Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 20:39
As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter [also], if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.
39. The present text must read: Go, serve ye every one his idols; but hereafter surely ye shall hearken unto me, and no more profane my holy name with your gifts (cf. Eze 20:26), cf. Eze 23:38-39. The ironical advice or concession refers to Eze 20:32-33, cf. Amo 4:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 39. Go ye, serve ye every one his idols] Thus, God gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they could not live, by thus permitting them to take their own way, serve their gods, and follow the maxims and rites of that abominable worship.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In short, you have done wickedly as you could, and I have done what was sufficient to reclaim you, I have foretold you what will be the final event, O house of Israel, and further I will not strive with you.
Go ye; ironically spoken, or, as is usually said to unreclaimable ones, Take your course, which allows not, nor commands, but threatens the evil course of such a one; or it is a divorce of this adulterous house, an utter casting them off for their idolatry.
Hereafter also: it seems an abrupt, vehement speech, which includes some heavy sentence, but it is suppressed, as too great to be uttered, or to leave room for doing more than the offender expected, Ecc 11:9; Amo 4:4; Mat 23:23. You take yours, I will take my course, and see whose word shall stand. But while ye are such idolaters and notorious sinners, forbear to take my name into your lips, bring me none of your gifts and sacrifices to your idols, and pretend you bring them ultimately to me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
39. Equivalent to, “I wouldrather have you open idolaters than hypocrites, fancying you canworship Me and yet at the same time serve idols” (Amo 5:21;Amo 5:22; Amo 5:25;Amo 5:26; compare 1Ki 18:21;2Ki 17:41; Mat 6:24;Rev 3:15; Rev 3:16).
Go ye, serveThis isnot a command to serve idols, but a judicial declaration ofGod’s giving up of the half-idol, half-Jehovah worshippers to utteridolatry, if they will not serve Jehovah alone (Psa 81:12;Rev 22:11).
hereafter alsoGodanticipates the same apostasy afterwards, as now.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As for you, O house of Israel,…. The then present house of Israel, and the elders of it, who were upon the spot with the prophet:
go ye, serve ye everyone his idols; or dunghill gods; since they liked not to serve the true God: this is not giving them leave to serve idols, or approving their idolatrous practices; but is said “ironically”, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe, who compare it with Ec 11:9:
and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me; not only serve them now, but for the future; seeing ye choose not to hearken to my voice, to obey my laws, and to worship me, and me only; for it suggests, that it was better to attend to the service of the one, or of the other, and not halt between two opinions; but either, if the God of Israel was the true God, then serve him, and him only; but if Baal, or any other Heathen deity, was so, then serve them, and keep serving them:
but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts and with your idols; to worship him along with them, and them along with him; to pretend they worshipped him in them, and offered their gifts and sacrifices to him through them; and so made use of his name as a cover to their idolatrous practices: this was a polluting his name, and was abominable to him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Ultimate Gathering of Israel, and Its Conversion to the Lord
Eze 20:39. Ye then, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Go ye, serve every one his idols! but afterwards – truly ye will hearken to me, and no longer desecrate my holy name with your sacrificial gifts and your idols, Eze 20:40. But upon my holy mountain, upon the high mountain of Israel, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, there will all the house of Israel serve me, the whole of it in the land; there will I accept them gladly; there will I ask for your heave-offerings and the first-fruits of your gifts in all that ye make holy. Eze 20:41. As a pleasant odour will I accept you gladly, when I bring you out from the nations, and gather you out of the lands, in which you have been scattered, and sanctify myself in you before the eyes of the heathen nations. Eze 20:42. And ye shall know that I am Jehovah, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land which I lifted up my hand to give to your fathers; Eze 20:43. And there ye will think of your ways and your deeds, with which ye have defiled yourselves, and