Ezekiel 22:26

Eze 22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed [difference] between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Ver. 26. Her priests have violated my law.] {a} By infringing, and enforcing it to speak what it never meant; to go two miles when it would go but one, &c.

They have put no difference.] They have not taken out the precious from the vile, but made it open tide, and admitted all pellmell, as they say.

And have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths,] i.e., Either framed excuse that they might themselves break it; or else connived at others that have.

{a} Plane palamque contra faciunt, quam ipsis imperavi lege. - Jun.

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 22:26. Her priests have violated my law — Which they ought to have observed, and to have taught the people to observe; and have profaned my holy things — The gifts and sacrifices offered in my service; either by offering them in an undue manner, as the sons of Eli did, 1Sa 2:15, or without due purification of themselves; or else eating them as common meats, without regard to the rules prescribed in the law. They have put no difference between the holy and profane — They have not shown any regard to the rules of my law, concerning what is holy and unholy, clean and unclean, and that both with respect to persons and things. And they are guilty of this neglect in contradiction to an express charge given them respecting this matter, Lev 10:10. By the holy is here meant that which was peculiarly dedicated to God; by the profane, things in common use; by the unclean, those meats which were forbidden to be eaten; by the clean, what it was lawful to eat. And have hid their eyes from my sabbaths — They have taken no care that my sabbaths should be kept, and have not attended themselves upon my public worship on the sabbath days, 2Ch 29:7; and thereby have encouraged my people in the neglect and profanation of it. And I am profaned among them — I am dishonoured by them, and they use my name to false and wicked purposes.

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

They have neglected my service.

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

Her priests--whose "lips should have kept knowledge" (Mal 2:7).

violated--not simply transgressed; but, have done violence to the law, by wresting it to wrong ends, and putting wrong constructions on it.

put no difference between the holy and profane, &c.--made no distinction between the clean and unclean (Lev 10:10), the Sabbath and other days, sanctioning violations of that holy day. "Holy" means, what is dedicated to God; "profane," what is in common use; "unclean," what is forbidden to be eaten; "clean," what is lawful to be eaten.

I am profaned among them--They abuse My name to false or unjust purposes.

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 26. Her priests] Even they whose lips should preserve knowledge, have not instructed the people: they have violated my law, not only in their private conduct, but in their careless and corrupt manner of serving in my temple.

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

(26) Have violated my law.—The next class to be spoken of, as the next in influence, were the priests. It was their especial office to observe and to teach the distinction between the holy and the unholy (Lev_10:10), and to care for the Sabbath. In all they had been unfaithful. (Comp. Mic_3:11; Zep_3:4.)

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

26. The great influence possessed by the priests in this age appears from the place they occupy next the royal house. Jer_2:8; Jer_2:26; Jer_4:9; Jer_8:1; Jer_13:13; Jer_26:11.

between the holy and profane] ch. Eze_44:23; Jer_15:19; Lev_10:10.

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.

Her priests have violated my law,.... Or, "forced it" (i); they gave a wrong explanation of it, made it speak what it should not; they wrested the sense and meaning of it, and did and taught things contrary to it; they broke it themselves, who should have instructed others in it, and exhorted them to have kept it, and encouraged them by their own example:

and have profaned my holy things; sacrifices and oblations, which were only to be offered and eaten by holy persons; they made them common to others who should not have partook of them:

they have put no difference between the holy and the profane; between holy persons and things, and profane persons and things; they made no difference in their practice between the one and the other; but promiscuously conversed with holy and profane persons, and used holy and profane things, without distinguishing one from the other:

neither have they showed the difference between the unclean and the clean: they did not show to the people, as was the duty of their office, what was clean or unclean for sacrifice; what was clean and allowed to be eaten, and what was unclean and forbid to be eaten; nor who were clean and who were unclean persons for conversation; who were to be kept company with, and who not:

and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths; were not careful to observe them themselves, and connived at them that broke them; they might have seen men carrying burdens, and doing other servile works on such days, but they turned their eyes another way, and would not look at them; and when they did see them were silent, and would not reprove them:

and I am profaned among them; for the law of God being profaned, his institutions profaned, and his sabbaths profaned, he himself was profaned; inasmuch as he was not sanctified by them, through the just observation of those things. The Targum is,

"my will is profaned among them.''

