but this hastned the punishment.

Either maketh new images of their old Idols, or repaireth the decayed beauty of them. Or, taketh in new Gods of their Neighbours, who might help them, but all this is against themselves, for this doth more defile them, and provoke God to wrath against them.

4 Thou art become guilty in thy blood , that thou hast shed, and hast defiled thy self in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy dayes 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 .

Greatly or deeply guilty.

In abundance, cruelly and perfidiously.

As a polluted thing loathsome to be seen or toucht.

Dunghil gods.

Hastned the days of thy sorrows, and punishment, of thy desolation in Iudea, and of thy Captivity in Babylon, thou hast shortned thine own peace, and my patience.

Grown up now to the eldest years in sin, beyond which thou wert not to go, 'tis the same in effect with that went before.

For thy old sins thou art given up to be a reproach.

To be scorned by them, to be branded as a most perfidious, irreligious, unconscionable sort of people, not worthy to live. Or else to be a taunt, and by-word among all Nations; thus 'twas Psal. 44.13. and Ier. 24.9.

That were round about them, or farther off had heard of them.

Marginal references: 2 [illegible: 1 span]; Deut. [illegible: 3 letters] chap. 5.[illegible: 2 letters]

5 Those that be near, and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous , and much vexed .

As the Idumeans or Edomites who insulted over Ierusalem when 'twas taken, Ammonites, and Moabites, and Philistines.

Of a most infamous name.

Afflicted, impoverisht, and ruinated above what was ever done to any City.

The barbarous Medes, Iberians, Hircanians, &c. to whom thou shalt be carried captive, whose Land is far off.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word] of name [illegible: 1 word] vex[illegible: 1 letter]ti[illegible: 2 letters].

6 Behold, the princes d of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood .

He was verse 2. commanded to shew the Jews all their abominations. Now he is directed to begin with the greatest first, either those of the Royal Family. Or else such as adhered close to the interest of them, and were advanced to places of great trust. Or, who were heads of Families.

Not one to be found of a juster, or more merciful temper.

According to their ability, and opportunity.

For murthering all they hated, or that stood in their way.

Marginal references: Heb. [illegible: 1 word]

7 In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee they have dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless, and the widow.

In Ierusalem.

It's plural, and agrees with Princes, they whose better disposition, whose Education and greatness (beside the Command of God) should have advanced their venerable thoughts, and department towards Parents.

Have contemned Father and Mother, though God threatens to curse such as do so. Deut. 27.16.

The Princes still, as the construction in the Original, carrieth it,

By Force, and fraud; for the oppression here mentioned is made up of both; where either the Fox, or Lyon could apart▪ or else both [illegible: 1 letter]oyned, they have oppressed the Stranger expresly against God's command. Exod. 22.21.

Still the same Great Men, and Rulers, who should as Isai. 1.17. have defended, pleaded for, relieved, and comforted the Fatherless, and Widow, but contrarywise they oppress, disquiet, and make a prey of them.

Marginal references: Or, deceit.

8 Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths.

All the Land, or thou O Ierusalem, or thou O Zedekiah the chief of the Princes; or else, having spoken of them all in the Plural; now changeth number, and so speaks to each in particular.

Hast had very low esteem of them, as if mean, and ridiculous.

All my Institutions▪ Temple Sacrifices, Feasts, and Priests, &c.

Spent them in prophane work, or bestowed them upon Idols, and their Service.

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 .

Informers, and Trapanners, or persons that corrupted with Money, give in false witness against the Innocent, and Princes of Israel had hand in it.

Offer Sacrifice on the Mountains, and feast there, celebrating the honour of their Idols. See chap. 18 6, 11, 15.

Enormous, contrived mischiefs, as the word imports.

Marginal references: Heb. men of [illegible: 1 word].; Exod. 23.1. v. 19.16.

10 In thee have they discovered their fathers nakedness: in thee have they humbled her that was set a part for pollution .

Like wild Arabians, worst of Heathens there have been, and are some that incestuously defile their Fathers bed.

It seems to imply a force, and violence offered to the persons, whether Virgins, or Married, whom at unseasonable time they forced to satisfie their lusts.

Forbidden, Lev. 18.19. and chap. 20.18. and that on very just reasons, and for preventing many mischiefs, which follow such unseasonable commixtures.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 letter]ev. 18.8. [illegible: 1 letter] 20.11.

11 And one hath committed abomination with his neighbours wife; and an other hath lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and an other in thee hath humbled his sister, his fathers daughter.

i. e: Some, or the man of Quality, State, and such as were of high Degree, as the word is translated; Psal. 62.9. Or what if it were translated as ver. 6. every one, 'twas grown a most general vice, as Ier. 5.8.

Adultery, which God doth, and man should abhor.

Horrible shameless doings, the Father in law committing incest with the Wifes Daughter.

And Brothers defile their own sisters; all this against the light of Nature, the Law of civilized Nations, and the Law of God. And, if our conjecture be right, all this done in their lewd Idolatrous Feasts kept to the honour of Tammuz, and in the very Temple, or near to it, compare this with the 9th verse, and with chap. 8. ver. 14.

Marginal references: Or, every one.; [illegible: 1 letter]ev. 18.20. [illegible: 1 word] 20.10. [illegible: 1 word]. 22.22.; Or, every one.; [illegible: 1 letter]ev. 18.15. [illegible: 1 word] 20.12.; Or, by lewd [illegible: 2 letters].; Lev. 18.9. [illegible: 1 word] 20.17.

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.

Judges who should have saved, have sold the Life of Innocents, who sate on God's Tribunal, have acted the Devil there, and murthered Innocents contrary to Exod. 23.8.

Vid chap. 18. ver. 8. let. x, y, z, a.

With unsatiable thirst of gain torn to pieces, and devoured thy Neighbour, so hast thou been an oppressing extortioner, where thou shouldest not have been a moderate usurer, and thus forgottest thy God.

Marginal references: Deut. [illegible: 1 letter]6.19. [illegible: 1 word] 27.25.; Exod. 22.25. [illegible: 1 letter]ev. 25.35. [illegible: 2 letters]ut. 23.19.

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.

Hear therefore, and mark ye wicked Jews.

In testimony of my abhorrence of your wayes, as threatning to punish you, and setting on the fierce Babylonian upon you to execute my just displeasure.

Thy Covetousness, the root of all the evils in thee thy cursed, insatiable hunger for wealth.

Which thou didst shed, that thou mightest then sieze their Estates, kill Naboths, and take possession.

Marginal references: chap. 21.17.

14 Can thine heart endure , or can thine hands be strong in the dayes that I shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.

This question is a vehement Negation, thou canst by no means endure.

Withstand, and repel the evils that are coming; or bear them when come, will thy courage hold out, and conquer? Nay 'twill be with thee, as chap. 21.7. your hearts shall melt.

To hold the Sword, and manage the warlike Provisions against Nebuchadnezzar and his Army your hands shall be exceeding feeble, chap. 21.7. your Weapons fall out of your hands, your hearts first melting with fear.

The Times of long and multiplyed sorrows, and furious indignation.

The Babylonians are but men, but I the Lord your God, whom you have provoked, am with them, they are my weapons of War, and I strike by them, and thou shalt never be able to subsist under it.

Flatter not thy self, the Lord will do it as he hath spoken it.

Marginal references: chap. 17.24.

15 And I will scatter thee among the heathen , and disperse thee in the countreys , and will consume thy filthiness out of thee .

As the wind scatters Cha[illegible: 1 letter]t.

Worst of the Babylonish Vassals.

Doubled for certainty of the thing.

Some take it for a threat by a fire, that shall consume the filthy Sinners, the filthy sins will cease, or else, that by removing them out of Ierusalem into Captivity, and reducing them to a very low condition they should not any more commit, but for ever loath their wickedness; some take it for a promise of purging mercy to better them, i. e. the remnant of them when the rest are destroyed, and wasted.

Marginal references: Deut. 4.27, and 28.25 64. chap. 12.14, 15.; chap. 23.27, 48.

16 And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thy self in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

Whereas I was thine Inheritance, and thou enjoyedst all riches, delight, safety, peace, and honour in me so long, as thou wer[illegible: 1 letter] a holy, obedient people: Now that you are polluted a very sink of all filthiness, for which I have cast thee off, and sent thee into Captivity. There be to thy self what thou canst be, for I will not be thine Inheritance.

