Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 20:34
And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.
34. the people ] peoples. Though Israel was in captivity in the Babylonian empire, this empire embraced many peoples, the world as it was then known (cf. ch. 17) Formerly Israel was entangled among the Egyptians, now it is entangled among all nations; it shall now be gathered out as it was in the former age.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
From the people; Sidonians, Ammonites, Moabites, &c., whoever they were to whom the house of the apostate Jews betook themselves; where they thought to lurk, God will bring them thence into Babylonish captivity.
Will gather you; the same thing doubled for greater emphasis.
Are scattered; you dispersed yourselves for your supposed safety and welfare.
With a mighty hand: see Eze 20:33. My power and arm shall execute my just displeasure on you.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
34. The Jews in exile mightthink themselves set free from the “rule” of God (Eze20:33); therefore, He intimates, He will reassert His right overthem by chastening judgments, and these, with an ultimate view, notto destroy, but to restore them.
peoplerather,”peoples.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered,…. The Egyptians, Ammonites, and others; where they went for safety and protection, and among whom they intended to settle, and had formed a scheme to cast off the yoke of God and his worship, and be no more a nation or people under his government; but mix themselves with these nations, and become a part of them, and join with them in all matters, civil, commercial, and religious; but here the Lord will not suffer them to continue, but will bring them out from hence:
with a mighty hand, and a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out: as before, Eze 20:33 though some think this is to be understood as a favour to the Israelites, who should be brought out of the countries of the idolatrous Gentiles by mighty power, and with marks of wrath and displeasure upon the nations; designing hereby the good of his people, that they might be reduced to his government, and live happily and comfortably under him, and not be destroyed and lost among the nations.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He confirms the same sentiment, and at the same time marks out the manner of his dominion. For when the Jews were dispersed in captivity, they were like strangers to God’s jurisdiction: they were mingled with the Gentiles, and their condition seemed very like an exemption from God’s power. Now God signifies when he wishes to recover his right, that he had a place at hand, since he will bring them out from the Gentiles, and gather them from the lands through which they were dispersed. We are aware, as we have often said before, that it was a kind of abdication, when God expelled the ten tribes from the land of Canaan and a part also of that of Judea. Since then they were disinherited, they thought themselves free on their part, and they no longer regarded the authority of God, since they ceased to be his peculiar heritage when they were deprived of the promised land. Here God reminds them that although he had emancipated them for the time, yet they were in some sense under his hand, since he would collect them again, and so subdue them, that they should not escape his authority. I will draw you back, says he, and gather you with an outstretched arm and with a strong hand. But what he adds concerning the fury of his wrath does not seem consistent with this. For it was a sign of favor to collect them again, although hard and sorrowful slavery awaited them; yet they might perceive some taste of the divine goodness in gathering them from exile. For we know the bitterness of their captivity; especially under the Chaldaeans, by whom they were subdued. But the phrase wrath may relate as much to the Gentiles as to the Israelites themselves: yet I explain it more willingly of the Israelites, because although God in reality shows that he did not altogether neglect them, yet he asserts his right as a master grievously offended. Just as a person who had lost his slave may afterwards receive him into his house, and yet that house may be like a sepulcher, because he is either thrust into a deep dungeon, or three or four times as much is exacted of him as he can bear. So therefore God pronounces, although he may gather the Israelites again under his hand, yet they shall feel him to be displeased with them, since he nevertheless will require the punishment of their impiety; and this will be better understood from the context.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(34) Bring you out from the people.This and the parallel clause, gather you out of the countries, cannot refer to the restoration of the people to their land, both because it is an avenging act, with fury poured out; and also because its object is said in the next verse to be to bring them into the wilderness. It must therefore refer to the Divine dealings with the people in their dispersion. He will separate them from other people; He will not allow them, as they proposed (Eze. 20:32), to be as the heathen; but will bring them out and gather them as a distinct race and spiritually separated from them all, to be dealt with as His own peculiar people.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
“And I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead with you face to face. Just as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, says the Lord Yahweh.”
As He had done with the people of old at the exodus from Egypt, so will He deal with His people in the future. Although they have forsaken Him they will not finally be allowed to be forsaken, for it is He Who is Lord and over all, and not them. His purposes will not be allowed to fail. Thus they will be brought to a situation where they will have to choose between blessing or judgment.
They wanted to be ‘like the nations’ but there would come a day when He would no longer allow it. Indeed the nations would not want them, and that would be because of the hand of God. Thus would they be gathered out of the countries to which they had gone. But the picture is not one of untold blessing. Rather He would be dealing with them in His anger. He would be facing them up with what they were and would seek to bring them back into covenant with Himself, just as He had at Sinai. God will not be thwarted even by His people.
Note the emphasis that this will be in ‘the wilderness’. This will be a new Exodus, but here it also stresses that they will still be in barrenness (compare Hos 2:6; Hos 12:9). Their future blessing will depend on their response. There He will plead with them face to face, just as He had at Sinai in the wilderness. But many will not respond (Eze 20:38) and will stay in the wilderness, just as the previously rebellious Israel in the time of Moses had died in the wilderness and had never seen the Promised Land.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 20:34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.
Ver. 34. And I will bring you out from the people. ] The heathens with whom you have incorporated, hoping so to shun me, and to be out of the reach of my rod; but I shall sure find and ferret you out of all your starting holes; I shall be meet with you. So God was here with the English by the sweating sickness, which hunted and haunted also our countrymen in foreign parts, singling them out from others. It reigned, or rather God reigned by it, some forty years together. a
a Sennert. De Febrib., lib. iv. cap. 15.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
people = peoples.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 20:38, Eze 34:16, Isa 27:9-13, Amo 9:9, Amo 9:10
Reciprocal: Exo 6:1 – with a strong Isa 31:3 – stretch Isa 42:25 – he hath poured Jer 21:5 – with an Jer 31:8 – the coasts Jer 31:10 – He Eze 6:14 – will I
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 20:34. The captivity was intended to act as a season of discipline for the rebellious people of God. While in that state they were destined to feel the fury of Him whom they had disobeyed.