Ezekiel 22

One of the prophecies of judgment against Jerusalem in the first part of the book of Ezekiel, this chapter follows Ezekiel 21, which announced that the sword of Babylon would strike Jerusalem. It sets out in detail the city's sins, which are the reason for its judgment. The chapter consists of three oracles (messages given by God).

Outline

• Verses 1–5 God commands Ezekiel to judge (that is, to call to account) the city that has shed blood and defiled itself with idols. The city's days have drawn near, and it will become a mocking to all countries.
• Verses 6–12 A catalog of sins follows: the violence of the princes (leaders), contempt for father and mother, oppression of the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, profaning the Sabbath, sexual sins, and bribery and usury.
• Verses 13–16 God declares that in the day He deals with them, He will scatter the people among the nations.
• Verses 17–22 Because the house of Israel has become dross (impurities) of silver, God says He will gather them into Jerusalem and melt them in the fire of His wrath like metal in a furnace.
• Verses 23–29 The prophets, priests, princes, and people of the land are all charged with corruption. The prophets have daubed with untempered mortar (covering over only the surface) by means of false visions.
• Verses 30–31 God sought a man to stand in the gap of the broken wall but found none, and so He pours out His indignation.

Key Verses

• Ezekiel 22:18 "The house of Israel is to me become dross" — the furnace image reveals the nature of the judgment.
• Ezekiel 22:26 "They have put no difference between the holy and profane" — this sums up the collapse of the priestly office.
• Ezekiel 22:30 "And 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" — the most widely quoted verse in the chapter.

People and Places

• Ezekiel — the prophet who receives the word and whom God addresses as "son of man." See Ezekiel (person).
• Jerusalem — the object of the indictment, called "the bloody city."
• Princes, prophets, and priests — the leaders indicted in turn in verses 23–29.

Points for Reflection

• Here "son of man" is a form of address for Ezekiel and should be distinguished from the title Son of Man that Jesus used of Himself in the Gospels.
• The list of sins in verses 6–12 overlaps with the regulations in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20.
• The furnace image signifies judgment here; it may be compared with passages such as Malachi 3, where it conveys refining and purification.
• The "man who stands in the gap" in verse 30 connects with Ezekiel 13, which rebukes the false prophets who daub with untempered mortar, and Psalm 106 celebrates Moses as one who stood in this way. Interpretations that apply the verse to intercessory prayer or to the intercession of Christ are later applications rather than direct statements of the text.

In the Korean Church

Verse 30 is frequently cited, with the phrase "a man to stand in the gap," in sermons and prayer meetings that encourage intercessory prayer.