Ezekiel 22:6

"Behold the princes of Israel, every one according to his power, have been in thee to shed blood. In thee have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the sojourner; in thee have they wronged the fatherless and the widow. Thou hast despised my holy things, and hast profaned my sabbaths. Slanderous men have been in thee to shed blood; and in thee have they eaten upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they have committed lewdness. In thee have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was unclean in her impurity. And one hath committed abominations with his neighbor's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter. In thee have they taken bribes to shed blood; thou hast taken interest and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by oppression, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord Jehovah."

"Some of the sins listed here relate to violations of the Decalogue, but the most of them relate to chapters 17-26 of the Book of Leviticus, where is recorded the so-called `Holiness Code.'"[5] We appreciate the exceedingly significant observation of McFadyen here: "Although most of the evils listed here are social wrongs, it is significant that the low morality is traced to false religion."[6] Amen! The false notion that the prophets of God were concerned only with social wrongs has made many of the comments of radical critics worthless, because, "All sin, in the final analysis, is nothing but a failure on the part of men to maintain the correct relation with the Heavenly Father." "The First and Great Commandment is to love God" (Mark 12:48).

The student is referred to our commentaries on the Pentateuch and upon the Minor Prophets for a discussion of the sacred laws violated by these various sins. Despite the "princes of Israel" being cited here as the perpetrators of such atrocious evils, it may not be doubted that all of the people were equally as sinful. It is amazing that "even the princes" were the notoriously guilty ones. Naboth was murdered and his vineyard confiscated by Jezebel the Queen, Tamar was raped and dishonored by her brother Amnon, a prince of Israel, indeed, the first son of king David by Ahinoam. Reuben, one of the Twelve patriarchs "uncovered his father's nakednesss" by his adultery with one of Jacob's concubines.

It is of interest that this latter sin does not seem to have been very unusual, because of the plural "fathers" in 5:10. In the New Testament, it is stated that the taking of one's step-mother was an evil, "found not even among the Gentiles" (1 Corinthians 5:1).

The disobedience and despising of father and mother always accompany the ruin of any culture. In the final hardening of Israel, in the times of Christ, the religious leaders of Israel, namely the Pharisees, taught that children, under pretense of respect to the Corban, had the right to despise and neglect their parents;[7] and Our Lord specifically condemned them for their teaching. Their old evils of the times of Ezekiel were still practiced in the days shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

"They have eaten upon the mountains ..." (Ezekiel 22:9). This refers to the widespread worship indulged by the Israelites in their participation in the licentious orgies of the "high places," where the ancient Canaanite gods of fertility were shamelessly worshipped by Israel.

"Slanderous men have been in thee to shed blood ..." (Ezekiel 22:9) Cooke tells us that, "It was a common practice of those times to get rid of persons obnoxious to those in power by the device of false accusations."[8] Plumptre agreed, citing the case of, "Naboth in 1 Kings 21:10,"[9] as an example.

"They have forgotten me, saith Jehovah ..." (Ezekiel 22:12). "Social morality always depends upon the remembrance of God."[10] In the last analysis, all correct human behavior is derived from the recognition of Almighty God as the giver of life and the only legitimate regulator of human actions. Why is it wrong to kill? This is true only because man is created in God's image, and God has forbidden it. Apart from the knowledge of God, it is not a sin to kill, to steal, to commit adultery, or to do any other deed that pleases the doer. Apart from the knowledge and remembrance of God, there is no such thing as either "right" or "wrong." It must indeed be feared that in our culture today, this fundamental criterion for determining what is right or wrong has been obscured by the increasing unbelief of our times.