Commentary - Ezekiel 22:1-16

Bird's-eye view

In this chapter, the prophet Ezekiel is commissioned by God to act as a prosecuting attorney in a formal covenant lawsuit against Jerusalem. The city, which was meant to be the holy center of God's dwelling on earth, is indicted as "the city of blood." God, through His prophet, lays out a detailed and damning list of charges, a bill of particulars that reveals a society rotten from the head down. The sins are not minor infractions but fundamental violations of God's law, ranging from idolatry and bloodshed to the breakdown of the family, the oppression of the weak, sexual perversion, and rampant economic corruption. The central charge that undergirds all the others is that they have forgotten God. As a result of this comprehensive moral and spiritual collapse, God pronounces an equally comprehensive sentence: He will scatter them among the nations, purging their filth through the fires of judgment, so that in the end, they and the watching world will know that He is Yahweh.

This is not simply a historical record of ancient Israel's failures. It is a timeless portrait of what happens to any society when it abandons the law of God as its foundation. The specific abominations listed here are a mirror for our own times, and the divine response is a sober warning. Judgment is not an arbitrary act of a capricious deity; it is the necessary and just consequence of a people collectively shaking their fist at Heaven. Yet, even in this fierce indictment, the ultimate goal is restorative: God judges in order to purge and to make His own name known.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

Ezekiel is a prophet ministering to the exiles already in Babylon. He was part of the first wave of deportees in 597 B.C., meaning he is prophesying before the final, catastrophic destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. A significant part of his ministry is to explain to the exiles why this judgment is happening and why it is absolutely just. The exiles were tempted to think God had been unfaithful or was unable to protect His people. Ezekiel's task is to show them that the exact opposite is true. God is acting in perfect covenant faithfulness. Israel broke the covenant in the most egregious ways, and God is now bringing the covenant curses He had promised from the beginning (e.g., Deuteronomy 28). Chapter 22 is one of three great indictments (along with chapters 16 and 23) that justify the coming destruction. It serves as a legal brief, demonstrating beyond any doubt that Jerusalem's fall is not a tragedy of circumstance but the righteous sentence of the holy Judge of all the earth.

Key Issues

The Anatomy of a Rotten Culture

When a culture rots, it rots from the top down and from the inside out. The prophet Ezekiel is given a divine commission to perform an autopsy on the dead culture of Jerusalem, and what he finds is not pretty. This chapter is a legal indictment, a formal pressing of charges by the great King against His rebellious vassal city. God does not bring judgment in a fit of pique. He is meticulous. He lays out the evidence, case by case, sin by sin, showing that the sentence of destruction is not only just, but necessary.

The central metaphor is that of blood. Jerusalem is the "city of blood." This is not just a reference to a high murder rate. It signifies a comprehensive culture of death. When a society abandons the worship of the true God, the Giver of Life, it inevitably embraces death in all its forms. The list of sins that follows is not random; it is a systematic exposition of how a society unravels when it forgets its Creator. The second commandment (idolatry) is broken, and as a direct result, the fifth (family), sixth (life), seventh (sexuality), eighth (property), and ninth (truth) commandments are all trampled in the mud. This is a portrait of total depravity, not just in the individual heart, but worked out in the fabric of an entire nation.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1-2 Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, “Now as for you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the city of blood? Then you shall cause her to know all her abominations.

The commission is given. Ezekiel is addressed as "son of man," emphasizing his humanity as he stands as a representative before God. The question is rhetorical and emphatic: "will you judge, will you judge?" This is a command, not an option. Ezekiel is to arraign the city, to put her on trial. The defendant is named: the city of blood. And the purpose of the trial is not to discover the facts, for God already knows them. The purpose is to make the city herself know, to confront her with the full, stinking reality of her "abominations." An abomination is not just a sin; it is a sin that is particularly detestable and repulsive to God. The first step toward any kind of repentance is to see your sin as God sees it.

3-5 And you shall say, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “A city shedding blood in her midst, so that her time will come; and she makes idols against herself for defilement! You have become guilty by the blood which you have shed, and defiled by your idols which you have made. Thus you have brought your day near and have come to your years; therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all the lands. Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you of unclean name, full of turmoil.

The indictment begins with the two foundational sins: violence and idolatry. They are intertwined. A people who will not bow to the true God will create false gods, and a people who create false gods will have no ultimate reason not to shed human blood. Notice the cause and effect. By their sin, they have caused their "time" to come. They have "brought your day near." Judgment is not some arbitrary thunderbolt from a distant deity; it is the harvest of the seeds they themselves have sown. Their guilt and defilement are self-inflicted. The consequence is public shame. The nation that was meant to be a light to the Gentiles has become a reproach and a mocking. Her name is "unclean," and her society is "full of turmoil." When God's law is abandoned, peace and order are abandoned with it.

6 “Behold, the princes of Israel, each according to his power, have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood.

The detailed list of charges begins at the top, with the leadership. The princes, the civil magistrates, were using their God-given authority (power) for the very opposite of its intended purpose. Instead of protecting life, their entire orientation was "for the purpose of shedding blood." This refers to judicial murder, oppression that leads to death, and a general disregard for the sanctity of life. When the rulers of a nation are corrupt, the whole nation is in peril.

7 They have treated father and mother with contempt within you. The sojourner they have oppressed in your midst; the fatherless and the widow they have mistreated in you.

