Ezekiel 36:16

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

36:16-24 The restoration of that people, being typical of our redemption by Christ, shows that the end aimed at in our salvation is the glory of God. The sin of a people defiles their land; renders it abominable to God, and uncomfortable to themselves. God's holy name is his great name; his holiness is his greatness, nor does any thing else make a man truly great.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The defilement of the people described in order to its removal.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. bereave—so the Keri, or Hebrew Margin reads, to correspond to "bereave" in Eze 36:13; but "cause to fall" or "stumble," in the Hebrew text or Chetib, being the more difficult reading, is the one least likely to come from a corrector; also, it forms a good transition to the next subject, namely, the moral cause of the people's calamities, namely, their falls, or stumblings through sin. The latter ceasing, the former also cease. So the same expression follows in Eze 36:15, "Neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me,.... Here begins another prophecy, which was delivered about the same time with the former:

saying; as follows:

Geneva Study Bible

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16–38. Not for Israel’s sake but for his own name’s sake does Jehovah do all this in behalf of his people

The passage is remarkable and deserves to be studied almost more than any other part of Ezek. when one is seeking to understand his general conceptions. It exhibits his philosophy of history (cf. ch. 20), and also describes with great beauty the principles of Jehovah’s redemption of his people, and how step by step this shall be accomplished. The prophet reviews the history of the people from the beginning, running it out till it is lost in its eternal issues, and shewing how it will read to all the nations of the earth the true lesson of that which Jehovah, the God of Israel, is, and leave ineffaceable impressions on the mind of his own people.

First, Ezekiel 36:16-24. The history with its significance up to Israel’s final restoration.—The people defiled the land with their idolatries and bloodshed (Ezekiel 36:17), therefore the fury of Jehovah was kindled and he poured it out upon them, scattering them among the nations (Ezekiel 36:18-19). By these disasters which the people brought upon themselves they “profaned” Jehovah’s name among the heathen. The nations, ignorant of the nature of Jehovah, and incapable of divining the moral principles of his rule of the world and of his people, attributed the calamities of Israel to the feebleness of their God, who was unable to defend them, saying, these are the people of Jehovah, and they are gone forth out of his land. Thus the greatness and power of Jehovah, who is God alone, was detracted from, and the knowledge of him by the nations—which he wills in all that he does to convey to them—was delayed or frustrated (Ezekiel 36:20). Therefore for the sake of his holy name he will interpose and turn the fortunes of his people, that he may be sanctified in the eyes of the nations and known by them to be God omnipotent (Ezekiel 36:21-24, cf. Ezekiel 36:35-36).

Secondly, Ezekiel 36:24-38. The history of Jehovah’s restoration of his people and their full redemption in its successive steps, with the eternal impressions which this history will engrave upon the people’s minds.—In the prophet’s view Jehovah must vindicate himself in the eyes of the nations by the restoration of Israel, not because he is a mere tribal god who will do something for his people, but because he is God alone, and his manifestation of himself to the nations of the world is the goal towards which all history runs.

Jehovah “sanctifies” himself in the sight of the nations not only by convincing them of his power, but even more if possible by displaying his moral rule of his people (cf. Ezekiel 39:23-24), and by the spiritual regeneration which he works among them (Ezekiel 36:25 seq.). But though this great thought of Jehovah’s revelation of himself in the sight of the nations be attractive to the prophet, having touched upon the redemption of Israel he becomes absorbed in these internal operations of Jehovah among his own people, which he pursues in all their details, and the wider thought of their influence on the heathen is not reverted to till Ezekiel 36:35-36. (1) Jehovah will take his people from the nations and bring them again to their own land (Ezekiel 36:24). (2) Then he will sprinkle clean water upon them and wash them from all their past impurities (Ezekiel 36:25). (3) He will also regenerate them, giving them a new heart and a new spirit, putting indeed his own spirit within them (Ezekiel 36:26-27). (4) In this spirit they shall walk in his statutes and judgments, and thus shall inherit the land for ever, which the Lord will greatly bless (Ezekiel 36:27-30). (5) Surrounded thus on all sides by the tokens of Jehovah’s goodness, and looking at themselves and at their past doings with the new mind which the Lord will give them (Ezekiel 36:26), they shall loathe themselves because of all their former impurity and evil, for it is not for what they have been that Jehovah does this to them (Ezekiel 36:31-32). (6) Thus when Israel’s captivity is brought back the nations shall learn the true meaning of their dispersion, and the nature of Jehovah their God, who disperses and restores (Ezekiel 36:33-36).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - The oracle, commencing with this verse and extending to Ezekiel 37:14, has an ultimate connection with that which precedes. Having predicted a golden age in the future for Israel, when her people should have returned from banishment her cities should again be inhabited and her fields cultivated, the prophet is directed

(1) to explain that the ground of this would not have in any worthiness Jehovah should behold in Israel, who had rather in the past been punished and dispersed (vers. 16-20), but only in the regard he, Jehovah, should have for his own holy Name or character (vers. 21-24);

(2) to intimate that this glorious period should be accompanied by a moral and spiritual renovation of the people, which, however, could and therefore would be brought about only by God himself giving them a new heart and a new spirit, again for his own Name's sake (vers. 25-32), and which, when attained, should lead to a prosperity so unparalleled as to recall the pristine splendors of earth's paradisiacal condition, and convince the heathen that should then be sharers in Israel's felicity that Jehovah alone was God (vers. 33-38); and

(3) to remove all doubt from the people's minds as to the possibility of this happening by the vision of the dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14). Verses 16-20. - That Israel's restoration should not be brought about on account of Israel's merit, the prophet shows by briefly rehearsing the story of Israel's demerit, as the reason of her exile. Ezekiel 36:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Salvation of Israel Founded upon Its Sanctification

Because Israel has defiled its land by its sins, God has scattered the people among the heathen; but because they also profaned His name among the heathen, He will exercise forbearance for the sake of His holy name (Ezekiel 36:16-21), will gather Israel out of the lands, cleanse it from its sins, and sanctify it by the communication of His Spirit, so that it will walk in His ways (Ezekiel 36:22-28), and will so bless and multiply it, that both the nations around and Israel itself will know that He is the Lord (Ezekiel 36:29-38). - This promise is shown by the introductory formula in Ezekiel 36:16 and by the contents to be an independent word of God; but it is substantially connected in the closest manner with the preceding word of God, showing, on the one hand, the motive which prompted God to restore and bless His people;, and, on the other hand, the means by which He would permanently establish the salvation predicted in Ezekiel 34 and Ezekiel 36:1-15. - The kernel of this promise is formed by Ezekiel 36:25-28, for which the way is prepared in Ezekiel 36:17-24, whilst the further extension is contained in Ezekiel 36:29-38.

Ezekiel 36:16-21

The Lord will extend His forbearance, for the sake of His holy name, to the people who have been rejected on account of their sins. - Ezekiel 36:16. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 36:17. Son of man, the house of Israel dwelt in its land, and defiled it with its way and its doings; like the uncleanness of the unclean woman, was its way before me. Ezekiel 36:18. Then I poured out my fury upon them on account of the blood which they had shed in the land, and because they had defiled it through their idols, Ezekiel 36:19. And scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed in the land; according to their way and their doings I judge them. Ezekiel 36:20. And they came to the nations whither they came, and profaned my holy name, for men said of them, "These are Jehovah's people, and they have come out of His land." Ezekiel 36:21. And so I had pity upon my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations whither they came. - The address commences with a description of the reasons why God had thrust out His people among the heathen, namely, on account of their sins and idolatrous abominations, by which the Israelites had defiled the land (cf. Leviticus 18:28 and Numbers 35:34). Their conduct resembled the most offensive uncleanness, namely, the uncleanness of a woman in her menstruation (Leviticus 15:19), to which the moral depravity of the people had already been compared in Isaiah 64:5. - In Ezekiel 36:18 the consequence of the defiling of the land by the people is introduced with the impression ואשׁפּך. In Ezekiel 36:17, ויטמּאוּ is the continuation of the participle ישׁבים; and the participle is expressive of the condition in the past, as we may see from the words 'ואשׁפּך וגו. The simile in Ezekiel 36:17 is an explanatory, circumstantial clause. For Ezekiel 36:18, compare Ezekiel 7:8, and for 'על הדּם וגו, Ezekiel 22:3, Ezekiel 22:6. The last clause, "and through their idols they have defiled it," is loosely appended; but it really contains a second reason for the pouring out of the wrath of God upon the people. For Ezekiel 36:19, compare Ezekiel 22:15. ויּבוא in Ezekiel 36:20 refers to בּית־ישׂראל; but there is no necessity to read ויבאוּ on that account. It is perfectly arbitrary to supply the subject proposed by Kliefoth, viz., "the report of what had happened to Israel" came to the heathen, which is quite foreign to the connection; for it was not the report concerning Israel, but Israel itself, which came to the heathen, and profaned the sacred name of God. This is not only plainly expressed in Ezekiel 36:21, but has been already stated in Ezekiel 36:20. The fact that the words of the heathen, by which the name of God was profaned, are quoted here, does not prove that it is the heathen nations who are to be regarded as those who profaned the name of God, as Kliefoth imagines. The words, "these are Jehovah's people, and have come out of His (Jehovah's) land," could only contain a profanation of the holy name of God, if their coming out was regarded as involuntary, i.e., as an exile enforced by the power of the heathen; or, on the other hand, if the Israelites themselves had denied the holiness of the people of God through their behaviour among the heathen. Most of the commentators have decided in favour of the former view. Vatablus, for example, gives this explanation: "if their God whom they preach had been omnipotent, He would not have allowed them to be expelled from His land." And we must decide in favour of this exposition, not only because of the parallel passages, such as Numbers 14:16 and Jeremiah 33:24, which support this view; but chiefly on account of the verses which follow, according to which the sanctification of the name of God among the nations consists in the fact that God gathers Israel out of its dispersion among the nations, and leads them back into His own land (vid., Ezekiel 36:23 and Ezekiel 36:24). Consequently the profanation of His name can only have consisted in the fact that Israel was carried away out of its own land, and scattered in the heathen lands. For, since the heathen acknowledged only national gods, and regarded Jehovah as nothing more than such a national god of Israel, they did not look upon the destruction of the kingdom of Judah and the carrying away of the people as a judgment of the almighty and holy God upon His people, but concluded that that catastrophe was a sign of the inability of Jehovah to defend His land and save His people. The only way in which God could destroy this delusion was by manifesting Himself to the heathen as the almighty God and Lord of the whole world through the redemption and glorification of His people. ואחמל על־שׁם ק: so I had pity, compassion upon my holy name. The preterite is prophetic, inasmuch as the compassion consists in the gathering of Israel out of the nations, which is announced in Ezekiel 36:22. as still in the future. The rendering, "I spared (them) for my holy name's sake" (lxx, Hvernick), is false; for חמל is construed with על, governing the person or the thing toward which the compassion is shown (vid., Ezekiel 16:5 and 2 Chronicles 36:15, 2 Chronicles 36:17).