Ezekiel was always patient, faithfully proclaiming his messages, and
suffering in silence. The completeness of his self-control and patient
suffering is shown in the short but pathetic description of the death
of his beloved wife, yet at the divine command he repressed his grief
and delivered his message the following morning. Ezekiel 24:15-18:
"Also the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, behold, I
take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; yet
neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.
Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thy
head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover up thy
lips, and eat not the bread of men. So I spake of people in the
morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was
commanded."

These prophets were familiar with the same scenes. They met the same
sins. Some have thought they exchanged messages, sending them
respectively to Jerusalem and Chaldea for encouragement and
confirmation. This was the opinion of Jerome.

In a catalogue of the sins prevailing in Jerusalem, for which the
judgment of God came upon them, this prophet places "Usury and
increase." Ezekiel 22: 7-12: "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.
Thou hast despised mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths. 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 thee have
they discovered their father's 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. 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."

It would not be easy to give a list of more gross and flagrant sins
than those associated with usury in this passage. They are all, always
and everywhere, sinful. In no condition can they be lawful and right.

One of the answers familiar to both Jeremiah and Ezekiel when the
people were reproved for their sins and exhorted to forsake them, that
the divine judgm