And this forlorn, abject, helpless state shall be so visible, that the very heathen shall discern, and know, that you are rejected of your God, and he very just in doing so.

Marginal references: Or, shalt be prophaned.

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.

Not a few among many, but universally the whole house of Israel.

The seed of him that was a Prince with God, the Covenant people of God.

Are strangely degenerate, and corrupted as if purer, and richer mettals should by worse and worse turn to dross.

Impudent in sin.

Hypocrites, and m[illegible: 1 letter]xt as Tin.

Hard, cruel, and oppressive as Iron.

Stupid and senseless as Lead. Though I rather think this particular accommodating these Mettals somewhat too curious. I judge the Prophet chargeth them with a continued degeneracy from bad to worse, by this gradation.

The Afflictions I have laid upon them have not bettered them, they retain their Corruptions and Vices.

From the King to the peasant, The Priests, and Prophets, and people.

While they kept Covenant, adhered to my Law, kept my Worship pure, and loved mercy, did justly, walkt humbly with their God; they were as silver, now they are degenerated, and are but the dross of silver, vile of price, and of little use.

Marginal references: Isa. 1.22. Jer. 6.28, &c.; Heb. drosses.

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

From one end of the Land to the other,

From all parts thereof I will by a secret over-ruling providence bring you together into Ierusalem, as into a Furnace where you may be melted and consumed.

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.

Founders, who melt down Mettals to prove them.

If these different kinds of Mettals be to be gathered into one, and the same Furnace, it speaks the involving all promiscuously in the same Afflictions, if it be meant as each distinct Mettal is tryed by the fire in the Furnace, but by fire proportion'd to the stubbornness of the Mettal, then it bespeaks the future Affliction shall be such, as shall melt down the hardest of the degenerate [illegible: 1 span]

To raise the fierceness of the fire.

[illegible: 1 word] it be m[illegible: 1 letter]lted.

See [illegible: 1 letter]er. 19. let. m.

In great▪ [illegible: 1 letter]ut just [illegible: 1 word] cal[illegible: 2 letters]d [illegible: 1 letter]ury too [illegible: 1 letter]ere▪ and elsewhere; such were the [illegible: 1 word] of this people, that they had kindled a fire against them, which should surely consume them.

Or I will [illegible: 1 letter]it down, and r[illegible: 1 letter]st me, as the [illegible: 1 letter]ounder, when he hath taken pains to gather in the Mettal, heap up the wood▪ kindled the fire▪ and blo[illegible: 1 letter]n it to i[illegible: 1 letter]s [illegible: 1 letter]ull height, rests himself observing how the Mettal m[illegible: 1 letter]lts down: God will so rest himself, after the manner of man 'tis spoken; the like phrase chap. 5.13. and chap. 16.4[illegible: 1 letter].

He will take care the fire go not out, t[illegible: 1 letter]ll you are melted, either to the purging away, or consuming you with your dr[illegible: 1 letter]ss.

Marginal references: Heb. according to the gathering.; Or, rest.

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

This seems to intimate the Divine care over some few, that in the midst of the rest were precious, and God would purifie not destroy them.

See, own, and submit to God's afflicting hand, and comply with him, putting away your dross.

Promiscuously with others, among which you have suffered the same outward troubles, though the end be different, which intimates the escape of a Remnant.

These verses are an ingeminating of the same Menaces the more to a[illegible: 1 letter]fect the Iews with fear, and due apprehensions of their danger, and make them think of returning to God.

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

The Land of Israel.

Though God's Judgments have been as violent storms, and flouds▪ though they have been as hottest fires.

Yet neither thy filth hath been carried away, nor thy dross melted out of thee by them, still thou retainest both.

Therefore is indignation kindled against thee, and thou shalt be deprived of the dews of Heaven, the rain, that should cool thy thirsty Land shall be withholden, that rain that should make the ground fruitful, shall not descend.

25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof , like a roaring lyon 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.

A Contrivance, or framing among themselves a design to speak all alike flattering, smooth words, and give ou[illegible: 1 letter] promises of peace, and safety, when there was no peace; they would have the Iews believe in little time the Vessels of the Lords house, and the Lords people in Babylon should be brought back: As Ier. 28.1, 2, 3. and whereas Ieremiah faithfully told them, that it would be no such thing, but that the rest of the Vessels, and Zedekiah, and the people should be carryed away into Babylon, they conspire against him and such as he was. Ier. 20. 2. and 26.8. and 29.25, 26. and persecute them with one consent and mind.

Hers not God's Prophets, the false Prophets, such as Hanania[illegible: 1 letter], Ier. 28.1, 2.

Of the Land, but principally in Ierusalem, the Metropolis, and residence of the Court, where were such as loved to be flattered, and of whom flatt[illegible: 1 letter]rers might make gain.

Whom hunger enrageth, and maketh roar in most dreadful manner, as some observe of them, when they hunt their prey, and when they have siezed, and are tearing it, so did these false Prophets with cruelty, and fierceness pursue the true Prophets, and such as believed their Word, feared the Judgment[illegible: 1 letter], and mourned for the sins of a self-ruining people.

Have eat up, impoverisht, and suckt dry men, that relieved, and maintained them, the guise of all false Prophets, or they have taken, in their complotting, and swallowed down whole the persons that disbelieved and opposed their lies.

They did not, without reward tell their lies, nor would prophesie without a reward out of the treasures of those that advised with them, so they drained the people of their riches.

Either 'tis a farther explication of what he had said, or possibly it may tell us, that where Money was not to be had, these false Prophets would demand something of Value; and, if 'twere Moneys worth, they were then for bartering the Prophesies, so they gull'd these sots.

One while by raising Persecutions, and cutting off Husbands from their Wives; another while, and which most agrees with the Place, Perswading, Encouraging, and bewitching Zedekiah; and the Princes, and People to hold out the War, and run all hazzards, and extremities of that Siege, which filled Ierusalem with dead Husbands, and forlorn Widows.

Marginal references: Hos. 6.9.; Matth. 23.14.; Mic. 3.11. Zeph. 3.3, 4.

26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no * difference between the holy, and prophane, neither have they sh[illegible: 1 letter]wed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am pro[illegible: 1 letter]aned among them.

God o[illegible: 1 letter]ns them n[illegible: 1 letter]t as his, they were Priests that suited such a people.

Men by Office bound [illegible: 1 letter]o reverence the Law, to study it, and to preserve it from mens corruptions.

Wrested it to oppression, and impiety, and to mainta[illegible: 1 letter]n [illegible: 1 letter]rrors, and made it speak what they would▪ not what it did.

Lightly esteemed, as if they had been but common things, and accordingly use them.

Sacrifices, and Oblations, which were consecrate to holy uses, should be o[illegible: 2 letters]ered with holy hearts, and hands, and be [illegible: 1 letter]aten by holy persons in due time, and place. All this neglected with prophane Spirits.

This, and the following clause may be an [illegible: 1 letter]x[illegible: 1 letter]gess, explic[illegible: 2 letters]ion of the former, or else thus; Neither have they in their own practice differenced holy and prophane, 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, but with promis[illegible: 2 letters]ous intermixtures of every thing, and all persons have been alike to them, whether holy, or prophane, i. e. of common, and ordina[illegible: 1 letter]y use.

Have not made the people know, so the word.

Things and Persons, what things might be toucht, or eaten, or what might not, what persons might not be approacht to, and conversed with, and what might; all which was the Duty of the Priests, the neglect whereof spread the uncleanness of the Iews over the whole Land.

Despised, and would not see the Holyness of the Sabbaths, nor would look on such as observed them aright to encourage them, or on those that profan'd them to reprove them, so they did not see what they would not see.

Though they are expresly commanded to be kept holy, and with great care and exactness, Isa. 53.13. Ier. 21, 22. though the Portion of time I consecrated to my service, they sacrilegiously direct to other uses, and grudge it me, nay, rob me of it.

Con[illegible: 1 letter]emned, dishonoured, disobeyed, and, all my Laws represented as trivial, and light things.

Marginal references: Heb. offer[illegible: 1 letter]d violence to.

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

As before, ver. 26. let. d. and ver. 23. let. f.

Rulers of all sorts, who should have crusht oppressors, and defend the oppressed.