will loathe yourselves (lit., experience loathing before yourselves) on account of all your evil deeds. which ye have performed; Eze 20:44. And ye will know that I am Jehovah, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways and according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, is the saying of Jehovah. – After the Lord has declared to the people that He will prevent its being absorbed into the heathen world, and will exterminate the ungodly by severe judgments, the address passes on, with the direction henceforth to serve idols only, to a prediction of the eventual conversion, and the restoration to Canaan of the purified nation. The direction, “Go ye, serve every one his idols,” contains, after what precedes it, a powerful appeal to repent. God thereby gives up the impenitent to do whatever they will, having first of all told them that not one of them will come into the land of Canaan. Their opposition will not frustrate His plan of salvation. The words which follow from onwards have been interpreted in different ways. It is opposed to the usage of the language to connect with , serve ye hereafter also (De Wette, etc.), for has not the force of the Latin et = etiam , and still less does it signify “afterwards just as before.” Nor is it allowable to connect closely with what follows, in the sense of “and hereafter also, if ye will hearken to me, profane ye my name no more” (Rosenmller, Maurer). For if were used as an imperative, either it would have to stand at the beginning of the sentence, or it would be preceded by instead of . Moreover, the antithesis between not being willing to hear and not profaning the name of God, is imported arbitrarily into the text. The name of the Lord is profaned not only by sacrifices offered in external form to Jehovah and in the heart to idols, but also by disobedience to the word and commandments of God. It is much better to take by itself, and to render the following particle, , as the ordinary sign of an oath: “but afterwards (i.e., in the future)…verily, ye will hearken to me;” that is to say, ye will have been converted from your idolatry through the severe judgments that have fallen upon you. The ground for this thought is introduced in Eze 20:40 by a reference to the fact that all Israel will then serve the Lord upon His holy mountain. is not “used emphatically before a direct address” (Hitzig), but has a causal signification. For ‘ , see the comm. on Eze 17:23. In the expression “all Israel,” which is rendered more emphatic by the addition of , there is an allusion to the eventual termination of the severance of the people of God (compare Eze 37:22). Then will the Lord accept with delight both them and their sacrificial gifts. , heave-offerings (see the comm. on Exo 25:2 and Lev 2:9), used here in the broader sense of all the sacrificial gifts, along with which the gifts of first-fruits are specially named. , as applied to holy offerings in the sense of , belongs to the later usage of the language. , consisting of all your consecrated gifts. , as in Lev 22:15. This promise includes implicite the bringing back of Israel from its banishment. This is expressly mentioned in Eze 20:41; but even there it is only introduced as self-evident in the subordinate clause, whereas the cheerful acceptance of Israel on the part of God constitutes the leading thought.
, as an odour of delight ( , the so-called Beth essentiae ), will God accept His people. , odour of satisfaction, is the technical expression for the cheerful (well-pleased) acceptance of the sacrifice, or rather of the feelings of the worshipper presenting the sacrifice, which ascend to God in the sacrificial odour (see the comm. on Gen 8:21). The thought therefore is the following: When God shall eventually gather His people out of their dispersion, He will accept them as a sacrifice well-pleasing to Him, and direct all His good pleasure towards them. does not mean, I shall be sanctified through you, and is not to be explained in the same sense as Lev 22:32 (Rosenmller), for is not equivalent to ; but it signifies “I will sanctify myself on you,” as in Num 20:13; Lev 10:3, and other passages, where is construed with pers. (cf. Eze 28:25; Eze 36:23; Eze 38:16; Eze 39:27), in the sense of proving oneself holy, mostly by judgment, but here through having made Israel into a holy nation by the refining judgment, and one to which He can therefore grant the promised inheritance. – Eze 20:42. Then will Israel also recognise its God in His grace, and be ashamed of its former sins. For Eze 20:43, compare Eze 6:9 and Eze 16:61. – With regard to the fulfilment, as Kliefoth has correctly observed, “in the prediction contained in Eze 20:32-38, the whole of the searching judgments, by which God would lead Israel to conversion, are summed up in one, which