Ezekiel 7:22

22 I will avert my face from them, so that they may profane my treasured place; the violent shall enter it, they shall profane it.

Ezekiel 7:22 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 7:22

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.

Ezekiel 7:22 In-Context

20 From their beautiful ornament, in which they took pride, they made their abominable images, their detestable things; therefore I will make of it an unclean thing to them.

21 I will hand it over to strangers as booty, to the wicked of the earth as plunder; they shall profane it.

22 I will avert my face from them, so that they may profane my treasured place; the violent shall enter it, they shall profane it.

23 Make a chain! For the land is full of bloody crimes; the city is full of violence.

24 I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong, and their holy places shall be profaned.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or [secret]