Ezekielchapter 20
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Key verse
And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.
It stands in scene D of the chapter, verses 33 to 38.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Elders come again to inquire, and are refused: 'As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I will not be inquired of by you.' Instead Ezekiel gives a history of rebellion in cycles, in Egypt, where they would not cast away her idols; in the wilderness with the first generation and with their children; and in the land, on every high hill. Each cycle turns on the same restraint: 'I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be profaned.' The sabbaths given as a sign were profaned too. Judgment comes as a second exodus: brought into the wilderness of the peoples, pleaded with face to face, made to pass under the rod and into the bond of the covenant.
Context
Prophecy · Ezekiel · Ezekiel overview
Where the chapter sits
Ezekiel 20 falls in Symbolic acts and judgment on Jerusalem (chapters 4–24). Lying on his side for 430 days; shaving the head with a sword; eating food in anxiety; the glory departs in stages (8–11); the prophet survives his wife's death without mourning (24).
Before it: Call and wheels-vision, chapters 1–3. After it: Oracles against the nations, chapters 25–32.
The whole shape of Ezekiel→The world behind this chapter
Ezekiel 20The history
The elders sit down to inquire, exactly as in chapter fourteen, and God refuses to be consulted. What He gives instead is a walk through the national story in four stages: in Egypt, in the wilderness with the first generation, in the wilderness with their children, and in the land.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The charge about Egypt is the one nobody expected. Before the plagues, before the exodus, God says He told them to throw away the detestable things their eyes were set on and the idols of Egypt, and they would not. Israel's idolatry is dated earlier than the rescue itself.
The sabbath runs through the chapter as a marker. It is called a sign between God and the people, and it functioned like one: a public, weekly, unmistakable practice that identified who you belonged to, in a world where every other nation's calendar ran on its own gods' festivals.
One sentence in the middle has been argued over for centuries: I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they could not live. The traditional reading, followed here, is that God handed them over to the consequences of the practices they insisted on, including the child sacrifice named in the next line, which He explicitly condemns elsewhere as something He never commanded and which never entered His mind. Some read it instead as harsher laws given in discipline; either way the passage does not make God the author of the abomination it goes on to denounce.
The chapter ends with a second exodus: God will bring them out from the peoples with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and enter into judgment with them face to face in the wilderness of the nations, just as He did in the wilderness of Egypt.
What it meant to them
The elders wanted to know when the exile would end. The answer strips out the assumption underneath the question, that Israel had been basically faithful and had suffered an unfair reverse.
Yet the reason God gives for not wiping them out is not their merit but His name, so that it would not be profaned in the sight of the nations who watched Him bring them out. That is cold comfort and solid ground at the same time, and it is the exact foundation the restoration promises later in the book are built on.
Sources cited
- C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
A. Elders come to inquire; God tells them about Egypt
1. (vv. 1-4)
a.certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of the Lord: The date is precise, the seventh year of the exile, and the elders come to sit before the prophet and enquire of the Lord exactly as elders had done before Jeremiah in the homeland. The answer refuses the request outright, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be enquired of by you, because the abominations of their fathers still stand unconfessed behind the question. Gill notes that the refusal is not silence but a summons to a longer accounting, the historical rehearsal that fills the rest of the chapter.
Ezekiel 20:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 20:1
“The elders of Israel - These were as in Eze 14:1, some of Ezekiel’s fellow-exiles, designated in general terms by the name of Israel, though more properly belonging to the kingdom of Judah.”
