Ezekiel 22:26

26 Your priests have violated my instructions and defiled my holy things. They make no distinction between what is holy and what is not. And they do not teach my people the difference between what is ceremonially clean and unclean. They disregard my Sabbath days so that I am dishonored among them.

Ezekiel 22:26 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 22:26

Her priests have violated my law
Or, "forced it" F9; 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.''

FOOTNOTES:

F9 (ytrwt womx) "vim faciunt legimeae", Junius & Tremellius: Polanus; "vim fecerunt", Cocceius: Starckius.

Ezekiel 22:26 In-Context

24 “Son of man, give the people of Israel this message: In the day of my indignation, you will be like a polluted land, a land without rain.
25 Your princes plot conspiracies just as lions stalk their prey. They devour innocent people, seizing treasures and extorting wealth. They make many widows in the land.
26 Your priests have violated my instructions and defiled my holy things. They make no distinction between what is holy and what is not. And they do not teach my people the difference between what is ceremonially clean and unclean. They disregard my Sabbath days so that I am dishonored among them.
27 Your leaders are like wolves who tear apart their victims. They actually destroy people’s lives for money!
28 And your prophets cover up for them by announcing false visions and making lying predictions. They say, ‘My message is from the Sovereign LORD,’ when the LORD hasn’t spoken a single word to them.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.