No One to Stand in the Gap
17 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are the dross of silver. 19 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem. 20 As they gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the middle of the furnace, to blow the fire on it, to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will lay you there and melt you. 21 Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted in the middle of it. 22 As silver is melted in the middle of the furnace, so you will be melted in the middle of it; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have poured out my wrath on you.’” 23 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 24 “Son of man, tell her, ‘You are a land that is not cleansed nor rained on in the day of indignation.’ 25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets within it, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They take treasure and precious things. They have made many widows within it. 26 Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hidden their eyes from my Sabbaths. So I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. 28 Her prophets have plastered for them with whitewash, seeing false visions, and divining lies to them, saying, ‘The Lord Yahweh says,’ when Yahweh has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. Yes, they have troubled the poor and needy, and have oppressed the foreigner wrongfully. 30 “I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. 31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have brought their own way on their heads,” says the Lord Yahweh.
Every office in the country is surveyed and found corrupt, and the search that follows is for one man to stand in a breach.
The first image is a refiner's furnace, and it is a bitter one. Silver ore is heated so that the base metals separate out and the silver is left. Here the whole nation is described as what comes off the top: All of them are bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the middle of the furnace. They are the dross of silver. And the siege is described as the smelting — gathered into the middle of Jerusalem, blown on with fire, melted. Ordinarily a refining separates something worth keeping. This one is a process with no silver at the end of it.
The survey that follows takes each office in turn, and it should be read as a complete audit. The prophets are a conspiracy, devouring souls like a lion and taking treasure. The priests have done violence to the law and profaned holy things, and their specific failure is technical and devastating — they made no distinction between the holy and the common, and did not teach anyone to tell clean from unclean. That was the priest's actual job. Teaching the difference between categories is what a priest was for, and its collapse is why everything else in the list is possible.
The princes are wolves who tear prey for dishonest gain. The prophets appear a second time, plastering with whitewash and saying The Lord Yahweh says when Yahweh has not spoken. And then the people of the land, who are not excused as victims of their leaders: they have used oppression, exercised robbery, troubled the poor and needy, and wronged the foreigner. Four ranks, and no rank is clean.
The last two verses are the most quoted in the chapter and the most easily sentimentalized. I sought for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. The image is from the previous chapter's masonry — a breach in a defensive wall, and a man standing in it. It is intercession described as a job with a location. What the verse asserts is that one such man would have been enough, that the search was real, and that it failed. Moses had stood in exactly that position and the nation survived it Psalms 106:23. Here nobody is standing there, and the sentence follows.
settled What this mark means