Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 20:38

And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.

38. Describes the other side of the process from Eze 20:37, the separating of the unworthy from among the people, ch. Eze 34:17; Eze 34:20.

and they shall not enter ] But they. They shall be brought out but shall fall in the wilderness of the peoples as the rebellious generation aforetime fell in the wilderness of Egypt.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 38. I will purge out from among you the rebels] The incorrigibly wicked I will destroy; those who will not receive him whom I have appointed for this purpose as the Saviour of Israel. And I will gather you who believe out of all the countries where you sojourn, and bring you into your own land; but those of you who will not believe – will not receive the Son of David to reign over you, shall never enter into the land of Israel, but die in your dispersions. This is what the contradicting and blaspheming Jews of the present day have to expect. And thus, both of you shall know that he is Jehovah, fulfilling his threatenings against the one, and his promises to the other.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Purge out; cull, and pick out, that they may be rejected, as they deserve, or brought forth to shame and punishment.

The rebels, the contumacious sinners, who harden themselves against God; his severe wasting judgments shall find them out in their hiding-places, and drag them out, but not to return them to Canaan, they shall no more return thither.

Ye shall know that I am the Lord; by which it shall appear, that though apostates may change their religion, and deny their God, yet he hath not less power to restrain, nor less right to govern, nor less sovereignty to dispose of them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

38. (Zec 13:9;Zec 14:2).

purge outor,”separate.” Hebrew, barothi, forming a designedalliteration with “berith,” the covenant; nota promise of grace, but a threat against those Jews who thought theycould in exile escape the observation and “rule” of God.

land of IsraelThoughbrought out of the country of their sojourn or exile (Babylonformerly, and the various lands of their exile hereafter) into theliteral land of Palestine, even it shall be to them an exilestate, “they shall not enter into the land of Israel,“that is, the spiritual state of restored favor of God to His covenantpeople, which shall only be given to the remnant to be saved (Zec 13:8;Zec 13:9).

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

And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me,…. All men are enemies, and enmity itself, against God; and every sin is an act of hostility and rebellion against him; every transgression and violation of his law is a casting off of allegiance to him, and a trampling upon and despising his legislative power and authority; wherefore rebels and transgressors of his law are put together; the one being explanative of the other. The people of the Jews were always more or less a rebellious people; so they were in the times of Moses, and all the while that he was with them, and were notoriously so in the times of Ezekiel; and therefore are often so described in this book; but they were not all so; such as were, the Lord here declares that he would single them out, as goats from among his sheep he brought under the rod, and purge them as chaff from the wheat; that sinners in Zion should be no more in the congregation of the righteous:

I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn; or “countries”; wherever they have been pilgrims and sojourners, as they now are; wherever they are; it looks as if, a little before or when the remnant of God, according to the election of his grace, shall be converted, that the rest shall be collected together into some one place, and be destroyed as rebels:

and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; when the converted Jews shall; an emblem of carnal Israelites, wicked professors, being not admitted into the New Jerusalem, and being excluded from the kingdom of heaven:

and ye shall know that I am the Lord; that knows all things, can do all things, and will faithfully and punctually perform all that is promised, threatened, or predicted.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

