Ezekiel 39:26

After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

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

26. After that they have borne their shame—the punishment of their sin: after they have become sensible of their guilt, and ashamed of it (Eze 20:43; 36:31).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

After they have long suffered, and now shall suffer no longer; for it is enough my people know, and the heathen know, that I am the Lord.

Borne their shame; reproach for their sins cast on them by the heathen, with great reflections on their God: this was part of the punishment of them all, and the greatest grief to the best among them, that their God was reproached.

Their trespasses; the punishment of those trespasses whereby they sinned against God, which this prophet plainly and frequently chargeth them with.

When they dwelt safely; and this done amidst that prosperity and safety which should have obliged them to love and obedience; but when they were safe at home, they sinned as if danger would never overtake them.

None made them afraid; no enemy to endanger and alarm them. Strange ingratitude, to east off the fear of God, and his law, when he had set them free from the fear of enemies!

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

After that they have borne their shame,.... And disgrace, among the nations where they are scattered; being captives, exiles, in distress and affliction, and under the manifest tokens of the divine wrath and vengeance: it may be rendered, "and they shall bear their shame" (m); that is, as Jarchi glosses it,

"when I shall do good to them, and not render to them according to their wickedness, then they shall bear their shame, and be confounded, and not able to lift up their face;''

as penitent persons, under a sense of divine wrath, blush, and are ashamed to look up to God; see Ezra 9:6. Menachem interprets the word in the sense of atonement and forgiveness, as it is used in Psalm 32:11, as if the meaning was, then they shall have their sins, which caused shame, forgiven them. Kimchi's gloss is,

"they shall carry in their mouths, and make mention of their shame they had in captivity.''

And all their transgressions whereby they have transgressed against me; that is, the punishment of all their trespasses in their captivity, or the shame of them, being now brought to repentance; and which will be aggravated to them, when they remember that these were committed by their forefathers, and since approved of by them.

When they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid; as they did in the times of Christ; they were in entire peace, and no enemy disturbed them; and were in the possession of their own land, and enjoyed the blessings of it, and had their religious as well as civil liberties; and yet rejected the Messiah, his doctrine, ordinances, and salvation by him.

(m) "et portabunt", Pagninus, Montanus, V. L. Grotius; "et ferent ignominiam suam", Starckius.

Geneva Study Bible

After that they have borne their shame, and all their trespasses whereby they have trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. after that … borne] Rather: And they shall bear their shame. The phrase “bear shame” is not used in the sense of bearing the outward disgrace (Ezekiel 32:24-25; Ezekiel 32:30, Ezekiel 34:29, Ezekiel 36:7), but in the sense of bearing the inward feeling of unworthiness, which the undeserved goodness of Jehovah creates (Ezekiel 16:52; Ezekiel 16:54). The word “bear” is written defectively and by a change of a “tittle” might mean “forget.” While “forget their shame” however might well be said, shame meaning reproach (Isaiah 54:4), “forget their trespasses,” implying complete obliteration of the unhappy past, is so powerful an idea that it causes surprise. Either idea is beautiful; whether the idea be that the redeemed people sit in abashed gladness, the memory of former evil adding depth to the gladness, or whether it be that the assurance that Jehovah is their God (Ezekiel 39:22) is so exalted that the memory of former sad days is wholly wiped out by it.

when they dwelt … afraid] when they dwell with confidence … and none maketh them afraid. Reference is to the time of restoration.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 26. - After they have borne their shame (comp. Ezekiel 16:52, 54; Ezekiel 32:24, 30; Ezekiel 34:29; Ezekiel 36:6). The captivity of Israel would not be brought back until her people had been thoroughly chastised for their iniquities, and that chastisement had wrought in them a spirit of penitence and a disposition towards obedience. Then should Jehovah interpose for their deliver-ante by gathering them out of their enemies' lands and leading them back to their own land; and these two experiences, the Captivity and the Restoration, the driving out and the bringing in, should complete their conversion to Jehovah, and secure their perpetual enjoyment of Jehovah's favor. Ezekiel 39:26

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.