11 And I have multiplied on you man and beast, And they have multiplied and been fruitful, And I have caused you to dwell according to your former states, And I have done better than at your beginnings, And ye have known that I `am' Jehovah.
12 And I have caused man to walk over you, -- My people Israel, And they possess thee, and thou hast been to them for an inheritance, And thou dost add no more to bereave them.
13 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because they are saying to you: A devourer of men `art' thou, And a bereaver of thy nations thou hast been,
14 Therefore, man thou devourest no more, And thy nations thou causest not to stumble any more, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.
15 And I proclaim not unto thee any more the shame of the nations, And the reproach of peoples thou bearest no more, And thy nations stumble not any more, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'
16 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,
17 `Son of man, The house of Israel are dwelling on their land, And they defile it by their way and by their doings, As the uncleanness of a separated one hath their way been before Me.
18 And I do pour out My fury upon them For the blood that they shed on the land, And with their idols they have defiled it.
19 And I scatter them among nations, And they are spread through lands, According to their way, and according to their doings, I have judged them.
20 And one goeth in unto the nations whither they have gone, And they pollute My holy name by saying to them, The people of Jehovah `are' these, And from His land they have gone forth.
21 And I have pity on My holy name, That the house of Israel have polluted among nations whither they have gone in.
22 Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Not for your sake am I working, O house of Israel, But -- for My holy name, That ye have polluted among nations whither ye have gone in.
23 And I have sanctified My great name, That is profaned among nations, That ye have polluted in your midst, And known have the nations that I `am' Jehovah, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, In My being sanctified in you before your eyes.
24 And I have taken you out of the nations, And have gathered you out of all the lands, And I have brought you in unto your land,
25 And I have sprinkled over you clean water, And ye have been clean; From all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, I do cleanse you.
26 And I have given to you a new heart, And a new spirit I give in your midst, And I have turned aside the heart of stone out of your flesh, And I have given to you a heart of flesh.
27 And My Spirit I give in your midst, And I have done this, so that in My statutes ye walk, And My judgments ye keep, and have done them.
28 And ye have dwelt in the land that I have given to your fathers, And ye have been to Me for a people, And I -- I am to you for God.
29 And I have saved you from all your uncleannesses, And I have called unto the corn, and multiplied it, And I have put no famine upon you.
30 And I have multiplied the fruit of the tree, And the increase of the field, So that ye receive not any more a reproach of famine among nations.
31 And ye have remembered your ways that `are' evil, And your doings that `are' not good, And have been loathsome in your own faces, For your iniquities, and for your abominations.
32 Not for your sake am I working, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Be it known to you, Be ashamed and confounded, because of your ways, O house of Israel.
33 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: In the day of My cleansing you from all your iniquities, I have caused the cities to be inhabited, And the wastes have been built,
34 And the desolate land is tilled, Instead of which it was a desolation before the eyes of every passer by,
35 And they have said: This land, that was desolated, Hath been as the garden of Eden, And the cities -- the wasted, And the desolated, and the broken down, Fenced places have remained.
36 And known have the nations who are left round about you, That I Jehovah have built the thrown down, I have planted the desolated: I Jehovah have spoken, and I have done `it'.
37 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Yet this I am required, By the house of Israel to do to them, I multiply them as a flock of men,
38 As a flock of holy ones, as a flock of Jerusalem, In her appointed seasons, So are the waste cities full of flocks of men, And they have known that I `am' Jehovah!'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 36
Commentary on Ezekiel 36 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 36
We have done with Mount Seir, and left it desolate, and likely to continue so, and must now turn ourselves, with the prophet, to the mountains of Israel, which we find desolate too, but hope before we have done with the chapter to leave in better plight. Here are two distinct prophecies in this chapter:-
Eze 36:1-15
The prophet had been ordered to set his face towards the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them, ch. 6:2. Then God was coming forth to contend with his people; but now that God is returning in mercy to them he must speak good words and comfortable words to these mountains, v. 1 and again v. 4. You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord; and what he says to them he says to the hills, to the rivers, to the valleys, to the desolate wastes in the country, and to the cities that are forsaken, v. 4. and again v. 6. The people were gone, some one way and some another; nothing remained there to be spoken to but the places, the mountains and valleys; these the Chaldeans could not carry away with them. The earth abides for ever. Now, to show the mercy God had in reserve for the people, he is to speak of him as having a dormant kindness for the place, which, if the Lord had been pleased for ever to abandon, he would not have called upon to hear the word of the Lord, nor would he as at this time have shown it such things as these. Here is,
Eze 36:16-24
When God promised the poor captives a glorious return, in due time, to their own land, it was a great discouragement to their hopes that they were unworthy, utterly unworthy, of such a favour; therefore, to remove that discouragement, God here shows them that he would do it for them purely for his own name's sake, that he might be glorified in them and by them, that he might manifest and magnify his mercy and goodness, that attribute which of all others is most his glory. And, the restoration of that people being typical of our redemption by Christ, this is intended further to show that the ultimate end aimed at in our salvation, to which all the steps of it were made subservient, was the glory of God. To this end Christ directed all he did in that short prayer, Father, glorify thy name; and God declared it was his end in all he did in the immediate answer given to that prayer, by a voice from heaven: I have glorified it, and I will glorify it yet again, Jn. 12:28. Now observe here,
Eze 36:25-38
The people of God might be discouraged in their hopes of a restoration by the sense not only of their unworthiness of such a favour (which was answered, in the foregoing verses, with this, that God, in doing it, would have an eye to his own glory, not to their worthiness), but of their unfitness for such a favour, being still corrupt and sinful; and that is answered in these verses, with a promise that God would by his grace prepare and qualify them for the mercy and then bestow it on them. And this was in part fulfilled in that wonderful effect which the captivity in Babylon had upon the Jews there, that it effectually cured them of their inclination to idolatry. But it is further intended as a draught of the covenant of grace, and a specimen of those spiritual blessings with which we are blessed in heavenly things by that covenant. As (ch. 34) after a promise of their return the prophecy insensibly slid into a promise of the coming of Christ, the great Shepherd, so here it insensibly slides into a promise of the Spirit, and his gracious influences and operations, which we have as much need of for our sanctification as we have of Christ's merit for our justification.