{"id":74274,"date":"2020-05-05T10:15:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T07:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=74274"},"modified":"2020-05-05T10:15:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T07:15:25","slug":"the-impure-jerusalemites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-impure-jerusalemites\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impure Jerusalemites"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chapter 22 is one of the harshest rebukes in the prophetic literature. Ezekiel continues themes developed from chapter 20, with the emphasis now on interpersonal sins, not ritual or religious failings. To prove his point, Ezekiel heavily borrows from courtroom terminology. The first 16 verses are the indictment of Jerusalem, the next six verses are the judgment of destruction, while the explanation of the guilty verdict comprises the chapter’s conclusion. The litany of sins that Ezekiel accuses and rebukes the people of in this chapter include shedding blood, dishonouring their parents, extortion and abuse of orphans, widows, and strangers, slander, accepting bribes, engaging in forbidden sexual relations.<\/span><\/p>\n

In order to explain his judgment, God used the analogy of refining silver. This recalls the Torah’s description of Egypt as an “iron furnace”. According to this metaphor, the sufferings in Egypt served to purify us from our sins and impurities. The process that God describes is similar \u2013 the silver metal, along with all its impurities (copper, tin, lead, and iron), was heated up in a shallow, porous clay or bone container. When the refiner would blow a stream of air across the container, the impurities would produce a dross on the surface of the liquid silver, as all of the impure metals rise to the surface. Ezekiel describes how God melts down His own people, and when blowing across the surface of the container, it is the Jews who remain in Jerusalem who rise to the surface! They will be discarded as waste.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this passage, Ezekiel is wrestling with a common belief held by his audience, the exiles in Babylon. The greatest punishment that the Torah prescribes upon sinners, starting with the Garden of Eden, is exile. After the first exile of 597 BCE (in the time of Jeconiah), there were two communities of Jews \u2013 those with Ezekiel in Babylonia, and those who remained in Israel. Ezekiel’s listeners could be forgiven if they believed that they were the dross, the rejected ones, while those who remained behind in Israel were the pure and righteous. This attitude hampered Ezekiel’s ability to convince his listeners in Babylonia that God wanted to continue His relationship with them, that their actions were meaningful. They felt that they had been rejected, removed from God’s land. Otherwise, God would not have chosen to exile them and leave the others Israel. To this, Ezekiel has to explain that the opposite is true. Those that remain are compared to the impure metals, who will be destroyed in the upcoming destruction that God will bring upon Jerusalem, while the survivors are the pure silver who remain.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Impure Jerusalemites","main_caption":"Ezekiel's listeners in Babylonia could be forgiven if they believed that they were the dross, the rejected ones","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74274"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74277,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74274\/revisions\/74277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}