(i) "vim faciunt legimeae", Junius & Tremellius: Polanus; "vim fecerunt", Cocceius: Starckius.

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

Her priests; God owns them not as his, they were priests that suited such a people.

Priests; men by office bound to reverence the law, to study it, and to preserve it from men’s corruptions.

Violated my law; wrested it to oppression and impiety, and to maintain errors, and made it speak what they would, not what it did.

Profaned; lightly esteemed, as if they had been but common things, and accordingly use them.

My holy things; sacrifices and oblations, which were consecrated to holy uses, should be offered with holy hearts and hands, and be eaten by holy persons in due time and place. All this neglected with profane spirits.

They have put no difference between the holy and profane: this and the following clause may be an exegesis, explication of the former, or else thus; Neither have they in their own practice differenced holy, and profane, nor in their teaching acquainted the people with the difference, nor in the exercise of their authority separated the profane from the holy, either persons or things, but with promiscuous intermixtures of every thing, and all persons have been alike to them, whether holy or profane, i.e. of common and ordinary use.

Neither have they showed difference; have not made the people know, so the word.

Between the unclean and the clean; things and persons, what things might be touched or eaten, or what might not, what persons might not be approached to and conversed with, and what might; all which was the duty of the priests, the neglect whereof spread the uncleanness of the Jews over the whole land.

Hid their eyes; despised, and would not see the holiness of the sabbaths, nor would look on such as observed them aright to encourage them, or on those that profaned them to reprove them; so they did not see what they would not see.

From my sabbaths; though they are expressly commanded to be kept holy, and with great care and exactness, Isa 58:13; Jer 17:21,22; though the portion of time I consecrated to my service, they sacrilegiously direct to other uses, and grudge it me, nay, rob me of it.

I am profaned; contemned, dishonoured, disobeyed, and all my laws represented as trivial and light things.

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

26. The priests are as bad as the royal princes. They regarded neither the prescriptions of the ceremonial nor the moral law. (Compare Eze_22:8; Eze_44:23; Lev_10:10.) The rites and ordinances of worship which Jehovah commands cannot be ignored or changed without guilt. The entire temple service was an object lesson teaching the people the meaning of “holiness.” Whatever belonged to Jehovah was holy. “Holiness is God’s claim to the proprietorship and use of certain objects.” As Dr. James Agar Beet has shown, from the earliest time the word contained a deep spiritual meaning. A holy people is a people devoted, separated, to God, and to whom God is devoted.

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

The sins of the prophets are followed by these of the priests. Their guilt was that they blurred over the distinction between the holy and the profane (Revised Version, "common"), between the clean and the unclean. (comp. Eze_44:23; Lev_10:10, where the same terms are used) in what we have learnt to call the positive and ceremonial ordinances of the Law, and so blunted their keenness of perception in regard to analogous moral distinctions. Extremes meet, and in our Lord"s time the same result was brought about by an exaggerated scrupulosity about the very things the neglect of which was, in Ezekiel"s time, the root of the evils which he condemns. This was true generally, conspicuously true in the case of the sabbath. Its neglect was a crying evil in Ezekiel"s time, just as its exaggeration was in the later development of Judaism. Though in itself positive rather than moral, to hide the eyes from its holiness was, for these to whom the commandment had been given, an act of immorality.

Holy and profane.

I THE TRUE DISTINCTION BETWEEN HOLY AND PROFANE. The Jewish Law made elaborate distinctions between the clean and the unclean, some of which were founded on moral differences, some on sanitary requirements, but others OH merely symbolical and ceremonial points. Many of these distinctions were only temporary, as that between certain foods, and that between Jews and Gentiles, the abolition of which was revealed to St. Peter in his vision at Joppa. (Act_10:15) Christ denounced the folly of formal distinctions. (Mat_15:11) St. Paul claimed large liberty in this respect, and pointed out the danger and delusion of the will-worship which was associated with too punctilious an observance of minute external distinctions. (Col_2:23) Nevertheless, there remain true distinctions apart from the formal and ceremonial differences.

