Ezekiel 36:13
Ver. 13. Thus saith the Lord God, because they say unto you,.... The Heathens that dwelt round about the land of Judea said to the mountains, or to the whole land,
thou land devourest up men; eats up the inhabitants of it; which is part of the ill report the spies, in the times of Moses, brought on it, Nu 13:32, to which the allusion is here; suggesting, that either the air was unwholesome; or that the land did not produce a sufficiency of food to support the inhabitants of it; or that the curse of God was upon it; and that one judgment or another was ever on it; either famine, or pestilence, or the sword of the enemy, or internal broils among themselves, or wild beasts, whereby the inhabitants of the land were wasted and consumed:
and hast bereaved thy nations; the several tribes, of men and children; so that they were diminished and depopulated: the allusion seems to be to miscarrying women, or such who kill their children in the womb, and become abortive. Ezekiel 36:14Ver. 14. Therefore thou shalt devour men no more,.... Or they shall be no more destroyed in thee by pestilence, famine, sword, or other means:neither bereave that nations any more, saith the Lord; or, "thou shalt not cause them to fall any more" {k}, for so it is written, as in Eze 36:15, though the marginal reading is, "thou shalt not bereave", which we follow; and both are to be received, since miscarriages often come by falls.{k} ylvkt al "non impingere facies", Montanus, Vatablus; "non offendere facies", Starckius. Ezekiel 36:15Ver. 15. Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the Heathen any more,.... Their calumnies and revilings, their scoffs and jeers:neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more; or be any more a taunt and a curse, a proverb and a byword of the people; or be their laughing stock, and the object of their derision:neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord God; by famine, sword, or pestilence, or any other judgment caused by sin: or, "thou shalt not bereave" {l}, as the marginal reading is; and which the Targum and many versions follow: now what is here promised, in this and the preceding verse, had not its full accomplishment upon the Jews' return from the Babylonish captivity; for since that time their men have been devoured, and their tribes have been bereaved of them by famine, sword, and pestilence; and they have heard and bore the shame and reproach of the nations where they have been dispersed, and do to this day; wherefore these prophecies must refer to a future restoration of that people.{l} "Non orbabis", Starckius. Ezekiel 36:16Ver. 16. 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: Ezekiel 36:17Ver. 17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land,.... The land of Canaan, which the Lord their God gave unto them; a land abounding with all good things, where they dwelt in great ease, plenty, and prosperity; and which also was a holy land, peculiarly chosen of God for his worship and service:they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: by their sinful ways and evil works: sin is of a defiling nature; it defiles the bodies and souls of men; it defiles their own, and it defiles others; it defiles a land, and the inhabitants of it, and makes them loathsome and abominable to a pure and holy God:their way was before me, as the uncleanness of a removed woman: of a menstruous woman in the time of her separation; when she was debarred the company of her husband, and might not enter into the sanctuary of the Lord: this shows what an evil thing sin is, what an uncleanness it is in the sight of God, how abhorrent sinful ways are to him; and though he was the husband of these people, yet, because of their sins, he separated from them, and removed them from and out of their land, as not fit to be in his presence, nor to live there. Ezekiel 36:18Ver. 18. Wherefore I poured my fury on them,.... Like a mighty flood that carries all before it, in just retaliationfor the blood they had shed upon the land; the innocent blood, as the Targum; the blood of righteous men, that opposed and reproved them for their sinful ways; the blood of the prophets, that were sent to warn them of them; and especially the blood of the Son of God; for this prophecy reaches further than to the times of the Babylonish captivity:and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it; or, "for their dung" {m}; their dunghill gods; not only for their idols, and their idolatry, before the Babylonish captivity, which they after that were free from; but for the traditions of their elders, they set up against and above the word of God; and their own legal righteousness, their idols, the works of their hands, which wore as dung; and through their attachment to which they rejected Christ and his righteousness; and which brought wrath upon them, and them into their present captivity.