Creatures greedy, bloody, and crafty, resembling Dogs that men make use of to defend their Folds; so Authority which God had given to defend, is by these Hypocrites perverted to satisfie the bloody, and greedy Appetite of Tyrannical Governours among the Jews, possibly the Prophet may tax the degeneracy, and baseness of these Rulers hereby.

Innocent blood, a crying sin in Princes, who have God's Power committed to them to preserve the Innocent.

Undo, and ruine Families, cutting off the Fathers, and impoverishing the Widow, and Fatherless.

Confiscating Estates not for[illegible: 1 letter]eited.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word]. [illegible: 1 letter] Zeph. [illegible: 1 letter]

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

False Prophets.

Flattered their oppressing bloody Princes in their wayes of sin, and violence.

Pretending they had by vision from God all the good they promised, whereas it was all a notorious lie, and falsehood,

God never spake to those Prophets, and what by his own Prophets he spake, was of quite another tenure, 'twas evil, not good.

With Promises and Encouragements, that like ill tempered Morter, will deceive them, though all seems for present, smooth and safe.

Marginal references: chap. [illegible: 2 letters]; chap. [illegible: 2 letters]

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

The common people.

Greatly, continuedly, and cruelly opprest one another, wrong each other by fraudes, and violence.

On every occasion turned down right Thieves, and Robbers.

By these oppressions.

See chap. 18. ver. 7. let. s, t.

Without any colour of Justice, Reason, or so much as hearing him, as the phrase seems to import.

Marginal references: Or, [illegible: 1 word]; Heb. [illegible: 1 word] right.

30 And I sought for a man amongst them , that I 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 .

Very earnestly, and diligently spoken of God after the manner of man.

Any one.

Among Princes, Prophets, Priests, or People.

To repair the bre[illegible: 1 letter]ch, and prevent farther mischief.

That might interpose between a sinful suffering People, and their offended God, and intreat for Mercy, that the Land might not be destroyed.

All were corrupted, not one, but obstinately went on to sin, and provoke me.

Marginal references: Jer. [illegible: 2 letters]; chap. [illegible: 2 letters]; Psa. 1[illegible: 1 letter]

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.

Thus provok't by all.

As a Flood to sweep them away.

Kindled a fire against them, that will destroy them,

Sinful abominable wayes.

Brought these as a Net on them, when as wild Beasts taken in the Pit to be destroyed.

The Sins of Jerusalem and Israel

Ezekiel 22:1-16 To the prediction of the judgment in Ezekiel 21 there is appended another description of the sins of Jerusalem and Israel, by which this judgment is occasioned. The chapter contains three words of God, which are connected together both in substance and design, viz., (1) The blood-guiltiness and idolatry of Jerusalem accelerate the coming of the days when the city will be an object of scorn to all the world (vv. 1-16); (2) The house of Israel has become dross, and is to be melted in the fire of tribulation (Eze 22:17-22); (3) All ranks of the kingdom - prophets, priests, princes, and people - are thoroughly corrupt, therefore has the judgment burst upon them (Eze 22:23-31).

Eze 22:1-12

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 'התשׁפּט 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 והודעתּהּ, and is continued in Eze 22:3 (ואמרתּ). לבוא עתּהּ, that her time, i.e., her time of punishment, may come: עתּהּ, like יומו in Eze 21:30. ועשׂתּה is not a continuation of the infinitive לבוא, but of the participle שׁפכת. עליה, 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 על never has, but literally “upon,” i.e., in itself, covering the city with it, as it were. ותּקריבי, 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. טמאת ה, defiled, unclean with regard to the name, i.e., having forfeited the name of a holy city through capital crimes and other sinful abominations. מהוּמה 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 אישׁ  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 אישׁ לזרעו would stand for לזרע אישׁ rof dnat, or rather for אישׁ זרוע לאישׁ, - 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 היוּ does not require anything to be supplied, any more than in the similar combination in Eze 22:9. Followed by למען 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. הקלּוּ is the opposite of כּבּד (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 אישׁ in Eze 22:11 does not mean every one, but one, another, and the third, as the correlative רעהוּ 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 22:17-22

Refining of Israel in the Furnace of Besieged Jerusalem

Eze 22:17. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 22:18. Son of man, the house of Israel has become to me as dross; they are all brass, and tin, and iron, and lead in the furnace; dross of silver have they become. Eze 22:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because ye have all become dross, therefore, behold, I gather you together in Jerusalem. Eze 22:20. As men gather together silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin into the furnace, to blow the fire upon it for melting, so will I gather (you) together in my anger and my wrath, and put you in and melt you. Eze 22:21. And I will collect you together, and blow the fire of my wrath upon you, that ye may be melted therein. Eze 22:22. As silver is melted in the furnace, so shall ye be melted therein (viz., in Jerusalem), and shall learn that I Jehovah have poured out my wrath upon you. - This second word of God rests no doubt upon the figure in Eze 22:15, of the uncleanness or dirt of sin; but it is not an exposition of the removal of the dirt, as predicted there. For that was to be effected through the dispersion of Israel among the nations, whereas the word of God, from Eze 22:17 onwards, represents the siege awaiting Jerusalem as a melting process, through which God will separate the silver ore contained in Israel from the baser metals mingled with it. In Eze 22:18 it commences with a description of the existing condition of Israel. It has turned to dross. היוּ is clearly a perfect, and is not to be taken as a prophetical future, as Kliefoth proposes. Such a rendering is not only precluded by the clause 'יען היות  in Eze 22:19, cut could only be made to yield an admissible sense by taking the middle clause of the verse, “all of them brass and tin,” etc., as a statement of what Israel had become, or as a preterite in opposition to all the rules of Hebrew syntax, inasmuch as this clause merely furnishes an explanation of היוּ־לסוּג. סוּג, which only occurs here, for סיג signifies dross, not smelting-ore (Kliefoth), literally, recedanea, the baser ingredients which are mixed with the silver, and separated from it by smelting. This is the meaning here, where it is directly afterwards interpreted as consisting of brass, tin, iron, and lead, and then still further defined as סגּים כּסף, dross of silver, i.e., brass, tin, iron, and lead, with a mixture of silver. Because Israel had turned into silver-dross of this kind, the Lord would gather it together in Jerusalem, to smelt it there as in a smelting furnace; just as men gather together brass, iron, lead, and tin in a furnace to smelt them, or rather to separate the silver contained thereon. קבצת כּסף, literally, a collection of silver, etc., for “like a collection.” The כ simil. is probably omitted for the sake of euphony, to avoid the discord occasioned by prefixing it to קבצת. Ezekiel mentions the silver as well, because there is some silver contained in the brass, iron, etc., or the dross is silver-dross. התּוּך, nomen verbale, from נתך in the Hiphil, smelting; literally, as the smelting of silver takes place in the furnace. The smelting is treated here simply as a figurative representation of punishment, and consequently the result of the smelting, namely, the refining of the silver by the removal of the baser ingredients, is not referred to any further, as in the case in Isa 1:22, Isa 1:25; Jer 6:27-30; Mal 3:2-3. This smelting process was experienced by Israel in the last siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans.

