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Ezekiel, part 24, God Profanes His Temple

Ezekiel 7:20 says,

²⁰ They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them.

Ezekiel 7:20 traces the desecration of Jerusalem from the people’s misuse of God’s gifts to the invaders’ plunder of His sanctuary. Judah had already profaned what God had entrusted to it, including “the oracles of God” (Romans 3:2). The Babylonian invasion would expose that breach of the covenant for all to see.

Verse 20 speaks of “the beauty of His ornaments,” while other translations understand the phrase as referring to the people’s own jewelry. The first reading may point to precious objects associated with the temple. Either reading fits the more explicit accusation in Ezekiel 16:17, where Jerusalem takes the silver and gold God gave her and uses them to make images. The word niddah, “an abhorrent thing” or “something unclean,” carries over from verse 19. The gold they had prized became material for idols and would now become something they recoiled from.

Ezekiel 7:21 says,

²¹ I will give it into the hands of the foreigners as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it.

In verse 21, God says He will give these treasures to foreigners as plunder. Because God Himself raised up the Babylonians, He paid them for their services, because “the laborer is worthy of his wages” (Luke 10:7). The principle is stated again in Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unjust so as to forget your work.” No one is allowed to withhold wages, even when a wicked man does work.

What Judah had used to display its wealth and adorn its idols would become spoil in the hands of an invading army. 2 Kings 24:13 records an earlier removal of temple and palace treasures under Nebuchadnezzar, and Jeremiah 52:17–23 describes the Babylonians dismantling and carrying away temple furnishings at Jerusalem’s fall. Ezekiel calls the plunderers “wicked” even as he presents their victory as an act of divine judgment. God’s use of Babylon and Babylon’s responsibility for its conduct stand together.

Ezekiel 7:22 says,

²² I will also turn My face from them and they will profane My sacred place; then robbers will enter and profane it.

God says He will turn His face away (look the other way). This reverses the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24–26, where the Lord turns His face toward His people and gives them peace. Here He withdraws His protection, and invaders enter what had been guarded as sacred. “My secret place” is tsephuni, from tsaphan, “to hide” or “to treasure up.” The expression likely points to the sanctuary, though the wording leaves room for Jerusalem more broadly.

Jeremiah 7:9–15, 30 shows that Judah had already brought abominations into God’s house while trusting the temple to keep the city safe. By the time foreign hands stripped the sanctuary, Judah’s own hands had already violated its holiness. The temple’s fall exposed the folly of appealing to God’s house for protection while rejecting the God who dwelt there.

Ezekiel 7:23 continues,

²³ Make the chain, for the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence.

“Make the chain” most naturally evokes the restraints of captivity. The Hebrew noun occurs only here, and the Septuagint reads the clause differently, so the precise image is uncertain. The Septuagint renders it as kai poiēsousi phyrmon, “And they shall work uncleanness” (φυρμός), a word for mingling or defilement.

Still, the connection with captivity is fitting. Jeremiah 40:1 later describes captives bound in chains on their way to Babylon. The reason for the sentence is clearer than the image itself. The NASB’s “bloody crimes” translates an expression literally rendered “judgment of blood,” referring here to offenses that incur liability for bloodshed.

Numbers 35:33 gives the legal background: shed blood pollutes the land. Jerusalem’s violence was therefore a matter for divine judgment as well as a wrong against its victims.

Ezekiel 7:24 says,

²⁴ Therefore, I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses. I will also make the pride of the strong ones cease, and their holy places will be profaned.

God says He will bring the invaders. They will take possession of the people’s houses, and their holy places will be profaned. The invasion is the means by which God brings down “the pride of the strong.” The chapter has already connected that pride with the wealth and ornaments the people used to make idols (vv. 19–22). Their wealth cannot buy safety, and their holy places cannot shield them from the consequences of what they have done.

Because God brings “the worst of the nations,” it was natural for the people of Judah to consider them to be God’s enemies and to blame them for this disaster. It has always been hard for carnal men to accept the fact that God was on the side of the enemy and that He had actually hired them to execute such judgment. Yet Scripture is clear about this, especially in Isaiah 29:1-3, where God is pictured as the Commander of the foreign armies destroying “Ariel” (Jerusalem).

It is common even today to assume that our own nation is always righteous and that God is always on our side. This makes men susceptible to government propaganda, which always appeals to patriotism and contradicts the word of God. Hence, if we want to be on God’s side of a conflict or dispute, we must understand the judgments of God. Only then can we be assured of remaining on the side of God and His righteousness.

Ezekiel 7:25, 26 says,

²⁵ When anguish comes, they will seek peace [shalom], but there will be none. ²⁶ Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost from the priest and counsel from the elders.

They seek shalom when destruction is upon them, but peace is nowhere to be found. So also, Jeremiah 6:14 says they will say, “peace, peace, but there is no peace.” Likewise, when Paul describes the final judgment upon Mystery Babylon, he says men will say “peace and safety,” but then comes sudden destruction (1 Thessalonians 5:3). It is a false sense of security, often generated by false prophets and lawless priests.

The people look to the prophet for a vision, to the priest for instruction (torah), and to the elders (civil rulers) for counsel. Together these offices answer three different questions. What is God saying? What does His law require? What should we do? The priest’s role is especially important here. Torah means instruction, and priests were charged with teaching God’s statutes and distinguishing the holy from the profane. In the day of judgment, the vast majority of all three offices are incapable of giving proper direction.

Ezekiel 7:27 concludes,

²⁷ The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their conduct I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the Lord.

The king mourns, the prince is clothed with horror, and the hands of the people tremble. The picture runs from the throne to the ordinary citizen. Then the Hebrew uses the noun and verb of judgment together, וּבְמִשְׁפְּטֵיהֶם אֶשְׁפְּטֵם, literally, “by their judgments I will judge them.” This echoes מִשְׁפַּט (mishpat) in verse 23, where judgment is associated with bloodshed. Read together, the two verses suggest a measure-for-measure judgment. Jesus said in Matthew 7:2,

² For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

The judges' (leaders) own conduct, including the way they exercised judgment, supplies the measure by which God judges them. Because they judged the people unjustly, they will be judged by their own standard of measure. The unrepentant ones will think that God is unjust, but God was merely applying the law of equal weights and measures and the “eye for eye” law.

The chapter ends with “they will know that I am the Lord.” They sought a vision from a prophet when disaster arrived. The final word they receive is God’s explanation of the disaster itself. It exposes what their own ways had produced and who had called them to account.