{m} Mhylwlgb "stercoreis diis suis", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus; "stercoribus suis", Cocceius, Starckius. Ezekiel 36:19Ver. 19. And I scattered them among the Heathen,.... First by the Chaldeans, in the various provinces of Babylon; and next by the Romans, in the various parts of the world; and in this condition they now are:and they were dispersed through the countries; or blown about as chaff, stubble, or any such like thing, is by the wind:according to their way and according to their doings I judged them; condemned and punished them as their evil ways and wicked works deserved, according to the rules of justice and equity; so that no injustice was done them, nor could any fault be justly found in the proceedings of God towards them. Ezekiel 36:20Ver. 20. And when they entered unto the Heathen, whither they went,.... When the Jews went into the Heathen countries, whither they were carried captive, either by the Chaldeans, or by the Romans:they profaned my holy name; by their irreligion and immorality; by their violation of both tables of the law; by their wicked lives and conversations, whereby they gave the enemy an occasion to reproach them, their religion, and their God, Ro 2:24:when they said to them, these are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land; these are the men that boast they are the people of the Lord, whom he has chosen above all people, and see what a wicked people they are; for their sins they are driven out of the land, and become our captives: or though they were the Lord's people, as they pretend, and were under his care and protection; yet he was not able to keep them in their own land, and deliver them out of our hands, but they are carried captive by us; and thus the name of God, his being and perfections, were blasphemed, and his word, worship, and worshippers, were ridiculed by them. The Targum is,"if these are the people of the Lord, how is it that they are gone out of the land of the house of his majesty?'' Ezekiel 36:21Ver. 21. But I had pity for my holy name,.... Had pity on the Jews for his name's sake, and not theirs; or he had a tender concern for his own honour and glory:which the house of Israel had profaned among the Heathen, whither they went; and therefore was resolved to take a method for the glorifying of it, and that in a way of special grace and mercy to his people;See Gill on "Eze 36:20". Ezekiel 36:22Ver. 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel,.... This is an order to the prophet, the son of man, Eze 36:17:thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel; what he hereafter promises to do for them, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual; which he did, not on account of any deserts or worthiness in them; for they had none, having done nothing to merit his favour, but, on the contrary, everything to provoke the eyes of his glory:but for my holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the Heathen, whither ye went; for the honour of his holy name, for the glory of his holy word, holy worship, and holy religion; all which were traduced and reproached among the Heathen, by reason of the ungodly behaviour of the Jews. Ezekiel 36:23Ver. 23. And I will sanctify my great name,.... The same with his holy name; for his greatness lies in his holiness; which name he sanctifies when he clears it from all charges and imputations; when he makes it appear to be holy and himself to be glorious in holiness; when he vindicates the honour of his name, not in a way of punishment, as he justly might, but in a way of grace and mercy; he sanctifies his name when he proclaims it, a God gracious and merciful; for it was in this way and manner he determined to make himself illustrious and glorious, and do honour to his name:which was profaned among the Heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; this is repeated again and again, to show the heinousness of this sin, how ill he took it at their hands, and what a concern it gave him:and the Heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes; when the Lord shall fulfil his promises, and deliver his people; when he shall sanctify, justify, and save them; and he shall be sanctified, served, and worshipped by them, and among them: it will be taken notice of by infidels themselves; and they shall hereby know, and be obliged to acknowledge, that the God of Israel is the only Lord God; that he is true and faithful to his word, righteous and holy, in his ways, the Lord God omniscient and omnipotent. Ezekiel 36:24Ver. 24. For I will take you from among the Heathen,.... The Chaldeans and other nations, among whom they were carried captive; and the Papists, among whom many of them now are, often called Heathens and Gentiles in Scripture: this will be fully completed at the time of the Jews' conversion in the latter day: the phrase fitly expresses the act of divine grace, in taking his people from among the world by the effectual calling:and gather you out of all countries; to himself, and to his Son, and to his church, and to some certain place from whence they will go up in a body to their own land, as follows: see Ho 1:11:and will bring you into your own land; into the land of Canaan literally understood, as well as into the church of God here, and into the heavenly country hereafter, of which Canaan was a type. Ezekiel 36:25Ver. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,.... Not baptismal water, as Jerom; an ordinance indeed of the Gospel, and to which the Jews will submit when converted; and which is performed by water, but not by sprinkling, nor does it cleanse from sin; and is administered by men, and is not an operation of God, as this is: rather the regenerating grace of the Spirit; though this does not purify from all sin, and besides is intended in the next verse: it seems best to understand it of the blood of Christ, the blood of sprinkling, and of justification from sin, and pardon of it by it; so Kimchi and Jarchi interpret of purification by atonement; and the Targum is,"I will forgive your sins, as one is cleansed by the water of sprinkling, and the ashes of a heifer, which is for a sin offering:''and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you; the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin; by it men are justified from all things, and are made perfectly pure and spotless in the sight of God; they are cleansed from original sin, the pollution of their nature; from