Ezekiel 22:2
Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations. Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations.
Ezekiel 22:2 belongs to the prophetic warnings of correction, denunciation and reproof given before the destruction of Jerusalem, as an awful message of warning and reproof to sinners among Ezekiel's own people. Sin must be forgiven, or it will be consumed. Ezekiel was of the priestly family and prophesied among the captives of Israel between 595 and 574, beginning and closing his work just a little later than Jeremiah. Before his work began God gave him wonderful visions revealing divine glory and majesty, impressing His greatness upon him, so that having once seen God he would not fear the face of man when sent with such a message to meet sinners.
The bloody city is Jerusalem, bloodguilty and full of abominations, and to judge her means to show and expose all her abominations in the chapter's rebuke of her sin. Among the transgressions thus exposed were idolatry and Sabbath desecration, which led Israel to trouble and exile and were recited by the prophet to the captives in Babylon. Israel's priests had been carried away by pagan apostasy, violating God's law and profaning the Sabbath. The abominations also included taking interest and increase from neighbors and gaining from them by extortion, alongside taking gifts to shed blood, wrongs that accompanied forgetting God and were connected with the captivity to Babylon.
The Sabbath breaking condemned is not a merely ceremonial failure but a moral wrong. The chapter also condemns men who teach what is not true, who prophesy lies in God's name and make the people trust in a lie, bringing destruction on the souls that believe them even when the teachers themselves are deceived. It is one of the places showing that false prophets proclaim peace and assurance when danger is present and there is no peace. The judging of the bloody city and showing her all her abominations describes the professed people of God in the last days, meaning the exposing of the sins of professed Christians now, who walk in violation of God's precepts while lulled by the cry of peace and safety and refusing to hearken to God's word and law.