Ezekiel 7:22

I will turn My face away from them, and they will defile My treasured place. Violent men will enter it, and they will defile it.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — God speaks through Ezekiel to Israel during a pronouncement of imminent national collapse. The declaration follows warnings of foreign plunder and immediately precedes the command to forge chains for a land saturated with bloodshed and violence.

The words — חִלְּלוּ (chi.le.Lu) translates as they will profane, denoting the deliberate violation of what is set apart. צְפוּנִי (tze.fu.Ni) means my treasured [place], identifying the specific sanctuary under threat.

The thread — The pattern of divine withdrawal appears in Jeremiah 18:17, where God shows His back rather than His face to a rebellious people. It echoes the psalmist’s observation in Psalms 10:11 that God hides His face, and the plea in Psalms 35:22 for God to act rather than remain silent.

Why it lands — The text establishes that sacred privilege does not guarantee protection when covenant loyalty is abandoned. It requires the reader to recognize that divine presence is conditional on obedience, and that judgment removes the boundary that once restrained violence.

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

וַהֲסִבּוֹתִ֤יva./ha.si.bo.Tiand/ I will turn around פָנַי֙fa.Na/iface/ myמֵהֶ֔םme./Hemfrom/ themוְחִלְּל֖וּve./chi.le.Luand/ they will profane אֶת־'et-<obj.>צְפוּנִ֑יtze.fu.N/itreasured [place]/ my וּבָאוּ־u./va.'u-and/ they will goבָ֥הּva/hin/ itפָּרִיצִ֖יםpa.ri.Tzimrobbers וְחִלְּלֽוּהָ׃ פve./chi.le.Lu./haand/ they will profane/ it

King James Version

My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute my secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 18:17 I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity.”
Psalms 10:11 He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”
Psalms 35:22 O LORD, You have seen it; be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me.
Psalms 74:10 How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?
Psalms 74:18 Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.
Ezekiel 39:23 And the nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity, because they were unfaithful to Me. So I hid My face from them and delivered them into the hands of their enemies, so that they all fell by the sword.