all actual sins and transgressions, which are very defiling; from sins of heart, lip, and life; even from such as are idols, set up in the heart, and served. Ezekiel 36:26Ver. 26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,.... A "new heart" and a "new spirit" are one and the same; that is, a renewed one; renewed by the Spirit and grace of God; in which a new principle of life is put; new light is infused; a new will, filled with new purposes and resolutions; where new affections are placed, and new desires are formed; and where there are new delights and joys, as well as new sorrows and troubles; the same which in the New Testament is called the "new man", and the new creature, Eph 4:24. The Targum paraphrases it,"a heart fearing, and a spirit fearing;''where the true fear of God is, a truly gracious heart; and which is purely the gift of God, and is the fruit of his rich grace, abundant mercy, and great love:and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh; the Targum is,"and I will break the heart of the wicked, which is hard as a stone;''this is a heart hardened by sin, and confirmed in it; destitute of spiritual life and motion; senseless and stupid, stubborn and inflexible; on which no impressions are made; and which remains hard and impenitent: now this is in "the flesh", in corrupt nature; and this hardness of heart is natural to men; and all who have it are after the flesh, or are carnal; and it requires omnipotence to remove it; it cannot be taken out by men of themselves: nor by ministers of the word; nor by the bare mercies and judgments of God; but by the powerful and efficacious grace of God; giving repentance unto life; working faith in the soul, to look to a crucified Christ; and shedding abroad the love of God in the heart, which softens and melts it; all which is done by the Spirit, and frequently by means of the word. This is interpreted, in the Talmud {n}, of the evil imagination, or corruption of nature; and is one of the names of it, a stone; and it refers, it is said {o}, to the time or world to come, the days of the Messiah:and I will give you an heart of flesh; a heart sensible of sin and danger; a penitent one, soft and tender, through the love and fear of God; a spiritual and sanctified heart; submissive to the will of God; flexible and obsequious to the commands of Christ; on which impressions are made by the grace of God; where the laws of God are written, the Gospel of Christ is put; where Christ himself is formed; where are the fear of God, faith, hope, and love, and every other grace.{n} T. Bab. Succah, fol. 52. 1. {o} Debarim Rabba, fol. 242. 2. & Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 3. 2. Ezekiel 36:27Ver. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you,.... My Holy Spirit, as the Targum; the Spirit of holiness; the author of internal sanctification, of the new heart and spirit, and of the fleshy one before mentioned; and through whose grace and strength the saints do what is after said they shall do:and cause you to walk in my statutes: men are first made alive by the Spirit of God, and have spiritual strength put into them, who of themselves can do nothing; by means of which they are enabled to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, and to continue in the observation of them; which walking in them supposes:and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them; being constrained by the love of God; influenced by the grace of Christ; and strengthened by the blessed Spirit: and such persons observe and do them willingly and cheerfully; from a principle of love; in faith, and to the glory of God; without any mercenary and selfish views; without trusting to, and depending upon, what is done for salvation. Ezekiel 36:28Ver. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers,.... Not only shall be brought into it, but shall inhabit it, and continue there, and that in great safety and plenty; and which will be the more valued and esteemed, and reckoned a great blessing to enjoy; because this land is the gift of God, and what he gave to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by promise so long ago, and to their seed; of which promise it appears he is not unmindful:and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God; which is the sum and substance of the covenant of grace; which will now be renewed, and the blessings of it applied. The Jews will appear to be the people of God by their effectual calling and conversion; and God will show himself to be their God, by his presence with them, his protection of them, and that communion with himself he will admit them to: see Jer 31:1, "the loammi" will be taken off, and they will be again declared to be the covenant people of God, Ho 1:9. Ezekiel 36:29Ver. 29. And I will also save you from all your uncleannesses,.... From all their filthy lusts of pride, envy, malice, covetousness, whoredom, blasphemy, and infidelity, to which the Jews are now addicted; but at this time shall be saved from the power and dominion of them by the sanctifying grace of the Spirit; and from the guilt and pollution of them by the blood of Christ sprinkled on them; and this, not from one, or some of them only, but from all of them; all Israel will be saved, and they will be saved from all their sins, Ro 11:25:and I will call for the corn, and will increase it; which shall answer to the call of God, as a servant to his master; and shall spring up out of the earth in great abundance; and which shall grow, and increase, and bring forth much fruit; and yield bread to the eater, and seed to the sower: and which is to be understood, not of corn in a literal sense only, but of corn in a spiritual sense; of all spiritual provisions, the word and ordinances, and especially the corn of wheat, Christ Jesus; who is the sum and substance of the Gospel and his ordinances, and is in them food for the faith of his people; see Zec 9:17: andlay no famine upon you; neither a famine of bread, or of water; nor of hearing the word of the Lord; but shall have plenty of provisions, both for soul and body; see Am 8:11. Ezekiel 36:30Ver. 30. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field,.... The fruit of trees that grow in gardens, and orchards, and vineyards, as pomegranates, apples, olives, grapes, &c. and the corn and grass of the field; so that there shall be great plenty of each of these, and no want of anything for man or beast: and by these are mystically designed spiritual blessings; the fruits of righteousness, with which the saints, who are trees of righteousness, shall be laden; and an increase of gifts and grace in the churches of Christ, and the members of them:that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the Heathen; who upbraided them with it, that they were forced to go to other nations for food, as in the times of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and that their land wanted rain, and waited for it; which, if it had not, became barren; whereas the Egyptians particularly needed it not, their land being watered yearly with the overflowings of the Nile: or the sense is, they should not be reproached with their penury and want of the things of life; and spiritually, that they should not be upbraided by the Gentiles with their want of the Gospel, and their contempt of it, their blasphemy and their unbelief; since they should now have it, receive, embrace, and love it, and feed upon it. Ezekiel 36:31Ver. 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways,.... That were of their own choosing; in which they walked, and delighted to walk: and very evil ones they were; opposite to the ways of God; such as open violation of the law of God; neglect of his worship; idolatry, and many other sins, before the captivity; adhering to the traditions of their elders; and setting up their own righteousness as a justifying one afterwards; also their disbelief and rejection of the Messiah; their blasphemy against him, and persecution of his interest and people: now these will all be remembered with shame and confusion when the Lord shall bestow upon them the above blessings, spiritual and temporal; especially when a new heart and spirit shall be given them; the goodness of God will have such an influence upon them as to refresh their memories with former sins, and bring them to repentance for them; as well as to affect their minds, and make them thankful for present mercies: sins, which were before forgotten, or were not thought to be sins, shall now come fresh in their minds, with all their aggravated guilt:and your doings that were not good: far from being so, they were very evil, contrary to the law of God and Gospel of Christ; as they will at this time appear to themselves to be:and shall loath yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations; their sins will be abominable to them, as they are in themselves, and to the Lord; and they will not only loath them, but themselves for them, when they shall come to have a true sight of them in their own colours, and a true sense of the evil nature of them; and this shall not be expressed only in the sight of men, and so as to be observed by them; but in their own sight, secretly and within themselves, under a clear and full conviction of their sins. The Syriac version is, "your faces shall be wrinkled"; as men's are when they are displeased with themselves for what they have done. The Targum is,"and ye shall groan when ye shall see, because of your sins, and because of your abominations;''which is the case of sensible sinners, 2Co 5:4. Ezekiel 36:32Ver. 32. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord,.... Not for any worth or worthiness in them; for any merit or desert of theirs; for any goodness in them, or works of righteousness done by them; no, it purely flowed from his own unmerited grace and goodness; for his own sake, and for his own glory, will he do it; see De 9:4:be it known unto you; this the Lord would have this people take notice of, who were very fond of their own righteousness and merits, and to trust therein, and ascribe much thereunto, as most men are too apt to do; and therefore, to take down their pride, and take them off of their boastings and vain opinions of themselves, he would have them know and acknowledge this; and be so far from placing any of the favours bestowed on them to the account of the merit of their good works, that they ought to take shame for their evil ones, as follows:be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel; as men are when they are brought to a true sight and sense of them, and reflect upon the evil of them, and are brought to true repentance for them; see Eze 16:61. Ezekiel 36:33Ver. 33. Thus saith the Lord God, in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities,.... By the free and full pardon of them; by sprinkling clean water on them, the blood of Christ on their consciences; and by applying the righteousness of Christ to them for their justification; as well as by creating clean hearts in them, for their sanctification; and enabling them by grace to escape and abstain from the pollutions of the world:I will also cause you to dwell in the cities; that is, of Judea, which, as well as Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt and inhabited, as follows:and the wastes shall be builded: such cities