Ezekiel 22:3
Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself. Then say thou, Thus saith the Lord GOD, The city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself.
The city is Jerusalem, which sheds blood in the midst of it and makes idols against herself to defile herself, and by those sins brings her appointed time of reckoning and judgment upon her. The verse is a prophetic warning uttered before the destruction of Jerusalem, standing as correction, denunciation and reproof. It shows sin that must be forgiven or it will be consumed.
The chapter belongs to the account of Israel's wrongdoing that led to its dispersion into exile, being included among the steps leading to that dispersion. It identifies idolatry together with Sabbath desecration as causes of their troubles. The Sabbath-breaking condemned in this context is not a ceremonial failure but a moral sin, standing among bloodshed, idolatry and defilement.
The chapter repeats the warning about teachers who fail to repair the breach and prepare God's people for the day of the Lord. The breach is the violation of God's law through neglect of the Sabbath, in which priests profane what is holy and hide their eyes from God's Sabbaths. The needed work is to restore the Sabbath and prepare a people to stand in the day of the Lord. The priests had been carried away by pagan apostasy to violate God's law and profane His Sabbath day. That apostasy is Baal worship and sun-worship, seen in turning backs to the temple of the Lord to worship the sun and Tammuz toward the east, which brought Sunday as its worship day in place of the Sabbath of Jehovah. This pagan system is the first division of apostate Babylon, a complete rival to true worship with its own priests, temples, forms of worship and worship day, compelling false worship and persecuting true worshipers.
The chapter describes the professed people of God in the last days, belonging to the same time and people shown in Jeremiah 6:9-19. They walk in violation of God's precepts and law with uncircumcised ears that cannot hearken, and heal the breach slightly by saying peace, peace when there is no peace. They refuse the old paths and will not walk or hearken, so God will bring upon them evil, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to His words nor to His law but rejected it.