Ezekiel 22:7

set light by--Children have made light of, disrespected, father . . . (Deu 27:16). At Eze 22:7-12 are enumerated the sins committed in violation of Moses' law.

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

Eze 22:7 In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

Ver. 7. In thee have they set light by father and mother.] Whom very heathens honoured as their θεοι εφεστιαι, household gods.

In the midst of thee, &c.] So Jerome complaineth of his country, In mea patria deus venter est, et in diem vivitur, that they were all belly gods, and had no goodness in them. So Bede complaineth of the ancient Britons immediately before their destruction by the Saxons. Bradford crieth out against the iniquity of the times in King Edward’s days. You all know, saith he in a certain letter of his, there was never more knowledge of God, and less godly living, and true serving of God. It was counted a foolish thing to serve God truly; and earnest prayer was not past upon. Preaching was but pastime; communion was counted too common; fasting was far out of use; alms was almost nothing. Malice, covetousness, and uncleanness was common everywhere, with swearing, drunkenness, and idleness. {a} &c.

{a} Acts and Mon.

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.

22:7 Foreigners are forced to pay for protection: Cp. Exod 22:21; 23:9; Lev 19:33-34; Deut 10:18-19.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He meaneth hereby that there was no kind of wickedness which was not committed in Jerusalem, and therefore the plagues of God should speedily come upon her.

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

Verse 7. In thee have they set light] The children do not reverence their parents. Parental affection and filial respect do not exist among you. The stranger is not only not succoured, but he is oppressed. The widows and fatherless are vexed by wrongs and exactions.

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

(7) By father and mother.—Filial respect was one of the most frequently enjoined precepts of the law (see Lev_19:32; Lev_20:9, &c.). So the other sins mentioned in this and the following verses are transgressions of special Divine commands. “Dealt by oppression” is “dealt oppressively” (see Lev_19:10; Exo_22:21; Deu_24:14, &c.); for “the father less and widow” (Exo_22:22-24, &c.). The despising of holy things and the profanation of the sabbaths were the constant subject of the warnings of the law; tale-bearers are forbidden in Lev_19:16; the “eating upon the mountains” (which means joining in the idol sacrifices) is often reproved by this and the other prophets; and the sins of lewdness enumerated are all specifically forbidden in Leviticus 18, 20, as well as elsewhere; while the various sins arising from covetousness, mentioned in Eze_22:12, had been constantly denounced both by the law and in the warnings of the prophets. The expression “hast forgotten me” is at once the root of all these sins, and in itself the climax of all.

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

7. “They” no more refers to the princes, but is said generally. On “father and mother” Exo_20:12; Deu_5:16; Deu_27:16. On “stranger” ch. Eze_18:18; Exo_22:21. On “fatherless,” Exo_22:22.

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.

In thee have they set light by father and mother,.... Through whom they received their being from God; by whom they were brought into the world, brought up and educated; and to whom they owed great respect, honour, and obedience; but, on the contrary, they wanted affection to their persons, showed great disrespect to their commands, and treated them with irreverence and contempt; a sin of a very heinous nature, of the first magnitude; reckoned among the very Heathens as next to contempt of God, and disobedience to him; is directly contrary to a law of God, and threatened with a curse, and a severe punishment, Exo 20:12 by the connection of the words with the preceding, the princes of Israel seem intended; the children of the nobles, and the sons and daughters of the king; who, it might have been thought, by the character they bore, the station they were in, and the politeness of their education, would have behaved in another manner; and if this sin prevailed among them, no doubt it did among those of a lower class, who are always influenced by such examples:

in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger; the proselyte, as the Septuagint; him that was converted to me, as the Syriac version; which is an aggravation of the sin, that it was not merely a stranger that came about civil business, but one who came from foreign parts to worship the Lord at Jerusalem, as the Ethiopian eunuch did: now, to oppress such an one, either by private frauds, or by injustice in a court of judicature; to exact upon him for food or lodging; or circumvent and overreach him in trade and commerce; or distress him by vexatious lawsuits, when ignorant of the laws and customs of the country; at a distance from his friends, and in want of money, must be a very great evil; and yet even the princes themselves in Jerusalem were guilty of it:

in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow; that were weak and helpless, and had none to protect them, father and husband being dead; when, according to their first rank and station as princes, they ought to have been the defenders of them; but, instead of that, distressed, afflicted, and grieved them.

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

In thee; in Jerusalem.

Have they: it is plural, and agrees with princes, they whose better disposition, whose education and greatness, (beside the command of God,) should have advanced their venerable thoughts and deportment towards parents.

