Ezekiel 36:16-21

Ezekiel 36:16. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

Ezekiel 36:17. Son of man, the house of Israel, those that dwelt upon their land, and they denied it by their ways and their doings, their way before me was as the defilement of a removed woman.

Ezekiel 36:18. And I poured out (the future in the original, to denote continued action) my fury upon them, because of the blood which they shed upon the land, and because they defiled it with their idols;

Ezekiel 36:19. And I scattered them among the nations, and dispersed them in the lands; according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

Ezekiel 36:20. And when they came to the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, since it was said of them, “Jehovah's people are these, and from his land have they gone forth.”

Ezekiel 36:21. And I felt pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the heathen, whither they went. (The only peculiar expression in the passage is that in the first clause of this last verse: “I felt pity for my holy name.” This is undoubtedly the proper rendering; as the עַל after חָטַל denotes the object in behalf of which the pity is exercised. The LXX., whom Hävernick follows, refer it to the people: I spared them for my holy name. Undoubtedly the people were spared because of the affection indicated here; but the affection itself was one of tender regard, or pitying concern for the Lord's own abused and dishonoured name.)

The passage, it will be observed, is of an unfinished and incomplete nature, being chiefly intended to form a sort of preamble to the great promise contained in the next section. It assigns the reason of all the severities which had been exercised by God upon the covenant-people; which it traces to their own sinful ways, viewed in connection with the holiness of God. Because of this he had banished them from his presence, and driven them as exiles into foreign lands. And even then so inveterate was their attachment to sin, they still continued to follow their forbidden practices; and by so doing, as also by the abject condition in which they appeared, they still further brought reproach upon the holy name of God. Had he therefore sought merely in them the reason of his procedure, nothing could have been expected but a continuance of the severity until they were utterly consumed. But a higher reason presented itself to the mind of God in regard to his own name, which he must vindicate from the dishonour thus brought upon it; and which, situated as matters were, he could only effectually do by accomplishing a change to the better in their condition. But this change must be no superficial one. The evil had its seat in the opposition between them and the righteousness of God, and the first grand step to an effectual and permanent recovery must consist in their thorough renewal of heart to the Divine image. This is what is promised in the verses that follow.