(24) That is not cleansed.--The third and last Divine communication of this chapter begins with Ezekiel 22:23, and contains a further enumeration of the sins of Israel, showing that they have been committed by all classes alike, and ending, like the others, with the prophecy of the outpouring of God's wrath. There is much difference of opinion as to the meaning of the clause "that is not cleansed;" the most probable view is that it speaks of the land as neglected and uncared for--the stones not gathered up and the weeds allowed to grow. It has had neither human care, nor has it received the Divine blessing of rain.
22:23-31 All orders and degrees of men had helped to fill the measure of the nation's guilt. The people that had any power abused it, and even the buyers and sellers find some way to oppress one another. It bodes ill to a people when judgments are breaking in upon them, and the spirit of prayer is restrained. Let all who fear God, unite to promote his truth and righteousness; as wicked men of every rank and profession plot together to run them down.
Son of man, say unto her, thou land,.... Thou land of Israel, as the Targum:
thou art not cleansed; from filthiness, by the fire of divine judgments; or reformed from sins, by the instructions, cautions, and exhortations of the prophets; none of these things had any effect upon her to make her wiser and better. So the Targum,
"a land not cleansed it is, and good works are not done in it, to protect it in the day of cursing:''
nor rained upon in the day of indignation; no cooling shower to quench the fire of divine wrath; nothing to avert or stop the judgments of God; no refreshment and comfort from the doctrines of the prophets, which fell like rain: it is a judgment upon a people to have no rain, either in a temporal or spiritual sense; see Zechariah 14:17. In the Talmud (h), this text is brought to prove that the flood did not come upon the land of Israel.
thou art not cleansed; from filthiness, by the fire of divine judgments; or reformed from sins, by the instructions, cautions, and exhortations of the prophets; none of these things had any effect upon her to make her wiser and better. So the Targum,
"a land not cleansed it is, and good works are not done in it, to protect it in the day of cursing:''
nor rained upon in the day of indignation; no cooling shower to quench the fire of divine wrath; nothing to avert or stop the judgments of God; no refreshment and comfort from the doctrines of the prophets, which fell like rain: it is a judgment upon a people to have no rain, either in a temporal or spiritual sense; see Zechariah 14:17. In the Talmud (h), this text is brought to prove that the flood did not come upon the land of Israel.
(h) T. Bab. Zebachim, fol. 113. 1.