Bible Strands
Ezekiel 22:7
Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Ezekiel addresses the corporate leadership and inhabitants of Jerusalem during a period of divine indictment for systemic corruption. He enumerates their social and religious failures immediately after noting the princes' bloodshed.
The words — הֵקַ֣לּוּ (he.Ka.lu) literally means they have treated with contempt, and עָשׂ֥וּ בַ/עֹ֖שֶׁק ('a.Su va./'O.shek) denotes they have acted with oppression. These terms describe the active dismissal of family authority and the violent exploitation of vulnerable outsiders.
The thread — The condemnation of dishonoring parents echoes Deuteronomy 27:16 and Leviticus 20:9, while the prohibition against exploiting foreigners matches Exodus 22:21. Ezekiel applies these established legal standards to demonstrate that Jerusalem's internal decay violates foundational covenant law.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that covenant failure begins with the rejection of basic social obligations to family and vulnerable residents. It requires the reader to measure communal righteousness against concrete actions toward the marginalized rather than abstract piety.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 27:16 ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Exodus 22:21 You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
- Leviticus 20:9 If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood shall be upon him.
- Jeremiah 7:6 if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,
- Zechariah 7:10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
- Malachi 3:5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Matthew 15:4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
- Mark 7:10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
- Exodus 20:12 Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
- Exodus 21:17 Anyone who curses his father or mother must surely be put to death.