Ezekiel 20:1
“Since therefore they were agitated between hope and fear, and the devil scattered false prophecies which distracted the minds of the vulgar, it is probable that the elders of Israel came and were sent to inquire concerning either the prosperous or disastrous event of their captivity.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Ezekiel 20:3, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:3
“Let them not think that they honoured him by their enquiries, nor expect an answer of peace from him, as long as they continued in love and league with their idols. Note, Those reap no benefit by their religion that are not entire and sincere in it; nor can we have any comfortable communion with God in ordinances of worship unless we be inward and upright with him therein.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:4, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:4
“Wilt thou judge them - If thou wilt enter into any discussion with them, show them the abomination of their fathers. The whole chapter is a consecutive history of the unfaithfulness ingratitude, rebellion, and idolatry of the Jews, from the earliest times to that day; and vindicates the sentence which God had pronounced against them, and which he was about to execute more fully in delivering them and the city into the hands of the Chaldeans.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 5-6)
a.In the day when I chose Israel: The Lord dates his own choice of Israel to the day in Egypt when he lifted up his hand, the gesture of a sworn oath, to the seed of the house of Jacob and made himself known as their God. The land he swore to bring them into is called the glory of all lands, language the bench reads as covenant vocabulary rather than a claim about soil or scenery. Keil ties the phrase to the same oath formula repeated at verses fifteen and twenty three, the hinge on which the chapter turns each time Israel's history is retold.
Ezekiel 20:5, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:5
“The children of Israel in Egypt were warned to abstain from the idolatry of the pagan. This purpose they lost sight of, yet God spared them and brought them into another state of probation. Eze 20:5 Lifted up mine hand - i. e., sware, because the hand was lifted up in adjuration. Eze 20:8 Idols of Egypt - These incidental notices show the children of Israel in Egypt to have been addicted to idolatry. Compare Jos 24:”
Ezekiel 20:5
“He made over himself to them as their God in covenant: I lifted up my hand unto them, saying it, and confirming it with an oath. " I am the Lord your God, to whom you are to pay your homage, and from whom and in whom you are to expect your bliss." 4. He promised to bring them out of Egypt; and made good what he promised.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:6, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:6
“To bring them forth of the land of Egypt - When they had been long in a very disgraceful and oppressive bondage. A land that I had espied for them - God represents himself as having gone over different countries in order to find a comfortable residence for these people, whom he considered as his children. Flowing with milk and honey - These were the characteristics of a happy and fruitful country, producing without intense labor all the necessaries and comforts of life.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3. (vv. 7-9)
a.Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes: Even inside Egypt, before the Exodus began, Israel is charged to cast away the abominations of his eyes and the idols of Egypt, and even there they rebelled and would not hearken. The stated response, I will pour out my fury upon them in the midst of the land of Egypt, describes a judgment that never actually fell, held back for the reason the next verse gives. I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen states the pattern that recurs three times in this chapter, mercy withheld from Israel's own merit and granted for the sake of the Lord's reputation among the nations.
Ezekiel 20:8, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:8
“They did not - cast away - They continued attached to the idolatry of Egypt; so that, had I consulted my justice only, I should have consumed them even in Egypt itself. This is a circumstance that Moses has not mentioned, namely, their provoking God by their idolatry, after he had sent Moses and Aaron to them in Egypt.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:8
“Justly might he have said, "Let them die with the Egyptians." This magnifies the riches of God's goodness, that he was pleased to work so great a salvation for them even when he saw them ripe for ruin. Well might Moses tell them, It is not for your righteousness, Deut. ix.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:9, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:9
“But I wrought for my name’s sake - I bare with them and did not punish them, lest the heathen, who had known my promises made to them, might suppose that I had either broken them through some caprice, or was not able to fulfill them.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:9
“Now, if he had left them to perish for their wickedness as they deserved, the Egyptians would have reflected upon him for it, and his name would have been polluted, which ought to be sanctified and shall be so. Note, The church is secured, even when it is corrupt, because God will secure his own honour. The Privileges and Sins of Israel.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
B. Sabbaths given, statutes despised in the wilderness
1. (vv. 10-12)
a.brought them into the wilderness: Brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, the nation receives the statutes and judgments which if a man do, he shall even live in them, life set as a reward attached to obedience under that covenant's own terms. Alongside the law the Lord gives the sabbaths specifically as a sign between me and them, a mark of the sanctifying relationship rather than one command among many. Henry reads the sabbath's placement here as deliberate, singled out because it is the commandment most visibly broken and later restored across the rest of the chapter.
