Ezekiel 22 Study Notes

22:1-2 Seven times in this prophecy (vv. 1-16) the words blood or bloodshed occur, suggesting that the crimes against God’s covenant were routine as well as thoroughgoing in Jerusalem. Rabbinic tradition relates this oracle to Manasseh’s shedding of innocent blood in Jerusalem (2Kg 21:6). As in Ezk 18, the catalogue of crimes listed here derives especially from the Holiness Code in Lv 17-26. The city is personified as a person violating the Mosaic law. Verses 1-16 are very similar to Is 1:2-31 and may be an allusion to that prophetic text.

22:3-4 These two sins (sheds blood . . . makes idols) summarize the violation of the Ten Commandments, which legislated stipulations about a person’s relationship to God as well as to his fellow man. Rather than loving God, the city had turned to idolatry. Love for fellow Israelites had been replaced by treachery. The city’s pouring out of blood is countered by God’s pouring out of wrath (v. 22).

22:5 As a result of their lack of obedience, God had made them a reproach and a mockery to all the nations. Paul had the same concept in mind when he addressed Israel in Rm 2:24.

22:6 The indictment of vv. 6-12 contains a catalogue of sins based on the regulations in Lv 18-20. The kings are specifically indicted because it was their responsibility to make sure justice was administered in the community, especially by protecting the poor and weak (Ps 72:1-4).

22:7 The lack of concern for those in need (fatherless and widow) was a clear violation of the Mosaic covenant (Ex 22:21; 23:9,12; Dt 14:29; 16:11,14; 24:19-21; 26:12-19).

22:8 On profaning the Sabbath, see 20:12-13.

22:9 Leviticus 19:16 contains the only other occurrence of the legal word slander (Hb rakil ) in the Bible. There it is also associated with bloodshed. Thus it is clear that Ezekiel was alluding to a legal stipulation that would have been well known to his audience. Ezekiel’s use of the Hebrew word zimmah (depraved acts) to denote unchastity (vv. 9,11; 16:27,58; 23:21,27,35,44,48) followed the tradition in the Mosaic law (Lv 18:17-18; 19:29; 20:14).

22:10 The reference to their father’s wife means stepmother rather than birthmother. Lewdness with one’s stepmother is a violation of the law in Lv 20:11 (cp. 1Co 5:1; see Dt 22:30; Am 2:7).

22:11 All the sins mentioned in this verse were specifically forbidden in the law (Lv 18:7-20; 20:10-21; Dt 22:22-23,30; 27:22).

22:12 You have forgotten me is the explanation for all the listed violations. Forgetting God is another way of saying that they have rejected his covenant (Dt 4:23; 8:19).

22:13-14 On hand clapping, see 21:15-17.

22:15-16 The residents of Jerusalem will be scattered all over the world (among the countries) if they continue to pursue disobedience. Moses had warned Israel that continual national disobedience would lead to dispersion (Lv 26:27-39; Dt 28:64-68).

22:17-20 Just as precious metals are melted to remove dross, Israel will be purified by fire to remove sins and impurities. Now the city will once again be melted by the heat of God’s wrath in the furnace of Jerusalem. The Babylonians would execute this fire of God’s wrath when they burned and sacked Jerusalem.

22:21-22 The phrase will be melted within the city may refer to the misery of being besieged by foreign enemies, which in itself was a divine punishment (Dt 28:52-57). The image of the smelter’s fire was used by Ezekiel to represent the final purge that God planned for Judah. It is also an eschatological picture, referring to the time when God will purge his creation of sin (2Pt 3:9-14; Rv 20:15).

22:23-24 Ezekiel’s combination of rain and judgment goes back to the account of the biblical flood in Genesis (Gn 6-8). Just as the purpose of this flood was to cleanse the world of human wickedness and violence (Hb chamas, Gn 6:5,11), the Lord declared that a similar kind of cleansing was now overdue for the land of Israel (Ezk 13:11; 38:22). The withholding of rain was a covenant curse (Lv 26:19).

22:25 The Hebrew has her prophets (nevi’eyha) whereas the LXX has “her princes” (nesiy’eyha), read by NIV, NLT, NRSV.

22:26-27 Government officials were supposed to protect people, the first function of government being the establishment of justice for everyone (Rm 13). The denunciation of the leadership in Ezk 22:25-28 has such close affinities to the denunciation of leaders in Zph 3:1-4 that there may be some kind of relationship between these two texts. For instance, each passage contains a nearly identical list of leaders. Even more striking is the fact that both passages describe the officials as wolves (Zph 3:3) and the priests as those who do violence to my instruction (Zph 3:4). It is possible that Ezekiel knew this oracle from the prophet Zephaniah.

22:28-29 On whitewash, see note at 13:10-16.

22:30-31 This proposal (I searched for a man among them who would repair the wall) is reminiscent of Gn 18:22-33, where God promised to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if only ten righteous persons were found there. Although we normally think of a prophet as one who represented God and delivered his word to the people, it is also true that the Bible includes intercession (stand in the gap) as part of a prophet’s task (1Sm 12:23; Jr 37:3; 42:2). Compare the task of the prophetic “watchman” (Ezk 3:17-21; 33:1-6).