Ezekiel 36
PATThe spiritual blessings of Xhe gospel arc sometimes described under the emblems of fruitfulness and plenty. (See the notes on Isa. iv. 2. xxxv. 2. lxv. 10. Jer.xxxi. 12.) JVfien I have broken the bands of their yoke.] The samo expression which is used concerning the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. (Lev. xxvi. 13. Jer.ii. 20.) Their final restoration being represented as the greater deliverance of the two. (Seo Jer. xxiii. 7, 8.) And delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them.’] See Jer. xxv. 14. This and the following chapter contain a prediction of the general restoration both of Israel and Judah, a subject often spoken of by this prophet: of which the return of the two tribes from Babylon may be thought an earnest. are the infamy of the heathen.] Your calamities have made you become a proverb, a by-word, and a reproach among the heathen round about you, according to the threatenings of the prophets denounced against you. (See Deut. xxviii. 37. 1 Kings ix. 7, 8. Psal. lxxix. 4. Jer. xviii. 16. Lam. ii. 15. Dan. ix. 16.)
Ezekiel 36:1
± HOP IIESY unto the mountains of’Israel. See the following verse.
Ezekiel 36:2
Because the enemy hath said against you, even the undent high places arc ours in possession. The Idumeans have made their boasts (see ver. 5. xxxv. 10.) that they should become masters of the mountainous parts of Judea, Avhere the ancient fortresses w r ere placed which commanded all the rest of the country. To the same sense we are to understand the expression of treading tipon the high places of the earth, Deut. xxxii. 13. i. e. taking possession of the fortresses or passes which command the rest of the country.
Ezekiel 36:3
And ye are taken vp in the lips of talkers, and
Ezekiel 36:4
Which became a prey to the residue of the heathen that are round about you. To these heathens that are left, after the general desolations threatened upon the neighbouring countries, Moab, Edom, Amnion, &c. (Compare ver. 36. Jer. xxv. 20. xlvii. 4.)
Ezekiel 36:5
Surely in the fire of my jealousy. In that fervent zeal and concern that I have for my own honour, which is blasphemed among the heathen. (See xxxv. 12, 13. compare xxxviii. 19. xxxix. 25.) Against the residue of the heathen — which have appointed my land into their possession.] See the note on xxxv. 12.
Ezekiel 36:6
Because ye have borne the shame of the heathen. See xxxiv. 29. xxxv. 12, 13.
Ezekiel 36:7
I have lifted up my hand. I have solemnly sworn. (See xx. 5, &c.)
Ezekiel 36:8
Yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. This may have an immediate aspect upon the Jews’ return from Babylon, when they were restored to the possession of their own country. If we suppose the words to relate to the general restoration of the nation, the longest distance of time that the things of this world can extend to, is but as a moment in respect of eternity. (Compare Heb. x. 37. Philip, iv. 5.)
Ezekiel 36:10
And the wastes shall be builded. Compare ver. 33. This may likewise have been in some measure fulfilled at their return from Babylon. (Compare Isa. lviii. 12. lxi. 4.)
Ezekiel 36:11
And I will multiply upon you man and beast. As God in his judgments threatens to cut off man and beast from’a land; (see xiv. 17.) so here he promises to replenish it with both. (Compare Jer. xxxi. 27. xxxiii. 12.) And will do better unto you than at your beginnings.] In bestowing upon you the blessings of the gospel; the promises of which were made first to the Jews and to their children, (Acts ii. 39.) The words may likewise imply, that God would give them a more lasting and secure possession of their land than ever they had before. (See the following verses.)
Ezekiel 36:12
Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you. O mountains or land of Israel, (ver, 8.)
Ezekiel 36:13
Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations. The neighbouring people raised this ill character upon the land of Judea, because of the severe judgments of the sword, famine, and pestilence, which had destroyed the greatest part of the inhabitants. The expression alludes to that evil report which the spies brought upon it, (Numb. xiii. 32.) that it was a land that did eat up its inhabitants; as if the air had been unwholesome, or the country always afflicted by some judgment from heaven.
Ezekiel 36:14
Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, &c. Thou shalt be free from the strokes of heaven, and from the annoyance of enemies on earth.
Ezekiel 36:15
Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, &c. Sec ver. 6. and xxxiv. 29. Neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more.] The Chaldee, and some other ancient versions, translate the words, Neither shalt thou bereave thypeoplejpr nations] any more; as if the word, in the original, were shaccal, the same which is used in the sense of bereaving in the foregoing verses; whereas here the present copies read cashal, which signifies to fall. But it hath been before observed, that words in the Hebrew, which are near in sound, often have an affinity in their signification. (See the note on xxvii. 15.)
Ezekiel 36:17
Their way was before me, as the uncleanness of a removed woman. As such a person was under a legal pollution, and forbidden to come within the courts of the temple, or attend upon God’s worship there: so the defilements the Jews had contracted by their idolatries, and other heinous sins, rendered them unqualified to be my people, or to offer up any religious service to me.
Ezekiel 36:18
IVherefore, I poured my fury upon them for the blood they had shed upon the land, and for their idols, &c. Murder and idolatry, two sins of the first magnitude, are often joined together in the catalogue of national sins recited in this prophecy; meaning particularly, the blood of their children, which they offered to their idols. (See xvi." 36. 38. xxiii. 37.)
Ezekiel 36:19
And I scattered them among the heathen, &c. See v. 12.
Ezekiel 36:20
And when they entered unto the heathen — they profaned my holy name, when they said unto them, &c. Or, When it was said unto them: verbs of the third person being often taken * impersonally. By their evil practices they brought a scandal upon my name, and gave occasion to the heathen to say, See what profligate wretches these are who call themselves by the name of God’s people, whom he hath justly expelled out of their country which he had given them. The Chaldee paraphrase understands the words to this sense: “If these are God’s people, why does he suffer them to be turned out of the land which he made the place of his own especial residence? why does he not continue to protect them?” But the former sense agrees better with the scope of the text, and with St. Paul’s application of it to the Jews of his own time, Rom. ii. 24. and with what follows, ver. 31.
Ezekiel 36:21
But I had pity for my holy name, &c. Iwrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted among the heathen, as the prophet speaks, xx. 9.
Ezekiel 36:22
1 do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel. The promises I make in your favour in the following verses, are not owing to any desert of yours, but purely to vindicate my own honour. (See ver. 32. and compare Deut. ix.5. Psal. cvi. 8.)
Ezekiel 36:23
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, &c. I will give illustrious proofs of my power and goodness, and vindicate my honour from the reproaches with which it has been blasphemed among the heathen, upon the occasion of your evil doings. And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord.] The return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity was taken notice of by the heathens, as a signal instance of God’s providence towards them; (see Psal. cxxvi.2.) and their general conversion will be a much more remarkable proof of my fulfilling the promises made to their fathers; so that the heathens themselves will bo forced to take notice of it. (See xxxvii. 28.) It will be an effectual argument to con- Microsoft® [chap. XXXVII. vince infidels that your nation, and the rest of the true Israelites, are the only church of God, and professors of his truth. (See Zcch. viii. 23.) When I shall be sanctified in you before your eyes.] When I shall sanctify my name, as it is expressed in the former part of the verse, and make my power and goodness known to the world. (See the notes on xx. 41. xxviii. 22.)
Ezekiel 36:24
And I will take you out from among the heathen, &c. See xxxiv. 13. xxxvii. 21. xxxix. 25.
Ezekiel 36:25
And I will sprinkle clean water upon ijou, and ye shall be clean. The expression alludes to those legal purifications which were made by sprinkling water upon the unclean person; (see Numb. viii. 7. xix. 13.) and denotes the sacrament of baptism, by w T hieh true believers are cleansed from their former sins, and inwardly sanctified. (See Acts ii. 38. xxii. 1G. Titus iii. 5. and compare Jor. xxxiii. 8.) St. Paul may probably allude to this text, when he exhorts the Hebrew converts to draw nigh to God, having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and their bodies washed with pure water, (Heb. x. 22.) From all your filthiness, and from your idols will I cleanse you.] When the prophets foretell the general conversion of the Jews, they usually mention their detestation of their former idolatries, as a necessary preparation towards it. (See Isa. i. 29. xvii. 7, 8. Jer. iii. 22, 23, &c. Zech. xiii. 1, 2.) Some account of this circumstance of their conversion hath been given in the note upon Isa. lxv.7. and upon the forcmentioned chapter of Jeremiah. Ver. 2G, 27. A new heart also will I give you, &c.] See xi. 19. This promise will be fulfilled, when the heart of this people shall turn to the Lord, and the veil shall be taken from it, as St. Paul informs us, 2 Cor. iii. 1G. (Compare Jer. xxxi. 33, 34.)