Ezekiel 20:10, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:10
“I caused them to go forth - Though greatly oppressed and degraded, they were not willing to leave their house of bondage. I was obliged to force them away.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:11, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:11
“The Israelites, as a nation, had life already freely given to them by God's covenant of promise; the laws of God were designed to be the means of the outward expression of their spiritual life.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 20:11
“The Chaldee says, He shall live an eternal life in them. St. Paul quotes this ( Gal. iii. 12 ) to show that the law is not of faith, but proposes life upon condition of perfect obedience, which we are not capable of rendering, and therefore must have recourse to the grace of the gospel, without which we are all undone.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:12, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:12
“I gave them my Sabbaths - The religious observance of the Sabbath was the first statute or command of God to men. This institution was a sign between God and them, to keep them in remembrance of the creation of the world, of the rest that he designed them in Canaan, and of the eternal inheritance among the saints in light. Of these things the Sabbath was a type and pledge.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 13-14)
a.rebelled against me in the wilderness: The wilderness generation rebelled against me in the wilderness in the same three ways just named, statutes unkept, judgments despised, sabbaths greatly polluted, and the Lord again says he would pour out his fury to consume them. Again the sentence is stayed for his name's sake before the heathen who watched the exodus and might read Israel's destruction as either their God's weakness or his cruelty. The repetition across verses nine and fourteen becomes the chapter's own refrain, mercy granted for reputation's sake rather than any change of heart in the people.
Ezekiel 20:13, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:13
“In the wilderness - Where they most needed my care and favour; where the preserving their life from destruction by the noxious creatures, and from famine by the barrenness of the wilderness, was a continued miracle.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:13
“They did not only not walk in God's statutes, but they despised his judgments as not worth observing; instead of sanctifying the sabbaths, they polluted them, greatly polluted them; one gathered sticks, many went out to gather manna on this day. Hereupon God was ready sometimes to cut them off; he said, more than once, that he would consume them in the wilderness.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3. (vv. 15-17)
a.I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness: The Lord swears with the same lifted hand that this generation would not enter the land flowing with milk and honey, the oath fulfilled in the wilderness deaths Numbers records after the spies' report. Their idolatry is named plainly, for their heart went after their idols, the verdict behind the exclusion rather than the wandering alone. Yet mine eye spared them from destroying them closes the unit, the pattern of judgment announced and judgment restrained holding even at its harshest point.
Ezekiel 20:15, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:15
“I lifted up my hand - Their provocations in the wilderness were so great, that I vowed never to bring them into the promised land. I did not consume them, but I disinherited them. See the note on Eze 20:5 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:15
“Note, The bias of the mind towards the world and the flesh, the money and the belly (those two great objects of spiritual idolatry), is the root of bitterness from which springs all disobedience to the divine law. The heart that goes after those idols despises God's judgments.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:16, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:16
“The special reason is stated by Moses (Nu 13:32, 33; 14:4) to be that they, through fear arising from the false report of the spies, wished to return to Egypt; the general reasons are stated here which lay at the root of their rejection of God's grace; namely, contempt of God and His laws, and love of idols. their heart--The fault lay in it (Ps 78:37).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 20:17, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:17
“When he looked upon them he had compassion on them, and did not make an end of them, but reprieved them till a new generation was reared. Note, It is owing purely to the mercy of God that he has not long ago made an end of us. This new generation is well educated.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
4. (vv. 18-20)
a.said unto their children in the wilderness: The charge is renewed to the next generation in the same wilderness, walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, a direct command to break the family pattern rather than inherit it. The same three provisions return, my statutes, my judgments, my sabbaths, now addressed to sons rather than the fathers who had already failed them. Gill reads the repetition as proof that each generation stands on its own footing before the Lord, judged for its own choice and not merely carried along in a father's guilt.
Ezekiel 20:18, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:18
“I said unto their children--being unwilling to speak any more to the fathers as being incorrigible. Walk ye not in . . . statutes of . . . fathers--The traditions of the fathers are to be carefully weighed, not indiscriminately followed. He forbids the imitation of not only their gross sins, but even their plausible statutes [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
5. (vv. 21-22)
a.the children rebelled against me: exactly as their fathers had, the same statutes unwalked, the same judgments unkept, the same sabbaths polluted, and the Lord again threatens the fury he again withholds. I withdrew mine hand repeats the earlier restraint in different words, an oath begun and physically pulled back rather than merely a decision reconsidered. Clarke reads the withdrawn hand as the most vivid picture in the chapter of mercy overruling a judgment already set in motion.
Ezekiel 20:21, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:21
“Though warned by the judgment on their fathers, the next generation also rebelled against God. The "kindness of Israel's youth and love of her espousals in the wilderness" (Jer 2:2, 3) were only comparative (the corruption in later times being more general), and confined to the minority; as a whole, Israel at no time fully served God.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 20:22, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:22
“Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand,.... When it was stretched out against them, as in the above instance, and did not utterly consume them. The Targum is, "and I turned away the stroke of my might:'' and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. See Gill on Eze 20:9 and See Gill on Eze 20:14.”
Ezekiel 20:22
“I withdrew mine hand - I had just lifted it up to crush them as in a moment; for they also were idolatrous, and walked in the steps of their fathers.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
6. (vv. 23-24)
a.scatter them among the heathen: A third oath follows, sworn in the wilderness itself, that the Lord would scatter them among the heathen and disperse them through the countries, the exile named centuries before Babylon carried it out. The stated ground is deliberate: not executed my judgments, despised my statutes, polluted my sabbaths, eyes after their fathers' idols, the same four charges stacked one more time. The bench reads verses fifteen and twenty three together as proof that the exile was sworn in principle in the wilderness long before it fell in history.
Ezekiel 20:23, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:23
“I lifted up mine hand also to them in the wilderness,.... Swore unto them, as in Eze 20:5; that I would scatter them among the Heathen, and disperse them through the countries; after they came to be settled in the land of Canaan, they sinning against the Lord; which was fulfilled in the times of the Babylonish captivity, and in their destruction by the Romans; but was threatened and foretold while they were in the wilderness, Lev 26:33; with this compare Psa 106:26.”
Ezekiel 20:24, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:24
“Those who disobey God's statutes despise them, they show that they have a mean opinion of them and of him whose statutes they are. They polluted God's sabbaths, as their fathers. Note, The profanation of the sabbath day is an inlet to all impiety; those who pollute holy time will keep nothing pure.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
7. (vv. 25-26)
a.statutes that were not good: Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good is the chapter's hardest line, and the bench divides over its sense rather than settling it. One reading, held among the older commentators, takes it as judicial abandonment, God giving Israel over to the corrupt customs of the nations, including child sacrifice, as a penalty for rejecting his own good statutes. A second reading takes the statutes that were not good as Israel's own self-imposed corruptions of the law, permitted rather than commanded, and both readings agree the verse describes judgment, never an actual command to sacrifice children.
Ezekiel 20:25, 4 voices
Ezekiel 20:25
“For a paedagogus, as the word is rendered in the Latin, is the teacher of a boy; and he cannot apply perfect precepts to an imperfect age, because it cannot bear them. Again, the God of the Law says by the Prophet, I gave them also statutes that were not good, that is, not perfect. But the same God has preserved more perfect things for the Gospel, as He says, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil the Law.”
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· Letter 74.2patristic
Ezekiel 20:25
“I gave them also statutes that were not good - What a foolish noise has been made about this verse by critics, believers and infidels! How is it that God can be said “to give a people statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they could not live?” I answer, in their sense of the words, God never gave any such, at any time, to any people. Let any man produce an example of this kind if he can; or show even the fragment of such a law, sanctioned by the Most High!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:25
“Wherefore - Because they rejected my good laws and judgments. I gave them - Not by enjoining, but by permitting them to make such for themselves. Not good - That were pernicious to the users.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:25
“The judgments of God upon them for their rebellion. They would not regard the statutes and judgments by which God prescribed them their duty, but despised them, and therefore God gave them statutes and judgments which were not good, and by which they should not live,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:26, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:26
“I polluted them in their own gifts - I permitted them to pollute themselves by the offerings which they made to their idols. Causing their children to pass through the fire was one of those pollutions; but, did God ever give them a statute or judgment of this kind? No. He ever inveighs against such things, and they incur his heaviest displeasure and curse. See on Eze 20:31 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:26
“This Eze 20:26 is explanatory of Eze 20:25. Their own sin I made their punishment. caused to pass through the fire--FAIRBAIRN translates, "In their presenting (literally, 'the causing to pass over') all their first-born," namely, to the Lord; referring to the command (Ex 13:12, Margin, where the very same expression is used).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
C. You will not be like the nations who serve wood and stone
1. (vv. 27-29)
a.your fathers have blasphemed me: Once in the land, the fathers blasphemed the Lord by committing a trespass at every high hill and thick tree, offering sacrifices, sweet savour, and drink offerings that belonged to him alone. The Lord's own question exposes the absurdity by name, what is the high place whereunto ye go, and the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day, a title that is simply the Hebrew word for high place worn as a badge. Gill reads the naming as mockery turned into monument, the site's very name preserving the sin it committed.
Ezekiel 20:27, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:27
“The probation in the land of Canaan from their entry to the day of Ezekiel. Eze 20:27 Yet in this - It was an aggravation of their guilt that they defiled with idolatry the land given them for their glory. Eze 20:29 Bamah - The Hebrew word for “high place.” Another instance of the perversion of God’s laws. When the Israelites first entered Canaan they were to set up the “tabernacle” on a “high place,” and upon this and upon no other they were to worship Yahweh (1Sa 9:12 ff; 1Ki 3:4).”
Ezekiel 20:27
“Yet in this--Not content with past rebellions, and not moved with gratitude for God's goodness, "yet in this," still further they rebelled. blasphemed--"have insulted me" [CALVIN]. Even those who did not sacrifice to heathen gods have offered "their sacrifices" (Eze 20:28) in forbidden places.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 20:29, 3 voices
Ezekiel 20:29
“What is the high place - מה הבמה mah habbamah, “what is the high place?” What is it good for? Its being a high place shows it to be a place of idolatry. I called it במה bamah, to mark it with infamy; but ye continue to frequent it, even while it is called במה bamah, to the present day!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:29
“David and others, it is true, sacrificed to God on high places, but it was under exceptional circumstances, and before the altar was set up on Mount Moriah.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 20:29
“They are wedded to their high places; even in the best reigns those were not taken away; you could not prevail to take away the name of Bamah--the high place, out of their mouths, but still they would have that in the place of their worship. The sin and the sinner are with difficulty parted.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 30-31)
a.polluted after the manner of your fathers?: The present generation, the elders sitting before the prophet, is charged with the same whoredom after their fathers' abominations, sons of the men whose bones fill Ezekiel's earlier oracles. The child sacrifice named at pollute yourselves with all your idols is not ancient history to Ezekiel's hearers but a practice some among them still kept even unto this day. The refusal from verse three returns unchanged, I will not be enquired of by you, framing the whole historical rehearsal as the reason for that refusal rather than a digression from it.
Ezekiel 20:31, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:31
“Ye pollute yourselves - This shows the sense in which God says, Eze 20:26, “I polluted them in their own gifts.” They chose to pollute themselves, and I permitted them to do so. See on Eze 20:25 (note), Eze 20:26 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:31
“The reason, however, for the omission of "the fire" in Eze 20:26 is, perhaps, that there it is implied the children only "passed through the fire" for purification, whereas here they are actually burnt to death before the idol; and therefore "the fire" is specified in the latter, not in the former case (compare 2Ki 3:27).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
3. (v. 32)
Ezekiel 20:32-38
a.We will be as the heathen: The people's own plan to become like the heathen and serve wood and stone is refused outright, and the Lord answers with a mighty hand, a stretched out arm, fury poured out, the same triad Exodus uses for the deliverance from Egypt now aimed at a second, harsher gathering. The wilderness of the people repeats the pattern of the first exodus, a plea face to face followed by a purge, causing them to pass under the rod, the shepherd's count naming each sheep as it passes, and bringing them into the bond of the covenant. Rebels who transgress are purged out before entry, so the regathering the Lord promises is a second wilderness with its own sifting, not an automatic amnesty.
Ezekiel 20:32, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:32
“And that which cometh into your mind - Ye wish to be naturalized among idolaters, and make a part of such nations. But this shall not be at all; you shall be preserved as a distinct people. Ye shall not be permitted to mingle yourselves with the people of those countries: even they, idolaters as they are, will despise and reject you. Besides, I will change your place, restore your captivity; yet not in mercy, but in fury poured out; and reserve you for sorer evils, Eze 20:34.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:32
“This matter was palliated as well as it would bear, like Naaman's pleading with Elisha for leave to bow in the house of Rimmon, in compliment to the king; but we have reason to suspect that their enquiry drove at this. Note, Those hearts are wretchedly hardened which ask God leave to go on in sin, and that when they are suffering for it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
D. Brought into the wilderness of the peoples to be judged
1. (vv. 33-38)
Ezekiel 20:33, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:33
“This was only partially fulfilled before, and at the return from Babylon: its full and final accomplishment is future. with a mighty hand, . . . will I rule over you--I will assert My right over you in spite of your resistance (Eze 20:32), as a master would in the case of his slave, and I will not let you be wrested from Me, because of My regard to My covenant.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 20:33
“He must tell them likewise what mercy God had in store for them, when he would bring a remnant of them to repentance, re-establish them in their own land, and set up his sanctuary among them again,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:34, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:34
“THIS striking utterance was given forth by that renowned Seer, Ezekiel, at the time when the Israelites, scattered in every country, had begun to forget their nationality. They judged it prudent and wise, as much as possible, to disguise their distinctive character and melt their race into the Babylonian or Chaldean—and become like the heathen.”
Ezekiel 20:34
The Jews in exile might think themselves set free from the "rule" of God (Eze 20:33); therefore, He intimates, He will reassert His right over them by chastening judgments, and these, with an ultimate view, not to destroy, but to restore them. people--rather, "peoples."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 20:35, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:35
“And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people,.... Into Babylon, and into captivity there, which they thought to avoid by fleeing to other countries.”
Ezekiel 20:35
“I will bring you into the wilderness of the people - I will bring you out of your captivity, and bring you into your own land which you will find to be a wilderness, the consequence of your crimes. There will I plead with you - There I will be your king, and rule you with a sovereign rule; and the dispensations of my justice and mercy shall either end you or mend you.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:37, 3 voices
Ezekiel 20:37
“I will cause you to pass under the rod - This alludes to the custom of tithing the sheep. I take it from the rabbins. The sheep were all penned; and the shepherd stood at the door of the fold, where only one sheep could come out at once.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:37
“Whether you will or not, ye shall be counted as Mine, and so shall be subjected to My chastening discipline (Mic 7:14), with a view to My ultimate saving of the chosen remnant (compare Joh 10:27-29). bond of . . . covenant--I will constrain you by sore chastisements to submit yourselves to the covenant to which ye are lastingly bound, though now you have cast away God's bond from you.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 20:37
“Or it may refer to those among them that repented and reformed; he will cause them to pass under the rod of affliction, and, having done them good by it, he will bring them again into the bond of the covenant, will be to them a God in covenant, and use them again as heirs of promise.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:38, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:38
“I will purge out from among you the rebels - The incorrigibly wicked I will destroy; those who will not receive him whom I have appointed for this purpose as the Savior of Israel. And I will gather you who believe out of all the countries where you sojourn, and bring you into your own land; but those of you who will not believe - will not receive the Son of David to reign over you, shall never enter into the land of Israel, but die in your dispersions.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
E. Accepted as a sweet savor when I gather you home
1. (vv. 39-42)
a.Go ye, serve ye every one his idols: For now the Lord tells Israel bitterly to go and serve their idols, since a people set on rebellion will not be argued out of it, but he adds the one condition that still stands, pollute my holy name no more with your gifts and idols. The turn comes at mine holy mountain, where all the house of Israel is promised full acceptance, offerings, firstfruits, and holy things once again received rather than refused. The site's own ruling on this book keeps the promise's referent, the house of Israel the text names, without erasing either the church's later reading or the people the chapter addresses first.
Ezekiel 20:40, 3 voices
Ezekiel 20:40
“For--Though ye, the rebellious portion, withdraw from My worship, others, even the believing remnant, will succeed after you perish, and will serve Me purely. in mine holy mountain-- (Isa 2:2, 3).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 20:40
“Of the height - Sion, tho' lower than many other hills, yet was above them all for God's peculiar presence. In the land - Their own land. Your offerings - When I have brought you into the land, then I will require your offerings as formerly: you shall see my temple built, Jerusalem filled with inhabitants, and my worship restored.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:40
“And it is therefore just that those who will not live and flourish as they might in their obedience should die and perish in their disobedience. Now the great instance of that generation's rebellion and inclination to idolatry was the iniquity of Peor, as that of their fathers was the golden calf.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:41, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:41
“GOD does not cease to observe the sins of His people. As the eyes of Moses never waxed dim, so the eyes of God do not grow dim with regard to the sins of His chosen. We may learn this from the recapitulation of those offenses which we find in the chapter before us and in many other places in Scripture. He looks down from Heaven and beholds their wanderings, the hardness of their hearts, the stubbornness of their will, their daily and continual violations of His statutes and commands.”
Ezekiel 20:41
“Not one of God's jewels shall be lost in the lumber of this world. (2.) He will bring them to the land of Israel, which he had promised to give to their fathers; and the discontinuance of their possession shall be no defeasance of their right; it is the land of Israel still, and thither God will bring them safely again,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:42, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:42
“It is promised that those who preserved their integrity, and would not serve idols, in other lands, shall return to their prosperity and shall serve the true God in their own land: All of them in the land shall serve me. Note, It is the true happiness of a people, and a sure token for good to them, when there is a prevailing disposition in them to serve God.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2. (vv. 43-44)
a.ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight: Restoration in this chapter does not arrive as innocence regained: there shall ye remember your ways and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils, memory and shame carried into the very land that mercy provides. The ground of the mercy is stated once more with the recognition formula, ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways. Wesley reads the closing not according to your wicked ways as the chapter's own refusal to let restoration be mistaken for reward.
