Ezekiel 22:1-31--Israel's Shedding of Blood

Ezekiel 22
English Standard Version

Israel's Shedding of Blood
22 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 “And you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to her all her abominations. 3 You shall say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A city that sheds blood in her midst, so that her time may come, and that makes idols to defile herself! 4 You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made, and you have brought your days near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. 5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you; your name is defiled; you are full of tumult.

6 “Behold, the princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. 7 Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. 8 You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. 9 There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst. 10 In you men uncover their fathers' nakedness; in you they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity. 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor's wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you violates his sister, his father's daughter. 12 In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.

13 “Behold, I strike my hand at the dishonest gain that you have made, and at the blood that has been in your midst. 14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it. 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you. 16 And you shall be profaned by your own doing in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”

17 And the word of the LORD came to me: 18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. 21 I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. 22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the LORD; I have poured out my wrath upon you.”

23 And the word of the LORD came to me: 24 “Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. 28 And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. 30 And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. 31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

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One of the things the LORD hates and detests is the shedding of innocent blood.  The city of Jerusalem how has the reputation of being a bloody city or city of blood where much innocent blood is shed.  The LORD is not speaking of the blood of the sacrifices on His altar, but He is speaking about the blood of all the sacrifices made to the false gods, including child sacrifice.  The people of the other nations that came to visit would see this and it would disgust them and be a reproach to them.

The  list of indictments is long against the people and their leaders.  It starts with the shedding of innocent blood, no respect for one's parents, extortion of visitors and travelers (people not from the Land who were passing through or visiting), mistreatment of widows and orphans.

The charges continue with taking what was to be holy and set apart for the LORD's worship and using it for common, everyday uses (this was prohibited in the Law) and profaning the LORD's Sabbaths (holy days that were to be set apart to the LORD, but the people treated them as common, ordinary days to do work and do whatever they wanted).  There are slanderers and manslayers among the people who go unpunished.  People go to every high place to have there feasts and celebrations to their idols and they do all kinds of lewd, detestable, sinful things in their celebration of these false gods.

The LORD continues with the indictment by saying that the people have tried to remove the good boundaries that the LORD has put up for marriage and sexuality.  The people are sexually promiscuous and will have sexual relations with their father, women in the midst of having their period, their neighbor's wife, daughter-in-law, sister, or half-sister, or step-sister (I think both qualify as "father's daughter" who is not your "sister").  Even the Gentiles know better than to do these detestable things.  The people had commandments that forbid these things and many other kinds of sexual sin that they were probably engaged in that are not mentioned here.  If they were doing these things, they were probably also engaged in all kinds of fornication, adultery, rape, incest, sexual abuse of children, prostitution (both on the street and as part of their worship of their idols), and homosexuality.  It seems the like the Jewish people were "in for a penny, in for a pound" when it came to the blatant disregard of the barriers that were drawn around marriage, sexuality and family by the LORD in the first chapters of the Bible as part of the story of Creation.  The first institution the LORD created was the family and the marriage (and probably sex) happened before the Fall when things were "very good."  Satan has twisted and perverted everything good that God created and sought to tear down all the fences and guardrails that were meant for our protection.

The people are dishonest in their dealings with each other too.  They engage in murder for hire and take bribes that would lead to the death of the innocent (something like intentionally using inferior building materials and bribing the building inspector to certify the safety of the building, which leads to the death of many innocent people when the building has a structural failure).  The people use dishonest weights and measures and they extort even their neighbors, not just the visitors and strangers.  It is expected that everyone tries to take advantage of everyone else and that everyone is a cheat and scoundrel.  They view it as fair if everyone treats everyone else with the same measure of dishonesty and greed.  The LORD finishes with a summary of all these things, "But Me, you have forgotten."  In forgetting the LORD, they have lost their identity as a holy people unto the LORD that was to be His treasure possession and His covenant people and like a virgin bride--past the stage of engagement, but not yet to the point of the marriage and the consummation of that marriage.

The LORD will judge them because of the dishonest gain they have made and the innocent blood they have shed.  They are rebellious and defiant.  They imagine this to be courage in the face of danger, but the LORD asks them how long this "courage" will stand up to Him and His righteous judgment.  The LORD has promised that He will deliver judgment starting with the house of God, and He will do it.  It is not a question of "if," but "When" now.  He will scatter them among the nations and make them detestable to the other peoples they come in contact with.  They will be known for all their evil acts and the LORD's name will be glorified among the nations for how He punishes the wicked, even among the people that bear His name.

​The LORD then compares this judgment for His people as a refiner's fire that burns away the dross.  So many of the people of Israel are dross know.  Much will be burned up in the judgment, and only the pure and precious metal will survive.  Even the good metal will be melted by the fervent heat.  They will all experience the wrath of God, but those who are pure will come through the judgment changed, but unharmed and better for it.

The LORD then comes back tot he indictments against the people, and I won't repeat all the charges again, but the LORD felt it necessary to read the indictment again in case in the matter of just these few short verses the people started to feel as if this judgment was unwarranted and undeserved.  It's even worse than it sounded at first.  Think of the cities today that are dangerous to travel to and full of homicide, carjackings, muggings, and all other kinds of violent crimes, and full of homelessness with filth and waste on the streets.  They stink and are an eyesore and yet there are deluded people that want to tell everyone how beautiful their city is and it's so great to liver there.  That seems to be the kind of picture here.  The people are buying their own lies that their city is not that bad and the LORD is giving them an outside perspective to say that it is really bad, and it's really bad because of the really bad people that live in the city and that run the city and even the spiritual leaders are part of the problem.  The LORD is returning on the heads of the wicked all the evil things they have done to their neighbors, the widows, the orphans, and the sojourners in their midst.  They will reap what they have sown.  The LORD in His justice must act.  He cannot let the wicked go unpunished, even if they are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.