and towns as lay in ruins: temporal prosperity shall go along with or follow spiritual blessings to the people of the Jews at their conversion; or they shall dwell in the churches of Christ, which are as cities compact together, well regulated, and where Jews and Gentiles at this time will be fellow citizens. Ezekiel 36:34Ver. 34. And the desolate land shall be tilled,.... The land of Judea, which lay desolate during the captivity, and which now is under the dominion of the Turks, and in a ruinous state, shall be manured and cultivated, and become fruitful, as it formerly was: or the people of the Jews, who, in a spiritual sense, are like barren and uncultivated ground; these shall have the fallow ground of their hearts ploughed up, and the seeds of grace, truth, and righteousness, shall be sown in them, and they shall bring forth the fruit of good works:whereas it lay desolate in the eyes of all that passed by: as the land of Canaan now does to every traveller in it, that observes it, and compares it with what it once was; and as the present state of the Jews is, in the eyes of every Christian pilgrim and traveller, that takes notice of their blindness and ignorance, their unbelief and hardness of heart. Ezekiel 36:35Ver. 35. And they shall say,.... Either the neighbouring nations that lived round about the land of Israel, Eze 36:36, or rather the travellers, as before, who having as they passed by observed what it had been, and now see what it is; these shall say to one another:this land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; for delight and fruitfulness: this may well be applied to the flourishing and fruitful state of the church of God, consisting of converted Jews, in the latter day:and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited; which, as it will be true of cities in a literal sense, so of the churches of Christ in Judea in a spiritual sense; which will be rebuilt by the grace of God, fenced and fortified by his almighty power, and inhabited by true believers. Ezekiel 36:36Ver. 36. Then the Heathen that are left round about you,.... Not cut off by the judgments which came upon them, according to the prophecies in chapter twenty five and twenty six, the residue of the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Tyrians; and, in the mystical sense, this may design the residue of the antichristian states not destroyed by the vials of God's wrath; see Re 11:13:shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate; this work of rebuilding Jerusalem, and other cities of Judea, and planting desolate places with trees, and all manner of corn and herbage for man and beast, as well as of building up and planting churches, will appear so manifestly the work of God, and not of men; which is brought about by his wonderful providence, or more surprising grace; that even the Heathen round about will take notice of it, and own and acknowledge it to be the Lord's work:I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it; he has spoken of it by his prophets; he has promised it in his word, and he will surely do it; for he is true and faithful to his promises, and able to perform. Ezekiel 36:37Ver. 37. Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel,.... Besought and prayed unto for the accomplishment of the above promises, as well as what follows: for though God has promised and will perform, yet he expects that his people will apply to him for it; it is our duty to put the Lord in mind of his promises, to plead them with him, and pray unto him for the fulfilment of them. The Syriac version is, "even for this I seek Israel"; and so the Arabic version; as if the sense was, that the Lord will seek the people of Israel wherever they are, and find them out, and call them by his grace, and gather them out of all countries, and bring them into their own land: "to do it for them"; everything before promised, and what next follows:I will increase them with men like a flock; as a flock of sheep is increased, which is a very increasing creature: or, "as a flock of men" {p}; it signifies that the people of the Jews will be very numerous at their conversion; see Ho 1:10.{p} Mda Nauk "sicut gregem hominum", V. L. Syr.; "sicut pecus hominus", Montanus; "pecudes hominum", Pagninus. Ezekiel 36:38Ver. 38. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts,.... Like flocks of sheep, which were consecrated and set apart for holy uses, for sacrifices; even like the flocks of sheep, which were brought to Jerusalem to be offered in sacrifice at the three solemn festivals in the year; especially at the passover, when the Jews came from all parts of the country to slay and eat their passover; and every family had a lamb, which in all must be a great number: we read of thirty thousand lambs and three thousand bullocks given at one time for this service by King Josiah, besides what was given by the princes, 2Ch 35:7. The Targum is,"as the holy people, as a people that is cleansed, and comes to Jerusalem at the feasts of the passover:''or, "as the flock of the Holy Ones" {q}; either of the holy God, Father, Son, and Spirit; or of holy men, who are made holy or sanctified by the Spirit of God:so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; or with men that are like sheep for meekness, harmlessness, patience, cleanness, society, and usefulness; and not with such as are comparable to unclean beasts, or beasts of prey; so it denotes both the quantity of persons that shall inhabit Judea, and dwelt both in the cities and churches there, and the quality of them.{q} Myvdq Nauk "sicut oves sanctorum", Vatablus, Gussetius, Starckius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.