The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Reproach” it comes from the Hebrew Word “cherpah” which means “reproach, disgrace.”
Ezekiel catalogs Jerusalem’s extensive sins while lamenting the absence of anyone to intercede. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Ezekiel 22.
Ezekiel is asked whether he will judge the bloody city, causing her to know all her abominations, describing her as the city that sheds blood in the midst of her, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself, describing how she has become guilty in her blood that she has shed, and has defiled herself in her idols which she has made, causing her days to draw near, therefore He has made her a “reproach,” “cherpah” in Hebrew, to the nations, and a mocking to all countries. Ezekiel catalogs extensively the city’s sins, in her they have set light by father and mother, dealt by oppression with the stranger in the midst of her, vexed the fatherless and the widow, despised His holy things, profaned His sabbaths, men who carry tales to shed blood, eaten upon the mountains, committed lewdness, discovered their fathers’ nakedness, humbled her who was set apart for pollution, committed abomination with neighbors’ wives, lewdly defiled daughters-in-law, humbled sisters, taken gifts to shed blood, taken usury and increase, greedily gained of neighbors by extortion, and forgotten Him. Ezekiel describes God striking His hand at their dishonest gain, and at the blood which has been in the midst of them, asking whether their heart can endure, or their hands be strong, in the days that He shall deal with them, promising to scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them in the countries, and consume their filthiness out of them, describing how the land is a land that devours its inhabitants, its prophets have conspired, its priests have violated His law, and have profaned His holy things, its princes are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and destroy souls, closing with God’s genuine lament, that He sought for a man among them who should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Him for the land, that He should not destroy it, but He found none, therefore He has poured out His indignation upon them.
This chapter’s extensive catalog of specific sins, from oppression of the vulnerable to sexual immorality to dishonest business practice, reveals corruption penetrating every level and dimension of Jerusalem’s society rather than remaining confined to any single, isolated failure. God’s genuine lament, that He sought someone to stand in the gap yet found no one, reveals the real tragedy of a community so thoroughly corrupted that not even a single intercessor could be found to plead effectively on its behalf.
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