1. The distinction between holiness and sin. In this distinction we have -the root out of which the ceremonial notions of cleanness and uncleanness sprang. The formal notions may pass, the moral foundation is eternal.

2. The distinction between the service of God and the service of the world. We do not want to regard the temple as the only sacred place, so that the forum must be relegated to profanity. In the Christian age, "Holiness unto the Lord" is not only to be inscribed on the bells of the high priest; it is to be seen on the bells of the horses. (Zec_14:20) But this means a dedication of all to the service of God. If we neglect that service and sink into secularism, we fail to observe the holiness; we then make all things profane temple as well as forum.

II THE SIN OF DESTROYING THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN SACRED AND PROFANE. We have not now to do with definite Jewish offences against the Law of Moses, in which the finely drawn distinction between the clean and the unclean is disregarded. Sacred things of the temple were desecrated by the insolent heathen at Belshazzar"s feast, but they had been first desecrated by Jews in the house of God, while they were touched with sinful hands and used without holy motives. They who are most careful to keep up the ceremonial distinction may yet profane sacred things.

1. The sabbath is profaned, not only when the shops are open and when crowds throng the public resorts of amusement, but when the congregations at church play the part of ostentatious Pharisees, and mock God with pretentious prayers while their hearts and thoughts are far from him.

2. The Bible is profaned when it is quoted to prop up a private opinion in disregard to the royal rights of truth.

3. The gospel is profaned when it is preached for the sake of winning popularity or raising money, to the neglect of the claims of Christ and the needs of mankind.

4. The conscience, which should be a holy standard of right, is profaned when it is distorted by casuistry into excusing a lack of integrity.

5. The body is profaned when, instead of being a temple of the Holy Ghost, it is an instrument of sin. (1Co_6:15)

6. The Church, which should be the bride of the Lamb, is profaned when she sinks into worldly living or is divided against herself in bitter uncharitableness.

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

My holy things - Sacrifices, and oblations. Put no difference - Neither have they in their practice, differenced holy and profane, nor in their teaching acquainted the people with the difference, nor in the exercise of their authority, separated the profane from the holy, either persons, or things. Hid their eyes - Despised, and would not see the holiness of the sabbaths. Profaned - Contemned, dishonoured, disobeyed.

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

her

This pronoun refers to Jerusalem.

do violence to my law

"disobey my laws"

the unclean and the clean

This refers to unclean and clean things. Something that God considers spiritually unacceptable or defiled is spoken of as if it were physically unclean. AT: "things that are unclean and things that are clean" (See: Nominal Adjectives and Metaphor)

They hide their eyes from my Sabbaths

This speaks of the people ignoring and not observing the Sabbath and if they were hiding their eyes from the Sabbath" AT: "They ignore my Sabbaths" (See: Metaphor)

so that I am profaned in their midst

This can be stated in active form. AT: "and profane me among themselves" (See: Active or Passive)

Her princes within her are like wolves tearing apart their victims

This compares Israel's princes to wolves who attack and kill their victims. (See: Simile)

They pour out blood and destroy life

These two phrases mean basically the same thing and emphasize the violence that the princes practice. AT: "They murder people" (See: Parallelism)

Her prophets have painted them over with whitewash

This speaks of the prophets trying to hide these sins as if they were something that they could paint over with whitewash. AT: "It is like her prophets have painted over their sins with whitewash" or "Their prophets try to hide these evil things" (See: Metaphor)

whitewash

This is a solution that is painted on things to make them white that is similar to white paint.

predict falsehoods to them

"predict lies for the princes." The word "them" refers to the princes.

translationWords

priest

law

profane

clean

Sabbath

prince

wolf

Lord Yahweh

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

robbed My Torah It was incumbent upon them to reprove, to instruct, and to make known statutes and ordinances, but they did not do so. This is robbery, for they robbed it from those who needed to learn.

and I was profaned in their midst Heb. וָאֵחַל, and I was profaned.

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.