Eze 22:23-31

The corrupt state of all classes in the kingdom is the immediate cause of its destruction. - Eze 22:23. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 22:24. Son of man, say to it, Thou art a land which is not shined upon, nor rained upon in the day of anger. Eze 22:25. Conspiracy of its prophets is within it; like a roaring lion, which rends in pieces the prey, they devour souls, take possessions and money; they multiply its widows within it. Eze 22:26. Its priests violate my law and profane my holy things; they make no distinction between holy and unholy, and do not teach the difference between clean and unclean, and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Eze 22:27. Its princes in the midst of it are like wolves, which rend prey in pieces, that they may shed blood, destroy souls, to acquire gain. Eze 22:28. And its prophets plaster it with cement, seeing what is worthless, and diving lies for them, saying, “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah,” when Jehovah hath not spoken. Eze 22:29. The common people offer violence and commit theft; they crush the wretched and the poor, and oppress the foreigner against right. Eze 22:30. I seek among them for a man who might build a wall and step into the breach before me on behalf of the land, that I might not destroy it, but I find none. Eze 22:31. Therefore I pour out my anger upon them; I destroy them in the fire of my wrath, I give their way upon their head, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - To show the necessity for the predicted judgment still more clearly, in the third word of God contained in this chapter a description is given of the spread of deep corruption among all classes of the people, and the impossibility of saving the kingdom is plainly shown. The words אמר־להּ, “say unto her,” are taken by most of the commentators as referring to Jerusalem, the abominations of which the prophet is commanded to declare. But although the clause, “thou art a land,” etc. (Eze 22:24), could unquestionably be made to harmonize with this, yet the words of Eze 22:30, “I sought for a man who might stand in the gap before Jehovah for the land,” indicate most unquestionably that this word of God is directed against the land of Judah, and consequently להּ must be taken as referring to ארץ which follows, the pronoun is this case being placed before the noun to which it refers, as in Num 24:17. Any allusion to the city of Jerusalem would therefore be somewhat out of place, inasmuch as in the preceding word of God the object referred to was not the city, but the house of Israel, or the nation generally, from which a transition is here made to the land, or the kingdom of Judah. The meaning of Eze 22:24 is a disputed question. לא מטהרה היא, which is rendered ἡ οὐ βρεχομένηin the Sept., is taken by most of the expositors to mean, “it is not cleansed,” the form מטהרה being correctly rendered as a participle Pual of טהר. But this rendering does not furnish any appropriate sense, unless the following words לא גּשׁמהּ are taken as a threat: there shall not be rain, or it shall not be rained upon in the day of wrath. But this view is hardly reconcilable with the form of the word. גּשׁמהּ, according to the Masoretic pointing with Mappik in the ה, is evidently meant to be taken as a noun גּשׁם = גּשׁם. In that case, if the words were intended to contain a threat, יהיה ought not to be omitted. But without a verb the words contain a statement in harmony with what precedes. We regard the Chetib גשׁמה as the perfect Pual גּשׁמהּ. And let it not be objected to this that the Pual of this verb is not met with elsewhere, for the form of the noun גּשׁם with the u sound does not occur anywhere else. As a perfect Pual, לא גּשׁמהּ is a simple continuation of the participial clause לא מטהרה היא, containing like this an affirmation, and cannot possibly be taken as a threat or prediction. But “not cleansed” and “not rained upon” do not agree together, as rain is not a means of purification according to the Hebrew idea. It is true that in the law the withdrawal or suspension of rain is threatened as a punishment from God, and the pouring out of rain is promised as a theocratical blessing. But even if the words are taken in a tropical sense, as denoting a withdrawal of the blessings of divine grace, they will not harmonize with the other clause, “not cleansed.” We therefore take מטהרה in the sense of “shined upon by the light,” or provided with brightness; a meaning which is sustained by Exo 24:10, where tohar occurs in the sense of splendour, and by the kindred word tzohar, light. In this way we obtain the suitable thought, land which has neither sunlight nor rain in the day of wrath, i.e., does not enjoy a single trace of the divine blessing, but is given up to the curse of barrenness.

The reason for this threat is given in Eze 22:25., where a picture is drawn of the moral corruption of all ranks; viz., of the prophets (Eze 22:25), the priests (Eze 22:26), the princes (Eze 22:27), and the common people (Eze 22:29). There is something very striking in the allusion to the prophets in Eze 22:25, not so much because they are mentioned again in Eze 22:28, - for this may be accounted for on the ground that in the latter passage they are simply introduced as false advisers of the princes, - as on account of the statement made concerning them in Eze 22:25, namely, that, like lions tearing their prey, they devour souls, etc.; a description which is not given either in Ezekiel 13 or elsewhere. Hitzig therefore proposes to alter נביאיה into נשׂיאיה, after the rendering ἀφηγούμενοι given by the lxx. This alteration of the text, which confines itself to a single letter, is rendered very plausible by the fact that almost the same is affirmed of the persons mentioned in Eze 22:25 as of the princes in Eze 22:27, and that in the passage in Zephaniah (Zep 3:3-4), which is so similar to the one before us, that Ezekiel appears to have had it in his mind, the princes (שׂריה) and the judges (שׁפטיה) are called the prophets and the priests. The נשׂיאים here would correspond to the שׂרים of Zephaniah, and the שׂרים to the שׁפטים. According to Eze 22:6, the נשׂיאים would indicate primarily the members of the royal family, possibly including the chief officers of the crown; and the שׂרים eht dna ;n (Eze 22:27) would be the heads of tribes, of families, and of fathers’ houses, in whose hands the national administration of justice principally lay (cf. Exo 18:19.; Deu 1:13-18; and my Bibl. Archäol. ii. §149). I therefore prefer this conjecture, or correction, to the Masoretic reading, although the latter is supported by ancient witnesses, such as the Chaldee with its rendering ספרהא, scribes, and the version of Jerome. For the statement which the verse contains is not applicable to prophets, and the best explanation given of the Masoretic text - namely, that by Michaelis, “they have made a compact with one another as to what kind of teaching they would or would not give; and in order that their authority may continue undisturbed, they persecute even to blood those who do not act with them, or obey them, but rather contradict” - does not do justice to the words, but weakens their sense. קשׁר is not a predicate to 'נב, “they are (i.e., form) a conspiracy;” but 'נב  is a genitive. At the same time, there is no necessity to take קשׁר in the sense of “company,” a rendering which cannot be sustained. The fact that in what follows, where the comparison to lions is introduced, the נביאים (נשׂיאים) are the subject, simply proves that in the first clause also these men actually form the prominent idea. There is no ground for supplying המּה to 'כּארי  (they are like, etc.); but the simile is to be linked on to the following clause. נפשׁ אכלוּ is to be explained from the comparison to a lion, which devours the prey that it has captured in its blood, in which is the soul, or nephesh (Gen 9:4; Lev 17:11.). The thought is this: in their insatiable greed for riches they sacrifice men and put them to death, and thereby multiply the number of victims (for the fact, see Eze 19:5, Eze 19:7). What is stated in Eze 22:26 concerning the priests is simply a further expansion of Zep 3:4, where the first two clauses occur word for word; for קדשׁ in Zephaniah is really equivalent to קדשׁי, holy things and deeds. The desecration of the holy things consisted in the fact that they made no distinction between sacred and profane, clean and unclean. For the fact, compare Lev 10:10-11. Their covering their eyes from the Sabbaths showed itself in their permitting the Sabbaths to be desecrated by the people, without offering any opposition (cf. Jer 17:27).

The comparison of the rulers (sārim) to ravening wolves is taken from Zep 3:3. Destroying souls to acquire gain is perfectly applicable to unjust judges, inasmuch as, according to Exo 18:21, the judges were to hate בּצע. All that is affirmed in Eze 22:28 of the conduct of the false prophets is repeated for the most part verbatim from Eze 13:10,Eze 13:9, and Eze 13:7. By להם, which points back to the three classes of men already mentioned, and not merely to the sārim, the prophets are represented as helpers of those who support the ungodly in their wicked ways, by oracles which assured them of prosperity. עם  (Eze 22:29), as distinguished from the spiritual and secular rulers of the nation, signifies the common people. With reference to their sins and wickednesses, see Eze 18:7, Eze 18:12, Eze 18:18; and for the command against oppressing the poor and foreigners, compare Exo 22:20-21; Deu 24:17. - The corruption is so universal, that not a man is to be found who could enter into the gap as a righteous man, or avert the judgment of destruction by his intercession. מהם refers not merely to the prophets, who did not enter into the gap according to Eze 13:5, but to all the classes previously mentioned. At the same time, it does not follow from this, that entering into the gap by means of intercession cannot be the thing intended, as Hitzig supposes. The expression לפני בּעד הארץ clearly refers to intercession. This is apparent from the simple fact that, as Hitzig himself observes, the intercession of Abraham for Sodom (Gen 18:13.) was floating before the mind of Ezekiel, since the concluding words of the verse contain an obvious allusion to Gen 18:28. Because the Lord does not find a single righteous man, who might intercede for the land, He pours out His anger upon it, to destroy the inhabitants thereof. With reference to the fact and the separate words employed, compare Ezekiel 21:36; Eze 7:4; Eze 9:10; Eze 11:21, and Eze 16:43. It does not follow from the word ואשׁפּך, that Ezekiel “is speaking after the catastrophe” (Hitzig). For although ואשׁפּך expresses the consequence of Jehovah’s seeking a righteous man and not finding one, it by no means follows from the occurrence of the preterite ולא מצאתי that ואשׁפּך is also a preterite. ואשׁפּך is simply connected with ואבקּשׁ as a consequence; and in both verbs the Vav consec. expresses the sequence of thought, and not of time. The seeking, therefore, with the result of not having found, cannot be understood in a chronological sense, i.e., as an event belonging to the past, for the simple reason that the preceding words do not record the chronological order of events. It merely depicts the existing moral condition of the people, and Eze 22:30 sums up the result of the description in the thought that there was no one to be found who could enter in the gap before God. Consequently we cannot determine from the imperfect with Vav consec. either the time of the seeking and not finding, or that of the pouring out of the wrath.