includes not only the Babylonian captivity, the nearest and the first, but the still more remote judgment, namely, the present dispersion; for it is only in the present dispersion of Israel that God has really taken it into the wilderness of the nations, just as it was only in the rejection of Christ that its rebellious attitude was fully manifested. And as the prophecy of the state of punishment combines in this way both the nearer and more remote; so are both the nearer and more distant combined in what Eze 20:40 to 44 affirm with regard to the ultimate fate of Israel.” The gathering of Israel from among the heathen will be fulfilled in its conversion to Christ, and hitherto it has only taken place in very small beginnings. The principal fulfilment is still to come, when Israel, as a nation, shall be converted to Christ. With regard to the bringing back of the people into “the land of Israel,” see the comm. on Ezekiel 37, where this promise is more fully expanded.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Now again God expressly bears witness that he rejects the Israelites because they infected the pure worship of the law with their mixtures; for we said that they were deceived by a vain imagination when they thought God pleased with their obedience, while they worshipped him only half-heartedly. When they heaped up fictions, they thought this diligence would be pleasing to God, because they professed to acknowledge the true God as their redeemer. Here again he announces that he rejects all half-worship, since he wished to have the entire affections, and to admit no rival: Now, says he, O house of Israel, thus says Jehovah, Go each of you and serve your idols, just as if he would cast them off from his family. And yet we see that they were always under his dominion; and thus some kind of inconsistency arises when God rejects them from his sway, and yet retains them as his right. But the liberty which is now granted is to show them that it is in vain to worship God by halves.
This passage is peculiarly remarkable, since at this time many are deceived, while they rest upon their own inventions, and think that they best discharge their duty towards God when they partially obey his commandments, and then pile up a great heap of superstitions, partly received from their fathers and partly fabricated by themselves. Again, scarcely one in a hundred will be found who does not think it better partially to worship God than entirely to devote themselves to idols; and this indeed is true as far as man is concerned; for the impiety is more foul and detestable when men openly reject God, and divorce themselves from him, and devote themselves to idols, than if they partly worshipped God and partly idols. But in the meantime, we see that God pronounces that he cannot bear this profanation; and we must diligently notice the reason which is added; for when gross and palpable impiety is indulged in, God’s name is not so profaned as when clever men reconcile the pure worship of God with superstitions: and for this reason, that monstrous Indecision (292) was in God’s sight worse than the papacy; and why so? for although the papists profane God’s name, yet their madness is at present so detected, that it openly appears that they are idolaters; but that invention mingled darkness with light, and infected the pure doctrine with its leaven. But God here exclaims that he could not endure this deception when men profess to worship him, for they defile themselves with superstitions, since profaneness is added to impiety, and both are the result of hypocrisy. The rest tomorrow.
(292) Calvin’s language is here rather remarkable. He calls the clinging to the worship of God, while bowing down to idols, illud prodigiosum Interim, which is in the French translation ce beau monstre D’interim. The same idea is also expressed by the word commentum , translated ceste belle invention ainsi forgee .
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(From MSS. Sermons by the Rev. S. Thodey.)
(Eze. 20:39-44.)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.The prophet now declares the promise for the future. Israel is to be gathered again, and to be converted to the Lord.
Eze. 20:39. Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also if ye will not hearken unto Me. Jehovah here utterly disowns all relationship with the rebels. He would have idolatrous worship severed from all connexion with His name. The tone in which they are addressed is one of the keenest irony. Compare Rev. 22:11. It is as much as to say, Well, since you will not listen to Me and return to My service, you may take your own course; we henceforth part company. The expression and afterwards is intended to give emphasis to the address, and anticipates the continued apostacy of the rebels. (Henderson.)
