Ezekiel 22:26

26 "Its priests break my law. They treat things that are set apart to me as if they were not holy. They treat holy and common things as if they were the same. They teach that there is no difference between things that are 'clean' and things that are not. They refuse to keep my Sabbath days. So they treat me as if I were not holy.

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, speak to the land. Tell it, 'You have not had any rain or showers. That is because I am angry with you.'
25 "Ezekiel, the princes of the land are like a roaring lion that tears its food apart. They eat people up. They take treasures and other valuable things. They cause many women in the land to become widows.
26 "Its priests break my law. They treat things that are set apart to me as if they were not holy. They treat holy and common things as if they were the same. They teach that there is no difference between things that are 'clean' and things that are not. They refuse to keep my Sabbath days. So they treat me as if I were not holy.
27 "The officials in the land are like wolves that tear their food apart. They spill blood and kill people to get rich.
28 The prophets cover up those acts for them. The visions of those prophets are false. They use magic to try to find out what is going to happen. But their magic tricks are lies. They say, 'The LORD and King says,' But I have not spoken to them.
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