Ezekiel 22 explained: A City Where No One Stands Up

Charges against a violent city (vv. 1-5)

Ezekiel is told to act like a prosecutor, naming Jerusalem's crimes, chiefly bloodshed and idol making, and nations both near and far will mock her. Her "days" and "years" coming to an end may point to the short siege and the longer exile that followed, though that reading is an interpretation.

A list of broken laws (vv. 6-12)

Leaders use their power to kill, parents are scorned, foreigners, orphans and widows are mistreated, holy days are ignored, and sexual acts forbidden in the law of Moses are common, even within families. Bribes for murder, taking interest and profit from the poor, and extortion follow, all traced to one root: "you have forgotten me."

The sentence of exile (vv. 13-16)

Striking the hands together was a gesture of anger at what had been done. The LORD will scatter the people among other nations, which the text presents as a way of putting an end to the city's uncleanness.

Metal in the furnace (vv. 17-22)

Silver was refined by melting ore so the pure metal separated from the waste, called dross. Here the people are pictured as nothing but dross, and Jerusalem under siege becomes the furnace where they will be melted in God's anger.

Every group has failed (vv. 23-29)

A land without rain was a sign of lost favor, and each group is blamed in turn: rulers and officials tear at people like lions and wolves, priests blur holy and ordinary, prophets cover it all with false visions, and ordinary people rob the poor and foreigners. In verse 25 the Hebrew text reads "prophets" while an ancient Greek translation reads "princes," which is why translations differ.

No one in the gap (vv. 30-31)

The picture is of someone standing in a broken city wall to defend it, meaning a person who would plead with God for the land, as Moses is remembered doing, and none is found, so judgment falls. Since figures like Jeremiah were still in the city, interpreters often take "no one" to mean no one able or willing to turn things around at this late point.

Key verse: Ezekiel 22:30

Something to think about

When wrongdoing runs through every level of a society, what do you think it would take for one person to make a real difference?