CHAPTER 22

(593 B.C.)

THE SINS OF JERUSALEM

¹Moreover the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

²Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? yes, you shall show her all her abominations. (As the previous Prophecy concerned itself with the land of Judah as a whole, this Prophecy concerns itself with the city of Jerusalem. Concerning the city, and coupled with the review of Israels moral history in Chapter 20, and with the entire Book of Jeremiah, there should be extraordinary interest because these things mark the transference of the government of the world from Israel to the Gentiles.)

³Then say you, Thus says the Lord GOD, the city sheds blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself. (The blood shed in the city was that of children sacrificed to Moloch, and of people murdered for the sake of gain [Vss. 6, 9, 12-13].)

⁴You are become guilty in your blood that you have shed; and have defiled yourself in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and are come even unto your years: therefore have I made you a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries. (And you have caused your days to draw near, refers to the soon-to-come Judgment.)

⁵Those who be near, and those who be far from you, shall mock you, which are infamous and much vexed. (The phrase, And much vexed, refers to Jerusalem in a state of moral tumult and disorder as the consequence of its guilt.)

⁶Behold, the Princes of Israel, every one was in you to their power to shed blood. (The kings of Israel used their power for violence, injustice, and murder, and not for protection, peace, and righteousness.

Every one was in you to their power to shed blood, refers to the fact that there was no restraint upon the doer of evil other than the limitation of his capacity.)

⁷In you have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in you have they vexed the fatherless and the widow. (In you, refers to Jerusalem, which should have provided the leadership for the entire nations and, in fact, the world; however, they did the very opposite!)

⁸You have despised My Holy Things, and have profaned My Sabbaths. (The phrase, My Holy Things, refers to the entirety of the Law and the Divine Ordinances. They not only forsook them, but they despised them, proving that sin never remains static, but always involves itself in its increase.)

⁹In you are men who carry tales to shed blood: and in you they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of you they commit lewdness. (In you are men who carry tales to shed blood, pertains to the Lord knowing and seeing through every plot, irrespective of how much men may think their sins are hidden.)

¹⁰In you have they discovered their fathers nakedness: in you have they humbled her who was set apart for pollution. (The phrase, In you have they discovered their fathers nakedness, speaks of incest between a son and his mother, which constituted the vilest of vile sins, and seems, horribly so, to have been quite common.

In you have they humbled her who was set apart for pollution, refers to women being forced to commit the sex act even during the time of their monthly period. This was forbidden by the Lord, because the monthly period of the woman, which discharged impurities from her physical body, was meant by the Lord to portray as such the Fall of man and the subsequent spiritual condition of all babies born thereafter. As a result of this serving as such a symbol, the Lord forbade intercourse during this particular time each month. By ignoring this Command of the Lord, at least at this time, the guilty party was, in effect, refuting the lostness of man and the need for a Saviour.)

¹¹And one has committed abomination with his neighbours wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in you has humbled his sister; his fathers daughter. (This Passage, as well, speaks of adultery and incest.)

¹²In you have they taken gifts to shed blood; you have taken usury and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbours by extortion, and have forgotten Me, says the Lord GOD. (Added to the sexual immorality was the immorality of murder and greed.)

JUDGMENT; THE DROSS A SIGN OF PUNISHMENT FOR SIN

¹³Behold, therefore I have smitten My Hand at your dishonest gain which you have made, and at your blood which has been in the midst of you. (The Lord will no longer tolerate such actions, and the gesture signifies a soon conclusion with the coming of great Judgment. The idea is: the Lord will stop the evil, and use whatever means necessary to do so!)

¹⁴Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with you? I the LORD have spoken it, and will do it. (The question of this Verse implies an answer in the negative.)

¹⁵And I will scatter you among the heathen, and disperse you in the countries, and will consume your filthiness out of you. (The actions threatened in Verse 14 are described in Verses 15 and 16. The Divine Purpose was that Israel should be apart from and enthroned as queen above the nations of the Earth; but her own conduct caused her to lose that supremacy, and thus, she profaned herself by making herself a common nation.)

¹⁶And you shall take your inheritance in yourself in the sight of the heathen, and you shall know that I Am the LORD. (Her inheritance was squandered by trying to become as the heathen.)

¹⁷And the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

¹⁸Son of man, the House of Israel is to Me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. (This Passage refers to the unholy mixture of idol worship with the worship of the True God. Silver is used by the Holy Spirit as a symbol of Redemption and Righteousness. The baser metals were used as symbols of unrighteousness.)

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you are all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. (Because you are all become dross, speaks of so few righteous being in the city that it could not be spared.)

²⁰As they gather silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin, into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so will I gather you in My Anger and in My Fury, and I will leave you there, and melt you. (The Lord appeals for Repentance; if such is forthcoming, it is always met with approval and resultant blessing. If such is not forthcoming, Judgment is the only other recourse, and is always done in My Anger and in My Fury.)

²¹Ye s, I will gather you, and blow upon you in the fire of My Wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof. (This refers to the bellows which blew upon the fire in the crucible, supplying more oxygen and, thereby, greater heat. The Lord here says that He will serve as those bellows.)

²²As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst thereof; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out My Fury upon you. (The phrase, And you shall know, proclaims the truth that even though they did not previously believe, there would come an hour, and shortly, that they would believe, but it would be too late!)

PROPHECY AGAINST ISRAEL; THE EXTENT OF THE APOSTASY

²³And the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying (a third Prophecy now opens, with the Prophet addressing himself not to Jerusalem only, but to the entire Land of Judah),

²⁴Son of man, say unto her, You are the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. (The conscience that is not cleansed by the Precious Blood of Christ and the heart that is not fertilized by the Rain of the Holy Spirit are necessarily unclean, however adorned with religious ceremonies the outward life may be.)

²⁵There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. (The phrase, There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, refers to false prophets who conspire against Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but more particularly against Jeremiah, because he prophesied in Jerusalem. They determined by collusion to fill the land with their false prophecies and, thereby, counteract his true Prophecies.)

²⁶Her Priests have violated My Law, and have profaned My Holy Things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. (Her Priests have violated My Law, did not mean that the Priests suppressed the Bible, of which they were the custodians, but that they violated it. For example, they denied its Inspiration and Authority; they profaned its teachings, that is, they lowered the Book to the common level of other books; they thrust aside its teaching as to separation from evil; and by making the Sabbath as under the Law similar to rest of the days of the week, they degraded its Author to a position in the common multitude of gods, and thus profaned Him.)

²⁷Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. (The Holy Spirit referred to the leaders of Judah as wolves ravening the prey.)

²⁸And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus sa ys the Lord GOD, when the LORD has not spoken. (The princes and their popular Preachers had one main object in view the amassing of wealth by fair means or foul.)

²⁹The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yes, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. (Not only were the leaders and the prophets corrupt, but the common people of the land fell into the same category; they took their cue from the leaders and the prophets.)

³⁰And I sought for a man among them, who should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. (And I sought for a man among them, portrays Judah and Jerusalem in dire straits indeed! Jeremiah, it is true, was there; but he had been taken out by God from among them and forbidden to pray for them [Jer. 11:14]. Among the citizens, none were found able or willing to attempt a Reformation or call the nation to prayer.)

³¹Therefore have I poured out My Indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My Wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, says the Lord GOD. (Neither a reformer [the hedge] nor an Intercessor [the gap] was found in the guilty city to save it from destruction. Therefore have I poured out My Indignation upon them.)