Ezekiel 7:23

23 Make a chain! The earth is full of perverted justice, the city full of violence.

Ezekiel 7:23 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 7:23

Make a chain
To bind them; not the robbers, the Chaldeans, but the Jews; in order either to bring them to the bar to be tried for capital crimes hereafter mentioned, or to be led bound in chains into captivity; see ( Nehemiah 3:10 ) ; for the land is full of bloody crimes;
or, "judgment of bloods" ^F13; capital crimes, such as are deserving of death, particularly murder, or shedding of innocent blood; so the Targum interprets it of sins of murder: and the city is full of violence;
rapine, oppression, and injury done to the poor, the widow, and the fatherless; meaning the city of Jerusalem, where was the great court of judicature, and where justice ought to have been administered.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (Mymd jpvm) "judicio sanguiuum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin, Polanus, Starckius; "criminibus capitalibus", Piscator; "sanguianariis judiciis", Castalio.

Ezekiel 7:23 In-Context

21 I'll hand it over to foreigners as loot taken in war, to the earth's wicked ones as plunder—they will defile it!

22 When I hide my face from my people, foreigners will defile my treasured place. Violent intruders will invade it; they will defile it!

23 Make a chain! The earth is full of perverted justice, the city full of violence.

24 I'll bring up the cruelest nations, and they will seize their houses. I'll break their proud strength, and their sanctuaries will be defiled.

25 Disaster! It has come! They seek peace, but there is none.