Ezekiel 22

MOreover, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Now thou, son of man, wilt thou judge, Some would have the Prophet here to be questioned, whether he would, and why he would, plead for such a City. Other, that God does forbid him to plead for it, or be solicitous about it. I rather think God does awaken him to more vigorous reproving of this sinful people, and threatning them for sin. wilt thou judge The question is doubled to awaken the Prophet more fully, and to quicken him to his work. the bloody city? yea, thou shalt show 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. her All the kinds not all individual acts of them all her abominations. Ierusalem, which is guilty of the murthers of innocent ones, of Prophets and holy men.

Then say thou, Thus says the Lord GOD; The city Ierusalem. sheddeth 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. blood in the midst 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. of it, that her time The time of ripeness in her sins, and of execution of judgments on her for them. may 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. come, and maketh idols 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 does more defile them, and provoke God to wrath against them. against her self to defile her self.

Thou art become guilty in thy blood Greatly or deeply guilty., that thou hast shed, In abundance, cruelly and perfidiously. and hast defiled thy self As a polluted thing loathsome to be seen or toucht. in thine idols Dunghil gods. which thou hast made; and thou hast caused 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. thy days to draw near, and art come 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. even unto thy years, therefore For thy old sins thou art given up to be a reproach. have I made thee 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. unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries That were round about them, or farther off had heard of them..

Those that be near, As the Idumeans or Edomites who insulted over Ierusalem when 'twas taken, Ammonites, and Moabites, and Philistines. and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, which art infamous Of a most infamous name., and much vexed 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.

Behold, He was verse 2. commanded to show 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. the princes d of Israel, every one Not one to be found of a juster, or more merciful temper. were in thee to their power According to their ability, and opportunity. to shed blood For murthering all they hated, or that stood in their way..

In thee In Ierusalem. have they 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. set light by Have contemned Father and Mother, though God threatens to curse such as do so. Deut. 27.16. father and mother: in the midst of thee they The Princes still, as the construction in the Original, carrieth it, have dealt by oppression 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 oyned, they have oppressed the Stranger expresly against God's command. Exod. 22.21. with the stranger: in thee have they 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. vexed the fatherless, and the widow.

Thou 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 despised Hast had very low esteem of them, as if mean, and ridiculous. mine holy All my Institutions Temple Sacrifices, Feasts, and Priests, &c. things, and hast profaned Spent them in prophane work, or bestowed them upon Idols, and their Service. my sabbaths.

In thee are men that carry tales Informers, and Trapanners, or persons that corrupted with Money, give in false witness against the Innocent, and Princes of Israel had hand in it. to shed blood: and in thee they eat Offer Sacrifice on the Mountains, and feast there, celebrating the honour of their Idols. See chap. 18 6, 11, 15. upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness Enormous, contrived mischiefs, as the word imports..

In thee have they discovered Like wild Arabians, worst of Heathens there have been, and are some that incestuously defile their Fathers bed. their fathers nakedness: in thee have they humbled 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. her that was set a part for pollution Forbidden, Lev. 18.19. and chap. 20.18. and that on very just reasons, and for preventing many mischiefs, which follow such unseasonable commixtures..

And one 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. has committed abomination Adultery, which God does, and man should abhor. with his neighbours wife; and an other Horrible shameless doings, the Father in law committing incest with the Wifes Daughter. has lewdly defiled his daughter in law; and an other in thee has humbled his sister, his fathers 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. daughter.

In thee have they 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. taken gifts to shed blood, thou hast taken Vid chap. 18. ver. 8. let. x, y, z, a. usury, and increase, and thou hast greedily 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. gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, says the Lord GOD.

Hear therefore, and mark ye wicked Jews. Behold, therefore I have smitten 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. mine hand at thy dishonest Thy Covetousness, the root of all the evils in thee thy cursed, insatiable hunger for wealth. gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood Which thou didst shed, that thou mightest then sieze their Estates, kill Naboths, and take possession. which has been in the midst of thee.

Can This question is a vehement Negation, thou canst by no means endure. thine heart 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., or can thine hands 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. be strong in the days The Times of long and multiplyed sorrows, and furious indignation. that I 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. shall deal with thee? I the LORD have spoken Flatter not thy self, the Lord will do it as he has spoken it. it, and I will do it.

And I will scatter As the wind scatters Cha t. thee among the heathen Worst of the Babylonish Vassals., and disperse thee in the countreys Doubled for certainty of the thing., and will consume thy filthiness out of thee 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..

And thou shalt take thine inheritance Whereas I was thine Inheritance, and thou enjoyedst all riches, delight, safety, peace, and honour in me so long, as thou wer 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. in thy self in the sight 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. of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Son of man, the house Not a few among many, but universally the whole house of Israel. of Israel The seed of him that was a Prince with God, the Covenant people of God. is to me become Are strangely degenerate, and corrupted as if purer, and richer mettals should by worse and worse turn to dross. dross: all they are brass Impudent in sin., and tin Hypocrites, and m xt as Tin., and iron Hard, cruel, and oppressive as Iron., and lead 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. in the midst of the furnace The Afflictions I have laid upon them have not bettered them, they retain their Corruptions and Vices.; they are even the dross of silver. 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.

Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, because ye are all From one end of the Land to the other, become dross, behold therefore, I will gather 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. you into the midst of Jerusalem.

As they Founders, who melt down Mettals to prove them. gather 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 silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow To raise the fierceness of the fire. the fire upon it, to melt it it be m lted.; so will I gather See er. 19. let. m. you in mine anger In great ut just cal d ury too ere and elsewhere; such were the of this people, that they had kindled a fire against them, which should surely consume them., and in my fury, and I will leave Or I will it down, and r st me, as the ounder, when he has taken pains to gather in the Mettal, heap up the wood kindled the fire and blo n it to i s ull height, rests himself observing how the Mettal m lts down: God will so rest himself, after the manner of man 'tis spoken; the like phrase chap. 5.13. and chap. 16.4. you there, and melt He will take care the fire go not out, t ll you are melted, either to the purging away, or consuming you with your dr ss. you.

Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the ire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.

As silver 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. is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know See, own, and submit to God's afflicting hand, and comply with him, putting away your dross. that I the LORD have poured out my fury upon you 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 fect the Iews with fear, and due apprehensions of their danger, and make them think of returning to God.

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Son of man, say unto her, The Land of Israel. thou art the land that is not cleansed Though God's Judgments have been as violent storms, and flouds though they have been as hottest fires., nor rained Yet neither thy filth has been carried away, nor thy dross melted out of thee by them, still thou retainest both. upon in the day of indignation 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..

There is a conspiracy A Contrivance, or framing among themselves a design to speak all alike flattering, smooth words, and give ou 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. of her Hers not God's Prophets, the false Prophets, such as Hanania, Ier. 28.1, 2. prophets in the midst thereof 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 rers might make gain., like a roaring 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, and mourned for the sins of a self-ruining people. lyon ravening the prey: they have 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. devoured souls: they have taken the treasure 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. and precious 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. things; they have made One while by raising Persecutions, and cutting off Husbands from their Wives; another while, and which most agrees with the Place, Persuading, 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. her many widows in the midst thereof.

Her God o ns them n t as his, they were Priests that suited such a people. priests Men by Office bound o reverence the Law, to study it, and to preserve it from mens corruptions. have violated Wrested it to oppression, and impiety, and to mainta n rrors, and made it speak what they would not what it did. my law, and have profaned Lightly esteemed, as if they had been but common things, and accordingly use them. my holy Sacrifices, and Oblations, which were consecrate to holy uses, should be o ered with holy hearts, and hands, and be aten by holy persons in due time, and place. All this neglected with prophane Spirits. things: they have put no * difference This, and the following clause may be an x gess, explic 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 ous intermixtures of every thing, and all persons have been alike to them, whether holy, or prophane, i. e. of common, and ordina y use. between the holy, and prophane, neither have they sh wed difference Have not made the people know, so the word. between the unclean 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. and the clean, and have hid 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. their eyes from my 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. sabbaths, and I am Con emned, dishonoured, disobeyed, and, all my Laws represented as trivial, and light things. pro aned among them.

Her As before, ver. 26. let. d. and ver. 23. let. f. princes Rulers of all sorts, who should have crusht oppressors, and defend the oppressed. in the midst thereof are like wolves 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. ravening their prey, to shed blood Innocent blood, a crying sin in Princes, who have God's Power committed to them to preserve the Innocent. and to destroy souls Undo, and ruine Families, cutting off the Fathers, and impoverishing the Widow, and Fatherless., to get Confiscating Estates not for eited. dishonest gain.

And her prophets False Prophets. have daubed Flattered their oppressing bloody Princes in their wayes of sin, and violence. them with untemper'd morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies Pretending they had by vision from God all the good they promised, whereas it was all a notorious lie, and falsehood, unto them, saying, thus says the Lord GOD, when the LORD has not God never spake to those Prophets, and what by his own Prophets he spake, was of quite another tenure, 'twas evil, not good. spoken. With Promises and Encouragements, that like ill tempered Morter, will deceive them, though all seems for present, smooth and safe.

The people The common people. of the land have used Greatly, continuedly, and cruelly opprest one another, wrong each other by fraudes, and violence. oppression, and exercised robbery On every occasion turned down right Thieves, and Robbers., and have vexed By these oppressions. the poor and needy See chap. 18. ver. 7. let. s, t.; yea, they have oppressed the stranger r wrongfully Without any colour of Justice, Reason, or so much as hearing him, as the phrase seems to import..

And I sought Very earnestly, and diligently spoken of God after the manner of man. for a man Any one. amongst them Among Princes, Prophets, Priests, or People., that I should make up the hedge To repair the bre ch, and prevent farther mischief., and stand in the gap That might interpose between a sinful suffering People, and their offended God, and intreat for Mercy, that the Land might not be destroyed. before me, for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none All were corrupted, not one, but obstinately went on to sin, and provoke me..

Therefore Thus provok't by all. have I poured As a Flood to sweep them away. out mine indignation upon them, I have consumed Kindled a fire against them, that will destroy them, them with the fire of my wrath; their own way Sinful abominable wayes. have I recompensed upon their heads Brought these as a Net on them, when as wild Beasts taken in the Pit to be destroyed., says the Lord GOD.