Behold, therefore, I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made,.... As one amazed at it; or as filled with indignation against it; or as grieved and distressed at it; so Jarchi and Kimchi: or else as rejoicing at the punishment going to be inflicted on them for it. So the Septuagint renders it,

"I will bring my hand upon them;''

and the Targum,

"behold, I will bring my vengeance upon thee for the sins of mammon, &c.

Jarchi and Kimchi observe from their Rabbins, that four and twenty sins are recited by Ezekiel; but the final sentence of punishment is for rapine or dishonest gain, which is the greatest evil of all, 1 Timothy 6:10,

and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee; the innocent blood shed in the midst of her; not so much by thieves and cutthroats, as under a pretence of justice which was very abominable indeed; against which the Lord expresses just and strong resentment.

The Lord is enraged at such abominable doings. He will interfere, and put an end to them by scattering Judah among the heathen. - Ezekiel 22:13. And, behold, I smite my hand because of thy gain which thou hast made, and over thy bloodguiltiness which is in the midst of thee. Ezekiel 22:14. Will thy heart indeed stand firm, or will thy hands be strong for the day when I shall deal with thee? I Jehovah have spoken it, and also do it. Ezekiel 22:15. I will scatter thee among the nations, and disperse thee in the lands, and will utterly remove thine uncleanness from thee. Ezekiel 22:16. And thou wilt be desecrated through thyself before the eyes of the nations, and know that I am Jehovah. - Ezekiel 22:13 is closely connected with the preceding verse. This serves to explain the fact that the only sins mentioned as exciting the wrath of God are covetousness and blood-guiltiness. הכּה , as 2 Kings 11:12 clearly shows, is a contracted expression for הכּה כּף אל (Ezekiel 21:19), and the smiting of the hands together is a gesture indicative of wrathful indignation. For the form דּמך, contracted from דּמיך, see the comm. on Ezekiel 16:45. - As Ezekiel 22:13 leads on to the threatening of judgment, so does Ezekiel 22:14 point in anticipation to the terrible nature of the judgment itself. The question, "will thy heart stand firm?" involves a warning against security. עמד is the opposite of נמס (cf. Ezekiel 21:12), as standing forms the antithesis to passing away (cf. Psalm 102:27). עשׂה אותך, as in Ezekiel 16:59 and Ezekiel 7:27. The Lord will scatter them (cf. Ezekiel 12:15; Ezekiel 20:23), and remove the uncleanness of sin, namely, by purifying the people in exile (cf. Isaiah 4:4). התם, from תּמם, to cause to cease, with מן, to take completely away. נחלתּ, Niphal of חלל fo lahpiN ,נחלתּ ., connected with לעיני גּוים, as in Ezekiel 20:9, not from נחל, as many of the commentators who follow the Septuagint and Vulgate suppose. בּך, not in te, in thyself, but through thee, i.e., through thy sinful conduct and its consequences.

Behold, therefore I have {f} smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.

(f) In token of my wrath and vengeance.

22:13 Smitten mine hand - In testimony of my abhorrence.

13. smitten mine hand-in token of the indignant vengeance which I will execute on thee (see on [1057]Eze 21:17).

22:1-16 The prophet is to judge the bloody city; the city of bloods. Jerusalem is so called, because of her crimes. The sins which Jerusalem stands charged with, are exceeding sinful. Murder, idolatry, disobedience to parents, oppression and extortion, profanation of the sabbath and holy things, seventh commandment sins, lewdness and adultery. Unmindfulness of God was at the bottom of all this wickedness. Sinners provoke God because they forget him. Jerusalem has filled the measure of her sins. Those who give up themselves to be ruled by their lusts, will justly be given up to be portioned by them. Those who resolve to be their own masters, let them expect no other happiness than their own hands can furnish; and a miserable portion it will prove.