Commentary on Ezekiel Chapters 1-20 John Calvin
EZEKIEL
were, under his wings, and the land was as it were a sacred asylum, since they were so hidden that they felt no injury from foreign enemies: yet this should profit them nothing, because God would throw down all bulwarks, and give easy access to their enemies, so that they might break through, and then profane and confuse all things.
It follows ---
Ezekiel 7:23
23. Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.
23. Fac cathenam: quia terra repleta est judicio sanguinum, et urbs repleta est violentia.
Interpreters refer the Prophet's being ordered to make a chain to the captivity; for we know that captives are accustomed to be bound with chains and fetters, or manacles. Hence they explain it that God threatens the people with exile. But the Spirit seems rather to allude to criminals, who plead their cause in chains. For the Jews had long reveled in their vices, and the absence of punishment had rendered them very audacious. Now the Prophet says, the time had come in which they were to be brought to the tribunal of God, and there to be dealt with most justly as criminals.
Since, therefore, they bound criminals with chains, that they might plead their cause ignominiously --- criminals, I say, who were already, as it were, half condemned; hence the Prophet is ordered to make a chain, so that not only the people should be called upon to render all account of their wickedness, but should also be drawn, whether they wished it or not, to God's judgment-seat. And he explains himself when he says, since the land is full of the judgment of bloods The Hebrews call judgment of bloods the material of death, when the cause is capital, and the criminal is so convicted that he cannot escape final punishment; so any capital conviction is called a judgment of blood. He says, therefore, the earth is full of a judgment of bloods, that is, is guilty of so many crimes, that it cannot escape the final vengeance.
And afterwards he adds the city, which, in the general corruption of the land, ought to retain something of its purity; but he says, the city also is so full of violence, under which word are doubtless embraced all unjust oppressions --- rapines, pillage, unlawful gains, robberies, and whatever opposes justice and equity. The result is, that the people's impiety and wickedness had come to such a pitch, that they were no longer endurable by God; and hence God ascends his tribunal to exact punishment from them; and this is the chain of which he speaks. It follows ---
Ezekiel 7:24
24. Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.
24. Et venire faciam improbos gentium, 167 et possidebunt domos eorum: et cessare faciam superbiam fortium, et polluentur sanctuaria ipsorum.
He repeats what he had said, that enemies would come who should be ministers of God's vengeance. And again we learn from this place, that even the impious are impelled by the hand and secret direction of God, so that they cannot move a finger
167That is, "the wicked and perverse among the Gentiles." — Calvin.