Ezekiel 39:25

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) Now will I bring again the captivity.—It was needed for the exiles in their distress that the prophet at the close of this far-reaching prophecy should bring out the first step in the long course of events leading to its fulfilment, because that step was one of especial interest and comfort to them; but even this promise is mingled with predictions which still look on to the then distant future.

Benson Commentary

Ezekiel 39:25-26. Therefore now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob — See note on Ezekiel 34:13; Ezekiel 36:24. And have mercy upon the whole house of Israel — On the ten tribes with the two. This bringing back the captive Jews and Israelites, and gathering them from their dispersions, will be an act of mere mercy. By sin, indeed, they deserved to be made captives; but no righteousness of theirs did or could deserve deliverance from captivity. It was not extremity of justice that so punished them, but it will be the riches of mercy that thus pardons and redeems them. After they have borne their shame — The shame and reproach due to their sins; and all their trespasses — That is, the punishment of those trespasses, committed when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid — When they were in a state of peace, prosperity, and safety, which should have obliged them to love and obedience; but even then they sinned, as if dangers and calamities would never overtake them. Strange ingratitude! to cast off the fear of God, and all regard to his law, when he had set them free from the fear of all enemies.

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

25. bring again the captivity—restore from calamity to prosperity.

the whole house of Israel—so "all Israel" (Ro 11:26). The restorations of Israel heretofore have been partial; there must be one yet future that is to be universal (Ho 1:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Therefore; since my name, my power, and justice are vindicated, and the heathen see it was Israel’s iniquity brought them into captivity, and Israel knows this too.

Now; from this time of Gog’s overthrow. Jacob; the seed of Jacob, here called by their father’s name.

Have mercy: this reducing captive Jews is mere mercy: it is very true by sin they deserved to be made captives, and it is as true they never did or could deserve a deliverance from captivity; it was not extremity of justice that so punished, but it was the riches of mercy that so pardoned and redeemed.

Upon the whole house of Israel; on the ten tribes with the two. And all this in zeal

for my holy name, by which I am engaged to be their God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore thus saith the Lord,.... The Jews having been long punished for their sins; and being brought to repentance for them, and to faith in Christ, as they will be in the latter day: hence it follows,

now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob; or the captives of Jacob, the people of Israel, that have been carried captive into all lands; these shall be gathered from thence, and brought into their own land:

and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel; all the twelve tribes; which shows that this has not respect to the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity; for then the Lord had mercy on the house of Judah only; or the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; but their return from their present captivity, and future conversion,

when all Israel shall be saved; as the fruit and effect of the rich sovereign grace and mercy of God unto them, Romans 11:25,

and will be jealous for my holy name; or, "zealous" (l) for the glory of it, that it be no more blasphemed among the Heathen; and that it be glorified among his own people.

(l) "assumam zelum", V. L. "zelabo", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Cocceius, Starckius.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. bring again the captivity] Cf. Ezekiel 16:53, Ezekiel 29:14.

jealous for my holy name] little different from “my divine name.” The prophet represents Jehovah as acting from the sense of that which he is. The representation is to be explained from the profound sense which the prophet, and other prophets, had of the Godhead of Jehovah, with all that Godhead meant. Cf. Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 20:14; Ezekiel 20:22; Ezekiel 20:44.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 25-29. - This section Hengstenberg regards as the close of the whole system of prophecies of a predominantly comforting character from Ezekiel 33:21 onwards;" Keil views it as the proper conclusion to the prophecy concerning Gog and the series of predictions from Ezekiel 35:1 onwards. It is in substance a recapitulation of God's gracious promise to bring again the captivity of Israel, of which the prophet had just been reminded in ver. 23, and to which accordingly he now in thought goes back. It traces the whole course of the Divine dealings with the nation from the point of the exile onwards. Verse 25. - I will bring again the captivity of Jacob. (For the use of "Jacob" as a designation of the people, see Ezekiel 28:25; Ezekiel 37:25.) The promise goes back to Deuteronomy 30:3; Jeremiah 29:14; Jeremiah 30:3; Jeremiah 31:23; Jeremiah 32:44; and other passages. That its fulfillment began with the return from Babylon is not inconsistent with the view that its fulfillment will terminate with the final ingathering of Israel out of the nations by her conversion to Christianity, and her consequent admission to the Church. That its first cause will be "mercy" to the whole house of Israel will not prevent that cause from being at the same time a jealous regard for the Divine holiness (comp. Ezekiel 36:21, 22). Ezekiel 39:25

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.