Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 7:22
My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret [place]: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.
22. The enemy shall penetrate into the temple and profane it.
turn from them ] This most naturally refers to Israel, from whom the Lord will turn his face in anger, cf. Eze 7:11. It might refer to the invader, whom the Lord will not behold but permit to work his will, cf. Lam 2:3.
secret place] Is probably the temple (Lam 2:1); less natural would be the city. The word “secret,” however, is not to be referred to the arcanum of the Most Holy place; the meaning is “my precious thing.”
for the robbers ] and robbers; the Chaldean pillagers. The words “pollute” and “defile” are the same; better, profane.
My secret place – The inner sanctuary, hidden from the multitude, protected by the most high. Verse 22. The robbers shall enter into it] The Chaldeans shall not only destroy the city; but they shall enter the temple, deface it, plunder it, and burn it to the ground. My face will I turn; either from the Jews, who cry under such violence and profaneness; or, from the Chaldeans who act it, neither relieving the one nor restraining the other. My secret place; either, 1. My enclosed land of Judea. Or, 2. My city Jerusalem. Or, 3. The temple. And, 4. The holy of holies: all which the Babylonian conquerors trampled under their conquering feet. The robbers; the soldiers, who in truth robbed the temple and here have their true style given them, are robbers that used the temple and its consecrated gifts without ally reverence or respect. They should break all open, and rush into the places which Jews, Levites, and priests might not enter. 22. pollute my secret placejustretribution for the Jews’ pollution of the temple. “Robbersshall enter and defile” the holy of holies, the place of God’smanifested presence, entrance into which was denied even to theLevites and priests and was permitted to the high priest only once ayear on the great day of atonement. My face will one turn also from them,…. Deny them his presence, and withdraw his protection from them; show them no favour, nor afford them any help and succour in their distress, when they cry unto him; so the Targum,
“I will cause my Shechinah to remove from them:”
unless the Chaldeans are meant, as some think, whose robberies and ravages the Lord would wink at, and not restrain, but suffer them to plunder and spoil at pleasure: since it follows,
and they shall pollute my secret [place]; the holy of holies, by going into it, which none but the high priest might do, and he but once a year; though the Targum understands this of the Jews, and makes it to be a reason of what is threatened in the preceding clause, rendering it thus,
“because they have profaned the land of the house of my Shechinah:”
for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it; as did the king of Babylon and his army; and afterwards, in the second temple, Antiochus, Pompey, and Titus Vespasian.
As to the beginning of the verse there is no ambiguity, for God pronounces that the Jews would be miserable, because he would avert his face from them For in this was situated their happiness, that God, as he had promised, would regard their safety. As long, therefore, as God deigned to look upon them, their safety was certain, so that there was no fear of danger. But when he no longer cared for them, these wretched ones were exposed to all calamities; hence they are said to be deprived of all protection, when alienated from God. This, then, is one clause. As to what follows, expositors interpret it of the sanctuary; and I do not greatly object to this, if any one approves of this sense, but I take it in a wider sense. For God in my view calls the land his hidden place, which was safe under his protection. For he says, that he had extended wings, under which he could hide the people, (Exo 19:4😉 and David prays that God would receive him within the hidden place of his tabernacle. (Psa 27:5.) Since, therefore, the people was protected by the power of God, the land is deservedly called God’s hidden place, as an asylum, and it will be proper so to translate it. Devastators, therefore, shall profane my asylum, because they shall enter in there, and shall profane it. He repeats the same word. Those who take it for the sanctuary restrict it to the holy of holies, for so they call the shrine or oracle whence the answers were given; and they call it an oracle, not from praying, but because they enquired there of secret things. But as I have said, that seems to be forced, though I will not quarrel with it, but show what I like better. The meaning is, however God had spared the Jews for a long time, nay, had them hidden, as it were, under his wings, and the land was as it were a sacred asylum, since they were so hidden that they felt no injury from foreign enemies: yet this should profit them nothing, because God would throw down all bulwarks, and give easy access to their enemies, so that they might break through, and then profane and confuse all things. It follows —
(22) My secret place.The holy of holies, sacredly guarded from all intrusion, and representing the very culmination both of the religion and of the national life of Israel, shall be polluted. If the pronoun they represents any one in particular, it must be the Chaldans; but it is better to take the verb, as often in the third person plural, impersonally, i.e., shall be polluted. The agents in this pollution are immediately mentioned as the robbers, i.e., the Chaldan armies.
22. Jehovah will not turn the wrath of his face upon these enemies of the “holy people” and “holy city,” even when they enter and pillage the temple. He who has always heretofore protected his own sanctuary will do it no more, for it is now a sanctuary of idolatry (chap. 8).
Eze 7:22. And they shall pollute my secret place My treasures shall be esteemed as profane; for the robbers shall come, who shall pollute them. Houbigant. Others understand this of the profanation of the temple, and of the Holy of Holies, by the Chaldeans.
Eze 7:22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret [place]: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.
Ver. 22. My face will I turn also from them. ] From the Chaldees, that they may spoil at pleasure; or from the Israelites, that they may perish without help.
And they shall pollute my secret place.
For the robbers shall enter into it. face: Psa 10:11, Psa 35:22, Psa 74:10, Psa 74:11, Psa 74:18-23, Jer 18:17
robbers: or, burglars
Reciprocal: Jer 19:13 – defiled Jer 51:51 – for strangers Lam 1:10 – seen Lam 2:7 – they have Eze 7:20 – set it far from them Eze 16:39 – they shall throw 1Co 3:17 – any
Eze 7:22. God was to turn his face away from his unfaithful people and the holy temple that He had placed among them. They (the Babylonians) would be suffered to enter t.he place where only high priests ever entered and that on only one day a year.
7:22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my {r} secret [place]: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.
(r) Which signifies the most holy place, into which none might enter but the high priest.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes