Ezekiel 20:27-29

Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me.

Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me ... when I had brought them into the land. The next period-namely, that which followed the settlement in Canaan; the fathers of the generation existing in Ezekiel's time walked in the same steps of apostasy as the generation in the wilderness.

Yet in this - not content with past rebellions, and not moved with gratitude for God's goodness, "yet in this" still further they rebelled.

Have blasphemed - `have insulted me' (Calvin).

Verse 28. Then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices - even those who did not sacrifice to pagan gods have offered "their sacrifices" in forbidden places.

There they presented the provocation of their offering - an offering as it were purposely made to provoke God.

There also they made their sweet savour - what ought to have been sweet became offensive by their corruptions. He specifies the various kinds of offerings, to show that in all alike they violated the law.

Verse 29. What is the high place whereunto ye go? - What is the meaning of this name? For my altar is not so called. What excellence do ye see in it, that ye go there, rather than to my temple, the only lawful place of sacrificing? The very name "high place" convicts you of sinning, not from ignorance, but perverse rebellion. The name thereof is called Bamah unto this day - this name ought to have been long since laid aside, along with the custom of sacrificing on high places, which it represents, being borrowed from the pagan, who so called their places of sacrifice (the Greeks, for instance, called them by a cognate term, boomoi, whereas I call mine [ mizbeeach (H4196)] "altar." So Grotius explains. The very name implies the place is not that sanctioned by me, and therefore your sacrifices even to ME there (much more those you offer to idols) are only a "provocation" to me (Ezekiel 20:28; Deuteronomy 12:1). David and others, it is true, sacrificed to God on high places, but it was under exceptional circumstances, and before the altar was set up on mount Moriah.