Eze. 20:40. In the mountain of the height of Israel. Mount Moriah. There shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve Me. Not the former rebellious house of Israel (Eze. 20:39), but the people now restored to the practice of true religion. They should all congregate at the appointed festivals as of old, at Jerusalem. There will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. The Lord will then accept them with delight, and all their sacrificial gifts and offerings. This promise implies the bringing back of Israel from its banishment.
Eze. 20:41. Your sweet savour. Heb., Odour of satisfaction. This is the technical expression for the cheerful (well-pleased) acceptance of the sacrifice, or rather of the feelings of the worshipper presenting the sacrifice, which ascends to God in the sacrificial odour (Gen. 8:21). The thought therefore is the following: When God shall eventually gather His people out of their dispersion, He will accept them as a sacrifice well-pleasing to Him, and direct all His good pleasure towards them.(Keil.) And I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. The restoration of the Hebrews from the captivity and the re-establishment of their religious services, would have the double effect of procuring honour to Jehovah from the surrounding nations, and attesting in their own experience the happiness springing out of the true knowledge of the Divine character.(Henderson.)
Eze. 20:43. And there shall ye remember your ways. In Eze. 20:40 the outward acts of the religion are described; here we have that inner condition of spirit, that heart of repentance, which alone can make such acts acceptable to God.
Eze. 20:44. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for My names sake. The gathering of Israel from among the heathen will be fulfilled in its conversion to Christ, and hitherto it has only taken place in very small beginnings. The principal fulfilment is still to come, when Israel, as a nation, shall be converted to Christ.(Keil.)
HOMILETICS
ISRAELS CONVERSION TO THE LORD
I. The divine method in their conversion.
1. They were urged to decision. Go ye, serve ye every one his idols (Eze. 20:39). Make your choice, at once; let there be no double-heartedness. Make full proof of the idols ye have chosen, If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him (1Ki. 18:21). This would have the effect of detecting hypocrites, and bringing the true servants of the Lord to a full determination.
2. They are brought to contrition. Contrition for past sins always accompanies true conversion. Such a condition is produced
(1) By a remembrance of sin as a transgression against God. Ye shall remember your ways, and all your doings wherein ye have been defiled Eze. 20:43. Ye shall think of your sins as having defiled your souls, and therefore were contrary to the nature and will of a God who is holy, and whose commandment is holy, just, and good.
(2.) By self-loathing. Ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils which ye have done. The conviction of sin, when brought home to a man, makes him to see himself in the true light.
II. The results of their conversion.
1. They should be in reality what they had hitherto been only in name. In Eze. 20:39, they are addressed as, the House of Israel, though they went after their idols. The name was but a hollow unreality. They are now the true House of Israel (Eze. 20:40). They should still worship on the height, but that would be on Gods holy mountain and with a pure worship (Eze. 20:28).
2. They should render an acceptable worship (Eze. 20:41). As they were in a right state of heart, their service of worship and offerings would be well-pleasing unto the Lord. The principle of Divine worship, in both Testaments, is the same,In spirit and in truth.
3. The penalty of their sin should be remitted. For their sins they were scattered; now they are to be restored (Eze. 20:42).
4. They should give God all the glory. His forbearing mercy. His forgiving mercy. His mercy so great as not to be restrained by all their sins from granting the greatest gifts.
5. Their conversion would promote the true knowledge of God.
(1) Among the nations around them. I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. (Eze. 20:41). The heathen would see that the God of Israel was holy, just in all His ways; yet merciful, and faithful to His covenant promises.
(2) Among themselves. And ye shall know that I am the Lord. (Eze. 20:44). And there is a knowledge of God which we can gain from the history of His dealings with His ancient people. We see that God brings His purposes to pass amidst all human opposition and rebellion. We know that, in the worst times, there has always been an elect, remnant of faithful men to glorify Him. And the history of the past assures us that it will be thus in the future.
(Eze. 20:41).
I will accept you with your sweet savour. The spirit of the Gospel is observable under the law. There can be but one way to heaven. David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel were sinners saved by grace as much as Paul, and Peter, and John. And they were saved by the same Mediator. Let us consider the blessings promised in the text, and then we shall give some directions for the attainment and preservation of the enjoyment it reveals.
