Ezekiel 22:4

Eze 22:4 Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made; and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come [even] unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen, and a mocking to all countries.

Ver. 4. Thou hast caused thy days.] Thou hast accelerated thy punishment, as the old world did.

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.

thy days--the shorter period, namely, that of the siege.

thy years--the longer period of the captivity. The "days" and "years" express that she is ripe for punishment.

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 4. Thou art become guilty in thy blood] Thou art guilty of blood.

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

(4) Thy days . . . thy years.—Viz., of judgment and visitation. The Rabbinical commentators interpret the days of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the years of the captivity in Babylon.

A mocking to all countries.—This is frequently spoken of in Ezekiel, and is the necessary result in all ages of the contrast between high professions and inconsistent performance. Israel’s law stood far above the legislation of any other nation of the period, but the habitual conduct of her people was in utter disregard of that law. The effect was the same as at a later day, when St. Paul said, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you” (Rom_2:24), just as the same evils and the same hindrances to the spread of the Gospel now result from the unworthy lives of Christians. But the Jews peculiarly exposed themselves to derision by their claim, as the chosen people of God, to universal and everlasting dominion, contrasted with their present overthrow and desolation; and this desolation was a punishment for the outrageous sins of a people whose whole national existence was based upon a call to peculiar holiness.

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

4. The “blood” is not only that of her children sacrificed to the idols, but judicial and other murders, cf. Eze_22:6; Eze_22:9. Cf. Eze_23:37, Eze_24:6; Eze_24:9.

therefore have I made] prophetic perf., cf. “shall mock” Eze_22:5.

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.

Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed,.... Not only she contracted guilt by the innocent blood she shed, but she was tried and found guilty; her guilt was notorious, plain, and evident, as well as exceeding great, and much aggravated:

and hast defiled thyself in thine idols which thou hast made: she not only made them, in doing which she sinned; but polluted herself with them, by worshipping them; her mind and conscience were defiled with them; and which brought such a stain and pollution, as could not be removed by anything that she could do: there are both pollution and guilt in sin, and neither can be removed but by the blood of Christ; and, unless removed that way, punishment must follow:

and thou hast caused thy days to draw near, and art come even unto thy years; to full age, to ripeness for judgment; she had hastened by her sins her days of affliction and distress appointed for her, and was come to years of maturity to suffer for her sins; the years of her captivity, which would soon take place; years in which she would have no pleasure:

therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the Heathen, and a mocking to all countries; who, instead of praising them for their idolatry, would deride them for leaving the God of their fathers, which they did not; and insult over them in their affliction and distress, though they joined with them in idolatrous practices.

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

Thy days, - i. e., of judgment; “thy years,” i. e., of visitation (compare Eze 20:25, Eze 20:39).

A reproach ... a mocking - Judah shall be like the Ammonites Eze 21:28.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Guilty in thy blood; greatly or deeply guilty.

Thou has shed, in abundance, cruelly and perfidiously.

Defiled thy self; as a polluted thing, loathsome to be seen or touched

Thine idols; dunghill gods.

Caused thy days to draw near; . hastened the days of thy sorrows and punishment, of the desolation in Judea, and of thy captivity in Babylon; thou hast shortened thine own peace and my patience.

Came even unto thy years; grown up now to the eldest years in sin, beyond which thou wert not to go: it is the same h effect with that went before.

Therefore; for thy old sin, thou art given up to be a reproach.

A reproach; to be scorned by them, to be branded as a most perfidious, irreligious, unconscionable sort of people, not worthy to live Or else to be a taunt and by-word among all nations; thus it was Psa 44:13; Jer 24:9.

To all countries that were round about them, or, farther off, had heard of them.

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

4. Therefore — This is not God’s will, but hers. She has defiled herself, and by her sins hastened the day and the year of punishment which repentance could have postponed or averted.

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

Thou hast caused thy days to draw near, etc. As in Ver. 3, the days and the years are those of God"s judgments. The people had made no effort to avert their doom by repentance. They had, as it were, rushed upon their appointed fate. So, though in another sense, the righteous lives of the faithful are said, in 2Pe_3:12, to "hasten the coming of the day of God." Exceptional evil and exceptional good alike hasten the approach of the day which is to decide between the two.

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

Thy days - The days of thy sorrows, and punishment. Art come - Thou art grown up to the eldest years in sin, beyond which thou art not to go.

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

General Information:

Yahweh continues to speak through Ezekiel to the people of Jerusalem.

by the blood that you have poured out

This speaks of murdering people as pouring out blood. AT: "because you murdered innocent people" (See: Metaphor)

unclean

A person whom God considers spiritually unacceptable or defiled is spoken of as if the person were physically unclean. (See: Metaphor)

You have drawn your days to a close, and the end of your years has come

The images of days being brought to a close and years coming to an end are both idioms representing ending by death or by destruction. By saying that Jerusalem has brough her days to a close, Yahweh implies that Jerusalem would soon be destroyed because of the people's sin. AT: "Because of these things you have done, you are approaching the end of your time" or "You are bringing your existence to an end" (See: Idiom and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information )

have drawn your days to a close

"have brought your days to an end" or "have ended your life"

I will make you a reproach to the nations and a laughingstock to all the lands

This can be reworded so that the nouns "reproach" and "laughingstock" are expressed as verbs. AT: "I will make the nations reproach you and all the lands ridicule you" (See: Abstract Nouns)

a reproach

someone whom people disapprove of or rebuke

a laughingstock

a person whom people ridicule or mock

to all the lands

This generalization refers to the places who are familiar with Jerusalem and represents the people who live in these places. AT: "of the people of every nearby land" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

translationWords

guilt

reproach

nation

mock

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

up to your years The decree of (Deut. 4:25): “and you will have grown old,” with its numerical value, which Moses said.

and [a subject of] gossip Heb. וְקַלָסָה, gossip, that everyone will speak about you, parlediz in Old French, [subject of] gossip.

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.