Dr. Claude Mariottini – Professor of Old Testament🔒 SSL Verified

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"To read Ezekiel 22 responsibly, we must remember where Ezekiel was when he spoke these words. In 597 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon captured Jerusalem and deported King Jehoiachin to Babylon, along with the royal family, officials, warriors, and skilled workers of Judah (2 Kgs. 24:10–17). Ezekiel, a priest, was among those deported. In the fifth year of that exile, while he lived among the exiles by the river Chebar, he received his call to be a prophet (Ezek 1:1–3). As Sampson Ndoga notes, Ezekiel’s oracles were pronounced between July 593 BCE (Ezek 1:1–2) and April 571 BCE (Ezek 29:17).[18]"

"Meanwhile, Babylon had placed Zedekiah on the throne of Judah. When Zedekiah rebelled, the Babylonian army returned and besieged Jerusalem in 588 BCE (2 Kgs. 25:1; Ezek. 24:1–2). In 587/586 BCE, the city fell. The temple was burned, the walls were torn down, and more of the population was taken into exile (2 Kgs. 25:8–11). Months later, a fugitive who had escaped from Jerusalem came to Ezekiel in Babylon with the report: “The city has fallen” (Ezek. 33:21)."

"Ezekiel 22 belongs to the tense years before that final catastrophe. The oracle is not dated, but it stands between an oracle dated in the seventh year of the exile, about 591 BCE (Ezek. 20:1), and the announcement of the siege in 588 BCE (Ezek. 24:1–2). P. J. Harland concludes that the first oracle of the chapter “seems to look back to the disaster of 597 and forward to 587.” He adds, “The place of composition is probably Babylon; there is no need to presuppose that Ezekiel had to be in Jerusalem in order to deliver judgment on the city.”[19] Cooke believed that the first two oracles of the chapter “may well belong to the same date as ch. 21, the eve of the final catastrophe.”[20] Zimmerli, though cautious, agrees that “we can certainly not exclude that 22:1-16 also is concerned with a reckoning with the sins of Jerusalem before the ultimate fall of the city.”[21] Scholars date the third oracle of the chapter (Ezek. 22:23–31) differently, and I will discuss that question in Part Two."

"This setting explains the purpose of the oracle. Although Ezekiel addresses Jerusalem, his actual audience was the community of exiles in Babylon. Craigie writes: “But though the words are formally addressed to Jerusalem, in reality they are declared in the hearing of the Hebrews in exile. And as Ezekiel’s companions heard the words of this prophecy, their few remaining hopes of rescue coming from Jerusalem would have been shattered.”[22] Many of the exiles expected a quick return home. Prophets such as Hananiah promised that the exiles would return within two years (Jer. 28:1–4), and Jeremiah warned them not to listen to prophets who were deceiving them (Jer. 29:8–9). Ronald Clements writes that Ezekiel presents his catalog of crimes “in order to convince those who find such an accusation too unwelcome and unbelievable.”[23]"

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“Will You Judge the Bloody City?” (Ezekiel 22:1–5) – Part 2