Ezekiel 22

Then the LORD's message came to me. He said:

1Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2"Now, son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge the city full of bloodshed? Then confront her with all the disgusting things she has done.

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

Note"Son of man" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning simply "human being," or "mortal." It is God's standard form of address to Ezekiel throughout the book, over ninety times, and marks the prophet's ordinary humanity against the one who is speaking to him. The city addressed here and through the whole chapter is Jerusalem, though it is not named until verse 19. "Bloody city" is not a description of gore but a legal charge: a city carrying unavenged blood-guilt for people wrongfully killed within it.

3Say to her: This is what the Lord GOD says: You are a city that kills people inside your own walls, and so you bring your time of judgment closer. You make idols, and they make you unclean.

3Then 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.

NoteThe King James prints two different words for God in this chapter. "LORD" in small capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters that Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud, saying "my Lord" instead. "Lord GOD" renders a doubled Hebrew title combining "my Lord" with that same name. "Defile" and "unclean" here belong to the vocabulary of ritual purity: not dirt, but a state that disqualified a person, an object, or a place from contact with worship.

4You are guilty because of the blood you have spilled. You are unclean because of the idols you have made. You have brought your last days near and reached the end of your years. So I have made you an object of scorn to the nations and a joke to every land.

4Thou 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.

5Those close by and those far away will laugh at you, city of bad reputation, full of trouble and unrest.

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

Note"Vexed" in 1611 English meant shaken, agitated, thrown into turmoil, much stronger than the modern sense of mildly annoyed.

6Look at how each of Israel's leaders inside you has used the power he had to kill.

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

Note"Princes" translates a Hebrew word for a chief or leader of a tribe or clan, and in Ezekiel it covers the ruling class generally (kings, royal officials, heads of families), not princes in the sense of royal sons.

7Inside you, fathers and mothers are treated as worthless. Inside you, foreigners living among you are cheated and pushed around. Inside you, orphans and widows are mistreated.

7In 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.

NoteThe three groups named (the resident foreigner, the fatherless child, and the widow) form a standard trio in Israelite law. What links them is that none of them had a male head of household to bring a case on their behalf, which in that society meant no practical access to the courts. Israel's law repeatedly singles them out for protection, so mistreating them was a specific and well-known legal offense, not a general failure of kindness. The "stranger" is not a passing visitor but a long-term foreign resident living among Israelites without land of his own.

8You have thought nothing of the things I set apart as holy, and you have treated my Sabbath days as if they were ordinary.

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

Note"Holy things" means objects, offerings, and portions of food set apart for use in the temple and forbidden for ordinary purposes. "Profane" is the technical opposite of "holy": it means to treat as common or everyday something that had been reserved. The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, on which all work stopped; keeping it was one of the most visible markers of Israelite identity.

9Inside you are men who spread lies about others to get them killed. Inside you are people who eat sacrifice meals at the shrines on the mountains. Inside you people do shameful sexual things.

9In 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.

Note"Eating upon the mountains" refers to shared meals from animals sacrificed at open-air shrines on hilltops, worship sites outside the Jerusalem temple that Israel's law condemned. "Lewdness" here translates a word for scheming, deliberate depravity, used in the law especially of sexual offenses. Men who "carry tales to shed blood" are false witnesses: in capital cases the testimony of two witnesses could carry a death sentence, so slander was a way of having someone legally killed.

10Inside you, men have sex with their father's wife. Inside you, men force themselves on women during their monthly bleeding, when the law says they are unclean.

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

Note"To uncover a father's nakedness" is a fixed legal idiom from Leviticus 18 for having sex with a woman who belongs to one's father, his wife or concubine, treated as a violation of the father rather than only of the woman. Under Israelite purity law a menstruating woman was ritually unclean for seven days and sexual contact with her was forbidden; "humbled" is an older English way of saying sexually violated.

11One man does a disgusting thing with his neighbor's wife. Another shamefully defiles his son's wife. Another forces himself on his sister, his own father's daughter.

11And 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.

NoteThe three acts listed (with a neighbor's wife, a daughter-in-law, and a half-sister by the same father) are drawn in order from the catalogue of forbidden sexual relationships in Leviticus 18 and 20. The point of the list is that these are named, known offenses with stated penalties, not a general complaint about immorality.

12Inside you, people take bribes to have someone killed. You lend money at interest and charge more on top of it, and you make yourself rich by squeezing your neighbors. And you have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD.

12In 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.

NoteIsrael's law forbade charging a fellow Israelite interest on a loan; the two words used here, roughly "bite" and "increase", cover interest deducted in advance and interest added on top. Lending at interest to a foreigner was permitted, which is why the offense is framed as what is done to "thy neighbours." "Gifts" here means bribes paid to judges or witnesses, and the law names bribery in capital cases as a specific crime.

13So look: I clap my hands together in anger at the money you have made dishonestly, and at the blood that has been spilled inside you.

13Behold, 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.

NoteStriking or clapping the hands together was a recognized gesture, used to express strong feeling, indignation, scorn, or the sealing of a decision. Elsewhere in Ezekiel God is described as clapping his hands in the same way. It is a physical image, not a figure of speech about applause.

14Will your courage hold up? Will your hands stay strong on the day I deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.

14Can 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.

15I will scatter you among the nations and spread you out through the lands, and I will burn the filth out of you.

