---
title: "Clarke"
description: "punishment, 23-31. NOTES ON CHAP. XXII Verse Ezekiel 22:2. Wilt thou judge the bloody city — Pronounce the sentence of death against the murderers. Show h"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/ezekiel/22"
---

*punishment*, 23-31.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXII

Verse [Ezekiel 22:2](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/2). ***Wilt thou judge the bloody city*** — Pronounce the sentence of death against the murderers.
***Show her all her abominations.*** — And a most revolting and dreadful catalogue of these is in consequence exhibited.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:3](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/3). ***Her time may come*** — Till now, it was my long-suffering; she has fulfilled her days - completed the time of her probation; has not mended, but is daily worse; therefore her judgment can linger no longer.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:4](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/4). ***Thou art become guilty in thy blood*** — Thou art guilty of blood.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:5](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/5). **Those that be*****near*** — Both *distant* as well as *neighbouring* provinces consider thee the most abandoned of characters; and through thee many have been involved in distress and ruin.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:6](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/6). ***Behold, the princes*** — Ye are a vile and murderous people, and your princes have been of the same character. *Like* *people, like prince*.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:7](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/7). ***In thee have they set light*** — The children do not reverence their parents. Parental affection and filial respect do not exist among you. The *stranger* is not only not succoured, but he is *oppressed*. The *widows* and *fatherless* are *vexed* by wrongs and exactions.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:8](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/8). ***Thou hast despised*** — All my ordinances are not only neglected, but treated with contempt; and my Sabbaths profaned. There is not only no *power* of godliness among you, but there is no *form*.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:9](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/9). ***In thee are men that carry tales*** — Witnesses that will swear any thing, even where life is concerned.
***They eat upon the mountains*** — Sacrifice to *idols*, and celebrate their *festivals*.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:10](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/10). ***In thee have they discovered*** — They are guilty of the most abominable *incest* and unnatural lust.
***In thee have they humbled*** — In their unholy and unnatural connexions, they have not abstained from those set apart because of their infirmities. The catalogue of crimes that follow is too plain to require comment.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:16](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/16). ***Thou shalt know that I*****am*****the Lord.*** — I shall so deal with and punish thee, that thou shalt be obliged to own the vindictive hand of a sin-avenging God.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:18](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/18). ***The house of Israel is to me become dross*** — They are all like *base metal-brass, tin, iron*, and *lead* alloyed together with *silver*. Ye must be put in the furnace, and subjected to the most intense fire, till your impurities are consumed away. No *ordinary* means will avail any thing; the most *violent* must be resorted to.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:19](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/19). ***I will gather you*** — Jerusalem is represented here as the *fining pot*; all the people are to be gathered together in *it*, and the *Chaldean fire* is to *melt* the whole. And God will increase thy sufferings: as the refiner *blows the fire* with his bellows, so God will *blow upon you* with the *fire of his wrath*, [Ezekiel 22:21](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/21).

Verse [Ezekiel 22:24](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/24). ***Thou*****art*****the land that is not cleansed*** — Thou art like a country where there is no *rain*, either *to cleanse* the *garments*, or *fertilize* the *ground*.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:25](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/25). **There is*****a conspiracy*** — The false prophets have united together to say and support the same things; and have been the cause of the destruction of souls, and the death of many, so that *widows*, through their means, are multiplied in thee.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:26](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/26). ***Her priests*** — Even they whose lips should preserve knowledge, have not instructed the people: they *have violated my* *law*, not only in their private conduct, but in their careless and corrupt manner of serving in my temple.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:27](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/27). ***Her princes*** — Are as bad as her *priests*; they are rapacious, and grievously oppress the people by unjust impositions in order to increase their revenues.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:28](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/28). ***Her prophets*** — Even those who profess themselves to be my prophets, have been unfaithful in the discharge of their office; have *soothed* the people in their sins, and pretended to have oracles of *peace* and *safety* when I had not spoken to them.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:29](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/29). ***The people*** — All that have power or authority have abused it; *vexed* and *oppressed* the *poor*, the *needy*, and the *stranger*.

Verse [Ezekiel 22:30](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/30). ***I sought for a man*** — I saw that there was a grievous breach made in the *moral state* and *feeling* of the people, and I sought for a man that would stand in the gap; that would faithfully exhort, reprove and counsel, with all long-suffering and doctrine. But none was to be found!

Verse [Ezekiel 22:31](../../../kjv/ezekiel/22/31). ***Therefore*** — Because of the *profligacies* already mentioned; because of the *false worship* so generally practiced; because of the *false prophets* tolerated; because of the unholy and profane *priesthood*; because of the oppressive *princes*; because of the *unfaithful* and deceiving *prophets*; because of the oppressions of *petty officers*; and because of the *total corruption of manners* in all *ranks, places, offices*, c. -
***Have I poured out mine indignation-consumed them with the fire**********of my wrath*** — Considering the above, has there not been sufficient reason why I should abandon such a people, and pour out upon them such a destructive storm of calamities?

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