From the top, the corruption spreads to the foundations of society. First, the family. The fifth commandment, the lynchpin of social order, is broken. Contempt for parents is a sign of deep societal rot. Second, the most vulnerable are targeted. The sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow were all under God's special protection in the law. A society is judged by how it treats those who cannot defend themselves. Here, they are systematically oppressed and mistreated. This is a direct assault on the character of God, who is the defender of the weak.

8 You have despised My holy things and profaned My sabbaths.

Here we see the link between social breakdown and corrupt worship. They despised God's "holy things," likely referring to the temple, the sacrifices, and the law itself. They treated as common that which God had set apart as sacred. And they "profaned My sabbaths." The Sabbath was the great sign of the covenant, a weekly reminder of God as both Creator and Redeemer. To profane it was to reject that covenant relationship. When a people's worship becomes corrupt, their ethics will inevitably follow.

9 Slanderous men have been in you for the purpose of shedding blood, and in you they have eaten at the mountain shrines. In your midst they have done acts of lewdness.

The sins are now piling up. Slander, a violation of the ninth commandment, is used as a weapon to bring about judicial murder. This is followed by blatant idolatry: eating at the pagan "mountain shrines." And where there is idolatry, sexual sin is never far behind. The pagan cults were notoriously licentious, and Israel had eagerly joined in their "acts of lewdness." False worship always leads to defiled bodies.

10-11 In you they have uncovered their fathers’ nakedness; in you they have humbled her who was unclean in her menstrual impurity. One has also done what is an abomination with his neighbor’s wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. And another in you has violated his sister, his father’s daughter.

The charge of sexual perversion is now detailed with sickening specificity. This is a catalogue of violations straight from Leviticus 18 and 20. Incest with a stepmother, sex during menstruation (a violation of ceremonial and moral purity), adultery, incest with a daughter-in-law, and incest with a half-sister. This is not just a few isolated incidents; this is a description of a culture that has thrown off all sexual restraint. The family, which was to be the nursery of holiness, has become a hotbed of defilement.

12 In you they have taken bribes for the purpose of shedding blood; you have taken interest and profits, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by oppression, and you have forgotten Me,” declares Lord Yahweh.

The final category in the indictment is economic sin. Bribery perverts justice and leads to the death of the innocent. Usury ("interest and profits") and extortion ("oppression") were used to crush the poor for personal gain. This is predatory economics, a complete violation of the laws designed to protect the poor and ensure a just society. And then, God puts His finger on the root of it all: "and you have forgotten Me." This is the source of the entire filthy river. When God is forgotten, His law is forgotten. When His law is forgotten, man becomes a wolf to man, and society devours itself.

13-14 “Now behold, I have struck My hand at your greedy gain which you have acquired and at the bloodshed which is among you. Can your heart stand, or can your hands be strong in the days that I will act against you? I, Yahweh, have spoken and will act.

Now comes the divine reaction. God's striking His hand is a gesture of fierce anger and settled resolve. He is coming to deal with their corruption. He then asks a devastating rhetorical question. "You think you are strong? You think your corrupt system is secure? Let's see how your courage and strength hold up when I am the one acting against you." The answer is obvious. Before the wrath of the Almighty, all human bravado melts like wax. The sentence is sealed with the most solemn formula: "I, Yahweh, have spoken and will act." What God says, God does.

15-16 I will scatter you among the nations, and I will disperse you through the lands, and I will put an end to your uncleanness from you. You will profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am Yahweh.”

The sentence is pronounced. It is exile, the great covenant curse. They will be scattered and dispersed. But notice the purpose. This is a severe, surgical judgment. God's goal is to "put an end to your uncleanness from you." He is going to burn the filth out of them through the fire of exile. In the process, they will "profane" themselves in the sight of the nations; their public humiliation will demonstrate their sin. But the ultimate end is theological. Through this entire process of sin, judgment, and purging, the result will be that they, and the watching world, "will know that I am Yahweh." God's reputation is the ultimate issue. He will demonstrate His holiness, justice, and power, even if it is through the destruction of His own rebellious people.

Application

It is impossible to read a chapter like this without seeing the reflection of our own culture in its ugly glare. We live in a "city of blood." Through the industrial-scale slaughter of the unborn, we have shed more innocent blood than Jerusalem could have ever imagined. Our leaders, for the most part, have abandoned any pretense of ruling according to God's law. The family is in shambles, with contempt for parental authority being the norm. Our culture is saturated with sexual lewdness and perversion that would make an ancient pagan blush. Our economic systems are rife with greed, oppression, and corruption. And at the root of it all is the same fundamental sin: we as a people have forgotten God.

The warning of Ezekiel 22 is therefore a warning for us. God is not mocked. A nation that builds its house on the sand of idolatry and immorality will not stand when the storm of His judgment comes. We cannot look at this catalogue of sins and complacently think, "that was them, this is now." Human nature has not changed, and neither has God's holiness or His justice. The bill of particulars against the West has been written, and it is a long one.

Our only hope is the same hope that was implicitly offered to Israel. The only solution to a culture of death is the gospel of life. The only answer to the charge of "bloody hands" is the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses from all sin. The judgment that Jerusalem faced in 586 B.C. was a foreshadowing of the ultimate judgment that fell upon Christ at the cross. He became the ultimate abomination for us, so that we could be made clean. True cultural reformation does not begin with political programs or moralistic campaigns. It begins when a people, confronted with the ugliness of their sin, turn in repentance and faith to the only one who can forgive them and give them a new heart. The command to Ezekiel is the command to the church today: "cause her to know all her abominations," not so that she might despair, but so that she might flee to the cross and find mercy.