Ezekiel 36:28
And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beasts of the land devour them. Seever. 25. And they shall dwell safely, &c] Sec the note on Jer. xxiii. 6. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers.] See xxviii. 25. And ye shall be my people, &c] See xi. 20.
Ezekiel 36:29
And I tvill raise them up a plant of renown. The Mcssias is often described under the name of the branch; and the rod or shoot growing of the stem of Jesse. (See Isa. iv. 2. xi. liii. 2. Jer. xxiii. 5. Zeeh. iii. 8. vi. 12.) And they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land.] But shall be blessed with plenty of all things. (See ver. 26, 27. and xxxvi. 29.) Neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.] By whom they were reproached, as if their God had cast them off. (See xxxvi. 3. 6. 15.) 1 will also save you from all your uncleannesses.] I will take away the guilt of them, and deliver you from the punishments due to them. (See Matt. i. 21.) Ibid, and
Ezekiel 36:30
Then shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, &c. See ver. 24. And I will call for the com, and will increase it, &c] See the notes upon xxxiv. 27. 29.
Ezekiel 36:31
And ye, my flock, the flock of my pasture, are mm. These words, at the conclusion of the chapter, explain the metaphor which runs through the whole: that what was said of a flock and its shepherds, is to be understood of men and their governors; and especially of God’s people, whom he takes care of, as a shepherd does of his flock. (See xxxvi. 38. Psal. lxxxi. 2.) TJien shall ye remember your own evil ways.] See the note upon xvi. Gl. And shall loathe yourselves in your own sight, &c] See vi. 9.
Ezekiel 36:32
Not for your sakes do I this — be it known unto you, &c. The prophet repeats what he said ver. 22. t on purpose to check all vain presumption in the Jews, and confidence of their own intrinsic worth or merit: a fault they have been very prone to in all ages.
Ezekiel 36:33
I will cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. - See ver. 10.
Ezekiel 36:34
Whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by it. As Moses had threatened, Deut. xxix.
Ezekiel 36:35
TJiis land that zvas desolate is become like the garden of Eden. Sec xxviii. 13. Isa. Ii. 3. Ver. 3G. The heathen that are left round about you, shall I know that I the Lord build the ruined places, Szc] The heathen nations that are near you, (see ver. 4.) shall be convinced that the restoring the Jews to their former state must be the immediate hand of God, who will certainly, in due time, fulfil what is here foretold. (See xxxvii. 14.)
Ezekiel 36:37
Itcill yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them. God, in his anger, tells the Jews, that he will 7iot be inquired of by them, (xiv. 3. xx. 3. 31.) intimating, that during their continuance in idolatry and other wickedness, they ought not to address themselves to him, nor expect any favourable answer to their requests; but now, upon their repentance and reconciliation, he tells them, that he will be inquired of by them; i. e. he will dispose their hearts to apply themselves to him by prayer, and will answer the petitions they make to him for the fulfilling these his promises. (SecPsal. x. 17. and compare Jer, xxix. 13.)
Ezekiel 36:38
As the holy flock; as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts. The sheep and lambs, designed for the sacrifices which were offered at the three solemn feasts, were both very numerous, and likewise of the best in their kind. The epithet oHioly, and most holy, is often applied to sacrifices in the Lcvitieal law, as being wholly dedicated to God, and set apart for his worship. (See Lev. \u 25.29. Numb, xviii. 9.) So shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men.] See xxxiv. 31.