Ezekiel 22:18

Eze 22:18 Son 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.

Ver. 18. The house of Israel is to me become dross.] Recrementum argenti; offal stuff. Silver they were once, but now nothing less. Haec ad nos quoque transferenda sunt. This is even our case; we are quite degenerate, and altogether unlike our zealous progenitors.

“ Heu! pietas ubi prisca! profana O tempora! Mundi

Faex, vesper, prope nox! O Mora! Christe veni. ”

All they are brass.] See on Isa 1:22.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze_22:18

Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross.

Sins deteriorating power

Stand in fancy in one of the fights of the old civil war. The Royalists are fighting desperately, and are winning apace; but I hear a cry from the other side that Cromwells Ironsides are coming. Now we shall see some fighting. Oliver and his men are lions. But lo! I see that the fellows who come up hang fire, and are afraid to rush into the thick of the fight; surely these are not Cromwells Ironsides, and yonder captain is not old Nell? I do not believe it; it cannot be. Why, if they were what they profess to be, they would have broken the ranks of those perfumed cavaliers long ago, and have made them fly before them like chaff before the wind. So when I hear men say, Here is a body of Christians. What! those Christians? Those cowardly people, who hardly dare speak a word for Jesus! Those covetous people, who give a few cheese parings to His cause! Those inconsistent people, whom you would not know to be Christian professors if they did not label themselves! What! such beings followers of a crucified Saviour! The world sneers at such pretensions, and well it may. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 22:18-22. The house of Israel is to me become dross — “Their filthiness may be fitly compared to the mixture of dross and baser metals with the pure silver: and as that is purified by being melted in a furnace or crucible, so Jerusalem, when it is set on fire, shall be the furnace into which I will cast them and their wickedness to be consumed: compare Jer 6:28-30. God’s severe judgments are expressed by the furnace of affliction, (Isa 48:10,) and compared to a refiner’s fire, (Mal 3:2; Isa 1:25,) because they are designed to purge men from that dross and corruption which are too often the effect of ease and prosperity.” — Lowth. As they gather silver, so will I gather you — From all parts. I will, by a secret, overruling providence, bring you into Jerusalem, as into a furnace where you may be consumed. And I will blow upon you in the fire of my wrath — I will stir or blow up the fire of my wrath against you. God’s vengeance is often compared to fire, but here it was so in a literal sense, when both city and temple were consumed by fire, 2Ki 25:9.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ISRAEL IN THE ASSYRIAN FURNACE, Eze_22:18-22.

In this new prophecy Israel is compared with the ore in a smelting furnace. This ore looks now perfectly worthless. Once it was good silver ore, but now it is only the “dross” of silver. That some silver is expected as the resultant of the fiery test is hinted here and clearly expressed elsewhere (Eze_22:15; Eze_18:27; compare 1Pe_1:7). Again and again the purpose of this punishment is declared to be, not the nation’s destruction, but its purification. Yet as the furnace is supposed to be set up “in the midst of Jerusalem” (Eze_22:19), it may be that only the Jerusalemites, who are elsewhere considered as hopelessly unrepentant, are thought of in this connection, and not the remnant purified in the Babylonian fires. (See notes Eze_24:1-14; Eze_9:8; Eze_11:16; Eze_11:21, etc.) For the use of this same figure by other prophets see Mal_3:2-3; Isa_1:22; Jer_6:30.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which before was most precious.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

dross . . . brass--Israel has become a worthless compound of the dross of silver (implying not merely corruption, but degeneracy from good to bad, Isa 1:22, especially offensive) and of the baser metals. Hence the people must be thrown into the furnace of judgment, that the bad may be consumed, and the good separated (Jer 6:29-30).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. The house of Israel is to me become dross] They are all like base metal-brass, tin, iron, and lead alloyed together with silver. Ye must be put in the furnace, and subjected to the most intense fire, till your impurities are consumed away. No ordinary means will avail any thing; the most violent must be resorted to.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(18) Become dross.—The second prophecy (Eze_22:17-22) is occupied with a figure taken from the refining of silver, which is a favourite one with the prophets (see Isa_1:25; Jer_6:29; Zec_13:9; Mal_3:3). The peculiar appropriateness of this figure has been often noted in the fact that the completion of the process of refining silver in the furnace was determined by the parting of the floating dross and the reflection of the image of the refiner from its molten surface. This figure, while setting forth the punishment of Israel, shows clearly that this punishment was for the purpose of purification.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. dross of silver] In construction “silver” is in apposition with dross. For the figure cf. Isa_1:22; Isa_48:10; Jer_6:28-30; Mal_3:2-3.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross,.... Vile, despicable, useless, and unprofitable; to which the wicked of the earth are compared, Psa 119:119 and here the Lord's professing people, they differing nothing from them, being sadly degenerated; formerly they were as silver, and so they might be reckoned among themselves; but to God, who is omniscient, the searcher of the hearts and reins, who saw all their actions, and knew the spring of them, in his sight they were as dross:

all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace: or "crucible" (f); where they are put together, in order to be set in the furnace, and melted down. It is not usual to put so many different metals together for melting, but separately; but here it seems to intend a mixture of them all together; and so the Targum and Septuagint render it,

"all they as brass, &c. are mixed;''

several metals of the baser sort are here mentioned, by a gradation from the better to the worse; tin being not so good as brass, and iron of less value than either, and lead than any of them. Some think the different characters of the people are here described; impudent persons by "brass"; hypocrites by "tin"; cruel and savage ones by "iron"; and such as were sottish and stupid by "lead"; or, as others, covetous ones:

they are even the dross of silver; once they were like silver, precious and valuable, while they retained the true religion, and the worship of God, and behaved agreeably to their character in the performance of all good works, and were in outward flourishing circumstances; but now degenerated from the pure worship of God, and sunk into idolatry and wickedness, and become poor and miserable.