I. Some remarks upon the blessing promised. These are acceptance with God through a Redeemer, through His grace and righteousness. His sacrifice is as a sweet smelling savour, and the worship of His people is as incense acceptable to Him. Acceptance stands opposed to condemnation, and is enjoyed through faith in Christ.
1. This blessing is the grand discovery of the gospel. It is the design and end of all Gods communications with menGod in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.
2. It is always the result of an experience of the work of grace upon the soul. It puts the life of hope into obedience. Our persons must be accepted before our works.
3. It secures the true and right enjoyment of all temporal blessings. To a man who has no sense of Gods friendship, the best earthly enjoyments lose their charm; and to a man who has hope of pardon through Christ, all outward trials lose their sting.
4. It is essential to a victory over death and a joyful eternity.
II. Some directions for the attainment and enjoyment of this blessing.
1. Look carefully to the fact of your own acceptance of Christ, and to the sincerity of your hearts in their covenant closure with Christ. See that you take him, with the happiness He has promised, for your All. Take heed of looking after another felicity, or cherishing other hopes than those of which He is the Author and object. Christ is the great promise made to faith; and faith is the souls acceptance of Christ as He is freely promised. To present Christ before us with all his gifts and blessings is the design of the Gospel; and to rest in Christ as the fountain of all our hope and joys is the first act of a believer. God prays you to accept Christ: as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God.
2. Cherish habitual and confiding thoughts of the freeness and riches of Gods grace through a Redeemer. This will greatly kindle that love which brings its own evidence of its truth. This will make God appear more amiable in your eyes, and then you will love him more abundantly; and as your conscious love to Him increases your doubts and apprehensions will give way. So much love, so much comfort. Those right apprehensions of God also will do much to drive away those terrors which arise from false apprehensions of Him. Delightful objects draw the heart after them as the loadstone draws iron. In Christ you see goodness and mercy in its condescension, and brought nearer to you than the Divine nature originally was. In Christ God is come down into our nature, and so Infinite Goodness is become incarnate.
3. Every day renew your apprehensions of the truth and value of the promised felicity. Consider the end of your faith, in order to see the vain and delusive character of things below. Let not heaven lose with you its attractive force through your forgetfulness or unbelief. He is the best Christian who knows best why he is a Christian. Look upon all present actions and conditions with a remembrance of their end. Value not earthly things beyond their true worth. Be not ambitious of that honour which must end in confusion, nor of the favour of those whom God will call His enemies.
4. Guard against those snares and temptations which you know to be most hurtful to the life of religion in the soul.
5. Gather up and improve your own past experience of Gods mercy towards you and others. We do God and ourselves great wrong by forgetting, or not improving, our experience of His goodness. God does not give His mercies only for present use, but for the future also. What a wrong it is to God in your next trial to forget His last deliverance! Have not mercies come so unexpectedly, and in such a wonderful manner, that you have (as it were) the name of God written on them? (Jdg. 13:23). All my bones shall say, who is like unto thee. You may make great use also of the experience of others.
(From MSS. Sermons by the Rev. S. Thodey).
(Eze. 20:43.)
1. Sense of mercies, rather than of judgments, makes sin bitter, and leads unto repentance. Their captivity, and the sad things they suffered therein, did not embitter their sin unto them, and break their hearts; but Gods kindness in bringing them out of Babylon into the land of Israel, that prevaileth with them; when they had received marvellous kindness from God, then they were marvellously affected, greatly ashamed of their ways, and loathed themselves. Mercies in Zion produced that which judgments in Babylon did not. Great mercies bestowed upon great sinners, do preach the doctrine of repentance most effectually, convincing them strongly of their unworthy and vile carriages towards the Lord. Davids kindness brake the heart of Saul, and made him to weep and say, Thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil (1 Samuel 24.) If human favour hath such influence into a sinful heart, what hath Divine? Moses, by his strokes, fetched water out of a rock; David, by his kindness. God sometimes by His judgments humbles men, and brings them to repentance, but mostly by His mercies. The sweet influences of the Gospel have pierced deeper into sinners hearts than the terrors of the law.
