Ezekiel 7:22

My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it. THEY SHALL POLLUTE MY PLACE - just retribution for the Jews' pollution of the temple. FOR THE ROBBERS SHALL ENTER INTO IT - "Robbers shall enter and defile" the holy of holies, the place of God's manifested presence, entrance into which was denied even to the Levites and priests, and was permitted to the high priest only once a year on the great day of atonement....

As to the beginning of the verse there is no ambiguity, for God pronounces that the Jews would be miserable, _because he would avert his face from them _For in this was situated their happiness, that God, as he had promised, would regard their safety. As long, therefore, as God deigned to look upon them, their safety was certain, so that there was no fear of danger. But when he no longer cared for them, these wretched ones were exposed to all calamities; hence they are said to be deprived of all protection, when alienated from God. This, then, is one clause. As to what follows, expositors interpret it of the sanctuary; and I do not greatly object to this, if any one approves of this sense, but I take it in a wider sense. For God in my view calls the land _his hidden place, _which was safe under his protection. For he says, that he had extended wings, under which he could hide the people,...

16-22 Sooner or later, sin will cause sorrow; and those who will not repent of their sin, may justly be left to pine away in it. There are many whose wealth is their snare and ruin; and the gaining the world is the losing of their souls. Riches profit not in the day of wrath. The wealth of this world has not that in it which will answer the desires of the soul, or be any satisfaction to it in a day of distress. God's temple shall stand them in no stead. Those are unworthy to be honoured with the form of godliness, who will not be governed by its power....

Verse Ezekiel 7:22. _THE ROBBERS SHALL ENTER INTO IT_] The Chaldeans shall not only destroy the city; but they shall enter the temple, deface it, plunder it, and burn it to the ground....

MY SECRET PLACE - The inner sanctuary, hidden from the multitude, protected by the most high....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 7:1 The absence of any fresh date, and the fact that it is simply tacked on to the previous chapter by the copulative conjunction, shows that what follows belongs to the same group. The use of the phrase, THE WORD OF THE LORD CAME UNTO ME, shows, however, that there was an interval of silence, perhaps of meditation, followed by a fresh influx of inspiration; and, so far as we may judge from the more lyrical character of the chapter, a more intense emotion. EZEKIEL 7:2 AN END, etc. The iteration of the word once more gives emphasis. The words read like an echo of Amos 8:2. The FOUR CORNERS (Hebrew, "wings...

MY FACE WILL ONE TURN ALSO FROM THEM,.... Deny them his presence, and withdraw his protection from them; show them no favour, nor afford them any help and succour in their distress, when they cry unto him; so the Targum, "I will cause my Shechinah to remove from them:'' unless the Chaldeans are meant, as some think, whose robberies and ravages the Lord would wink at, and not restrain, but suffer them to plunder and spoil at pleasure: since it follows, AND THEY SHALL POLLUTE MY SECRET [PLACE]; the holy of holies, by going into it, which none but the high priest might do, and he but once a year; though the Targum understands this of the Jews, and makes it to be a reason of what is threatened in the preceding clause, rendering it thus, "because they have profaned the land of the house of my Shechinah:'' FOR THE ROBBERS SHALL ENTER INTO IT, AND DEFILE IT; as did the king of Babylon and...

Ezekiel 7:1. This chapter closes the first great message of Ezekiel. This great judgment message is written in beautiful language, which, in the Authorized Version, is marred by numerous incorrect renderings. The reader will find a reliable metrical translation in our larger commentary on Ezekiel. First, the end is announced to come upon the entire land; it could no longer be averted. There is another day coming in which the Lord will deal in fearful judgments with this earth. Now is the day of salvation in which God speaks in love through His Son, When wickedness and apostasy has reached its climax, the day of salvation will end and “the day of vengeance of our God” will begin. Then He will speak in His wrath and vex them in His sore displeasure Psalms 2:5. Then will they say to the mountains and rocks, “Fal

In the dread day of the siege, _when_ ruthless Babylonian hands would profane Yahweh's secret (or rather cherished) place, _i.e._ the Temple, famine would reign, and then not all their silver and gold, of which they had been so haughtily proud, could buy for them a bit of bread, nor could their gilt and silvered gods deliver them. Nor was it only the idolatry of their worship, but the violence, the cruelty, the injustice of their lives, their bloody crimes, that had brought this desecration upon the holy places. All the civil and religious leaders would be at their wits-' end, and, in the absence of true leadership the common people would be helpless. Then, when they are reaping the reward of their sin and folly, they shall know that I am Yahweh. (In Ezekiel 7:23 the words rendered make the chain are obscure and uncertain.)...

Second Section. Ch. Ezekiel 3:22 to Ezekiel 7:27 The second section of the Book contains these parts: (1) Ch. Ezekiel 3:22-27. A preface in which the prophet is commanded to confine himself to his own house, and abandon for a time his public ministry. (2) Ch. Ezekiel 4:1-4. A series of symbols representing the siege of Jerusalem, the scarcity during it, the pollution of the people in exile among the nations, and the terrible fate of the inhabitants on the capture of the city. (3) Ch. Ezekiel 5:5-17. Exposition of these s