Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 34:30
Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God [am] with them, and [that] they, [even] the house of Israel, [are] my people, saith the Lord GOD.
30. am with them ] LXX. omits with them, reading: that I the Lord am their God, and they my people the usual antithesis. The people’s consciousness of salvation shall be, so to speak, a double one, that Jehovah is their God and that they are his people. The two things might seem identical, but the second suggests a feeling regarding themselves which belongs to the perfect enjoyment of salvation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Eze 34:30
They, even the house of Israel, are My people.
Israels privileges
I. The distinctive appellation here given to the persons addressed–the house of Israel.
1. They were a people closely connected with each other. They belonged to the same house, or family. As the descendants from the same progenitor, they were, in a peculiar sense, brethren. The same is the case, though in a different sense, with those to whom the promises in the text are now made, in regard to their spiritual import. These persons, as genuine believers, are of the same house, or what the Apostle calls–the household of faith. They are brethren; and God Himself is their Father.
2. As the house of Israel, the persons to whom the promises in the text were originally addressed were a people highly privileged. But the people of God, under the present dispensation, are more highly favoured still. They too have been chosen by Him to be His peculiar people. They have a fuller and a far more glorious revelation of His will, and, both as it respects their present position and their future prospects, they have indeed a goodly heritage
3. As the house of Israel, they were bound to the discharge of peculiar and very important duties. More still has been given to us; and therefore are our obligations to duty, if possible, more imperative. The Israelites were bound to love, to worship, and, in every other view, to serve the Lord; and so unquestionably are we.
4. Notwithstanding all this, the house of Israel had, previously to the time here referred to, departed grievously from the Lord, and wrought great abominations. Alas! the parallel here in regard to ourselves holds in a way that may and ought to fill us with shame and confusion of face. But where sin abounded, grace is often made much more to abound.
II. The import of these promises as made to the persons so characterised.
1. There is here a promise of the continued presence of the Lord to be with them as their God.
2. It is here promised that the Lord will recognise the people addressed as being in reality His own people. The people of God are His peculiar property in consequence of the price paid for their purchase (1Pe 1:18-19). They are further Gods people, in consequence of being closely, vitally, and immutably united to the person of His Son (Joh 17:21). They are His people, besides, in consequence of having been subdued and won to Him by the powerful and gracious operations of His Holy Spirit (Psa 110:3). But, on the other hand, they are characterised and treated as the people of God in consequence of their own voluntary choice and covenant engagement to be for Him, and not for another. They are accordingly blessed with all needful blessings as the people of God (Eph 1:3).
3. It is here promised, that they shall have a pleasing conviction of their peculiar blessedness in enjoying the presence of the Lord, and being recognised by Him as His people.
4. The accomplishment of this promise, implying, as it does, such honour and blessedness, is as certain as the truth of God can make it.
Application–
1. Inquire to what description of people we belong.
2. Well may the saints of God be joyful in glory.
3. All must be wretched and miserable who are not the people of God (Isa 57:20-21).
4. Those who are not now the people of God may yet have that honour (Hos 1:10). (A. Thompson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Thus, by these many and great blessings I give them,
shall they know, the very heathen shall be convinced.
The Lord, who can do what I promise and my people expect.
Their God, by covenant from their forefathers.
With them; present with them, and reconciled to them, and do bless them.
That they, whom they despised and injured, and ere while did make slaves, and used so.
My people; my peculiar people above all people in the world; and that though he seemed to have cast him off, and they feared it, and the enemies boasted he had, yet he owns them for his, and will not break his covenant.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them,…. Granting them his gracious and powerful presence, by all the above instances of his goodness and favour to them:
and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God: and not utterly cast off, as they seemed to be; the divine Shechinah now being returned to them, which had departed from them; the “loammi” that was written on them being now wiped off from them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“And they will know that I, Yahweh their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel are my people, says the Lord Yahweh. And you my sheep, the sheep of my pasture are men, says the Lord Yahweh.”
Compare Rev 21:22-23; Rev 22:3-5. His people will know the presence of Yahweh. They will know that they are His. And they will know that they are ‘men’, spiritual beings made in His image and likeness, and not brute beasts of the field.
Notice the change of phrase. Not ‘they will know that I am Yahweh’. That could spell judgment. But ‘they will know that I, Yahweh their God, am with them.’ A guarantee of blessing. The fact of Yahweh being with His people is always central to conceptions of perfection and glory. For the title ‘their God’ compare Eze 34:24. It signifies here the Divine King and Lord.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
That there might be no possible mistake made by the Church, from this preaching of the Prophet, he is directed in the close of his sermon to drop the figure, both of the shepherd and the sheep, and in plain terms to say, that the Church is all along meant by the flock; and the Lord God is the shepherd of his people.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 34:30 Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God [am] with them, and [that] they, [even] the house of Israel, [are] my people, saith the Lord GOD.
Ver. 30. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them. ] They shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord; Psa 107:43 they shall know the salvation of their God; Psa 50:23 they shall have a plerophory of faith. as Rom 8:38
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
shall they know. See note on Eze 6:10. Some codices, with three early printed editions, read “shall the nations know”,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 34:24, Eze 16:62, Eze 37:27, Psa 46:7, Psa 46:11, Isa 8:9, Isa 8:10, Mat 1:23, Mat 28:20
Reciprocal: Exo 16:12 – ye shall know Psa 95:7 – people Psa 100:3 – we are his Isa 60:16 – thou shalt know Eze 14:11 – that they Eze 36:36 – know Eze 39:22 – know Eze 39:28 – shall they Act 2:36 – all Heb 8:11 – for all
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 34:30, The benefits that will come to the faithful members of Christs kingdom will be such that no human source could supply. Hence they will know that I the Lord their God am with them and that the institution is of divine origin.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fifth, Yahweh would be their God and they would be His special people in the fullest sense that the nation had ever experienced (cf. Jer 31:33; Rom 11:25-27). Everyone would know that He was with them and that they were His Chosen People.
"This covenant anticipates events and promises never realized in the first return of Israel from captivity. When the people came back to the land after 535 B.C., they were under the control of every world-dominating power including Medo-Persia, Greece, and finally Rome until A.D. 70 when the nation was destroyed by Rome." [Note: Cooper, p. 304.]
Millennial conditions are in view.