He continues the discourse which he had commenced, namely, that God would not suffer the exiles to withdraw themselves from him from the time he had adopted them. Then, since they were bound by the blessing of redemption, although they thought themselves far removed from the sight of God, after they were cast into exile, he says he would be present to gather them from the land of their dwellings; that is, wherever they were dispersed to bring them out. Some suppose the phrase to include a promise of favor, because it is said, I will purge you; but the word to choose, as I prefer to render it, or to discern, means, that God will drag to light those who think they have obtained hiding-places in which they can escape his eyes. Although, therefore, they promise themselves complete exemption from God’s authority, he, on the other hand, pronounces them deceived, since he would collect them all together from the land of their habitations, although they were dispersed in different places. God’s threatenings are sufficiently evident from the second clause of the verse, they shall not come, says he, into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am Jehovah. He confirms what we saw before, that when liberty was granted them, they did not on that account become God’s Church, since he had another reason for ruling over them, namely, to chastise them severely for their wickedness. They shall not come, therefore, into the land of Israel; that is, they shall remain, and grow corrupt in the desert, as we know that to be a most severe punishment, when God swore, that except two persons, Caleb and Joshua, no one should enter the land of Canaan. (Num 14:23.) So also in this passage, I will free you, that is, when your return to your country shall be evident, a new light shall seem to have shone forth, but yet reflect on what happened to your fathers; for although redeemed, they perished in the desert, and never possessed the land of Canaan. The same thing shall happen to you also:, since your return is only a prelude to my favor: but you shall never return to the land of Israel. But this is extended to those who returned and dwelt in their native land. But we said that Judea was a place of exile since the course of God’s favor was broken off, and God begun to plead with them afresh, even when he had led them from their captivity at Babylon And you shall know that I am Jehovah: as we said yesterday, God is recognized by the reprobate, while they are compelled to acknowledged a judge whose fatherly clemency they had despised. It follows —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(38) I will purge out.The discipline of affliction should have the effect of separating the rebellious in heart from the purified remnant, so that they should not return with them to the land of their fathers. A striking instance of the way in which the Divine purposes are fulfilled through the operations of ordinary laws, occurred on the return of the Jews from their exile. After a residence of more than two generations in Babylonia, they had made themselves homes there, and had become prosperous and contented. Jerusalem and Juda were utterly desolated and environed with their persistent enemies. The journey thither was long, attended with hardships and danger, and at its close lay the toilsome and self-sacrificing work of pioneers. When therefore, the permission was given for the return, only those who were most earnest in their zeal for the home and religion of their fathers were ready to avail themselves of the opportunity. A great sifting of the people thus took place from the very circumstances of the case, and only a comparatively small portion constituting the better part, returned to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.

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

38. I will bring them forth These rebellious Hebrews, who think to settle down in Egypt or Babylon and adopt the religion of the country and make their home there, shall find it to be no pleasant home for them. They shall be forced to leave as the true Israelite will but they shall not find the same glad end to their journey. They shall remain outcasts from their native land, the scorn both of the heathen and of their own people.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Eze 20:38. And I will purge out, &c. The prophet carries on the comparison of the Egyptian deliverance. These rebels, like their fathers in the wilderness, were indeed to be brought out of captivity, but were never to enjoy the Promised Land; and the rest, like the children in the wilderness, were to have the yoke of the ritual law made still more galling: and thus the comparison is completed. These were the three different punishments inflicted in these different periods: the first personal; the second and the third national; only the third made heavier than the second, in proportion to their accumulated offences. Div. Leg.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

I detain the Reader at this passage purposely to beg of him to remark with me, the vast difference in scripture between rebels and rebellious. If the Reader will look, carefully over the whole Book of God, I believe that he will find, that while the Lord calls His children rebellious, and frequently complains of their rebellion, he never once calls them rebels. And though we find a woe pronounced upon the church, Isa 30:1-8 . and a dreadful woe in deed followed, when the Church was sent into Babylon, yet the sorrow was wholly temporal, not an everlasting woe, of being cut off from the Lord. So far from it, that in Isa 30:18 and following verses of that same chapter, the Lord declares that He waits to be gracious, and His people shall weep no more; so that though in many scriptures we find the children of God declared to be rebellious, yet never once are they called rebels. See Psa 78:8 ; Isa 65:2 ; Eze 2:3-5 . Hence therefore, rebels, in scripture language, means the seed of the serpent, of whom the Lord saith, as in this chapter, He will purge them out from among His people. So He did, by Korah and his company. See Num 17:10 . And though Moses did once in his haste call the people of God rebels, Num 20:10 as David did, upon another occasion, call the Lord’s people, as well as the ungodly, liars, Psa 116:11 yet it should seem by the history that the Lord was displeased for his doing so.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Eze 20:38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 38. And I will purge out from among you the rebels. ] Making first a difference, and then a riddance of them from among my covenanters.

And they shall not enter into the land of Israel. ] But either die by the way, or, if they live to enter, they shall find it a strange land to what they or their fathers left it. See Jer 44:14 . Lavater maketh the sense to be, They shall not enter into the heavenly Canaan. a See the like, Psa 95:11 .

a Non eos perducam ad promissiones aeternas. – Oecol.

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