Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 36:13

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say unto you, Thou [land] devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations;

13. Comp. the report of the spies, Num 13:32, “the land is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.” The land whose population perishes of scarcity is regarded as itself devouring them. It is doubtful if there is any reference to such things as the unhealthy situation of the land (2Ki 2:19), or even to the wars by which the country had been decimated. The true meaning is given Eze 36:30.

bereaved thy nations ] thy nation, i.e. population, and so Eze 36:14-15. The plur. could hardly refer to the two nations, Israel and Judah (Eze 35:10), although it might possibly be used like “peoples” of the nation considered as made up of a number of portions (Hos 10:14). The land of Israel was subject to droughts (Jer 14:1; 1 Kings 17 seq., Amo 4:7), to blasting and mildew (Amo 4:9), as well as to the scourge of locusts (Joel 1). Comp. the struggles with famine which the returned exiles had, Hag 1:10-11; Hag 2:17.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The judgments which God sent upon the land, had so destroyed the inhabitants that men deemed it a fatal land, which brought destruction to all that should occupy it (compare 2Ki 17:25).

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

They say; the heathen round about, the enemies of Israel, accuse the land of destroying its natives, and bring an evil report on it.

Devourest up men; either by intestine wars, or foreign invasions, or by unhealthful air, or by multitude of wild beasts, or by barrenness and famine, thou killest them, art like a womb that conceives often, but almost as often miscarrieth, as the word implieth.

Hast bereaved; consumed thy nations, so the French; deprived them of their hope of increasing in numbers of men, as a miscarrying womb deprives a family of hoped children.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. Thou land devourest upmenalluding to the words of the spies (Nu13:32). The land personified is represented as doing that whichwas done in it. Like an unnatural mother it devoured, that is, it wasthe grave of its people; of the Canaanites, its former possessors,through mutual wars, and finally by the sword of Israel; and now, ofthe Jews, through internal and external ills; for example, wars,famine (to which Eze 36:30,”reproach of famine among the heathen,” implies theallusion here is).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Thus saith the Lord God, because they say unto you,…. The Heathens that dwelt round about the land of Judea said to the mountains, or to the whole land,

thou land devourest up men; eats up the inhabitants of it; which is part of the ill report the spies, in the times of Moses, brought on it, Nu 13:32, to which the allusion is here; suggesting, that either the air was unwholesome; or that the land did not produce a sufficiency of food to support the inhabitants of it; or that the curse of God was upon it; and that one judgment or another was ever on it; either famine, or pestilence, or the sword of the enemy, or internal broils among themselves, or wild beasts, whereby the inhabitants of the land were wasted and consumed:

and hast bereaved thy nations; the several tribes, of men and children; so that they were diminished and depopulated: the allusion seems to be to miscarrying women, or such who kill their children in the womb, and become abortive.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(13) Thou land devourest up men.Comp. Num. 13:32, a passage probably in the prophets mind, though he uses it for a different reason. Israel had so often sinned, and so often, in consequence, suffered the Divine punishments, that the heathen, not recognising the true cause, superstitiously attributed the result to something in the land itself.

With the promises of this chapter comp. Isa. 54:1-8. It is impossible to interpret that passage otherwise than of spiritual blessings; and Ezekiel, as a devout Jew, as well as a prophet, was thoroughly penetrated with the same hopes as are there expressed by the evangelic prophet.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Because they say to you, ‘you are devourer of men, and have been a bereaver of your nation,’ therefore you will devour men no more, nor bereave (another reading is ‘cause to stumble’) your nation any more,” says the Lord Yahweh, “nor will I let you hear any more the shame of the nations, nor will you any more bear the reproach of the peoples, nor will you cause your nation to stumble any more,” says the Lord Yahweh.”

These words are still spoken to ‘the land’ as representing Israel. In Num 13:32 the land of Canaan is described as a land that ‘devours its inhabitants’. The idea there would seem to be that it was seen as a land of trouble and unrest, a land where death was commonplace. Here the parallel ‘bereaver of your nation’ would confirm this. But in the future there will be no more violent or premature death, nor will there be any reproach or shaming, nor will men stumble. Again we are carried into the environment of eternity with God, when all death and sin is done away.

The alternative reading ‘cause to stumble’ may well be correct. It is repeated in Eze 36:15 and Ezekiel is fond of repetition. But the overall meaning is the same. The word signifies weakness, and therefore here stumbling morally through weakness. Compare Jer 18:15; Jer 31:9; Hos 14:9 for parallel thoughts.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Eze 36:13 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say unto you, Thou [land] devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations;

Ver. 13. Thou land devourest up men, ] a scil., By pestilence, famine, sword, evil beasts: thou art an unlucky land, an unblest country, feral and fatal to thine inhabitants. Hesiod saith the like of his country Ascre; and another b of St David’s in Wales, that it is a place neither pleasant, fertile, nor safe. Strabo saith the like of Judea, but with a despiteful mind. as Eze 36:5 Those malevolent spies said no less. Num 13:32

a Terra abortiens populos.

b Girald., Cambrens.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)