2. When the Lord gathers up His people out of the world, and brings them into nearer relation to Himself, into Canaan, and Church order, He looks that they should review their former ways and be much affected with them, and thoroughly repent for them. When brought into Canaan, they were not only to eat the milk and honey, to behold the glory thereof, but they were to remember days of old, their sins in Babylon, how they had polluted themselves and provoked the Lord; and thereupon to mourn kindly for their unkindnesses to Him, who hath showed such marvellous loving-kindness unto them. When God brings man out of the world now unto Zion, gives them the milk and honey of the gospel, shows them the glory thereof, then they look back, wonder at their wickedness, and loathe themselves for it, saying, Who is like unto us in sin and wickedness, and who is like unto our God in grace and goodness, in pardon and forgiveness? (Mic. 7:18). When it shall please God to bring the Jews out of that Babylon they are now in, unto the true Canaan, the Church of Christ, they will remember their iniquities, their bitter and bloody doings against Christ, mourn and loathe themselves for the same (Zec. 12:10; Rev. 1:7).)
3. When repentance springs from sense of love and kindness, as it is real and deep, so it is secret and universal. They should, being brought into Canaan, not only remember their sins, but they should loathe themselves, be displeased so with themselves, that they should smite and abhor themselves, and that in their own sight, and for all the evils they had committed; when no eye saw them, they would spread all their sins before them, and in the sight and sense of them be vile in their own eyes.(Greenhill.)
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(39) Go ye, serve ye every one his idols.Comp. Jos. 24:15. If, after the warning given, ye still refuse obedience, then the Lord gives you up to your fate; go, serve your idols. Such should be the terrible end of the persistently rebellious part of the nation, as with the obdurate sinner of all ages, they will be given up to the punishmentthan which nothing can be imagined more fearfulof being allowed to follow to the end the ways of their own choice.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
39. And hereafter, etc. Rather, but hereafter you shall surely hearken unto me, and pollute my holy name no more with your gifts. Dr. Skinner prefers the Syriac, “but as for you, O house of Israel, if ye will not hearken unto me, go serve every man his idols. Yet hereafter ye shall no more profane my holy name,” etc. If they persist in mixing Jehovah with idol worship (Eze 20:32), they shall be left to perish in the wilderness as their fathers did (Eze 20:38); but the remnant of the nation, which shall include all the true house of Israel (Eze 20:40), shall return to their own land and worship Jehovah, and him only, on the holy mountain. The one God cannot accept gifts from any who at the same time are hiding idols in their homes or hearts.
My holy name Ezekiel often used the word “holy.” Duhm thinks Bible holiness is ceremonial or aesthetic, meaning merely to be separated from something; but Alexander Duff has well shown that it means rather to be separated to something; namely, to “Jehovah’s holiness, his devoted love, his guiding, healing, and ever-forgiving grace.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“As for you, Oh house of Israel, thus says the Lord Yahweh, Go you. Serve every one his idols, now and hereafter if you will not listen to me. But you will no more profane my holy name with your gifts and with your idols.”