Set light by, have contemned, father and mother, though God threatens to curse such as do so, Deu 27:16.

They; the princes still, as the construction in the original carrieth it.

By oppression; by force and fraud, for the oppression here mentioned is made up of both; where either the fox or lion could apart, or else both joined, they have oppressed the stranger, expressly against God’s command, Exo 22:21.

They; still the same great men, and rulers, who should, as Isa 1:17, have defended, plead. ed for, relieved, and comforted the fatherless and widow, but contrariwise they oppress, disquiet, and make a prey of them.

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

7. The princes broke every commandment of the decalogue, and their example was followed by the people. (See Exo_20:13; Deu_28:16; Deu_28:19.)

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

We pass to sins of another kind. The fifth commandment was trampled underfoot as well as the sixth, and the blessing of continued national existence (Exo_20:12) was thereby forfeited. The widow and the orphan and the stranger (we note in that last word the width of Ezekiel"s sympathies) were oppressed. (compare the same grouping in Deu_27:16, Deu_27:19)

Ver. 7. Social sins.

The wickedness of Jerusalem was not confined to what might be called sins of religion idolatry, sabbath-breaking, profanation of sacred things, etc. It was witnessed in gross outrages of social rights. Failure in religion leads to failure in society. Social wrongs are sins in the sight of Heaven which God observes, condemns, and punishes.

I LOSS OF FILIAL REVERENCE. "They have set light by father and mother," The Hebrew Law attached great weight to the duty children owe to their parents. (Exo_20:12) The requirement to honor father and mother was "the first commandment with promise". (Eph_6:2) The breach of this law was a sin in the sight of God; so the prodigal son confessed that he had sinned against Heaven. (Luk_15:21) Christ condemned the mean devices by which some Jews in his day endeavored to escape from their filial duty. (Mat_15:4 Mat_15:6) In this respect, the East, which we often despise for its supposed corruption and barbarism, is in advance of the West. One of the most ominous portents among us is a growing levity in the treatment of parental claims. No doubt it is well that the old stiffness of the family relationship has broken down, and that there is more mutual confidence between parents and children than there was in the olden times. Parental tyranny is no more admirable than filial rebellion. The formal manners which separated the older generation from the younger were hurtful to both. But with a fuller recognition of the rights of the young, and a greater freedom of intercourse between the older and the younger members of a family, we are in danger of losing filial reverence one of the most sacred of duties. Well might King Lear exclaim

Sharper than a serpent"s tooth it is To have a thankless child!

II OPPRESSION OF THE STRANGER. Many and merciful were the regulations of the Jewish Law in favor of "the stranger that is within thy gates." In spite of the supposed Jewish exclusiveness a trait of late Judaism rather than of ancient Israelite manners the foreigner had a higher status in Jerusalem than was accorded by the liberal-minded Greeks at Athens to the Xenoi. Oppression of foreign residents was a sign of peculiar wickedness. The Jews were reminded that because they had been received as guests in Egypt and then betrayed by their hosts, they should feel peculiar sympathy with aliens. Let us Beware of selfish national exclusiveness. This is not patriotism; it is narrow-minded, selfish injustice and inhumanity. Observe some of the eases in which the sin of oppressing strangers may be committed.

1. Unkindness to foreign immigrants. England is the boasted shelter of the world"s refugees. May she never forfeit her good name from greedy jealousy! Missions to Italian peddlers, lodging-houses for Lascars, etc., claim Christian attention for the saving of the poor and friendless from cruel wrong.

2. Cruelty to foreigners abroad. England has vast relations with feeble inferior races. The great empire of India is entrusted to our care. In Africa we have peculiar influence. The abominations of the treatment of women in the former ease, and the evil of the traffic in drink and firearms in the latter case, are instances of gross oppression of strangers.

III VEXING THE FATHERLESS AND THE WIDOW. In the absence of a poor law, special attention was given to the provision for orphans and widows by private charity under the Jewish economy. But the rough justice of the East often failed to secure to the helpless even their own rights. Times of lawlessness were times when those poor persons suffered grievously. There is always a danger that the helpless should be trodden down in the fierce race of life. We cannot excuse such cruelty by quoting Adam Smith and Mill, as though the laws of political economy were sacred mandates or decrees of fate, instead of being simply generalizations of conduct prompted by self-interest. We are called to higher alms to sympathy and mutual helpfulness.

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

In thee - In Jerusalem.

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

Father and mother are held light in you All the abominations in the section of (Lev. 19, 20) “You shall be holy,” about which they were warned, are enumerated here.

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.