The Sins of Jerusalem. (b. c. 591.)

1 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, 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 infamous and much vexed. 6 Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood. 7 In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression 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 one 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 .

In these verses the prophet by a commission from Heaven sits as a judge upon the bench, and Jerusalem is made to hold up her hand as a prisoner at the bar; and, if prophets were set over other nations, much more over God's nation, Jer. i. 10. This prophet is authorized to judge the bloody city, the city of bloods. Jerusalem is so called, not only because she had been guilty of the particular sin of blood-shed, but because her crimes in general were bloody crimes (ch. vii. 23), such as polluted her in her blood, and for which she deserved to have blood given her to drink. Now the business of a judge with a malefactor is to convict him of his crimes, and then to pass sentence upon him for them. These two things Ezekiel is to do here.

I. He is to find Jerusalem guilty of many heinous crimes here enumerated in a long bill of indictment, and it is billa vera—a true bill; so he writes upon it whose judgment we are sure is according to truth. He must show her all her abominations (v. 2), that God may be justified in all the desolations brought upon her. Let us take a view of all the particular sins which Jerusalem here stands charged with; and they are all exceedingly sinful.

1. Murder: The city sheds blood, not only in the suburbs, where the strangers dwell, but in the midst of it, where, one would think, the magistrates would, if any where, be vigilant. Even there people were murdered either in duels or by secret assassinations and poisonings, or in the courts of justice under colour of law, and there was no care taken to discover and punish the murderers according to the law (Gen. ix. 6), no, nor so much as the ceremony used to expiate an uncertain murder (Deut. xxi. 1), and so the guilt and pollution remains upon the city. Thus thou hast become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed, v. 4. This crime is insisted most upon, for it was Jerusalem's measure-filling sin more than any; it is said to be that which the Lord would not pardon, 2 Kings xxiv. 4. (1.) The princes of Israel, who should have been the protectors of injured innocence, every one were to their power to shed blood, v. 6. They thirsted for it, and delighted in it, and whoever came within their power were sure to feel it; whoever lay at their mercy were sure to find none. (2.) There were those who carried tales to shed blood, v. 9. They told lies of men to the princes, to whom they knew it would be pleasing, to incense them against them; or they betrayed what passed in private conversation, to make mischief among neighbours, and set them together by the ears, to bite, and devour, and worry one another, even to death. Note, Those who, by giving invidious characters and telling ill-natured stories of their neighbours, sow discord among brethren, will be accountable for all the mischief that follows upon it; as he that kindles a fire will be accountable for all the hurt it does. (3.) There were those who took gifts to shed blood (v. 12), who would be hired with money to swear a man out of his life, or, if they were upon a jury, would be bribed to find an innocent man guilty. When so much barbarous bloody work of this kind was done in Jerusalem we may well conclude, [1.] That men's consciences had become wretchedly profligate and seared and their hearts hardened; for those would stick at no wickedness who would not stick at this. [2.] That abundance of quiet, harmless, good people were made away with, whereby, as the guilt of the city was increased, so the number of those that should have stood in the gap to turn away the wrath of God was diminished.

2. Idolatry: She makes idols against herself to destroy herself, v. 3. And again (v. 4), Thou hast defiled thyself in thy idols which thou hast made. Note, Those who make idols for themselves will be found to have made them against themselves, for idolaters put a cheat upon themselves and prepare destruction for themselves; besides that thereby they pollute themselves, they render themselves odious in the eyes of the just and jealous God, and even their mind and conscience are defiled, so that to them nothing is pure. Those who did not make idols themselves were yet found guilty of eating upon the mountains, or high places (v. 9), in honour of the idols and in communion with idolaters.

3. Disobedience to parents (v. 7): In thee have the children set light by their father and mother, mocked them, cursed them, and despised to obey them, which was a sign of a more than ordinary corruption of nature as well as manners, and a disposition to all manner of disorder, Isa. iii. 5. Those that set light by their parents are in the highway to all wickedness. God had made many wholesome laws for the support of the paternal authority, but no care was taken to put them in execution; nay, the Pharisees in their day taught children, under pretence of respect to the Corban, to set light by their parents and refuse to maintain them, Matt. xv. 5.

4. Oppression and extortion. To enrich themselves they wronged the poor (v. 7): They dealt by oppression and deceit with the stranger, taking advantage of his necessities, and his ignorance of the laws and customs of the country. In Jerusalem, that should have been a sanctuary to the oppressed, they vexed the fatherless and widows by unreasonable demands and inquisitions, or troublesome law-suits, in which might prevails against right. "Thou hast taken usury and increase (v. 12); not only there are those in thee that do it, but thou hast done it." It was an act of the city or community; the public money, which should have been employed in public charity, was put out to usury, with extortion. Thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by violence and wrong. For neighbours to gain by one another in a way of fair trading is well, but those who are greedy of gain will not be held within the rules of equity.

5. Profanation of the sabbath and other holy things. This commonly goes along with the other sins for which they here stand indicted (v. 8): Thou hast despised my holy things, holy oracles, holy ordinances. The rites which God appointed were thought too plain, too ordinary; they despised them, and therefore were fond of the customs of the heathen. Note, Immorality and dishonesty are commonly attended with a contempt of religion and the worship of God. Thou hast profaned my sabbaths. There was not in Jerusalem that face of sabbath-sanctification that one would have expected in the holy city. 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.

6. 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. Jerusalem had been famous for its purity, but now in the midst of thee they commit lewdness (v. 9); lewdness goes bare-faced, though in the most scandalous instances, as that of a man's having his father's wife, which is the discovery of the father's nakedness (v. 10) and is a sin not to be named among Christians without the utmost detestation (1 Cor. v. 1), and was made a capital crime by the law of Moses, Lev. xx. 11. The time to refrain from embracing has not been observed (Eccles. iii. 6), for they have humbled her that was set apart for her pollution. They made nothing of committing lewdness with a neighbour's wife, with a daughter-in-law, or a sister, v. 11. And shall not God visit for these things?

7. Unmindfulness of God was at the bottom of all this wickedness (v. 12): "Thou hast forgotten me, else thou wouldst not have done thus." Note, Sinners do that which provokes God because they forget him; they forget their descent from him, dependence on him, and obligations to him; they forget how valuable his favour is, which they make themselves unfit for, and how formidable his wrath, which they make themselves obnoxious to. Those that pervert their ways forget the Lord their God, Jer. iii. 21.

II. He is to pass sentence upon Jerusalem for these crimes.

1. 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. She has made her time to come (v. 3), her days to draw near; and she has come to her years of maturity for punishment (v. 4), as an heir that has come to age and is ready for his inheritance. God would have borne longer with them, but they had arrived at such a pitch of impudence in sin that God could not in honour give them a further day. Note, Abused patience will at last be weary of forbearing. And, when sinners (as Solomon speaks) grow overmuch wicked, they die before their time (Eccl. vii. 17) and shorten their reprieves.

2. Let her know that she has exposed herself, and therefore God has justly exposed her, to the contempt and scorn of all her neighbours (v. 4): I have made thee a reproach to the heathen, both those who are near, who are eye-witnesses of Jerusalem's apostasy and degeneracy, and those afar off, who, though at a distance, will think it worth taking notice of (v. 5); they shall all mock thee. While they were reproached by their neighbours for their adherence to God it was their honour, and they might be sure that God would roll away their reproach. But, now that they are laughed at for their revolt from God, they must lie down in their shame, and must say, The Lord is righteous. They make a mock at Jerusalem, both because her sins had been very scandalous (she is infamous, polluted in name, and has quite lost her credit), and because her punishment is very grievous—she is much vexed and frets without measure at her troubles. Note, Those who fret most at their troubles have commonly those about them who will be so much the more apt to make a jest of them.

