Ezequiel 22:7

7 Em seu meio eles têm desprezado pai e mãe, oprimido o estrangeiro e maltratado o órfão e a viúva.

Ezequiel 22:7 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 22:7

In thee have they set light by father and mother
Through whom they received their being from God; by whom they were brought into the world, brought up and educated; and to whom they owed great respect, honour, and obedience; but, on the contrary, they wanted affection to their persons, showed great disrespect to their commands, and treated them with irreverence and contempt; a sin of a very heinous nature, of the first magnitude; reckoned among the very Heathens as next to contempt of God, and disobedience to him; is directly contrary to a law of God, and threatened with a curse, and a severe punishment, ( Exodus 20:12 ) ( Deuteronomy 27:16 ) ( Proverbs 30:17 ) by the connection of the words with the preceding, the princes of Israel seem intended; the children of the nobles, and the sons and daughters of the king; who, it might have been thought, by the character they bore, the station they were in, and the politeness of their education, would have behaved in another manner; and if this sin prevailed among them, no doubt it did among those of a lower class, who are always influenced by such examples: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger;
the proselyte, as the Septuagint; him that was converted to me, as the Syriac version; which is an aggravation of the sin, that it was not merely a stranger that came about civil business, but one who came from foreign parts to worship the Lord at Jerusalem, as the Ethiopian eunuch did: now, to oppress such an one, either by private frauds, or by injustice in a court of judicature; to exact upon him for food or lodging; or circumvent and overreach him in trade and commerce; or distress him by vexatious lawsuits, when ignorant of the laws and customs of the country; at a distance from his friends, and in want of money, must be a very great evil; and yet even the princes themselves in Jerusalem were guilty of it: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow;
that were weak and helpless, and had none to protect them, father and husband being dead; when, according to their first rank and station as princes, they ought to have been the defenders of them; but, instead of that, distressed, afflicted, and grieved them.

Ezequiel 22:7 In-Context

5 Tanto as nações vizinhas como as distantes zombarão de você, ó cidade infame e inquieta!

6 “Veja como cada um dos príncipes de Israel que aí está usa o seu poder para derramar sangue.

7 Em seu meio eles têm desprezado pai e mãe, oprimido o estrangeiro e maltratado o órfão e a viúva.

8 Você desprezou as minhas dádivas sagradas e profanou os meus sábados.

9 Em seu meio há caluniadores, prontos para derramar sangue; em seu meio há os que comem nos santuários dos montes e praticam atos lascivos;