✝
← Bible
ARCBLIVREKJVVBL

Ezekiel 22

KJV · Chapter 22/48

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

God details Jerusalem's sins — bloodshed, oppression of orphans and widows, bribery, sexual immorality — and compares her to metals melted in a furnace, seeking in vain for someone to 'stand in the gap.'

Explanation

This chapter functions as a formal legal indictment, listing specific sins against vulnerable people (foreigners, orphans, widows) whom the Mosaic law expressly protected. The image of smelting metals (silver, bronze, iron, lead, tin) illustrates the process of judgment as purification forced by fire. The most striking verse is 30, where God seeks someone to 'stand in the gap' — to intercede for and protect the nation — and finds no one, resulting in the inevitable outpouring of judgment. Today's lesson concerns the importance of people willing to intercede and act rightly even when most around them do not.

Fun facts

  • The image of 'standing in the gap' of a wall (v.30) comes from real fortifications: when a defensive wall was breached, a brave defender would literally position himself in the opening to stop the invasion.
  • The list of specific social sins (bribery, excessive usury, oppression of the poor) is almost identical to that found in Amos, written more than a hundred years earlier, showing a persistent pattern of social injustice throughout Israel's history.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Ezekiel 22:1Opening formula for a new chapter that sums up, in very practical terms, a long list of Jerusalem’s social sins.
  2. Ezekiel 22:2The repeated question, as in other chapters, reinforces the seriousness of the task: to expose every abomination of a city described directly as “the bloody city.”
  3. Ezekiel 22:3The direct summary of the problem: bloodshed and idolatry go hand in hand, the two central charges against Jerusalem in this chapter.
  4. Ezekiel 22:4Public humiliation before other nations is presented as a direct, proportional consequence of the two central sins already mentioned.
  5. Ezekiel 22:5Jerusalem’s bad reputation reaches both nearby neighbors and distant nations — the shame spreads well beyond the city’s borders.
  6. Ezekiel 22:6The list of charges against Jerusalem mixes violence, disrespect for family, exploitation of the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, and financial corruption — the picture is of an entire society broken, not a single isolated sin.
  7. Ezekiel 22:7The list of social sins begins: disrespect toward parents and exploitation of the most vulnerable, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, groups the ancient law specifically protected.
  8. Ezekiel 22:8Besides the social sins, the list again includes profaning the Sabbath and sacred things — the two kinds of failure, social and religious, appear side by side.
  9. Ezekiel 22:9Slanderers who use gossip to cause bloodshed appear alongside idolatrous practices on the hills — the corruption reaches both personal relationships and worship.
  10. Ezekiel 22:10The list of sexual sins denounces violations within the family structure itself, including disregard for the basic rules of conduct of the time.
  11. Ezekiel 22:11Each example listed describes a different breach of trust within family and neighborly relationships, illustrating the city’s widespread moral collapse.
  12. Ezekiel 22:12The list ends by returning to financial corruption and bribery for bloodshed — and the final accusation sums it all up as forgetting God.
  13. Ezekiel 22:13The gesture of striking the hands together, already seen in other chapters, here expresses God’s reaction to the accumulated dishonest greed and violence.
  14. Ezekiel 22:14The rhetorical question challenges the city’s supposed strength: no resistance will hold up on the day the judgment actually arrives.
  15. Ezekiel 22:15The dispersion among the nations is presented not only as punishment, but also as a process of forced purification of the city.
  16. Ezekiel 22:16Even in the midst of public humiliation before the other nations, the stated goal remains the recognition of who God is.
  17. Ezekiel 22:17Transition formula: introduces a new image to describe the same judgment, this time using metalworking.
  18. Ezekiel 22:18The comparison to metal dross is harsh: instead of pure silver, the people became the worthless residue left over after smelting — a material with no value.
  19. Ezekiel 22:19Jerusalem becomes the furnace where all this worthless material will be gathered for the smelting process described in the following verses.
  20. Ezekiel 22:20The image of smelting describes the judgment as an intense process of concentrated heat, gathering everything in one place to melt it down.
  21. Ezekiel 22:21It repeats the same image of intense fire, reinforcing that the process of judgment will strike everyone at the same time, with no exception.
  22. Ezekiel 22:22The comparison to the smelting of silver ends by confirming, once again, that the recognition of God comes through the very fulfillment of the judgment.
  23. Ezekiel 22:23Transition formula: introduces the chapter’s final section, a specific list of the city’s corrupt leaders.
  24. Ezekiel 22:24The image of the land with no rain on the day of wrath describes a spiritual drought: even though urgently needing purification, nothing good falls on this land.
  25. Ezekiel 22:25Princes compared to wolves, priests who fail to tell the sacred from the common, and prophets who “daubed them with untempered morter” as if it were the word of God form a portrait of the city’s three classes of leadership all failing at once, each in their own way.
  26. Ezekiel 22:26The priests, who should have taught the difference between clean and unclean, are accused of erasing that very distinction — the religious function that existed to protect what was sacred failed.
  27. Ezekiel 22:27The political leaders are compared to wolves, an image of predators exploiting their own people instead of protecting them.
  28. Ezekiel 22:28The false prophets reappear here as part of the same list of corrupt leaders, repeating the same accusation already seen in chapter 13.
  29. Ezekiel 22:29Even outside the leadership, the common people are also included in the accusation — the corruption runs through every level of society, not just those in power.
  30. Ezekiel 22:30“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” is the image of someone interceding, trying to stop the destruction — the fact that no one was found for that role underscores the scale of the moral collapse described in the chapter.
  31. Ezekiel 22:31The chapter ends confirming that the announced judgment is not arbitrary — it is the direct consequence of every layer of corruption described throughout the whole text.

Chapters

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

App StoreGoogle Play

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.

App StoreGoogle Play