3. Let her know that God is displeased, highly displeased, at her wickedness, and does and will witness against it (v. 13): I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain. God, both by his prophets and by his providence, revealed his wrath from heaven against their ungodliness and unrighteousness, the oppressions they were guilty of, though they got by them, and their murders (the blood which has been in the midst of thee), and all their other sins. Note, God has sufficiently discovered how angry he is at the wicked courses of his people; and, that they may not say that they have not had fair warning, he smites his hand against the sin before he lays his hand upon the sinner. And this is a good reason why we should despise dishonest gain, even the gain of oppressions, and shake our hands from holding bribes, because these are sins against which God shakes his hands, Isa. xxxiii. 15.

4. Let her know that, proud and secure as she is, she is no match for God's judgments, v. 14. (1.) She is assured that the destruction she has deserved will come: I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it. He that is true to his promises will be true to his threatenings too, for he is not a man that he should repent. (2.) It is supposed that she thinks herself able to contend with God, and so stand a siege against his judgments. She bade defiance to the day of the Lord, Isa. v. 19. But, (3.) She is convinced of her utter inability to make her part good with him: "Can thy heart endure, or can thy hand be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? Thou thinkest thou hast to do only with men like thyself, but shalt be made to know that thou fallest into the hands of a living God." Observe here, [1.] There is a day coming when God will deal with sinners, a day of visitation. He deals with some to bring them to repentance, and there is no resisting the force of convictions when he sets them on; he deals with others to bring them to ruin. He deals with sinners in this life, when he brings upon them his sore judgments; but the days of eternity are especially the days in which God will deal with them, when the full vials of God's wrath will be poured out without mixture. [2.] The wrath of God against sinners, when he comes to deal with them, will be found both intolerable and irresistible. There is no heart stout enough to endure it; it is none of the infirmities which the spirit of a man will sustain. Damned sinners can neither forget nor despise their torments, nor have they any thing wherewith to support themselves under their torments. There are no hands strong enough either to ward off the strokes of God's wrath or to break the chains with which sinners are bound over to the day of wrath. Who knows the power of God's anger?

5. Let her know that, since she has walked in the way of the heathen, and learned their works, she shall have enough of them (v. 15): "I will not only send thee among the heathen, out of thy own land, but I will scatter thee among them and disperse thee in the countries, to be abused and insulted over by strangers." And since her filthiness and filthy ones continued in her, notwithstanding all the methods God had taken to refine her (she would not be made clean, Jer. xiii. 27), he will be his judgments consume her filthiness out of her; he will destroy those that are incurably bad and reform those that are inclined to be good.

6. Let her know that God has disowned her and cast her off. He had been her heritage and portion; but now (v. 16), "Thou shalt take thy inheritance in thyself, shift for thyself, make the best hand thou canst for thyself, for God will no longer undertake for thee." Note, Those that give up themselves to be ruled by their lusts will justly be given up to be portioned by them. Those that resolve to be their own masters, let them expect no other comfort and happiness than what their own hands can furnish them with, and a miserable portion it will prove. Verily, I say unto you, They have their reward. Thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things. These are the same with this, "Thou shalt take thy inheritance in thyself, and then, when it is too late, shalt own in the sight of the heathen that I am the Lord, who alone am a portion sufficient for my people." Note, Those that have lost their interest in God will know how to value it.

The Sins of Jerusalem. (b. c. 591.)

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. 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.

The same melancholy string is still harped upon, and various turns are given it, to make it affecting, that it may be influencing. The prophet must here show, or at least it is here shown him, that the whole house of Israel has become as dross and that as dross they shall be consumed. What David has said concerning the wicked ones of the world is here said concerning the wicked ones of the church, now that it is corrupt and degenerate (Ps. cxix. 119): Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross.

I. See here how the wretched degeneracy of the house of Israel is described. 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. But now, 1. 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. Their being brass denotes the impudence of some in their wickedness; they are brazen-faced, and cannot blush; their shoes had been iron and brass (Deut. xxxiii. 25), but now their brow is so, Isa. xlviii. 4. Their being tin denotes the hypocritical profession of piety with which many of them cover their iniquity; they have a specious show, but no intrinsic worth. Their being iron denotes the cruel disposition of some, and their delight in war, according to the character of the iron age. Their being lead denotes their dulness, sottishness, and stupidity: though soft and pliable to evil, yet heavy and not movable to good. How has the gold become dross! How has the most fine gold changed! So is Jerusalem's degeneracy bewailed, Lam. iv. 1. Yet this is not the worst; these metals, though of less value, are yet of good use. But, 2. The house of Israel has become dross to me. So she is in God's account, whatever she is in her own and her neighbours' account. They were silver, but now they are even the dross of silver; the word signifies all the dirt, and rubbish, and worthless stuff, that are separated from the silver in the washing, melting, and refining of it. Note, Sinners, and especially degenerate professors, are in God's account as dross, vile, and contemptible, and of no account, as the evil figs which could not be eaten, they were so evil. They are useless and fit for nothing; of no consistency with themselves and no service to man.

II. How the woeful destruction of this degenerate house of Israel is foretold. They are all gathered together in Jerusalem; thither people fled from all parts of the country as to a city of refuge, not only because it was a strong city, but because it was the holy city. Now God tells them that their flocking into Jerusalem, which they intended for their security, should be as the gathering of various sorts of metal into the furnace or crucible, to be melted down, and to have the dross separated from them. They are in the midst of Jerusalem, surrounded by the forces of the enemy; and, being thus enclosed, 1. The fire of God's wrath shall be kindled upon this furnace, and it shall be blown, to make it burn fiercely and strongly, v. 20, 21. God will gather them in his anger and fury. The blowing of the fire makes a great noise, so will the judgments of God upon Jerusalem. When God stirs up himself to execute judgments upon a provoking people, from the consideration of his own glory and the necessity of making some examples, then he may be said to blow the fire of his wrath against sin and sinners, to heat the furnace seven times hotter. 2. The several sorts of metal gathered in it shall be melted; by a complication of judgments, as by a raging fire, their constitution shall be dissolved, they shall lose all their former shape and strength, and shall be utterly unable to stand before the wrath of God. The various sorts of sinners shall be melted down together, and united in a common overthrow, as brass and lead in the same furnace, as trees are bound in bundles for the fire. They came together into Jerusalem as a place of defence, but God brought them together there as unto a place of execution. 3. God will leave them in the furnace (v. 20): I will gather you into the furnace and will leave you there. When God brings his own people into the furnace he sits by them, as the refiner by his gold, to see that they be not continued there any longer than is fitting and needful; but he will bring these people into the furnace, as men throw dross into it, which they design shall be consumed, and therefore are in no care about it, but leave it there. Compare with this Hos. v. 14, I will tear and go away. 4. Hereby the dross shall be wholly separated and the good metal purified, the impenitent shall be destroyed and the penitent reformed and fitted for deliverance. Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer, Prov. xxv. 4. This judgment shall do that in the house of Israel for the doing of which other methods had been tried in vain, and reprobate silver shall they no more be called, Jer. vi. 30.

Charge against Prophets and Priests. (b. c. 591.)

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 violated 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 mortar, 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, 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 .

Here is, I. A general idea given of the land of Israel, how well it deserved the judgments coming to destroy it and how much it needed these judgments to refine it. Let the prophet tell her plainly, "Thou art the land that is not cleansed, not refined as metal is, and therefore needest to be again put into the furnace. Means and methods of reformation have been ineffectual; thou art not rained upon in the day of indignation." This was one of the judgments which God brought upon them in the day of his wrath, he withheld the rain from them, Jer. xiv. 4. Or, "When thou art under the tokens of God's displeasure, even in the day of indignation thou art not rained upon; thou hast not received instruction by the prophets, whose doctrine is said to descend as the rain." Or, "When thou art corrected thou art not cleansed; thy filth is not carried away as that in the streets is by a sweeping rain. Nay, though it be a day of indignation with thee, yet thy filthiness, which should be done away, has become more offensive, as that of a city is in dry weather, when it is not rained upon." Or, "Thou hast nothing to refresh and comfort thyself with in the day of indignation; thou art not rained upon by divine consolations." So the rich man in torment had not a drop of water, or rain, to cool his tongue.

II. A particular charge drawn up against the several orders and degrees of men among them, which shows that they had all helped to fill the measure of the nation's guilt, but none had done any thing towards the emptying of it; they are therefore all alike.

1. They have every one corrupted his way, and those who should have been the brightest examples of virtue were ringleaders in iniquity and patterns of vice.

