Ezekiel 22

1-31 The Bloody City

• Ezekiel is to declare to the “bloody city” that it has defiled itself by:
  • shedding innocent blood
  • making idols
• Therefore God has made it a disgrace and a mockery
• Everyone according to his power has shed blood. You have:
  • treated parents with contempt
  • extorted from resident aliens
  • wronged the widow and orphan
  • slandered, committed despicable lewdness and abused women
  • taken bribes, and cheated your neighbors out of money
  • forgotten me.
• Can you remain strong in the punishment I will mete?
• I will scatter you among the nations, purging your filthiness.
• I shall be profaned through you in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the LORD.
• “Mortal,” the house of Israel has become dross to me, which I will gather in the midst of the city and melt with fire, as silver is melted.
• “Mortal,” tell them “You are an uncleansed land.”
  • Your princes have devoured human lives and made many widows.
  • Your priests have profaned my holy things and disregarded my sabbaths.
  • Your officials have shed blood for dishonest gain.
  • Your prophets have seen false visions and divined lies.
  • Your people have oppressed the poor and needy and extorted from the alien.
• I looked for someone to stand in the breach, but I found no one.
• Therefore I have returned their conduct on their heads.

Note: Is there anything God hates more than falsehood and cruelty? And it’s worse when that falsehood and cruelty are against the innocent. These abominable sins have permeated Israel’s society, from the leadership down to the people. Notice also that they include not only cruelty and falsehood but sacrilege and immorality as well.

I also wonder if Ezekiel is worn down with all the negative preaching God is requiring of him. There is so much of it in Ezekiel I’m beginning to understand why most of us have never studied Ezekiel from beginning to end but have only heard little tidbits of his visions. We prefer to be told everything’s going to be okay.