For the present those listening had a choice. They must choose between Him and idols. But they could not have both. If they wished to choose idols let them serve them, both now and later, but let them not then come to Yahweh with gifts or associate Him with idols. Then they would be in contrast to those who yet will serve Him purely (Eze 20:40). They would reveal themselves not to be His people.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 20:39. Go ye, serve ye, &c. Go ye, and take away every one his idols; and if ye will not hereafter hearken unto me, certainly ye shall pollute my holy name no more, &c. Houbigant, who, instead of, All the house of Israel, all of them in the land, in the next verse, reads, All the house of Israel from all lands.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 20:39-43. As for you, O house of Israel As, in the height of God’s vengeance on the sins of this rebellious people, the distant prospect always terminated in mercy; so, with a mercy, and a promise of better times, the whole of this prophetic scene is closed; in order that those to whom it is addressed should, however criminal, not be left in an utter state of desperation, but be afforded some shadow of repose in the prospect of future peace and tranquillity. For now, turning again to these temporary inquiries after God, the prophet addresses them, As for you, O house of Israel, &c. as much as to say, “Go on no longer in this divided worship; halt no more between two opinions: if Baal be your God, serve him; if the God of Israel, then serve him only.” The reason follows, Eze 20:40-43. For in my holy mountain, &c. that is, “For then, a new order of things shall commence. My people, after their return from the captivity, shall be as averse to idolatry, as till then they were prone to it; and the memory of their former follies shall make them loath themselves in their own sight.” But the prophesy, I doubt not, has also a reference to the final restoration of the Jews as a preparation for the universal reign of Christ.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 20:39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter [also], if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.
Ver. 39. Go ye, serve ye everyone his idols, ] q.d., You may for me; and I had rather you would, than dissemble, as you do, and play on both hands, to the scandal of the weak, and scorn of the wicked. For my part, I have done with you for ever; take your own course.
And with your idols.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 20:39-44
39As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD, Go, serve everyone his idols; but later you will surely listen to Me, and My holy name you will profane no longer with your gifts and with your idols. 40For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, there the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land; there I will accept them and there I will seek your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your holy things. 41As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered; and I will prove Myself holy among you in the sight of the nations. 42And you will know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the land which I swore to give to your forefathers. 43There you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done. 44Then you will know that I am the LORD when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.’
Eze 20:39-40 The verse begins with sarcasm (two Qal IMPERATIVES, go and serve), denoting Israel’s current idolatry. However, a new day is coming (i.e., afterwards, BDB 29)! This is the great news of chapter 20. Israel has been so consistently unfaithful, but YHWH is consistently faithful. He will restore a repentant and purged Israel!
Note how the text expresses this.
1. You will surely listen to Me, Eze 20:39
2. My holy name you will profane no longer, Eze 20:39, cf. Eze 36:21-22; Lev 18:21; Lev 19:12; Lev 20:3; Lev 21:6
3. All Israel will serve Him, Eze 20:40
4. I shall accept them, Eze 20:40
5. I shall accept their sacrifices, Eze 20:40
6. I shall accept them as an approved sacrifice, Eze 20:41
7. I will gather them from the nations, Eze 20:41
8. I shall prove Myself holy among you in the sight of the nations, Eze 20:41
Eze 20:40 For on My holy mountain In context this refers to Mount Moriah, on which Abraham offered Isaac (i.e., Genesis 22) and on which the temple was built (i.e., 1 Kings 7-8). This is a symbolic way of asserting the effective working of the Mosaic covenant.
The term mountain(s) (BDB 249) is used often in Ezekiel.
1. It often is a way of referring to the whole land (as Mt. Seir stands for Edom, cf. Eze 35:2-3), i.e., Eze 6:3; Eze 19:9; Eze 33:28; Eze 34:13-14; Eze 37:22
2. It often is a way of identifying the site of fertility worship, i.e., Eze 6:3-4; Eze 6:13; Eze 18:6; Eze 18:11
3. It refers to YHWH’s special holy mountain (i.e., the temple), cf. Eze 17:22-23; Eze 20:40; Eze 28:14; Eze 28:16 (possibly a divine mountain in the north); Eze 43:12
The phrase the mountains of Israel is unique to Ezekiel (i.e., note repetition in Ezekiel 36).