(1.) The prophets, who pretended to make known the mind of God to them, were not only deceivers, but devourers (v. 25), and hardened them in their wickedness both by their preaching, wherein they promised them impunity and prosperity, and by their conversation, in which they were as profligate as any. There is a conspiracy of her prophets against God and religion, against the true prophets and all good men; they conspired together to be all in one song, as Ahab's prophets were, to assure them of peace in their sinful ways. Note, The unity which is found among pretenders to infallibility, and which they so much boast of, is only the result of a secret conspiracy against the truth. 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. They are like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they thunder out threats against those whose ruin is aimed at, terrify them, or make them odious to the people, and so make themselves masters, [1.] Of their lives: They have devoured souls, have been accessory to the shedding of the blood of many an innocent person, and so have made many to become sorrowful widows who were comfortable wives. They have persecuted those to death who witnessed against their pretensions to prophecy and would not be imposed upon by their counterfeit commission. Or, They devoured souls by flattering sinners into a false peace and a vain hope, and seducing them into the paths of sin, which would be their eternal ruin. Note, Those who draw men to wickedness, and encourage them in it, are the devourers and murderers of their souls. [2.] Of their estates. When Naboth is slain they take possession of his vineyard; They have seized the treasure and precious things, as forfeited; some way or other they had of devouring the widows' houses, as the Pharisees, Matt. xxiii. 14. Or, They got this treasure, and all these precious things, as fees for false and flattering prophecies; for he that puts not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him, Mic. iii. 5. It was sad with Jerusalem when such men as these passed for prophets.

(2.) The priests, who were teachers by office, and had the custody of the sacred things, and should have called the false prophets to account, were as bad as they, v. 26. [1.] They violated the law of God, which they should have observed and taught others to observe. They made no conscience of the law of the priesthood, but openly broke it, and with contempt, as Hophni and Phinehas. They did what they had a mind, with an express non obstante—notwithstanding to the word of God. And how should those teach the people their duty who lived in contradiction to their own? [2.] They profaned God's holy things, about which they were to minister, and which they ought to have restrained others from the profanation of. They suffered those to eat of the holy things who were unqualified by the law. The table of the Lord was contemptible with them. By dealing in holy things with such unhallowed hands they did themselves profane them. [3.] They did not themselves put a difference, nor did they show the people how to put a difference, between the holy and profane, the clean and the unclean, according to the directions and distinctions of the law. They did not exclude those from God's courts who were excluded by the law, nor teach the people to observe the difference the law had made between food clean and unclean, between times and places holy and common; but they lived at large themselves and encouraged the people to do so too. [4.] They hid their eyes from God's sabbaths; they took no care about them; it was all one to them whether God's sabbaths were kept holy or no; they neither gave countenance to those who observed them nor check to those who profaned them, nor did they themselves show any regard to them or veneration for them. They winked at those who did servile works on that day, and looked another way when they should have inspected the behaviour of the people on sabbath days. God's sabbaths have such a beauty and glory put upon them by the divine institution as may command respect; but they hid their eyes from them and would not see that excellency in them. [5.] By all this God himself was profaned among them; his authority was slighted, his goodness made light of, and the highest affront and contempt imaginable were put upon his holiness. Note, The profanation of the honour of the scriptures, of sabbaths and sacred things, is a profanation of the honour of God himself, who is interested in them.

(3.) The princes, who should have interposed with their authority to redress these grievances, were as daring transgressors of the law as any (v. 27): They are like wolves ravening the prey; for such is power without justice and goodness to direct it. 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. Lucri bonus est odor ex re qualibet. Rem, rem, quocunque modo rem—Sweet is the odour of gain, from whatever substance it ascends. Money, money, by fairness or by fraud, get money. But, though they had power sufficient to carry them on in their oppressive courses, yet how could they answer it both to their credit and to their consciences? We are told how (v. 28): The prophets daubed them with untempered mortar, told them in God's name (horrid wickedness!) that there was no harm in what they did, that they might dispose of the lives and estates of their subjects as they pleased, and could do no wrong, nay, that in prosecuting such and such whom they had marked out they did God service; and thus they stopped the mouth of their consciences. They also justified what they did, to the people, nay, and magnified it as if it were all for the public good, and so saved their reputation, and kept their oppressed subjects from murmuring. Note, Daubing prophets are the great supporters of ravening princes, but will prove at last their great deceivers, for they daub with untempered mortar which will not hold, nor will the wall stand long that is built up with it. 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.

(4.) The people that had any power in their hands learned of their princes to abuse it, v. 29. Those that should have complained of the oppression of the subject, and have put in a claim of rights on behalf of the injured, that should have stood up for liberty and property, were themselves invaders of them: The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. 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. Isa. iii. 5, The people shall be oppressed every one by his neighbour. It is an aggravation of the sin that they have vexed the poor and needy, whom they should have relieved, and have oppressed the stranger and deprived him of his right, to whom they ought to have been not only just, but kind. Thus was the apostasy universal and the disease epidemical.

2. There is none that appears as an intercessor for them (v. 30): I sought for a man among them that should stand in the gap, but I found none. Note, (1.) Sin makes a gap in the hedge of protection that is about a people at which good things run out from them and evil things pour in upon them, a gap by which God enters to destroy them. (2.) There is a way of standing in the gap, and making up the breach against the judgments of God, by repentance, and prayer, and reformation. Moses stood in the gap when he made intercession for Israel to turn away the wrath of God, Ps. cvi. 23. (3.) When God is coming forth against a sinful people to destroy them he expects some to intercede for them, and enquires if there be but one that does; so much is it his desire and delight to show mercy. If there be but a man that stands in the gap, as Abraham for Sodom, he will discover him and be well pleased with him. (4.) It bodes ill to a people when judgments are breaking in upon them, and the spirit of prayer is restrained, so that not one is found that will either give them a good word or speak a good word for them. (5.) When it is so, what can be expected but utter ruin? Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them (v. 31), have given it full scope, that it may come upon them in a full stream; yet, whatever God's wrath inflicts upon a people, it is their own way that is therein recompensed upon their heads, and God deals with them no worse, but even much better, than their iniquity deserves.

CHAP. XXII.

Ver. 1. MOreover the Word] See on chap. 18.1.

Ver. 2. Wilt thou judge] Or plead for, or excuſe? See ch. 20.4.

The bloody City] The Saints ſlaughter-houſe.

Ver. 3. In the midſt of it] Publicè & impunè.

Againſt her ſelf] As a ſinner againſt her own ſoul.

Ver. 4. Thou haſt cauſed thy dayes] Thou haſt accelerated thy puniſhment, as the old world did.

Ver. 5. Shall mock thee which art infamous] This was forethreatened, Deut. 28.37. Our natures are moſt impatient of reproach: for there is none ſo mean, but thinks himſelf worth of ſome regard. Gens haec (ſaith Giraldus Cambrenſis of the wild Iriſh) ſicut & natio quaevis barbara, &c. no Nation is ſo barbarous but that although they know not what belongeth to honour, yet do they exceedingly affect to be honoured, and well not abide to be reproached.

Ver. 6. Behold the Princes of Iſrael] Here beginneth the black bill or bed-roll. And as in a fiſh corruption beginneth at the head, ſo in a Nation at the Rulers.

Ver. 7. In thee have they ſee light by father and mother] Whom, very Heathens honoured as their [non-Latin text not transcribed], houſhold-gods.

In the midſt of thee, &c.] So Hierom complaineth of his country, In mea patriae Deus Venter eſt, & in diem vivitur, that they were all belly-gods, and had no goodneſſe in them. So Bede complaineth of the ancient Brittons, immediately before their deſtruction by the Saxons. Bradford cryeth out of the iniquity of the times in King Edward's dayes: You all know, (ſaith he in a certain letter of his) there was never more knowledg of God, and leſſe godly living, and true ſerving of God. It was counted a fooliſh thing to ſerve God truly: and earneſt prayer was not paſt upon.Act. & Mon. Preaching was but paſtime: Communion was counted too common: faſting was far out of uſe: almes was almoſt nothing. Malice, covetouſnſſe, and uncleaneſſe was common everywhere, with ſwearing, drunkenneſſe and idleneſſe, &c.

