Глава 22

The prophet has already spoken a lot about these sins, which are now bringing destruction to the kingdom of Judah. The main one was idolatry, this historical sin of Israel (chap. XVI, XX), especially service on high places (chap. VI) and the desecration of the temple with pagan abominations (chap. V, VIII). This was joined by the treachery of Zedekiah (chap. XVII) and various kinds of insults and disdainful attitude towards the captives on the part of those who remained in Jerusalem (Ezek. 11.15). In general, these remaining ones, in the opinion of the prophet, were much worse than his fellow captives (Eze.14.21 and Eze.11.16 and Eze.16.21 and etc.): violence and bloodshed among them resulted in a complete perversion of all existing relations (Ezek.7.12 and Eze.8.17; Eze.9.9; Ezek.11.6 etc.). Here, at the conclusion of the first part of the book, the prophet once again collects all his accusations against those remaining in the city, who always and everywhere opposed the will of God and desecrated St. land. List of sins XVIII chapter. appears here again significantly expanded (vv. 2-16), and the second part of the chapter shows the complete depravity of the city in its individual classes, first by comparing it to a smelting furnace (vv. 17-22), and then by direct speech (vv. 17-31). The time for compiling the chapter is just before the onset of judgment (v. 14), when the inhabitants of the provincial cities of Judea were already running before the approaching enemy to the walls of the Jerusalem fortress (v. 19 and e). Ezek.22:2. and do you, son of man, want to judge, to judge the city of blood? tell him all his abominations. "Do you want to judge?" Why did you stop blaming the crime city? Ezek.20.4. There is no “judge” in LXX. - “City of Blood”. The first words that are mentioned about Jerusalem indicate its character: it is a bloody city; this name combines the main sins of Jerusalem, which consist of violence, unrighteous judgment and idolatry (Ezek. 16:21, 20:26). It must be borne in mind that sins against blood in Ezekiel are classified as more religious than ethical: Ezekiel 18.6; Wed here art. 3, 4, 9–11. – “Tell him all his abominations” – Ezek.16.2. Ezek.22:3. And say: Thus says the Lord God: O city that sheds blood in its midst so that your time may come, and makes idols for itself to defile itself! Why the shedding of blood is compared with idolatry, see before. Art. and Ezek.18.6. - “At home”, thank you. more precisely: “on oneself”, on one’s own head; Vul.: contra semetipsum. Ezek.22:4. By the blood that you shed, you made yourself guilty, and with the idols that you made, you desecrated yourself, and hastened your days and reached your time. For this I will give you over to the ridicule of the nations, to the reproach of all lands. “Your days have come nearer.” The sinner, multiplying his sins, brings closer the time of his death and Divine punishment, shortens, so to speak, the time of God's patience and mercy. So for Judea there cannot be days of old age; the last days of life come prematurely. - “He has reached his time” - glory. more clearly: “bring the time of your years.” Ezek.22:5. Those near and far from you will curse you, who have defiled your name and become famous for your violence. “Close” – maybe the Ammonites, Edomites. - “Distant”. The shame of Jerusalem will be so great that the rumor about it will spread everywhere. “Those who have profaned your name” - idolatry. - “Glorified by violence” - innocently shed blood. That and others in the LXX and the Vulgate are divided into three epithets and placed in the vocative case: and they will cry out against you (addition to the Hebrew word): O unclean, notorious (nobilis) and many in iniquities (grandis in interitu). Ezek.22:6. Behold, the rulers of Israel, each according to his strength, were with you to shed blood. The calculation of the sins of Jerusalem begins (up to Art. 13), which is carried out in no particular order and with repetitions (for example, Art. 6 cf. 9 and 12); but in general, when counting, Ezekiel was presented with the ten words in his mind. First, the sins of the rulers are indicated (on the basis of which one might think that individual classes would be dealt with, but this is only discussed in Articles 25 and 1), since they are primarily guilty of general depravity: the example of the big ones is followed by the small ones. “The rulers” are hardly kings (cf. Jer 22.1), although of the former kings, for example, Joachim (2 Kings 24.4), Manasseh (2 Kings 21.16) priest. historians are accused precisely of shedding blood, and since the present state of Jerusalem is described, it must of course be the government of Zedekiah. “Each according to his strength.” Slav.: “everyone mingling with their own people in you, so that they may shed blood”: for great success and impunity in bloody violence, the commanders formed alliances with each other. - "At your place" . And all this was done in Jerusalem. - “They were... to shed blood.” All they thought