The Oppression in Jerusalem
The twenty-second chapter of Ezekiel compares with the first chapter of Isaiah, the “Great Arraignment.” Ezekiel sums up formally and finally the many charges he has been making throughout his book. He places upon record the entire list of Judah’s sins, that the justice of her punishment may be remembered and admitted by all.
It is a terrible roll call to which we listen. No sin seems omitted from the grim catalog. The city “sheddeth blood,” she “maketh idols,” she defiles herself. Family affection is forgotten; the people “set light by father and mother.” Fair dealing is rejected; the “stranger” entering the city is seized by force and “oppressed.” Cruelty tramples the most helpless; the rich have “vexed the fatherless and the widow.” False witness, bribery, usury, adultery, lewdness of every kind, all these are in the catalog. And at the close, recurring to this as the climax of treachery, “Yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.”
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