22:6. Behold, the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their power to shed blood.—In Christendom all the rulers, in the mania for war, have used every power to promote bloodshed. The spiritual rulers have, by false teachings, destroyed the spiritual hopes of millions.—Luke 11:52.
22:7. 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.—They have dealt unjustly by the classes needing help. Spiritually they have despised our Father and His Covenant of Grace, and oppressed those who are His pilgrims and strangers in the world.—1 Pet. 1:1.
22:8. Thou hast despised Mine holy things, and hast profaned My sabbaths.—They have despised the holy teachings of God's Word, respecting the seventh thousand-year Day of rest, and have attempted justification by works instead of in the rest of faith.
22:9. In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and in thee they eat upon the mountains: in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.—In the churches are gossipers, evil speakers, assassins of reputation. In them are some that feast at the tables of devils (1 Tim. 4:1; 1 Cor. 10:21), like lords or rulers at the heads of the nations; they long for unhallowed church-state union.
22:10, 11. In thee have they discovered their fathers' nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution. And one hath committed abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.—They have not only made state-churches in every possible direction, but have been in vast numbers guilty of sexual immorality.
22:12. In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extortion, and hast forgotten Me, saith the Lord God.—They have used the gifts of God for evil purposes, even to slay God's holy martyrs; they have even practised extortion upon those close to them. This they have done because they have forgotten the Lord.
22:13. Behold, therefore I have smitten Mine hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.—God has shown plain signs of anger against ecclesiasticism's hypocrisy and her spirit of murder.
22:14. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it.—Her heart must fail her, and her powers weaken, before an abused conscience, in the days when God will deal with her iniquities.
22:15. And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.—He will scatter the ecclesiastics and by fiery trials consume the uncleanness out of ecclesiasticism.
22:16. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself in the sight of the heathen, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.—She shall be profaned, desecrated and destroyed in the sight of earth's nations.