(f) "catinus", Junius and Tremellius, Polanus, Grotius, Cocceius, Starckius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Dross. Hebrew, "a mixture." Septuagint, "God will purify the silver," Isaias iv. 4.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Not a few among many, but universally the whole house of Israel, the seed of him that was a prince with God, the covenant people of God, are strangely degenerate and corrupted, as if purer and richer metals should by worse and worse turn to dross.

All they, from the king to the peasant, the priests, and prophets, and people, are brass; impudent in sin;

and tin; hypocrites, and mixed as tin; and iron; hard, cruel, and oppressive as iron; and lead; stupid and senseless as lead. Though I rather think this particular accommodating these metals somewhat too curious, I judge the prophet chargeth them with a continued degeneracy from bad to worse, by this gradation.

In the midst of the furnace; the afflictions I have laid upon them have not bettered them, they retain their corruptions and vices. While they kept covenant, adhered to my law, kept my worship pure, and loved mercy, did justly, walked humbly with their God, they were as silver; now they are degenerated, and are but the

dross of silver, vile of price, and of little use.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The house of Israel is to me become dross, etc. A new parable, based upon Isa_1:22, 23 and Jer_6:30, begins, and is carried out with considerable fullness. in Mal_3:2, 3 we have the same imagery. Baser metals have been mingled with the silver, and must be burnt out, but there is hope, as well as terror, in the parable. Men throw the mixed metals into the smelting-pot in order that the silver may be separated from the dross and come out pure. (comp. 1Pe_1:7) And this was to be the issue of the "fiery trial" through which Jerusalem and its inhabitants were to pass.

Vers. 18-22. Dross.

I THE NATURE OF THE DROSS. Israel is compared to dross. The nation should have been God"s precious metal, pure white silver. By sin it has become base metal.

1. Dross is an inferior substance. Characters are deteriorated by sin. Wickedness lowers the very nature of a man. We cannot commit sin and still keep our persons in primitive worth and dignity. We are either exalted or degraded by our deeds; they react upon our very being and assimilate it to themselves. Thus silver becomes dross; the man made in the image of God becomes a child of the devil. (Joh_8:44)

2. Dross may be of various kinds. There are brass, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace. Yet all are counted as dross. In human life there are various types of evil. Vice is more picturesque than virtue because it is more variegated. But one common stamp is on every evil coin the same diabolical effigy.

3. Dross is in the place of good metal. It is mixed with silver (Ver. 20). Moreover, it pretends to be the good metal. Brass would pass as gold, and tin as silver. Sin is generally hypocritical. It craves the honor of goodness. Wheat and tares grow together. Good and bad fishes come to land in one net. Society contains the good and the bad in close association.

II THE EVIL OF THE DROSS.

1. It is directly hurtful. Brass is poisonous. Tin is soft, and the vessel made with it will stand neither the heat nor the wear which silver is capable of enduring. All the base metals readily corrode, while the precious metals can be kept bright. The dross of bad character is poisonous, and a source of weakness and corrosion to society.

2. It is deceptive. Passing itself off as better metal, it succeeds in taking the place of honor that does not belong to it. Deceitful men worm their way into posts of dignity which they degrade by their evil character.

3. It is injurious to the good metal. The choice silver is lost in the dross when the various metals are amalgamated into one lump. Good men are injured by bad companions. The presence of wicked characters hinders the work of the good who are joined with them in a common enterprise.

III THE TREATMENT OF THE DROSS.

1. God deals with it. We cannot always detect its presence or distinguish between it and good metal. Both tares and wheat are to be let grow together until the harvest. (Mat_13:30) God knows the secrets of all hearts. The great Assayer will not be deceived by the most specious forgery.

2. God tries it in the furnace. Israel was to go into the furnace of affliction, that the dross might be detected. In her prosperity and confidence she listened to the prophets of smooth things, who flattered her into the notion that she was a choice nation of rare quality pure silver compared to the base metal of the Gentile world. The Captivity tried this beast. Not only was the land laid waste and the city of Jerusalem destroyed, but the mass of the Jewish nation proved itself unequal to cope with its difficulties, and, failing to retain its distinctive character, melted away into the neighboring nations, leaving only a remnant the true silver to carry on the Hebrew tradition and earn the right of restoration. Persecution would show how much worldly dross there is in the Church. (Mat_13:21) Trouble reveals the dross of individual souls.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Dross - Utterly degenerate, and base metal. The furnace - The afflictions I have laid upon them have not bettered them. The dross - While they loved mercy, did justly, walked humbly with their God, they were as silver; now they are but dross.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

dross A mixture of dross mixed in silver and gold, and it is necessary to smelt it in fire to refine it.

a furnace in which gold is refined.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.