Ver. 8. Thou haſt deſpiſed mine holy things] Theſe are all foretokens of a periſhing people. Emphaſin habet quod dicit ſancta mea, Sabbata mea. Shall that which hath the impreſſe of God upon it be ſlighted, as his Sabbaths, Sacraments, Ordinances? The holy God ſhould in all theſe his holy things be ſanctified in righteouſneſſe, Iſa. 5.16.

Ver. 9. In thee are men that carry tales] Heb. men of ſlanders, Exod. 23.1. Levit. 18.16. Whiſperers, backbiters, tale-bearers (Pedlars, the Heb. word ſignifieth ſuch as drop a tale here and another there) are viri latrones, thieves (as the Septuagint here tranſlate) yea they are murtherers. The devil was firſt a ſlanderer, and then a murtherer. His agents firſt take away the credit of the Church, and then wound her, Cant. 5.6. The Primitive Chriſtians were firſt belyed, and then cruelly handled: So were the French Proteſtants, before the Maſſacre of Paris. Humphary Duke of Gloceſter was by the people of England (notwithſtanding the open ſhewing of his body, and his pretended crimes) thought to be doubly murthered: viv. by detraction, and deadly practice, ſaith the Chronicler.

Ver. 10. In thee have they diſcovered their fathers nakedneſſe] i. e. Carnally known their fathers wives or concubines, Reuben-like. See 1 Cor. 5.1. with the Note.

Humbled her] i. e. Ravſhed her: which was a double crime. See Levit. 18.19, & 20.18. & 15.25.

Ver. 11. And one hath committed] So the Poet, Hic thalamum invaſit natae, vetitoſque Hymenaeos,Virg. Aen. lib. 6. Auſi omnes immane nefas, auſo que potiti, &c.

Ver. 12. Thou hast taken uſury and increaſe] Ʋſura quaſi propter uſum rei, ſaith One, and faenus quaſi funus. Such mony to neceſſity, is like cold water to a hot ague, that for a time refreſheth, but prolongeth the diſeaſe. It is like the Timber-worm, which is wonderful ſoft to touch, but hath teeth ſo hard that it eateth the timber: See on chap. 18.13.

And haſt greedily gained of thy neighbour] Sept. Thou haſt conſummated the conſummation of thy wickedneſſe in oppreſſion.

And haſt forgotten me] All the forementioned evils are reſolved into this as the root and original of them: See the like, Rom. 3.18.Dei oblivio convehit omnem vitiorum catervam. Hieron.

Ver. 13. I have ſmitten my hand] In token of utmoſt indignation, as Num. 24.10.

At thy diſhoneſt gain which thou hast made] The Jew-doctours obſerve that whereas twenty four ſeveral abominations are here reckoned up, the deſtruction of the City is attributed chiefly to Covetouſneſſe. Lycurgus foretold his Lacedemonians, Plut. that filthy lucre would be the overthrow of their City; and it proved ſo. The like is reported of Conſtantinople, of Babylon, the ſeat of the great Chaliph, Turk. Hiſt. taken and ſacked by Haalon brother to Mango the great Chan of Tartary, who affamiſhed to death the rich but wretched Chaliph in the midſt of his hoards: like as the Roman Souldiers firſt ſlew Ruffinus (who affected to be co-Emperour with Arcadius) and then cutting of his right-hand carried it up and down the City, crying out to the people, Date ſtipem viro avaritiae inexplebilis, Parael Med. hiſt. profan. Give an alms to a man of unſatisfiable covetiſe.

Ver. 14. Can theine heart endure, or can thine hands be ſtrong] Interrogatio continens latentem Ironiam: q. d. Miſella ſuperbula, eriſ[illegible: 1 letter]e ferendo mala futùra? Thou poor proud thing of nought, canſt thou make thy party good with Me? Canſt thou either in mind or body bear my wrath? will not thine heart ſoon fall into thy heels, and thine hands be enfeebled when I ſhall grapple with thee, and take thee to do?

And will do it] Thou thinkeſt, likely, that all theſe are but terrible words, deviſed on purpoſe to affright ſilly people, but I will do it.

Ver. 15. I will ſcatter thee] Deut. 4.27. & 28.25, 64.

And will conſume thy filthineſſe] By thy captivity and miſery, I will refine, Heb. Faciam ut integretur. and reform thee: Zach. 13.9.

Ver. 16. And thou ſhalt take thine inheritance in thy ſelf] q. d. I will abandon thee. Or, Thou ſhalt be profaned and polluted.

And thou ſhalt know that I am the Lord] Thou ſhalt know me by my puniſhments, whom thou wouldeſt not know by my benefits.

Ver. 17. And the Word of the L[illegible: 1 letter]rd] See chap. 18.1.

Ver. 18. The houſe of Iſrael is to me become droſſe] Recrementum argenti, offalſtuffe. Silver they were once, but now nothing leſſe. Haec ad nos quo que tranferenda ſunt. This is even our caſe, we are quite degenerate, and altogether unlike our zealous progenitours.

Heu! pietas ubi priſca? profana O tempora! Mundi Faex, veſper, propè nox! O Mora! Chriſte veni.

All they are braſſe] See on Iſa. 1.22.

Ver. 19. I will gather you into the midſt of Jeruſalem] Velut catinum fuforium, as into a red-hot fornace, or fiery crucible, chap. 24, 10.

Ver. 20. As they gather ſilver and braſſe] The righteous periſh with the wicked: but either it is temporally only: or elſe, the ſeemingly righteous, who are no better then reprobate ſilver.

And I will leave you there] A terrible threat. God will bring his enemies into the briars and there leave there: See chap. 29.5. His own he will not leave, or, at leaſt, not forſake. He will be with them in the fire and water, &c. Lord leave us not, ſaith the Church, Jer. 17.17.

Ver. 21. And ye ſhall be melted in the midſt thereof] As in a fiery furnace. Such was anciently Egypt, Deut. 4. afterwards Babylon: and in the year 1453. Conſtantinople; where cruelly periſhed by the hand of the Turks, a very great multitude of Chriſtians.

Lavat.Ver. 22. As ſilver is melted] The ſame again, for better faſtening. Tam diligenter de his malis concionatus est, ut conciones ejus vix ſine taedio legantur aut recitentur.

Ver. 23. And the Word] See chap. 18.1.

Ver. 24. Thou art the land that is not cleanſed] From thy filthineſſe, and the fire of my Judgements.

Nor rained upon] Non compluta: no mercy ſhewed thee: no good done upon thee by all.

Ver. 25. Ther is a conſpiracy of her Prophets] They are all agreed to deceive the people, and to perſecute the true Prophets. Here we have a lively deſcription of the preſent Popiſh Clergy.

Planè palamque contrà faciunt, quam ipſis imperavi lege. Jun. Ver. 26. Her Prieſts have violated my Law] By infringing, and inforcing it to ſpeak what it never meant: to go two miles when it would go but one, &c.

They have put no difference] They have not taken out the precious from the vile, but made it open-tide, and admitted all pell mell, as they ſay.

And have hid their eyes from my Sablaths] i. e. Either framed excuſe that they might themſelves break it: or elſe connived at others that have.

Ver. 27. Her Princes in the midſt thereof] There was in this State (as Phyſicians ſay there is in ſome diſeaſes) corruptio totius ſubſtantiae, Lupis ferociores & voraciores erant. a general defection: and here they are particularly told of it; for (as Iſocrates ſaith in his Oration to Philip King of Macedony) that which is ſpoken to all, is ſpoken to none. See Mic. 3.11. Zeph. 3.3.

Ver. 28. And her Prophets have daubed them] Similes iis qui parietem incruſtant luto friabili & ſolubili: See chap. 13.4, &c.

Ver. 29. The people of the land have uſed oppreſſion] Or, deceit. Eadem hodie fiunt: charitas refrixit; omnia injuriis, calumniis, rapinis plena ſunt.

Ver. 30. And I ſought for a man among them] i. e. A competent company of holy men, as once at Sodom, Gen. 18. at Jeruſalem, Jer. 5.1.

That ſhould make up the hedge] Which ſin had thrown down.

And ſtand in the gap] By his Piety, and Prayers, The Primum Mobile, ſay Aſtronomers, turneth about with ſuch ſwiftneſſe, that but for the counter-motion of the Planets and other Spheres, all would be fired: ſo would this wicked world but for the Saints, who keep a conſtant counter-motion to the corrupt practices thereof.

Ver. 31. I have conſumed them with the fire] Sith thou wouldeſt not be cleanſed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation, ver. 24.