about was shedding blood. Ezek.22:7. Your father and mother are slandered, the stranger is insulted among you, the orphan and the widow are oppressed among you. That the “rulers” Art. 6 do it on a large scale, then all the lower classes allow themselves to do it on a small scale, within the limits of possibility. The calculation of sins begins here apparently with ethical duties, from which in Art. 8. the prophet turns to the religious, but in v. 12. again returns to the ethical. The slander of parents may be ranked first according to the severity of this sin; resentment towards foreigners - the second most common one may be. The gravest sins against neighbors are indicated; in 12th century already less important. Ezek.22:8. You do not respect My holy things and you violate My Sabbaths. Of the purely religious vices, the general ones are indicated first - disrespect for the sacred. places and times. By shrines we mostly mean in Ezekiel, together with the church, everything that happens in it. “You do not respect” - inaccurate observance of rituals, for example, making illegal sacrifices or a mixture of superstitions and idolatrous cults. The Sabbath is the oldest institution of circumcision and, therefore, no less important, and yet probably less observed (it is remarkable that not a single prophet denounces for non-observance of circumcision), which Ezekiel complains about more than once (Ezekiel 20.13, etc.) Ezek.22:9. Slanderers are in you to shed blood, and on the mountains they eat your sacrifices to idols, and they create infamy among you. “Slanderers” - in court, false witnesses, who, therefore, especially multiplied in perishing Judea. Some kind of accusation, no matter how false, is always necessary in court. - “To shed blood.” Consequently, death sentences were not uncommon, an indication of which was already given by the prophet more than once. Again, the comparison of bloodshed, as a mainly religious crime, with idolatry, incest and other sexual abominations (Ezek.18.10-11). – “They eat on the mountains...” – Ezek.18.6. - “Infamy”, namely further quantifiable sexual infamy. Ezek.22:10. The nakedness of the father is revealed to you, and the wife is raped from you during the cleansing of sewage. Ezek.22:11. Another commits an abomination to his neighbor's wife, another defiles his daughter-in-law, another rapes his sister, his father's daughter. The calculation of sexual abominations goes from top to bottom and then up again. - “The nakedness of the father is revealed.” As shown by Lev. 20.11; Deuteronomy 27.20, of course, cohabitation with a wife or father’s concubine, which was common among many Arabs of antiquity: Smith D. Alt, Test. 350. Kinship and Marriage 89 et d: LXX has a bashful paraphrase: “the father’s shame has been revealed.” – “A woman at the time of purification...” – Ezek.18.6. - “Other”. In glory too much: “everyone”: Heb. "ish" here is τις. - “Defiles his daughter-in-law.” Blazh. Theodoret: “worse than a daughter-in-law” (as in Slav.) Tacitus (V, 5) about the Jews: “a terribly lustful people: they are kept away from cohabitation with strangers, but nothing is forbidden among themselves.” – “His sister, his father’s daughter” – not a step-sister, or: an application to strengthen thoughts. The end of the calculus is little inferior to the beginning. Ezek.22:12. They take bribes from you to shed blood; You take interest and interest and extort gain from your neighbor by violence, but you have forgotten Me, says the Lord God. After the desecration of blood, speech returns again to the shedding of blood (not in the proper sense, but in the sense of deprivation of a piece of bread), through the sale of justice, through large percentages ("growth", slav. "user") and small ("user", slav. "excess"; see Ezek. 18.8, 13) and all kinds of violence (this latter hardly means such particulars as heavy taxes for the purchase of an alliance with Egypt and the Ammonites or insults to those who migrated to Babylon Eze.7.12; in LXX: “and thou hast ended the end of thy wickedness even in violence,” that is, in general, thy violence has reached its extreme limits). “And you forgot me” sounds touching and tender here. Ezek.22:13. And so, I clasped My hands about your greed, which is revealed in you, and about the bloodshed that is taking place among you. “He clasped his hands” in indignation: Ezekiel 6:11. – “About your greed” – LXX is not read. Ezek.22:14. Will your heart stand, will your hands be strong in those days in which I act against you? I, the Lord, have spoken and will do. The interrogative form for strengthening is approved. The answer to this question is given in Ezekiel 7:17, 21:12. There could not be a question of resistance to Nebuchadnezzar, because God himself would act in his person and through him; he promises this, and you can be sure that he will fulfill his threat (strong: “I said it and I will do it”). Ezek.22:15. And I will scatter you among the nations, and scatter you throughout the lands, and put an end to your