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

NoteScattering among the nations means forced deportation, the standard imperial practice of breaking a defeated people by removing them from their land and resettling them elsewhere. Ezekiel is himself writing from among a group of Judeans already deported to Babylon in 597 BC, several years before the destruction of Jerusalem he is describing here.

16And in the sight of the nations you will be defiled by what you yourself have done. Then you will know that I am the LORD."

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

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is uncertain and ancient readers already disagreed about it. The King James takes it as "you will take your inheritance in yourself": that is, receive what is due to you; other readings, including most modern ones, take the same consonants as "you will be profaned" or "defiled" in the sight of the nations. The rendering follows the second, but the ambiguity is in the text itself.

17Then the LORD's message came to me. He said:

17And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

18"Son of man, the people of Israel have turned into worthless scrap to me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace. They are the waste left over from refining silver.

18Son 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.

NoteThis is a metallurgy image. Silver was extracted from ore by heating it until the metal separated from the worthless material, which was skimmed off; that residue is "dross." Copper, tin, iron, and lead were the other metals that came out of the same ore, all of them ordinary and cheap next to silver. "Brass" in 1611 English usually means copper or bronze, not the modern copper-zinc alloy.

19So this is what the Lord GOD says: Because all of you have become worthless scrap, I am going to gather you together inside Jerusalem.

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

NoteGathering people into the middle of Jerusalem is siege imagery: when an invading army swept the countryside, the rural population crowded inside the city walls for safety. The picture merges that with the refiner's furnace, in which the metal is deliberately confined before the fire is lit.

20Workers gather silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into a furnace and blast fire on it to melt it. In the same way I will gather you in my anger and rage, and I will leave you there and melt you.

20As 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.

21Yes, I will pile you together and blow on you with the fire of my anger, and you will melt inside the city.

21Yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.

NoteA refining furnace was brought to temperature by forcing air into it, usually with bellows or a blowpipe; "blowing upon the fire" is the technical action that raises the heat enough to melt metal.

22Just as silver is melted inside a furnace, so you will be melted inside the city. Then you will know that I the LORD have poured out my anger on you."

22As 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.

23Then the LORD's message came to me. He said:

23And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

24"Son of man, say to her: You are a land that has not been washed clean, a land that got no rain on the day of anger.

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

NoteThe Hebrew here can be read two ways, and both readings are old: "not cleansed" and "not rained upon" differ by very little in the consonantal text. Rain and cleansing overlap in the image either way, since in that climate drought was itself a recognized sign of a land under judgment. "Indignation" translates a word for settled, expressed anger.

25Her prophets have joined together in a plot inside her. They are like a roaring lion tearing up what it has caught. They have destroyed lives, seized treasure and valuable things, and made many women widows inside her.

25There 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.

NoteThe Hebrew text as preserved reads "her prophets"; the ancient Greek translation read "her princes," a difference of one letter in Hebrew, which is why modern versions divide over it. The Greek reading fits the pattern of the verses that follow, which move through prophets, priests, officials, and people in turn. "Devoured souls" means took lives; "soul" in the King James usually renders a Hebrew word for a living person or life itself, not an immaterial part of a person.

26Her priests have done violence to my law and treated my holy things as ordinary. They do not separate what is holy from what is common. They do not teach the difference between clean and unclean. They look away from my Sabbath days, and so I am treated as nothing among them.

26Her 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.

NoteSorting the holy from the common and the clean from the unclean was a defined part of the priest's job, spelled out in Leviticus 10: priests decided what could be eaten, who could enter the temple, and when a person was fit to take part in worship, and they taught those distinctions to everyone else. "Hid their eyes" is an idiom for deliberately looking away from something one is obliged to notice.

27Her officials inside her are like wolves tearing up what they have caught. They spill blood and destroy lives to make dishonest money.

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

Note"Ravening the prey" is older English for tearing apart what has been caught. The wolf image is conventional in the Hebrew prophets for officials who use their office to take from those under them.

28Her prophets cover all of this over with whitewash. They see visions that are empty and tell fortunes that are lies. They say, 'This is what the Lord GOD says,' when the LORD has not spoken at all.

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

Note"Untempered morter" is a plaster or whitewash mixed without the ingredients that make it bind. Slapped over a badly built wall it looks sound and hides the defect until the first heavy rain, an image Ezekiel works out at length in chapter 13. "Divining" means using recognized techniques (casting lots, reading omens, inspecting animal livers) to obtain a message from a god; the charge here is that the results were invented.

29The ordinary people of the land push others around and steal from them. They mistreat the poor and the helpless, and they cheat the foreigners living among them, denying them justice.

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

Note"The people of the land" is a set phrase for the general population of property-holding citizens, as distinct from the king, the officials, the priests, and the prophets already listed. The point of naming them is that the indictment reaches past the leadership to everyone.

30I looked for someone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap in front of me, on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it. But I found no one.

30And 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.

NoteBoth images are from city defenses. A breach in a wall was the point an attacking army poured through, and someone had to physically stand in the opening to hold it while it was repaired. "Making up the hedge" is the repair; "standing in the gap" is holding the breach in the meantime. The phrase is used elsewhere of a person who intervenes with God on a community's behalf.

31So I have poured out my anger on them. I have burned them up with the fire of my fury. I have brought their own way of living back down on their own heads, says the Lord GOD."

31Therefore 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.

Note"Recompensed upon their heads" is a legal idiom: the consequences of an act are laid back on the person who did it, the same phrasing used in Israelite law for a guilty party bearing his own penalty.