Eze 20:41 As a soothing aroma I shall accept you This construct (BDB 629 and 926) is metaphorical of a sacrifice (see note at Eze 20:28). In Ezekiel it has been used consistently of pagan offerings (cf. Eze 6:13; Eze 16:19; Eze 20:28). But here it refers to the people of Israel (cf. Eze 43:27). YHWH brought back the remnant from exile and denotes His acceptance of them by this priestly phrase (remember Ezekiel was a trained priest of the line of Zadok)! A people in fellowship with their Creator has always been the goal of the tabernacle and Levitical sacrifices.
Eze 20:43 Israel’s true repentance will cause them
1. to remember (BDB 269, KB 269, Qal PERFECT) their sin (cf. Eze 16:61; Eze 16:63; Eze 36:31, in Eze 6:9 they will remember how they hurt YHWH).
2. to loathe (BDB 876, KB 1083, Niphal PERFECT) themselves for it (cf. Eze 6:9; Eze 36:31).
Eze 20:44 not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt ways Grace, oh grace! What a marvelous message to share! God will deal with us according to who He is and what He has done, not according to who we are or what we have done! Hallelujah.
The spiritual principle we reap what we sow is abrogated by the mercy and eternal redemptive purposes of YHWH. Israel has a place in a larger scheme, as do the nations (cf. Romans 9-11).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Go ye, &c. Figure of speech Eironeia. App-6, Divine irony.
every one = every man, as in verses: Eze 20:20, Eze 20:7-8.
but: or, yet. holy. See note on Exo 3:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Go ye: Eze 20:25, Eze 20:26, Jdg 10:14, 2Ki 3:13, Psa 81:12, Hos 4:17, Amo 4:4, Amo 4:5, Rom 1:24-28, 2Th 2:11
but: Eze 23:37-39, Pro 21:27, Isa 1:13-15, Isa 66:3, Jer 7:9-11, Zep 1:4, Zep 1:5, Mat 6:24, Rev 3:15, Rev 3:16
Reciprocal: Exo 20:23 – General Lev 20:3 – profane Deu 4:28 – ye shall Deu 28:36 – there shalt thou Jos 24:15 – choose 1Ki 18:27 – Elijah Isa 48:11 – for how Isa 50:11 – walk Isa 57:6 – Should Jer 6:20 – To what Jer 7:10 – come Jer 34:16 – polluted Jer 44:26 – that my name Eze 13:19 – pollute Eze 39:7 – and I will Eze 43:7 – no more Hos 4:15 – nor Amo 6:10 – for Mar 14:41 – Sleep Act 7:42 – and gave
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 20:39. This verse should be considered in connection with verse 25. It was a part of the treatment for idolatry that the nation be compelled to continue its corrupt practice even while in captivity.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 20:39. As for you, O house of Israel, go ye, serve, &c. Go at present, and serve your idols; persist in your idolatries, agreeably to the stubbornness of your hearts. An indignant concession. And hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me And continue to do so if you are resolved not to do according to my commandments, or to worship me as I have appointed. But pollute ye my holy name no more, &c. While you are such idolaters, forbear to take my name into your lips. In other words, While you offer your gifts, and immolate your children to idols, do not call yourselves any longer my servants, nor pretend to pay your devotions in my temple, and thereby bring a reproach upon my name and worship.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
20:39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; {t} Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and after this [also], if ye will not hearken to me: but profane ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.
(t) This is spoken to the hypocrites.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
An application of this history lesson 20:39-44
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
For now the Israelites to whom Ezekiel spoke could continue to practice idolatry, not with the Lord’s blessing of course, but in the future they would listen to and obey the Lord. Then they would make His name common no longer with their unacceptable worship, gifts, and idolatry.
"Those who consistently reject God and his Word favor self-willed idolatry and immorality and are finally given over by him to reprobation (Eze 20:30-39), a process described in detail in Rom 1:24-28." [Note: Cooper, p. 207. Cf. Feinberg, p. 115; and Chisholm, Handbook on . . ., p. 258.]