abominations among you. “I will put an end to your abominations among you.” This is the only purpose of such a harsh judgment. Ezek.22:16. And you will make yourself despised in the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am the Lord. “You will make yourself despised” is a supposed translation of a Hebrew expression that should literally be translated: “you will defile yourself.” LXX, reading “impudent” instead of “halal”: κληρονομησω εν σοι, “and I will rule over you,” that is, you will again become, as you once were, my possession and inheritance. Ezek.22:17. And the word of the Lord came to me: Ezek.22:18. son of man! the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them - tin, copper and iron and lead in the furnace, became like the dross of silver. Ezek.22:19. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you to Jerusalem. Ezek.22:20. As silver, and copper, and iron, and lead, and tin are put together in a furnace to fan the fire and melt them; so in My anger and in My wrath I will gather you, and lay you down, and melt you. Ezek.22:21. I will gather you and breathe on you the fire of My indignation, and melt in the midst of it. Ezek.22:22. As silver is melted in a furnace, so will you be melted in the midst of it, and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out My wrath on you. The prophet compares the upcoming siege of Jerusalem, to which the inhabitants of the surrounding cities will flock, with the smelting in a furnace of unrefined silver ("dross of silver" - Slav. "silver mixed"), in a piece of which there is much more than silver (as a sign of which in v. 18 it is placed in last place and only in 20 in the first) base impurities: copper, iron, lead and tin (famous for distinction from lead: “pure tin”; in LXX: κασσιτερος and μολιβος). This comparison, in which Ezekiel was undoubtedly presented with Isaiah 1.22, and perhaps Jer 6.30 (cf. Zech 13.9; Mal 3.3), is based not so much on the cleansing of Israel as on its punishment (although undoubtedly the silver is pious, but nothing is said about the separation of silver through melting, but only about the melting itself, “so in My wrath I will gather and put (Vulg.: requiescam) and I will melt you." It is remarkable that for Ezekiel Israel seems to be reduced to Jerusalem: v. 19. When what the prophet predicts comes, then the Jews will know that they had God against them, whom they considered a friend; Art. 22, Wed. Ezek.5.13. Ezek.22:23. And the word of the Lord came to me: In the third of the prophetic speeches of the chapter, the prophet directly depicts the depravity of certain classes of the kingdom of Judah, which in the previous speech he pointed out figuratively under the guise of various impurities in silver. Ezekiel 22:24. son of man! tell him: you are an unclean land, not watered by rain on the day of wrath! With its complete depravity of all social relations, Jerusalem is like a land that cannot bear any fruit because the wrath of God has denied it rain. To understand the force of this comparison, one must remember what constitutes rain for Palestine: stopping it turns the country straight into a desert. Maybe at this time God really began to carry out his repeated threat to Judea that for wickedness he would not give her rain (Deut. 11.17, etc.). – “Unpurified” is a presumptive translation of the dark Hebrew. words that are more consistent with the LXX context are translated: “unpredictable.” Ezek.22:25. The conspiracy of her prophets among her is like a roaring lion tearing apart its prey; They eat souls, rob property and treasures, and multiply the number of widows. The calculation of different classes of society in order to expose them is carried out from the point of view of their significance in religious and moral life. Therefore, the prophets and priests are dealt with first, and then the princes. LXX, and after them the majority of the newest interpreters, suggest in this verse that we are not talking about prophets, but about princes (more noble than in v. 27): neviyega LXX obviously read nesiyega. The reasons for such a reading: 1) it was more natural to put princes in first place (we saw why prophets could be put in first place); 2) the prophets are discussed in Art. 28 and 30 (but there we are talking about them in special circumstances - see Art. 28); 3) a roaring king of beasts, greedy for prey, as in Ezekiel 19.7, an excellent image for the greedy princes from the reigning house (but then v. 27 would repeat v. 25). "Conspiracy of the Prophets". The false prophets entered into an agreement among themselves to always proclaim a happy future to the people, and thereby set them against those who predicted the opposite. From this we can conclude that the false prophets did not act alone, but formed a corporation that became powerful through their unity, and were very careful not to contradict each other in false predictions. But LXX is read by Hebrews. kesher - “conspiracy”, like asher, “which”: “his (i.e. Jerusalem’s) elders.” "Like