Ezekiel 20:43, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:43
“And there shall ye remember your ways - Ye shall be ashamed of your past conduct, and of your long opposition to the Gospel of your salvation. These promises may, in a certain limited sense, be applied to the restoration from the Babylonish captivity; but they must have their proper fulfillment when the Jews shall accept Jesus as their Savior, and in consequence be brought back from all their dispersions to their own land.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:43
“There you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight. Note, Ingenuous evangelical repentance makes people loathe themselves for their sins, as Job xlii. (5.) He will give them the knowledge of himself: They shall know by experience that he is the Lord, that he is a God of almighty power and inexhaustible goodness, kind to his people and faithful to his covenant with them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:44, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:44
“The English Version chapter ought to have ended here, and the twenty-first chapter begun with "Moreover," &c., as in the Hebrew Bible. for my name's sake-- (Eze 36:22). Gratuitously; according to My compassion, not your merits. After having commented on this verse, CALVIN was laid on his death bed, and his commentary ended.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
F. Fire kindled in the forest of the south
1. (vv. 45-49)
a.the word of the Lord came unto me, saying: A short new oracle closes the chapter, son of man, set thy face toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field, a fire that will devour green tree and dry tree alike and burn every face from south to north. The prophet's own complaint follows, Ah Lord God, they say of me, Doth he not speak parables, a candid note that his hearers were dismissing the vision as riddle rather than warning. Barnes points out that the Hebrew chapter division runs this fire oracle straight into what English Bibles print as chapter twenty one, where the sword makes explicit the same judgment the forest already pictured.
Ezekiel 20:45, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:45
“Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. Or the word of prophecy, as the Targum. Here begins a new prophecy, and most properly a new chapter should here begin; for the next chapter is of the same argument with this, and an explanation of it, and an enlargement upon it. And here Ben Melech begins one; and so Junius and Tremellius, Piscator, and Castalio.”
Ezekiel 20:45
“The occasion of the message which we have in this chapter. That sermon which we had ch. xviii. was occasioned by their presumptuous reflections upon God; this was occasioned by their hypocritical enquiries after him. This prophecy is exactly dated, in the seventh year of the captivity, about two years after Ezekiel began to prophesy.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 20:46, 2 voices
Ezekiel 20:46
“Son of man, set thy force toward the south,.... The land of Judea, which lay south of Babylon, where the prophet now was, as Babylon lay north of that, Jer 1:14 to set his face was to speak freely and boldly, with courage and constancy, and without fear and dread, to the inhabitants of it; and as a token of the Lord's face being set against them for their sins.”
Ezekiel 20:46
“Set thy face toward the south - Towards Judea, which lay south from Babylon, or Mesopotamia, where the prophet then dwelt. The forest of the south field - The city of Jerusalem, as full of inhabitants as the forest is of trees.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:47, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:47
“I will kindle a fire - I will send war, “and it shall devour every green tree,” the most eminent and substantial of the inhabitants; and every dry tree, the lowest and meanest also. The flaming flame shall not be quenched - The fierce ravages of Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans shall not be stopped till the whole land is ruined. All faces from the south to the north shalt be burned - From the one end of the land to the other there shall be nothing but fear, dismay, terror, and confusion, occasioned by the wide-wasting violence of the Chaldeans.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:48, 1 voice
Ezekiel 20:48
“And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it,.... Not only the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea should see the hand of the Lord in their destruction; but even all the neighbouring nations, the case was so clear and plain, the matter so visible: it shall not be quenched; no stop put to it by all the art and power of man; so that it was a clear point that it was the Lord's doing.”
Ezekiel 20:49, 3 voices
Ezekiel 20:49
“Then said I, ah Lord God!.... The Septuagint version is, "by no means, Lord, Lord"; that is, let me not be sent on such an errand; at least, let it not be delivered in such figurative terms; or let not such a general calamity befall the people.”
Ezekiel 20:49
“Ah Lord God - O my God, consider my situation; who will believe what I shall say? They put the evil day far from them. Doth he not speak parables? - הלא ממשל משלים הוא halo memashshel meshalim hu, “Is not he a maker of parables?” Is it not his custom to deal in enigmas? His figures are not to be understood; we should not trouble ourselves with them.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 20:49
“Ezekiel complains that by this parabolic form of prophecy he only makes himself and it a jest to his countrymen. God therefore in Eze 21:1-32 permits him to express the same prophecy more plainly.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Ezekiel 20. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 12 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan, Letter 74.2; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Charles Spurgeon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries (1554); John Gill; John Wesley; Matthew Henry and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.
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