In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.
In these verses the prophet by a commission from Heaven sits as a judge upon the bench, and Jerusalem is made to hold up her hand as a prisoner at the bar; and, if prophets were set over other nations, much more over God's nation, Jer 1:10. This prophet is authorized to judge the bloody city, the city of bloods.
Commenting on Ezekiel 22:1-16
In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood..... Innocent blood, as the Targum; judges upon the bench, whose office it is to take the part of the innocent, and clear him from unjust charges; and protect him from the violence of wicked and unreasonable men; that lay things to his charge, which, if true, would require blood; and yet men in such offices took...
forgotten me-- (Deu 32:18; Jer 2:32; Jer 3:21).