Ezekiel 22:2-5

Wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? Wilt thou plead for it? Or rather, Wilt thou not judge? see note on Ezekiel 20:4. The expression is doubled to awaken the prophet more fully, and to quicken him to his work. Jerusalem is termed the bloody city, Hebrew, עיר הדמים, the city of bloods, because of the blood of innocent persons, of children sacrificed to Moloch, and of prophets and righteous men shed in her, and that by courts of justice under colour of law. Yea, thou shalt show her Make her know; all her abominations That I may be justified in all the desolations which I have brought, and shall still more fully bring upon her. The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it Openly and impudently; that her time may come The time of her destruction, as the consequence of her having filled up the measure of her iniquities; and maketh idols against herself To her own ruin. Thou hast caused thy days to draw near The days of thy sorrows and sufferings; and art come even to thy years To the end of thy years of trial, so that thou shalt be borne with no longer. Therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen Have exposed thee to their contempt and scorn; and a mocking to all countries A proverb, and a by-word, and cause of astonishment to all people, according to the prediction of Moses, (Deuteronomy 28:37,) and the solemn warning given by the Lord to Solomon, when he appeared to him after the dedication of the temple, 1 Kings 9:7. Those that are near And are eye-witnesses of thy apostacy and degeneracy, as the Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, and Philistines; and those that be far from thee The Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, &c., to whom thou shalt be carried captive; shall mock thee, which art infamous Of a most infamous name; and much vexed Afflicted, empoverished, and ruined: or rather, who art full of tumult and trouble, as רבת המהומה more properly signifies: that is, in which there are continually confusion and disorder, by the commission of acts of violence.