Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 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 showed [difference] between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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 mens 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. Her priestswhose “lipsshould have kept knowledge” (Mal2:7).
violatednot simplytransgressed; but, have done violence to the law, bywresting it to wrong ends, and putting wrong constructions on it.
put no difference between theholy and profane, c.made no distinction between the clean andunclean (Le 10:10), the Sabbathand other days, sanctioning violations of that holy day. “Holy”means, what is dedicated to God “profane,” whatis in common use; “unclean,” what is forbidden to beeaten; “clean,” what is lawful to be eaten.
I am profaned among themTheyabuse My name to false or unjust purposes.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(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.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things. They have put no difference between the holy and the common, nor have they caused men to distinguish between the clean and the unclean, and they have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.”
The priests also come under heavy criticism. Doing violence to the Law may suggest that they have distorted it in their teaching (as the Pharisees would later) or it may signify that that they have done violence to it by repressing it and not teaching it at all. The profaning of holy things suggests carelessness in their approach to them, and a tendency to treat them lightly. This is amplified by pointing out that they did not distinguish what was holy according to the Law from what was common, and that they failed to teach the people what was ritually ‘clean’ and what was ‘unclean’. This failure would go along with idol worship.
They failed further in not teaching and requiring the keeping of sabbaths, even ignoring the requirements themselves. Thus God Himself was (from their point of view, and from Ezekiel’s) being ‘profaned’ by ‘contact’ with the unclean and by having His feasts ignored. God’s demands were no longer being considered as important. It all went with the lax attitude towards His commandments.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
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.
And have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths,
a Plane palamque contra faciunt, quam ipsis imperavi lege. – Jun.
put no difference, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Lev 10:10; Lev 11:47; Lev 22:22). App-92.
priests: 1Sa 2:12-17, 1Sa 2:22, Jer 2:8, Jer 2:26, Jer 2:27, Lam 4:13, Mic 3:11, Mic 3:12, Zep 3:3, Zep 3:4, Mal 1:6-8, Mal 2:1-3, Mal 2:8
violated: Heb. offered violence to
profaned: Lev 22:2-33, 1Sa 2:15, 1Sa 2:29
put no: Eze 44:23, Lev 10:1-3, Lev 10:10, Lev 11:47, Lev 20:25, Jer 15:19, Hag 2:11-13
hid their: Eze 22:8, Eze 20:12, Eze 20:13
I am profaned: Eze 36:20, Rom 2:24
Reciprocal: Lev 22:15 – General 2Ki 16:11 – built an altar 2Ch 36:14 – all the chief Jer 23:11 – both Jer 26:7 – General Eze 13:19 – pollute Eze 42:20 – a separation Eze 44:7 – ye have brought Eze 44:10 – the Levites Eze 44:24 – and they shall hallow Eze 48:15 – a profane Dan 9:11 – all Hos 4:9 – like people
Eze 22:26. These priests had some encouragement for their unlawful conduct In the false teaching of the prophets. Jer 5:31 shows a conspiracy between the evil priests and prophets. One of the surest in-dications of degeneracy is the confusing of clean and unclean things. Profane things might mean simply the things of a temporal nature and not necessarily wrong. But when the holy or sacred things are put on a basis with the profane or temporal, great corruption results.
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.
22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shown [difference] between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their {o} eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.
(o) They have neglected my service.
The priests had also abused the Mosaic Law and had made common what should have been set apart to the Lord. They had treated holy and profane things the same, and they had failed to teach the people the difference between clean and unclean things that the law distinguished. They had made the holy city and the holy land anything but holy. Furthermore they did not observe the Sabbath. In short, they did not hallow the name of the Lord (cf. Hos 4:6; Mal 2:6-8).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)