Ezekiel 39:23

And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23) For their iniquity.—In the times foretold God’s dealings shall no longer be misunderstood, nor the sufferings of Israel considered as the result of His want of power to protect them. All the world shall so far understand His righteousness, that they shall see the reasonableness and necessity of His punishing even His chosen people for their sins, and purifying them that they may become His indeed.

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 39:23. And the heathen shall know, &c. — The heathen nations shall be made sensible that my people were not carried away by their enemies because I wanted power to save them, but as a just punishment of their sins. Because they trespassed against me — Committed sin with a high hand. Therefore hid I my face from them — Withdrew my favour and protection; and gave them into the hand of their enemies — Who could not have hurt them if they had not first forsaken me their God, and exposed themselves to my displeasure. So fell they all by the sword — My defence being withdrawn, they fell under the sword of the enemy.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

39:23-29 When the Lord shall have mercy on the whole house of Israel, by converting them to Christianity, and when they shall have borne the shame of being cast off for their sins, then the nations shall learn to know, worship, and serve him. Then Israel also shall know the Lord, as revealed in and by Christ. Past events do not answer to these predictions. The pouring out of the Spirit is a pledge that God's favour will continue. He will hide his face no more from those on whom he has poured out his Spirit. When we pray that God would never cast us from his presence, we must as earnestly pray that, in order thereto, he would never take his Holy Spirit from us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The purposes of the past dispensation shall be made clear to God's people themselves and to the pagan. His judgments were the consequence of their sins; and these sins once abandoned, the favor of their God will return in yet more abundance.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23. hid I my face—(De 31:17; Isa 59:2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The sottish heathen thought meanly of the God of Israel, and reckoned they came into captivity because the people of some greater god had by the’ power of their god prevailed against Israel’s God and his people; but by this overthrow given to Gog, they shall see it was not impotence in Israel’s God, but iniquity in Israel’s people, that brought them into captivity.

Trespassed; committed sin perversely, continually, and with a high hand.

Hid my face; withdrew my favour, would no more regard them, and then it was soon a night of trouble to them.

Into the hand, into the power,

of their enemies, which could not have hurt Israel if Israel had not first forsaken his God, but then God forsook them. When God withdrew his defence, as fenceless, they fell under the sword of the enemy; for it is he that subdueth enemies and giveth victory.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity,.... Before this they thought the captivity of the Jews, and all their distresses, were owing to their own weakness, and the weakness of the God they served, and to the superior strength of their enemies, and the power of their gods; but now, by this strange and amazing destruction of Gog and his army, they will see that it was not owing to those things, but to the sins and transgressions of the people of the Jews:

because they transgressed against me; prevaricated with him, acted a perfidious and treacherous part to him, as the word (i) signifies; which they did, when they delivered Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah, into the hands of the Gentiles, to be crucified; it is their disbelief of Christ, and rejection of him, and maltreatment of him, that is here more especially pointed at; and which is the cause of their present long captivity and exile, and of all the afflictions and troubles they have since met with: so the Targum renders it,

"they dealt falsely with my Word;''

the Word made flesh, the incarnate Saviour:

therefore hid I my face from them; took no notice of them, showed them no favour, took no care of them; disregarded their prayers and cries, and removed his presence from them, and all the tokens of it. So the Targum,

"I caused my Shechaniah (or majesty) to remove from them;''

and thus it has been ever since, and now is:

and gave them into the hand of their enemies; the Romans, who took away their place and nation; which they feared would be the case, should many believe in Christ; but the true reason of it was because they did not believe in him, John 11:48,

so fell they all by the sword; that is, through the sword of the conquering Romans; they fell into their hands; some perished by the sword, and others were carried into captivity; and all were punished for their iniquity, trespass, and perfidy.

(i) "praevaricati essent contra me", Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Polanus, Cocceius, Starckius.

Geneva Study Bible

And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for {l} their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so they all fell by the sword.

(l) The heathen will know that they did not overcome my people by their strength, neither yet by the weakness of my arm, but that this was for my people's sins.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

23. Jehovah’s dealing with his people Israel is the great lesson which he reads to the heathen; it is the history of Israel in the hand of Jehovah their God that reveals to the nations what Jehovah is. For the nations knew Jehovah only as God of Israel, and it was thus only through Israel that he could reveal himself to them. This last great event in the history of Israel, Jehovah’s signal defence of them now that they are his people in truth, casts light on his former hiding of his face from them. Deeper elements than mere power enter into his rule of his people; a conception of God is suggested to the nations unlike any they had hitherto entertained—there is a God who is omnipotent and who rules the nations in righteousness, the God of Israel.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 23, 24. - And the heathen shall know. The special lesson for them should be not so much teaching concerning God's supremacy over them, or concerning their relation to Israel, as concerning the principles of God's dealings with Israel. They should learn that if Israel had for a season been abandoned to the sword and driven into exile, it was not because of Jehovah's inability to protect them, but because of their wickedness which had caused him to hide his face from them - an expression which in Ezekiel occurs only here and in ver. 29, though it is found in the Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 31:17, 18) and in the older prophets (Isaiah 8:17; Isaiah 54:8; Isaiah 57:17; Isaiah 64:7; Jeremiah 33:5). Ezekiel 39:23

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Result of this Judgment, and the Concluding Promise

Ezekiel 39:21. Then will I display my glory among the nations, and all nations shall see my judgment which I shall execute, and my hand which I shall lay upon them. Ezekiel 39:22. And the house of Israel shall know that I am Jehovah their God from this day and forward. Ezekiel 39:23. And the nations shall know that because of their wickedness the house of Israel went into captivity; because they have been unfaithful toward me, I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their oppressors, so that they all fell by the sword. Ezekiel 39:24. According to their uncleanness, and according to their transgressions, I dealt with them, and hid my face from them. Ezekiel 39:25. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and have pity upon all the house of Israel, and be jealous for my holy name. Ezekiel 39:26. Then will they bear their reproach and all their faithlessness which they have committed toward me when they dwell in their land in security, and no one alarms them; Ezekiel 39:27. When I bring them back out of the nations, and gather them out of the lands of their enemies, and sanctify myself upon them before the eyes of the many nations. Ezekiel 39:28. And they will know that I, Jehovah, am their God, when I have driven them out to the nations, and then bring them together again into their land, and leave none of them there any more. Ezekiel 39:29. And I will not hide my face from them any more, because I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - The terrible judgment upon Gog will have this twofold effect as a revelation of the glory of God - first, Israel will know that the Lord is, and will always continue to be, its God (Ezekiel 39:22); secondly, the heathen will know that He gave Israel into their power, and thrust it out of its own land, not from weakness, but to punish it for its faithless apostasy (Ezekiel 39:23 and Ezekiel 39:24; compare Ezekiel 36:17.). עשׂה אתם (Ezekiel 39:24), as in Ezekiel 7:27, etc. But because this was the purpose of the Lord with His judgments, He will now bring back the captives of Israel, and have compassion upon all His people. This turn of the prophecy in Ezekiel 39:25 serves to introduce the promise to Israel with which the prophecy concerning Gog and the whole series of prophecies, contained in Ezekiel 35:1 onwards, are brought to a close (Ezekiel 39:25-29). This promise reverts in 'עתּה אשׁיב וגו to the prophet's own time, to which Ezekiel had already gone back by mentioning the carrying away of Israel in Ezekiel 39:23 and Ezekiel 39:24. The restoration of the captives of Jacob commences with the liberation of Israel from the Babylonian exile, but is not to be restricted to this. It embraces all the deliverances which Israel will experience from the termination of the Babylonian exile till its final gathering out of the nations on the conversion of the remnant which is still hardened and scattered. לכן, therefore, sc. because God will prove Himself to be holy in the sight of the heathen nations by means of the judgment, and will make known to them that He has punished Israel solely on account of its sins, and therefore will He restore His people and renew it by His Spirit (Ezekiel 39:29). - In what the jealousy of God for His holy name consists is evident from v.7, and still more plainly from Ezekiel 36:22-23, namely, in the fact that by means of the judgment He manifests Himself as the holy God. ונשׂוּ is not to be altered into ונשׁוּ, "they will forget," as Dathe and Hitzig propose, but is a defective spelling for ונשׂאוּ (like מלוּ for מלאוּ in Ezekiel 28:16): they will bear their reproach. The thought is the same as in Ezekiel 16:54 and Ezekiel 16:61, where the bearing of reproach is explained as signifying their being ashamed of their sins and their consequences, and feeling disgust thereat. They will feel this shame when the Lord grants them lasting peace in their own land. Raschi has correctly explained it thus: "When I shall have done them good, and not rewarded them as their iniquity deserved, they will be filled with shame, so that they will not dare to lift up their face." - Ezekiel 39:27 is only a further expansion of Ezekiel 39:26. For the fact itself, compare Ezekiel 36:23-24; Ezekiel 20:41, etc. And not only will Israel then be ashamed of its sins, but (Ezekiel 39:28, Ezekiel 39:29) it will also know that Jehovah is its God from henceforth and for ever, as was affirmed in Ezekiel 39:22, when He shall fully restore to their own land the people that was thrust into exile, and withdraw His favour from it no more, because He has poured out His Spirit upon it, and thereby perfectly sanctified it as His own people (cf. Ezekiel 36:27).

The promise with which the prophecy concerning the destruction of Gog is brought to a close, namely, that in this judgment all nations shall see the glory of God, and all Israel shall know that henceforth Jehovah will be their God, and will no more hide His face from them, serves to confirm the substance of the threat of punishment; inasmuch as it also teaches that, in the destruction of Gog and his gathering of peoples, the last attack of the heathen world-power upon the kingdom of God will be judged and overthrown, so that from that time forth the people of God will no more have to fear a foe who can disturb its peace and its blessedness in the everlasting possession of the inheritance given to it by the Lord. Gog is not only depicted as the last foe, whom the Lord Himself entices for the purpose of destroying him by miracles of His almighty power (Ezekiel 38:3-4, Ezekiel 38:19-22), by the fact that his appearance is assigned to the end of the times, when all Israel is gathered out of the nations and brought back out of the lands, and dwells in secure repose in the open and unfortified towns of its own land (Ezekiel 38:8, Ezekiel 38:11-12); but this may also be inferred from the fact that the gathering of peoples led by Gog against Israel belongs to the heathen nations living on the borders of the known world,since this points to a time when not only will the ancient foes of the kingdom of God, whose destruction was predicted in Ezekiel 25-32, have departed from the stage of history and perished, but the boundaries of Israel will also stretch far beyond the limits of Palestine, to the vicinity of these hordes of peoples at the remotest extremities on the north, the east, and the south of the globe. - So much may be gathered from the contents of our prophecy in relation to its historical fulfilment. But in order to determine with greater precision what is the heathen power thus rising up in Gog of Magog against the kingdom of God, we mut take into consideration the passage in the Apocalypse (Revelation 20:8 and Revelation 20:9), where our prophecy is resumed. Into this, however, we will not further enter till after the exposition of Ezekiel 40-48, when we shall take up the question as to the historical realization of the new temple and kingdom of God which Ezekiel saw.