Jerusalem’s sins and the coming judgment
22
Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 📚“Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the city of bloodshed 📖? Yes, you must show her all her abominations. 3 📚Then say, Thus says the Lord God: The city sheds blood in the midst of it, bringing her time near, and makes idols against herself to defile herself. 4 📚You have become guilty because of the blood you have shed, and have defiled yourself with the idols which you have made, and you have caused your days of punishment to draw near, and have come to the end of your years. Therefore I have made you an object of scorn to the nations, and an object of mockery to all countries. 22:3-4 Two sins in particular brought God’s anger on the city – murder and idolatry (2 Kings 21:16; 2 Kings 24:4; Isa 59:3, 7; Jer 2:34; Lam 4:13; Ezek 8:5-12; 9:9).⚜
5 📚Those near and those far from you will mock 📖 you, you who are infamous and full of turmoil.
6 📚“See, each one of the princes of Israel, used their power to shed blood in you. 7 📚In you they have made light of father and mother; in the midst of you they have oppressed the foreigner; in you they have troubled the fatherless and the widow. 8 📚You have despised my holy things, and have profaned my Sabbaths. 9 📚In you are men who slander to cause bloodshed, and in you they eat at the shrines in the mountains 📖; in the midst of you they commit lewd acts. 10 📚In you they have uncovered their fathers’ nakedness, in you they have violated her who was set apart in her impurity. 11 📚And one has committed abomination with his neighbour’s wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another in you has violated his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 📚In you they have taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken usury 📖 and increase, and you have made gain from your neighbours by extortion, and have forgotten me, says the Lord God.
22:6-12 Here is a list of sins against specific commands of God’s law (Ex 20:12-13; 22:21-22; 20:3, 8, 16; Lev 18:7; 12:2; 18:8, 15, 19; 19:13; Deut 27:25). One of the root causes of such behavior is seen in the last phrase of v 12 – they forgot God (Ps 106:21; Isa 57:11. See Ps 50:22). Forgetting God is a great evil and leads to other great evil.⚜
13 📚See, therefore, that I have struck with my fist at the dishonest gain which you have made, and at your bloodshed which has been in the midst of you. 14 📚Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken it, and will do it. 15 📚And I will scatter you among the nations, and disperse you in the countries, and will rid you of your filthiness. 16 📚And this inheritance of yours will be allotted to you in the sight of the heathen, and you will know that I am the Lord”.
22:16 It is exceedingly important that men learn the ways of the one true God even if they have to learn them the hard way.⚜
17 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 18 📚“Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. They are all bronze and tin and iron and lead, inside the furnace. They are the dross of silver. 19 📚Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, so see that I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 📚As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the furnace, to blow fire on it to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. 21 📚Yes, I will gather you and blow on you in the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted inside it. 22 📚You will be melted inside it, as silver is melted inside the furnace, and you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my fury on you”.
22:17-22 Jerusalem is compared to a furnace, and God’s wrath is compared to fire. The meaning is this: the best of the nation (the silver) had already gone into exile. Those who were left were the worst (dross). The Babylonians would invade Judah again, many from Judah would flee to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem would become a place where most of them would be destroyed.⚜
23 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 24 📚“Son of man, say to her, ‘You are the land that is not cleansed, or rained on in the day of indignation.’ 25 📚There is a conspiracy by her prophets inside it, like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 📚Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things. They have shown no difference between the holy and profane, nor have they shown a difference between the unclean and the clean. And they have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27 📚Her princes inside her are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. 28 📚And her prophets have daubed them with whitewash 📖, seeing vain visions, 📖 and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God’, when the LORD had not spoken. 29 📚The people of the land have used oppression, and committed robbery, and have troubled the poor and needy; yes, they have unjustly oppressed the foreigner.
22:23-29 Verses 6-12. Here is what God means by “dross”. He condemns the sinful condition of Jerusalem with special emphasis on its rulers (vs 25,27), priests (v 26) and prophets (v 28). Each group of people was the exact opposite of what it should have been. It was the work of rulers to rule with justice, of priests to know the difference between holy and unholy and to teach the holy, of prophets to get God’s messages and speak only the truth. It is no wonder that the people followed the evil example of their leaders and became dross too (v 29).⚜
30 📚“And I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found none.
22:30 Isa 51:18; 59:16; 63:5. God meant someone in an official position in Jerusalem who would stand for Him and turn the people back to God, to truth and holiness. Jeremiah was His man in Jerusalem but he was an outsider, without an official position and rejected by all the leaders. Observe from this verse how reluctant God was to pour out His wrath on Jerusalem and how much leaders might have done to avert that wrath. Compare Ex 32:9-14; 34:8-9; Ps 106:23; Num 16:42-50.⚜
31 📚Therefore I have poured out my indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have repaid their own way on their heads, says the Lord God”.
22:31 Though reluctant to punish when there is the slightest reason for mercy, the situation had become so bad that God could no longer delay. On wrath see Num 25:3; Ps 90:7-11.⚜