a lion..." The comparison indicates that the prophets were fleecing the adherents. - “They eat souls.” They rob or destroy innocents who oppose them. - “Multiply the number of widows.” Thanks to their speeches, they become the cause of death for many, for example, inciting them to war with the Chaldeans. Ezek.22:26. Her priests break My law and profane My holy things, they do not separate the holy from the unholy and do not distinguish between the clean and the unclean, and from My Sabbaths they have closed their eyes, and I am despised among them. The charges against the priests are characteristic in that they express the prophet's strict view of the duties of this knowledge. – “They break the law,” which they should preserve and teach; Wed Soph 3.4; OS 8.1. – “They desecrate My holy things” – v. 8. – “They do not separate the holy from the unholy,” perhaps, for example, by burning unauthorized parts of an animal as a sacrifice, or by allowing access to the sacred. meals after the peace offering of all without distinction. - “They do not indicate the difference between clean and unclean.” They do not warn the people against eating unclean animals; in Ezek.44.23 this and the previous expressions are almost synonymous. - “And from My Sabbaths they closed their eyes.” They do not care about keeping them among the people, they are indifferent to their frequent violation; Art. 8. – “And I am humiliated among them,” lit. "defiled"; glory: “and I desecrated myself in my midst.” An extremely strong expression instead of the usual: “they dishonored the name of God.” The priests took from God, in the eyes of the people, that holiness (of His name), which is the main basis and goal of all God’s actions in the world. Ezek.22:27. Her princes are like wolves stealing prey; they shed blood and destroy souls in order to gain self-interest. "Like Wolves". Wed. Soph 3.3. A less noble comparison than for the prophets in v. 25: "like a lion" - “They shed blood.” About the prophets, the accusations against whom are so similar to the real ones, there is no such serious point. Of course, unjust death sentences must have become more frequent by that time (cf. Ezek. 11.8), and perhaps even deprivation of the means of life (confiscation of property, prisons). Ezek.22:28. But its prophets cover everything with mud, see empty things and predict false things for them, saying: “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord did not speak. The culprits of this behavior of the princes are the prophets (which is why the speech returns to them), who, as guardians of public morality, should denounce the government, threaten it with the judgment of God, and they reassure the princes (“them”) with false predictions of a happy future. Wed. Ezek.13.6–7, 10–11; Mic 3.11; Soph 3.4; Jer 23:31 et c. Ezek.22:29. But among the people they oppress each other, they rob and oppress the poor and the needy, and they oppress the stranger unjustly. “Among the people”, lit. “the people of the earth” (slav. “people of the earth”), i.e. the common people, among rural residents, and in general among all the people, in contrast to the upper classes of society. After what has been said about the leaders of the people (clergy and secular), it is not surprising that the common people are no better. - “They oppress each other.” Fists, world-eating. Slav. unfairly “the people” blame. etc. and considers such a distant “princes” to be the subject. – “They rob and oppress one another...” – Ezek.18.7. – “The alien is oppressed” Art. 7. Ezekiel's remarkable concern for strangers. Ezek.22:30. I looked among them for a man who would build a wall and stand before Me in the gap for this land, so that I would not destroy it, but I did not find him. “I would build a wall” to block the breach in it: Ezek.13.5. By his intercession before God he could have averted the destruction of the people, as Moses did (Exodus 32.11). The interpreters here rightly ask why Ezekiel did not consider Jeremiah capable of doing this, although he knew him, as can be seen from the widespread use of his book, and although Jeremiah more than once stood before God for the people (Jeremiah 7.16, 11.14, 15.1). But prayerful intercession in such cases is not enough; something needs to be done to correct the people, as much as, for example, Moses did; and Jeremiah and his contemporaries in this regard could not do anything or almost nothing, which speaks not against him, but against Jerusalem and Judea, the moral state of which the prophet refers to in this place (hence the next verse). Ezek.22:31. Therefore I will pour out My indignation on them, I will destroy them with the fire of My wrath, I will turn their behavior on their heads, says the Lord God. If all hope of improvement is lost, then Jehovah has no choice but to give vent to His wrath and turn the behavior of the wicked people, led by their leaders, on the head. For an explanation of individual expressions of the verse, see Ezek.7.8, 4. You might be interested in: