Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 36:16
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
16 38. Not for Israel’s sake but for his own name’s sake does Jehovah do all this in behalf of his people
The passage is remarkable and deserves to be studied almost more than any other part of Ezek. when one is seeking to understand his general conceptions. It exhibits his philosophy of history (cf. ch. 20), and also describes with great beauty the principles of Jehovah’s redemption of his people, and how step by step this shall be accomplished. The prophet reviews the history of the people from the beginning, running it out till it is lost in its eternal issues, and shewing how it will read to all the nations of the earth the true lesson of that which Jehovah, the God of Israel, is, and leave ineffaceable impressions on the mind of his own people.
First, Eze 36:16-24. The history with its significance up to Israel’s final restoration. The people defiled the land with their idolatries and bloodshed ( Eze 36:17), therefore the fury of Jehovah was kindled and he poured it out upon them, scattering them among the nations ( Eze 36:18-19). By these disasters which the people brought upon themselves they “profaned” Jehovah’s name among the heathen. The nations, ignorant of the nature of Jehovah, and incapable of divining the moral principles of his rule of the world and of his people, attributed the calamities of Israel to the feebleness of their God, who was unable to defend them, saying, these are the people of Jehovah, and they are gone forth out of his land. Thus the greatness and power of Jehovah, who is God alone, was detracted from, and the knowledge of him by the nations which he wills in all that he does to convey to them was delayed or frustrated ( Eze 36:20). Therefore for the sake of his holy name he will interpose and turn the fortunes of his people, that he may be sanctified in the eyes of the nations and known by them to be God omnipotent ( Eze 36:21-24, cf. Eze 36:35-36).
Secondly, Eze 36:24-38. The history of Jehovah’s restoration of his people and their full redemption in its successive steps, with the eternal impressions which this history will engrave upon the people’s minds. In the prophet’s view Jehovah must vindicate himself in the eyes of the nations by the restoration of Israel, not because he is a mere tribal god who will do something for his people, but because he is God alone, and his manifestation of himself to the nations of the world is the goal towards which all history runs.
Jehovah “sanctifies” himself in the sight of the nations not only by convincing them of his power, but even more if possible by displaying his moral rule of his people (cf. Eze 39:23-24), and by the spiritual regeneration which he works among them ( Eze 36:25 seq.). But though this great thought of Jehovah’s revelation of himself in the sight of the nations be attractive to the prophet, having touched upon the redemption of Israel he becomes absorbed in these internal operations of Jehovah among his own people, which he pursues in all their details, and the wider thought of their influence on the heathen is not reverted to till Eze 36:35-36. (1) Jehovah will take his people from the nations and bring them again to their own land ( Eze 36:24). (2) Then he will sprinkle clean water upon them and wash them from all their past impurities ( Eze 36:25). (3) He will also regenerate them, giving them a new heart and a new spirit, putting indeed his own spirit within them ( Eze 36:26-27). (4) In this spirit they shall walk in his statutes and judgments, and thus shall inherit the land for ever, which the Lord will greatly bless ( Eze 36:27-30). (5) Surrounded thus on all sides by the tokens of Jehovah’s goodness, and looking at themselves and at their past doings with the new mind which the Lord will give them ( Eze 36:26), they shall loathe themselves because of all their former impurity and evil, for it is not for what they have been that Jehovah does this to them ( Eze 36:31-32). (6) Thus when Israel’s captivity is brought back the nations shall learn the true meaning of their dispersion, and the nature of Jehovah their God, who disperses and restores ( Eze 36:33-36).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The defilement of the people described in order to its removal.
Eze 36:20
They profaned my holy name – Caused it to be dishonored by the pagan who said in scorn, This is the people of God. The pagan, seeing the miserable state of the exiles, fancied that Yahweh was no more than a national god, powerless to protect his subjects.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 36:16-17
Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, son of man.
The messenger
Having scattered over an open field the bones of the human body, bring an anatomist to the scene. Observe how he fits bone to bone and part to part, till from those disjointed members he constructs a framework, which, apart from our horror at the eyeless sockets and fleshless form, appears perfectly, divinely beautiful. Now, as with these different parts of the human frame, so is it with the doctrines of the Gospel, in so far as they are intelligible to our limited understandings. There is a difference, which even childhood may discern, between the manner in which the doctrines and duties of the Gospel are set forth in the Word of God, and their more formal arrangement in our catechisms and confessions. They are scattered over the face of Scripture much as the plants of nature are distributed upon the surface of our globe. There, for example we meet with nothing that corresponds to the formal order, systematic classification, and rectangular beds of a botanical garden; on the contrary, the creations of the vegetable kingdom lie mingled in what, although beautiful, appears to be wild confusion. On the same moor, on the surface of the same meadow, the naturalist collects grasses of many forms, and finds both enamelled with flowers of every hue. And in those primeval forests which have been planted by the hand of God, and beneath whose silent and solemn shades man still walks in savage freedom, trees of every form and foliage stand side by side like brothers. Now, although over the whole surface of our globe plants of every form and family seem thrown at random, amid this apparent disorder the eye of science discovers a perfect system in the floral kingdom; and just as, though God has planted these forms over the face of nature without apparent arrangement, there is a botanical system, so there is as certainly a theological system, though its doctrines and duties are not classified in the Bible according to dogmatic rules. Does not this circumstance teach us that He intended His Word to be a subject of careful study as well as of devout faith, and that man should find in its saving pages a field for the exercise of his highest faculties?
I. That this portion of scripture, extending onwards from the 16th verse, presents an epitome or outline of the Gospel. Its details, with their minute and varied beauties, are here, so to speak, in shade; but the grand truths of redemption stand boldly up, much as we have seen from sea the summits of a mountain range, or the lofty headlands of a dim and distant coast. In the 17th verse, we have man sinning–Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings. In the 18th verse, we have man suffering–Wherefore, I poured My fury upon them. In the 21st verse, man appears an object of mercy–But I had pity. In the 22nd verse, man is an object of free mercy, mercy without merit–I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel. In the 24th verse, mans salvation is resolved on–I will bring you into your own land. In the 25th verse, man is justified–Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean. In the 26th and 27th verses, man is renewed and sanctified–A new heart also will I give you, etc. In the 28th verse, man is restored to the place and privileges, which he forfeited by his sins–Ye shall be My people, and I will be your God. This land that was desolate, is become like the garden of Eden. We have our security for these blessings in the assurance of the 36th verse–I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it; and we are directed to the means of obtaining them in the 37th verse–I will yet for this be inquired of, etc. Such is the wide and interesting field that lies before us. But before entering upon it, let us consider–
II. Who is commissioned to deliver Gods message. Who and what is the chosen ambassador of heaven? An angel? No; but a man. Son of man, says the Lord. By this title Ezekiel is so often addressed that it forces all our attention Lord remarkable fact, that God deals with man through the instrumentality of man, communicating by men His will to men. The rain, in its descent from heaven, falls upon the surface of our earth, percolates through the porous soil, and, flowing along rocky fissures or veins of sand, is conveyed below ground to the fountain whence it springs. Now, although rising out of the earth, that water is not of the earth, earthy. The worlds deepest well owes its treasures to the skies. So was it with the revealed will of God. It flowed along human channels, yet its origin was more than celestial; it was Divine.
1. The kindness of God to man. The God of salvation, the author and finisher of our faith, might have arranged it otherwise. Who shaft limit the Holy One of Israel? The field is the world. And as the husbandman ploughs his fields and sows his seed in spring by the same hands that bind the golden sheaves of autumn, God might have sent those angels to sow the Gospel, who shall descend at the judgment to reap the harvest. But though these blessed and benevolent spirits, who are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation, take a lively interest in the work; though watching from on high the progress of a Redeemers cause, they rejoice in each new jewel that adds lustre to His crown, and in every new province that is won for His kingdom; and though there be more joy even in heaven than on earth when man is saved, a higher joy among these angels over one sinner that repenteth than over ninety and nine just persons, yet theirs is little more than the pleasure of spectators. To man, however, in salvation, it is given to share, not a spectators but a Saviours joy; with his lips at least he tastes the joys of that cup for which Jesus endured the Cross and despised the shame. If theft parent is happy who has snatched a beloved child from the flood or fire, and the child, saved, and thus twice given hind, becomes doubly dear, what happiness in purity or permanence to be compared with his, who is a; labourer with God in saving souls?
2. The honour conferred on man. Did Moses occupy a noble position when, taking advantage of some rock, he stood aloft amid the dying Israelites, and there, the central figure of the camp, on whom all eyes were turned, raised high that serpent, at which to look was life? Nobler his attitude, much holier his office, who with his foot on a dying world, lifts up the Cross–exalts Jesus Christ and Him crucified–that, whosoever looketh and believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. What dignity does this world offer, what glittering stars, what jewelled honours flash on her swelling breast, to be for one moment compared with those which they win on earth, and wear in heaven, who have turned souls from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the living, loving God? Each converted soul a gem in their crown, they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars, forever and ever. How has the hope of this touched, as with burning fire, the preachers lips, sustained his sinking heart, and held up the weary hands of prayer! It has proved an ample recompense for the scanty rewards which Gods servants have received at the hands of men, for the penury which has embittered their life, and the hardships which have pressed on their lot. You are a son of man; and as you bear the prophets title, whatever otherwise you may be, let me call you to the prophets office. The Master hath need, much need, daily need of you. Take a living, lively, loving interest in souls. Dont leave them to perish. You are your brothers keeper. Permanently and formally to instruct may be the duty of others, but to enlist is yours. This honour have all His saints.
3. The wisdom of God. However highly gifted he may otherwise be, it is a valid objection to a preacher, that he does not feel what he says; that spoils more than his oratory. Once on a time an obscure man rose up to address the French Convention. At the close of his oration, Mirabeau, the giant genius of the Revolution, turned round to his neighbour, and eagerly asked, Who is that? The other, who had been in no way interested by the address, wondered at Mirabeaus curiosity. Whereupon the latter said, That man will yet act a great part; and added, on being asked for an explanation, He speaks as one who believes every word he says. Much of pulpit power under God defends on that; admits of that explanation, or of one allied to it. They make others feel who feel themselves. How can he plead for souls who neither knows nor feels the value of his own? How can he recommend a Saviour to others who himself despises and rejects Him? It is true that a man may impart light to others who does not himself see the light. It is true that, like a concave speculum cut from a block of ice, which, by its power of concentrating the rays of the sun, kindles touch wood or explodes gunpowder, a preacher may set others on fire, when his own heart is cold as frost. It is true that he may stand like a lifeless fingerpost, pointing the way on a road where he neither leads nor follows. It is true that God may thus in His sovereign mercy bless others by one who is himself unblessed. Yet commonly it happens that it is what comes from the heart of preachers that penetrates and affects the heart of hearers. Like a ball red hot from the cannons mouth, he must burn himself who would set others on fire. We have read the story of a traveller who stood one day beside the cages of some birds, that tuned their plumage on the wires, struggling to be free. A wayworn and sun-browned man, like one returned from foreign lands, he looked wistfully and sadly on these captives, till tears started in his eye. Turning round on their owner, he asked the price of one, paid it in strange gold, and opening the cage set the prisoner free; thus he did with another and another, till every bird had flown away singing to the sides–soaring on the wings of liberty. The crowd stared and stood amazed. They thought him mad, till to the question of their curiosity he replied, I was once a captive; I know the sweets of liberty. And so they who have experience of guilt, who have felt the serpents bite, the poison burning in their veins, who on the one hand have felt the sting of conscience, and on the other the peace of faith, the joys of hope, the love, the light, the liberty, the life that are found in Jesus, they, not excepting heavens highest angels, are the fittest to preach a Saviour; to plead with man for God, and with God for man. During a heavy storm off the coast of Spain a dismasted merchantman was observed by a British frigate drifting before the gale. Every eye and glass were on her; and a canvas shelter on a deck almost level with the sea suggested the idea that even yet there might be life on board. With all their faults, no men are more alive to humanity than our rough and hardy mariners; so the order instantly sounds to put the ship about; and presently a boat is lowered, and starts with instructions to bear down upon the wreck. Away after that drifting hulk go these gallant men over the mountain swell and roaring sea. They reach it; they shout; and now a strange object rolls from that canvas screen against the lee shroud of a broken mast. It is hauled into the boat. It proves to be the trunk of a man, bent head and knees together, so dried up and shrivelled as to be hardly felt within the ample clothes–so light that a mere boy lifted it on board. It is conveyed to the ship and laid on the deck. In horror and pity the crew gather around it. These feelings suddenly change into astonishment. The miserable object shows signs of life. The seamen draw nearer; it moves; and then mutters–in a deep sepulchral voice mutters–There is another man. Rescued himself, the first use the saved one made of Speech was to try to save another. Oh! learn that blessed lesson. Be daily practising it. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
They defiled it.—
The defiler
When with slow and lingering steps Adam and Eve came forth weeping from Paradise, and the gate was locked behind them, that was the bitterest home leaving the world has ever seen. Adam belay; the federal head of his family, they come not alone. A longer sad sadder procession follows them than went weeping on the road to Babylon. They are attended by a world in tears. Death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
I. Let us look at man sinning. Ye have defiled the land. Sin is presented here as a defilement. Pluck off that painted mask, and turn upon her face the lamp of Gods Word. We start–it reveals a deaths head. I stay not to quote texts descriptive of sin. It is a debt, a burden, a thief, a sickness, a leprosy, a plague, a poison, a serpent, a sting; everything that man hates it is; a load of curses and calamities beneath whose crushing, most intolerable pressure the whole creation groaneth. But leaving what is general let us fix our attention on that view of sin which the text presents. Here it is set forth as a defilement; and what else in the eye of God can deform, and does defile? Yet how strange it is, that some deformity of body shall prove the subject of more parental regrets and personal mortification than this most foul deformity of soul! Your manners may have acquired a courtly polish, your dress may, rival the winters snow, unaccustomed to menial offices, and sparkling with Indian gems, your hands may bear no stain, yet they arm not clean; nay, beneath that graceful exterior may lie concealed more foul pollution than is covered by a beggars rags. This son of toil, from whose very touch your delicacy shrinks, and who, till Sabbath stops the wheels of business, and with her kind hand wipes the sweat of labour from his brow, never knows the comfort of cleanly attire, may have a heart within, which, compared with yours, is purity itself. Beneath this soiled raiment he wears, all unseen by the worlds dull eye, the raiment of needlework, and the clean linen of a Redeemers righteousness.
II. The nature of this defilement.
1. It is internal. Like snowdrift, when it has levelled the churchyard mounds, and, glistening in the winter sun, lies so pure, and white, and fair, and beautiful, above the dead that fester and rot below, a plausible profession may wear the look of innocence, and conceal from human eyes the foulest heart corruption. The grass grows green on the mountain that hides a volcano in its bowels. Behind the rosy cheek and lustrous eye of beauty, how often does there lurk the deadliest of all diseases! Internal, but all the more dangerous that they are internal, such maladies are reluctantly believed in by their victims. They are the last to be suspected and the hardest to cure. To other than the physicians skill or a mothers anxious look, this youthful and graceful form never wears bloom of higher health, nor moves in more fascinating charms, nor wins more admiring eyes, than when fell consumption, like a miner working on in darkness, has penetrated the vital organs, and is quietly sapping the foundations of life. Like these maladies, sin has its seat within. It is a disease of the heart. It is the worst and deadliest of all heart complaints. Needing not food, but medicine, a new nature, a new heart, a new life, this is the prayer that best suits thy lips and meets thy case–Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
2. This defilement is universal. Our world is inhabited by various races; different specimens, not different species of mankind. The Mongolian, the Negro, the race early cradled among Caucasian mountains, and the Red Indians of the New World; these all differ from each other in the colour of the skin, in the contour of the skull, in the cast and character of their features. But although the hues of the skin differ, and the form of the skull and the features of the face are cast in different moulds, the features, colour, and character of the heart are the same in all men. Be he pale-faced or red, tawny or black, Jew, Greek, Scythian, bond or free, whether he be the lettered and civilised inhabitant of Europe, or roam a painted savage in American woods, or pant beneath the burning line, or wrapt in furs shiver amid Arctic snows, as in all classes of society, so in all these races of men, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; the carnal mind is enmity against God. The pendulum, farther removed from the centre, vibrates more slowly at the equator than at the poles; the farther north we push our way over thick-ribbed ice, the faster the clock goes; but parallels of latitude have no modifying influence on the motions of the heart. It beats the same in all men; nor, till repaired by grace, does it in any man beat true to God. How can it be otherwise? The tree is diseased, not at the top, but at the root; and therefore no one branch of the human family can possibly escape being affected by sin. Man is the child of unholy parents, and how can a clean thing come out of an unclean?
3. This evil is incurable. Hear the word of the Lord, Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith the Lord. Again, Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. Again, Why should ye be stricken any more, ye will revolt more and more? Of these solemn and humbling truths it were difficult to find a more remarkable illustration than that before us. What moral effect had Gods judgments on His ancient people? Were they cured by their afflictions, by trials that extended over long years of suffering? Did these arrest the malady? Had they even the salutary effect of preventing their sinking deeper into sin? By no means. As always happens in incurable diseases, the patient grew worse instead of better. Seducers wax worse and worse. As always happens when life is gone, the dead became more and more offensive. The brighter the sun shines, the more the skies rain, the thicker the dews of night, and the hotter the day, the faster the fallen tree rots; because those agents in nature which promote vegetation and develop the forms and beauty of life, the sounding shower, the silent dews, the summer heat, have no other effect on death than to hasten its putridity and decay. And even so–impressive lesson of the impotency of all means that are unaccompanied by the Divine blessing–was it with Gods ancient people. Trust not., therefore, in any unsanctified afflictions. These cannot permanently and really change the condition of your heart. I have seen the characters of the writing remain on paper which the flames had turned into a film of buoyant coal; I have seen the thread that had been passed through the fire, retain, in its cold grey ashes, the twist which it had got in spinning; I have found every shivered splinter of the flint as hard as the unbroken stone: and let trials come, in providence, sharp as the fire and ponderous as the crushing hammer, unless a gracious God send along with these something else, bruised, broken, bleeding, as your heart may be, its nature remains the same. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Man sinning
Range the wide fields of nature, travel from the equator to the poles, rise from the worm that wriggles out of its hole to the eagle as she springs from the rock to cleave the clouds, and where shall you find anything that corresponds either to our scenes of suicidal dissipation or the blood-stained fields of war? Suppose that, on his return from Africa, some Park, or Bruce, or Campbell were to tell how he had seen the lions of the desert leave their natural prey, and, meeting face to face in marshalled bands, amid roars that drowned the thunder, engage in deadly battle. Would he find one man so credulous as to believe him? The world would laugh that traveller and his tale to scorn. But should anything so strange and monstrous occur, or, while the air shook with their bellowings, and the ground trembled beneath their hoofs, should we see the cattle rush from their distant pastures, to form two vast, black, solid, opposing columns, and, with heads levelled to the charge, should these herds dash forward to bury their horns in each others bodies, we would proclaim a prodigy, asking what madness had seized creation. But is not sin the parent of more awful prodigies? Fiercer than the cannons flash, flames of wrath shoot from brothers eyes. They draw; they brandish their swords, they sheathe them in each others bowels; every stroke makes a widow, every ringing volley scatters a hundred orphans on a homeless world. Covering her eyes, humanity flies shrieking from the scene, and leaves it to rage, revenge, and agony. Sooner would I be an atheist and believe that there was no God at all, than that man appears in this scene as he came from the hand of a benignant Divinity. Man must have fallen.
I. Apart from derived sinfulness we have personal sins to answer for. Come, let us reason together. Do you mean, on the one hand, to affirm that you have never been guilty of doing what you should not have done? or, on the other, that you were never guilty of not doing what you should have done? Could you be carried back to lifes starting post, leant you again an infant against the cradle, stood you again a child at your mothers knee, sate you again a boy at the old school desk, with companions that are now changed, or scattered, or dead and gone, were you again a youth to begin the battle of life anew, would you run the self-same course; would you live over the self-same life? What! is there no speech that you would unsay? no act that you would undo? no Sabbath that you would spend better? are there none alive, or mouldering in the grave, none now blest in heaven, or with the damned in hell, to whom you would bear yourself otherwise than you have done? Have none gone to their account whose memory stings you, and whose possible fate, whose everlasting state fills you with the most painful anxiety? Did you never share in sins that may have proved their ruin, nor fail in faithfulness that might have saved their souls?
II. The guilt of these actual sins is our own. There are strong pleas which the heathen may advance in extenuation of their guilt; there are excuses which they, Stepping forward with some confidence to the judgment, may urge upon a just and merciful as well as holy God. What value may be given to these pleas, what weight they may carry at a tribunal where much shall be exacted of those who have received much, and little asked where little has been given, it is not for us to say, or even attempt to determine. But this we know, that we have no such excuse to plead, nor any such plea to urge, in extenuation of our offences, of one of a thousand of our offences. Supposing, however, that the plea were accepted, more than enough remains to condemn us, and leave guilt no refuge out of Christ. We talk of a natural bias to sin; but who has not committed sins that he could have avoided, sins which he could have abstained from, and did abstain from, when it served some present purpose to do so? Some years ago, on a great public occasion, a distinguished statesman rose to address his countrymen, and, in reply to certain calumnious and dishonourable charges, held up his hands in the vast assembly, exclaiming, These hands are clean. Now, if you or I or any of our fallen race did entertain a hope that we could act over this scene before a God in judgment, then I could comprehend the calm, the unimpassioned indifference with which men sit in church on successive Sabbaths, idly gazing on the Cross of Calvary, and listening with drowsy ears to the overtures of mercy. But are these, I ask, matters with which you have nothing to do? Beware! Play with no fire; least of all, with fire unquenchable. Play with no edged sword; least of all, with that which Divine justice sheathed in a Saviours bosom. Your everlasting destiny may turn upon this hour. Do you feel under condemnation? Are you really anxious to be saved? Be not turned from such a blessed purpose by the laughter of fools and the taunts of the ungodly. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me,…. Here begins another prophecy, which was delivered about the same time with the former:
saying; as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Salvation of Israel Founded upon Its Sanctification
Because Israel has defiled its land by its sins, God has scattered the people among the heathen; but because they also profaned His name among the heathen, He will exercise forbearance for the sake of His holy name (Eze 36:16-21), will gather Israel out of the lands, cleanse it from its sins, and sanctify it by the communication of His Spirit, so that it will walk in His ways (Eze 36:22-28), and will so bless and multiply it, that both the nations around and Israel itself will know that He is the Lord (Eze 36:29-38). – This promise is shown by the introductory formula in Eze 36:16 and by the contents to be an independent word of God; but it is substantially connected in the closest manner with the preceding word of God, showing, on the one hand, the motive which prompted God to restore and bless His people;, and, on the other hand, the means by which He would permanently establish the salvation predicted in Ezekiel 34 and Eze 36:1-15. – The kernel of this promise is formed by Eze 36:25-28, for which the way is prepared in Eze 36:17-24, whilst the further extension is contained in Eze 36:29-38.
Eze 36:16-21 The Lord will extend His forbearance, for the sake of His holy name, to the people who have been rejected on account of their sins. – Eze 36:16. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 36:17. Son of man, the house of Israel dwelt in its land, and defiled it with its way and its doings; like the uncleanness of the unclean woman, was its way before me. Eze 36:18. Then I poured out my fury upon them on account of the blood which they had shed in the land, and because they had defiled it through their idols, Eze 36:19. And scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed in the land; according to their way and their doings I judge them. Eze 36:20. And they came to the nations whither they came, and profaned my holy name, for men said of them, “These are Jehovah’s people, and they have come out of His land.” Eze 36:21. And so I had pity upon my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations whither they came. – The address commences with a description of the reasons why God had thrust out His people among the heathen, namely, on account of their sins and idolatrous abominations, by which the Israelites had defiled the land (cf. Lev 18:28 and Num 35:34). Their conduct resembled the most offensive uncleanness, namely, the uncleanness of a woman in her menstruation (Lev 15:19), to which the moral depravity of the people had already been compared in Isa 64:5. – In Eze 36:18 the consequence of the defiling of the land by the people is introduced with the impression . In Eze 36:17, is the continuation of the participle ; and the participle is expressive of the condition in the past, as we may see from the words ‘ . The simile in Eze 36:17 is an explanatory, circumstantial clause. For Eze 36:18, compare Eze 7:8, and for ‘ , Eze 22:3, Eze 22:6. The last clause, “and through their idols they have defiled it,” is loosely appended; but it really contains a second reason for the pouring out of the wrath of God upon the people. For Eze 36:19, compare Eze 22:15. in Eze 36:20 refers to ; but there is no necessity to read on that account. It is perfectly arbitrary to supply the subject proposed by Kliefoth, viz., “the report of what had happened to Israel” came to the heathen, which is quite foreign to the connection; for it was not the report concerning Israel, but Israel itself, which came to the heathen, and profaned the sacred name of God. This is not only plainly expressed in Eze 36:21, but has been already stated in Eze 36:20. The fact that the words of the heathen, by which the name of God was profaned, are quoted here, does not prove that it is the heathen nations who are to be regarded as those who profaned the name of God, as Kliefoth imagines. The words, “these are Jehovah’s people, and have come out of His (Jehovah’s) land,” could only contain a profanation of the holy name of God, if their coming out was regarded as involuntary, i.e., as an exile enforced by the power of the heathen; or, on the other hand, if the Israelites themselves had denied the holiness of the people of God through their behaviour among the heathen. Most of the commentators have decided in favour of the former view. Vatablus, for example, gives this explanation: “if their God whom they preach had been omnipotent, He would not have allowed them to be expelled from His land.” And we must decide in favour of this exposition, not only because of the parallel passages, such as Num 14:16 and Jer 33:24, which support this view; but chiefly on account of the verses which follow, according to which the sanctification of the name of God among the nations consists in the fact that God gathers Israel out of its dispersion among the nations, and leads them back into His own land (vid., Eze 36:23 and Eze 36:24). Consequently the profanation of His name can only have consisted in the fact that Israel was carried away out of its own land, and scattered in the heathen lands. For, since the heathen acknowledged only national gods, and regarded Jehovah as nothing more than such a national god of Israel, they did not look upon the destruction of the kingdom of Judah and the carrying away of the people as a judgment of the almighty and holy God upon His people, but concluded that that catastrophe was a sign of the inability of Jehovah to defend His land and save His people. The only way in which God could destroy this delusion was by manifesting Himself to the heathen as the almighty God and Lord of the whole world through the redemption and glorification of His people. : so I had pity, compassion upon my holy name. The preterite is prophetic, inasmuch as the compassion consists in the gathering of Israel out of the nations, which is announced in Eze 36:22. as still in the future. The rendering, “I spared (them) for my holy name’s sake” (lxx, Hvernick), is false; for is construed with , governing the person or the thing toward which the compassion is shown (vid., Eze 16:5 and 2Ch 36:15, 2Ch 36:17).
Eze 36:22-28 For His holy name’s sake the Lord will bring Israel back from its dispersion into His own land, purify it from its sins, and sanctify it by His Spirit to be His own people. – Eze 36:22. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I do it not for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye have come. Eze 36:23. I will sanctify my great name, which is profaned among the nations, which ye have profaned in the midst of them, so that the nations shall know that I am Jehovah, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, when I prove myself holy upon you before their eyes. Eze 36:24. I will take you out of the nations, and gather you out of all lands, and bring you into your land, Eze 36:25. And will sprinkle clean water upon you, that ye may become clean; from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols will I cleanse you, Eze 36:26. And I will give you a new heart, and give a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. Eze 36:27. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and keep my rights, and do them. Eze 36:28. And ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to your fathers, and shall become my people, and I will be your God. – These verses show in what way the Lord will have compassion upon His holy name, and how He will put an end to the scoffing thereat, and vindicate His honour in the sight of the heathen. “Nor for your sake,” i.e., not because you have any claim to deliverance on account of your behaviour (cf. Isa 48:11 and Deu 9:6), but for my holy name’s sake, i.e., to manifest as holy the name which has been profaned among the heathen, I do it, namely, what follows from Eze 36:23 onwards. The Lord will sanctify His name, i.e., show it to be holy by proving Himself to be holy upon Israel. is not equivalent to glorify, although the holiness of God involves the idea of glory. Sanctifying is the removing or expunging of the blots and blemishes which adhere to anything. The giving up of His people was regarded by the heathen as a sign of the weakness of Jehovah. This blot through which His omnipotence and glory were dishonoured, God would remove by gathering Israel out of the heathen, and glorifying it. Instead of , the ancient versions have rendered . This reading is also found in many of the codices and the earliest editions, and is confirmed by the great Masora, and also commended by the parallel passages, Eze 20:41 and Eze 28:25, so that it no doubt deserves the preference, although can also be justified. For inasmuch as Israelites had despaired in the midst of their wretchedness through unbelief, it was necessary that Jehovah should sanctify His great name in their sight as well. The great name of Jehovah is His almighty exaltation above all gods (cf. Mal 1:11-12). The first thing that Jehovah does for the sanctification of His name is to bring back Israel from its dispersion into its own land (Eze 36:24, compare Eze 11:17 and Eze 20:41-42); and then follows the purifying of Israel from its sins. The figurative expression, “to sprinkle with clean water,” is taken from the lustrations prescribed by the law, more particularly the purifying from defilement from the dead by sprinkling with the water prepared from the ashes of a red heifer (Num 19:17-19; compare Psa 51:9). Cleansing from sins, which corresponds to justification, and is not to be confounded with sanctification (Schmieder), is followed by renewal with the Holy Spirit, which takes away the old heart of stone and puts within a new heart of flesh, so that the man can fulfil the commandments of God, and walk in newness of life (Eze 36:26-28; compare Eze 11:18-20, where this promise has already occurred, and the necessary remarks concerning its fulfilment have been made). – With regard to the construction ‘ , to make or effect your walking, compare Ewald, 337 b.
Eze 36:29-38 The Lord will richly bless, multiply, and glorify His people, when thus renewed and sanctified. – Eze 36:29. And I will save you from all your uncleannesses, and will call the corn, and multiply it, and no more bring famine upon you; Eze 36:30. But I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that ye will no more bear the reproach of famine among the nations. Eze 36:31. But ye will remember your evil ways, and your deeds which were not good, and will loathe yourselves on account of your iniquities and your abominations. Eze 36:32. Not for your sake do I this, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, be this known to you; be ye ashamed and blush for your ways, O house of Israel! Eze 36:33. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, In the day when I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will make the cities inhabited, and the ruins shall be built, Eze 36:34. And the devastated land shall be tilled instead of being a desert before the eyes of every one who passed by. Eze 36:35. And men will say, This land, which was laid waste, has become like the garden of Eden, and the desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited. Eze 36:36. And the nations, which have been left round about you, shall know that I Jehovah build up that which is destroyed, and plant that which is laid waste. I, Jehovah, have said it, and do it. Eze 36:37. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will still let myself be sought by the house of Israel in this, to do it for them; I will multiply them, like a flock, in men; Eze 36:38. Like a flock of holy sacrifices, like the flock of Jerusalem on its feast-days, so shall the desolate cities be full of flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. – The words ‘ , I help or save you from all your uncleannesses, cannot be understood as relating to their purification from the former uncleannesses; for they have already been cleansed from these, according to Eze 36:25. The can only be such defilements as are still possible even after the renewing of the people; and , to help, means to guard them against any further recurrence of such defilements (cf. Eze 37:23), and not to deliver them from the consequences of their former pollutions. But if God preserves His people from these, there is no longer any occasion for a fresh suspension of judgments over them, and God can bestow His blessing upon the sanctified nation without reserve. It is in this way that the further promises are appended; and, first of all, in Eze 36:29 and Eze 36:30, a promise that He will bless them with an abundant crop of fruits, both of the orchard and the field. “I call to the corn,” i.e., I cause it to come or grow, so that famine will occur no more (for the fact, compare Eze 34:29).
In consequence of this blessing, Israel will blush with shame at the thought of its former sins, and will loathe itself for those abominations (Eze 36:31); compare Eze 20:43, where the same thought has already occurred. To this, after repeating what has been said before in Eze 36:22, namely, that God is not doing all this for the sake of the Israelites themselves, the prophet appends the admonition to be ashamed of their conduct, i.e., to repent, which is so far inserted appropriately in the promise, that the promise itself is meant to entice Israel to repent and return to God. Then, secondly, in two strophes introduced with ‘ , the promise is still further expanded. In Eze 36:33-36, the prophet shows how the devastated land is to be restored and rebuilt, and to become a paradise; and in Eze 36:37 and Eze 36:38, how the people are to be blessed through a large increase in their numbers. Both of these strophes are simply a further elaboration of the promise contained in Eze 36:9-12. , causative of , to cause to be inhabited, to populate, as in Isa 54:3. , as in Eze 5:14. The subject to in Eze 36:35 is, “those who pass by.” For the comparison to the garden of Eden, see Eze 31:9. is a circumstantial word belonging to : they shall be inhabited as fortified cities, that is to say, shall afford to their inhabitants the security of fortresses, from which there is no fear of their being expelled. In Eze 36:36 the expression, “the heathen nations which shall be left round about you,” presupposes that at the time of Israel’s redemption the judgment will have fallen upon the heathen (compare Eze 30:3 with Eze 29:21), so that only a remnant of them will be still in existence; and this remnant will recognise the work of Jehovah in the restoration of Israel. This recognition, however, does not involve the conversion of the heathen to Jehovah, but is simply preparatory to it. For the fact itself, compare Eze 17:24. , to let oneself be asked or entreated, as in Eze 14:3. , with regard to this, is explained by . What God will do follows in ‘ . God will multiply His people to such an extent, that they will resemble the flock of lambs, sheep, and goats brought to Jerusalem to sacrifice upon the feast days. Compare 2Ch 35:7, where Josiah is said to have given to the people thirty thousand lambs and goats for the feast of the passover. does not mean, like a flock of men. cannot be a genitive dependent upon , on account of the article in , but belongs to , either as a supplementary apposition to , or as a second object, so that would be construed with a double accusative, after the analogy of verbs of plenty, to multiply them in men. Kliefoth’s rendering,, “I will multiply them, so that they shall be the flock of men” (of mankind), is grammatically untenable. , a flock of holy beasts, i.e., of sacrificial lambs. The flock of Jerusalem is the flock brought to Jerusalem at the yearly feasts, when the male population of the land came to the sanctuary (Deu 16:16): So shall the desolate cities be filled again with flocks of men (compare Mic 2:12).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| God’s Compassion for Israel. | B. C. 587. |
16 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. 18 Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: 19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. 20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. 21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. 22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. 23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
When God promised the poor captives a glorious return, in due time, to their own land, it was a great discouragement to their hopes that they were unworthy, utterly unworthy, of such a favour; therefore, to remove that discouragement, God here shows them that he would do it for them purely for his own name’s sake, that he might be glorified in them and by them, that he might manifest and magnify his mercy and goodness, that attribute which of all others is most his glory. And, the restoration of that people being typical of our redemption by Christ, this is intended further to show that the ultimate end aimed at in our salvation, to which all the steps of it were made subservient, was the glory of God. To this end Christ directed all he did in that short prayer, Father, glorify thy name; and God declared it was his end in all he did in the immediate answer given to that prayer, by a voice from heaven: I have glorified it, and I will glorify it yet again, John xii. 28. Now observe here,
I. How God’s name had suffered both by the sins and by the miseries of Israel; and this was more to be regretted than all their sorrow, which they had brought upon themselves; for the honour of God lies nearer the hearts of good men than any interests of their own. 1. God’s glory had been injured by the sin of Israel when they were in their own land, v. 17. It was a good land, a holy land, a land that had the eye of God upon it. But they defiled it by their own way, their wicked way; that is our own way, the way of our own choice; and we ourselves must bear the blame and shame of it. The sin of a people defiles their land, renders it abominable to God and uncomfortable to themselves; so that they cannot have any holy communion with him nor with one another. What was unclean might not be made use of. By the abuse of the gifts of God’s bounty to us we forfeit the use of them; and, the mind and conscience being defiled with guilt, no comfort is allowed us, nothing is pure to us. Their way in the eye of God was like the pollution of a woman during the days of her separation, which shut her out from the sanctuary and made very things she touched ceremonially unclean, Lev. xv. 19. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates, and which he cannot endure to look upon. They shed blood and worshipped idols (v. 18) and with those sins defiled the land. For this God poured out his fury upon them, scattered them among the heathen. Their own land was sick of them, and they were sent into other lands. Herein God was righteous, and was justified in what he did; none could say that he did them any wrong, nay, he did justice to his own honour, for he judged them according to their way and according to their doings, v. 19. And yet, the matter being not rightly understood, he was not glorified in it; for the enemies did say, as Moses pleaded the Egyptians would say if he had destroyed them in the wilderness, that for mischief he brought them forth. Their neighbours considered them rather as a holy people than as a sinful people, and therefore took occasion from the calamities they were in, instead of glorifying God, as they might justly have done, to reproach him and put contempt upon him; and God’s name was continually every day blasphemed by their oppressors, Isa. lii. 5. 2. When they entered into the land of the heathen God had no glory by them there; but, on the contrary, his holy name was profaned, v. 20. (1.) It was profaned by the sins of Israel; they were no credit to their profession wherever they went, but, on the contrary, a reproach to it. The name of God and his holy religion was blasphemed through them, Rom. ii. 24. When those that pretended to be in relation to God, in covenant and communion with him, were found corrupt in their morals, slaves to their appetites and passions, dishonest in their dealings, and false to their words and the trust reposed in them, the enemies of the Lord had thereby great occasion given them to blaspheme, especially when they quarrelled with their God for correcting them, than which nothing could be more scandalous. (2.) It was profaned by the sufferings of Israel; for from them the enemies of God took occasion to reproach God, as unable to protect his own worshippers and to make good his own grants. They said, in scorn, “These are the people of the land, these wicked people (you see he could not keep them in their obedience to his precepts), these miserable people–you see he could not keep them in the enjoyment of his favours. These are the people that came out of Jehovah’s land, they are the very scum of the nations. Are these those that had statues so righteous whose lives are so unrighteous? Is this the nation that is so much celebrated for a wise and understanding people, and that is said to have God so nigh unto them? Do these belong to that brave, that holy nation, who appear here so vile, so abject?” Thus God sold his people and did not increase his wealth by their price, Ps. xliv. 12. The reproach they were under reflected upon him.
II. Let us now see how God would retrieve his honour, secure it, and advance it, by working a great reformation upon them and then working a great salvation for them. He would have scattered them among the heathen, were it not that he feared the wrath of the enemy,Deu 32:26; Deu 32:27. But, though they were unworthy of his compassion, yet he had pity for his own holy name, and a thousand pities it was that that should be trampled upon and abused. He looked with compassion on his own honour, which lay bleeding among the heathen, on that jewel which was trodden into the dirt, which the house of Israel, even in the land of their captivity, had profaned, v. 21. In pity to that God brought them out from the heathen, because their sins were more scandalous there than they had been in their own land. “Therefore I will gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land, v. 24. Not for your sake, because you are worthy of such a favour, for you are most unworthy, but for my holy name’s sake (v. 22), that I may sanctify my great name,” v. 23. Observe, by the way, God’s holy name is his great name. His holiness is his greatness; so he reckons it himself. Nor does any thing make a man truly great but being truly good, and partaking of God’s holiness. God will magnify his name as a holy name, for he will sanctify it: I will sanctify my name which you have profaned. When God performs that which he has sworn by his holiness, then he sanctifies his name. The effect of this shall be very happy: The heathen shall know that I am the Lord when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes and yours. When God proves his own holy name, and his saints praise it, then he is sanctified in them, and this contributes to the propagating of the knowledge of him. Observe, 1. God’s reasons of mercy are all fetched from within himself; he will bring his people out of Babylon, not for their sakes, but for his own name’s sake, because he will be glorified. 2. God’s goodness takes occasion from man’s badness to appear so much the more illustrious; therefore he will sanctify his name by the pardon of sin, because it has been profaned by the commission of sin.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISRAEL’S PAST SINS, FUTURE CONVERSION AND
RESTORATION
Verses 16-38:
Verses 16, 17 begin another message from the Lord; It reminds the house of Israel that when they dwelt safely in their own land they defiled or polluted it by their own willful course of sinful practices, Lev 18:25; Lev 18:27-28; Psa 106:37-38; Isa 24:5; Jer 2:7; Jer 3:1; Jer 16:18; Mic 2:10. Their former behavior is compared with a woman who was put aside because of her uncleanness period, Lev 15:19; Isa 64:6.
Verse 18 declares that the fury of the Lord was poured out upon them, to drive them captives from their land, because of their murderous practice of bloodshed and their worship of “dung-gods,” as idols, Eze 16:36; Eze 16:38; Eze 23:37.
Verse 19 asserts that the Lord had judged their nation, both Israel and Judah, in dispersing them among the heathen, as He had forewarned them He would, should they defy His laws and moral, ethical, and spiritual ways, without excuse, Lev 25:38; Eze 22:15; Amo 9:9; Eze 7:3; Eze 18:30; Eze 39:24. God would not permit their unholy behavior to go unpunished.
Verse 20 explains that Israel’s former sins, in her own land, caused even the heathen to deride them as hypocrites. For though they claimed to be an holy people, they had turned to commit every kind of immoral act that heathen practiced, including murder and adultery. They were justly derided as followers of the holy, omnipotent, covenant-keeping God. Thus their punishment was justified, Isa 52:5; Rom 2:24; Eze 20:9; Eze 20:14.
Verse 21 reminds the dispersed Jews in Babylon captivity that the Lord had pity on His people Israel for His holy name’s sake, which the house or nation of Israel had profaned among the very heathen, to whom they became captives, Eze 20:9; Eze 20:14.
Verse 22 calls upon Ezekiel to make it clear and plain to the house of Israel that the pity He had shown them was not because of any personal merit or virtue that they had. It was solely because of the integrity of His own holy name and character, Tit 3:5. It was shown because of His covenant of grace toward them–a thing He fulfilled to vindicate His holy character, though severity of their chastisement was just, Deu 9:5-6; Psa 106:8; Psa 106:45.
Verse 23 states that the Lord would sanctify His great name before the heathen, though Israel had profaned it before them. And the heathen, by demonstrations of both His righteous chastening and extended pity, would come to recognize Him as the true God, because of His deeds of judgment and mercy, Eze 20:41; Eze 28:22.
Verse 24 pledges that the Lord would and will bring Israel back from among the heathen or Gentile nations, where he had dispersed them for their sins, until they should dwell in their own land, the land of promise; It was a foretaste of the final, complete fulfillment of this prophetic promise that occurred in her restoration, after 70 years in Babylon. But the greater fulfillment is yet to come, Jer 25:11-12; Dan 9:1-2; Luk 21:24; Rom 11:25-27; Eze 34:13; Eze 37:21.
Verse 25 further states that upon the Lord’s restoring Israel to her homeland, He will “sprinkle clean water” upon them, or cleanse them from all their uncleanness, pollution, and defilement. Sprinkling was a symbol of cleansing, as expressed Num 19:13; Isa 52:15; Jer 33:8. The blood through faith in it, cleanses from sin, always has, 1Jn 1:7; Rom 3:25; Act 10:43.
Verse 26 pledges that the Lord will, in the restoration of Israel, give her people a “new heart,” new affections, dispositions, and attitudes. He too pledged to take away or remove their “stony heart,” their hard, stubborn, and obstinate heart, affections, dispositions, and attitudes toward Him and His holiness, Deu 30:6; Psa 51:10; Jer 32:39; Joh 3:3-5; 2Co 3:18; Php_2:12-13.
Verse 27 adds that they will also then have the spirit of God put in them, or fixed in their hearts, so that they will obey His statutes and walk in His ways, Isa 55:8-9; See also Eze 11:19; Eze 37:14; Jer 32:39. This was only partially fulfilled in Israel’s return from Babylon, Ezr 10:6; Isa 44:3; Joe 2:28-29; Rom 8:9; Gal 5:5; 1Jn 3:24.
Verse 28 affirms to the house of Israel that she shall dwell or reside again in the land God gave to their fathers, at which time they shall be His people, and He will be their God, as set forth Eze 11:20; Eze 28:25; Jer 30:22.
Verse 29 further explains that at that era, of their restoration to their fatherland, the Lord will save or deliver them from their uncleanness, cause the corn of the land to grow abundantly, and lay no famine in all the land, Mat 1:21; Mat 8:8-9; Psa 105:16; Rom 11:26.
Verse 30 adds that He will also multiply the fruit of the tree and the fruit of the field crops so that they will be no more reproached by any famine before the eyes of the heathen or unbelieving nations, v. 13; Eze 34:27.
Verse 31 discloses that in their restoration, Israel will recall her evil ways of stubbornness and rebellion against God, to the extent that she will “loathe” herself, in her own eyes, because of her former iniquities and abominations, Eze 6:9; Eze 16:61; Eze 20:43; Lev 26:39. Their repentance, and loathing before God, will lead them to genuine repentance and harmony with God, Psa 130:4; Zec 12:10; Jer 33:8-9.
Verse 32 vows that the Lord grants this mercy and grace, not for the sake of Israel’s goodness, but for the sake of His covenant of Grace; And it is upon the basis of their shame and repentance that the house of Israel is reset in her land, Deu 9:5; Dan 9:19; 1Ti 1:9; Tit 3:3-6.
Verse 33 further discloses that in that day of cleansing and restoration, the Lord will cause them to dwell in their cities and rebuild their wasted places and properties, throughout the land, Rom 8:30-32; Act 3:19-21.
Verse 34 adds that the former waste and desolate land, that lay desolate before all who passed by, shall be tilled for production of food in that day, Jer 25:9; 2Ch 26:21.
Verse 35 continues to explain that those who pass through the land, the heathen, in the day of restoration, will testify that the once desolate land has become prosperous and beautiful, like the garden of Eden and her cities are rebuilt, fenced, and inhabited again, as promised, Isa 51:3; Eze 28:13; Joe 2:3.
Verse 36 certifies that at that time the heathen, that are left surrounding the land of Israel, will know that it is the Lord who is rebuilding and replanting the land, not just natural Israel, Psa 58:11; Psa 64:9; See also Eze 17:24; Eze 22:14; Eze 37:14; See further Num 23:19.
Verse 37 calls upon Ezekiel to remind Israel that it is the Lord of whom they inquire who will increase their population, cause a “population explosion” among them, like the growth of a flock, Isa 45:11; Isa 45:19; Eze 14:3; Zec 12:10-14; Zec 13:1.
Verse 38 declares that as the holy flock, Israel as the flock of Jerusalem, in her three annual festivals of: 1) Passover, 2) Pentecost, and 3) The feast of festivals, so would all the cities of the land be rebuilt and occupied by flocks of men of Israel, who were committed to obey and honor their Lord, the Messiah, Rom 12:1; Luk 1:31-32.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
C. The Purification of the Land 36:1621
TRANSLATION
(16) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (17) Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt upon their land, they defiled it by their way and by their deeds; like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman was their way before Me. (18) And I poured out My fury upon them because of the blood which they poured out upon the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols. (19) And I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through lands according to their way and according to their deeds I judged them. (20) When they came unto the nations to which they came, they profaned My holy name; men said of them: These are the people of the LORD, and from His land they have gone forth. (21) But I had pity upon My holy name which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they had come.
COMMENTS
In order to set forth clearly the magnificent goodness and grace of God in bringing Israel back to her land, Ezekiel reviews the circumstances which brought about her dispersion among the nations. Israel, the wife of God, had defiled the land by her general course of conduct and by her specific deeds. The divine Husband temporarily avoided the impure wife just as any ancient Israelite male was required to avoid intimacy with his wife during her monthly period (Eze. 36:17). God poured out His wrath upon His people because of their inexcusable impurity manifested especially in bloodshed and idolatry (Eze. 36:18). The wayward people were judged according to their deeds and were sentenced to exile among the nations (Eze. 36:19).
In those foreign lands Israel unwittingly profaned the name of the Lord. The nations did not realize that Israels punishment was just retribution for moral and religious shortcomings. They saw the condition of Yahwehs people and they concluded that the God of Israel was unable to protect His own devotees (Eze. 36:20). According to pagan logic, the gods of Babylon had to be superior to Yahweh since the Babylonians had made the land of Israel desolate and dispersed the people of the Lord. Thus the divine name had suffered indignity without cause. God took pity upon His holy name, His reputation, which was being unjustly attacked. God does not take kindly to slanderous accusations concerning His name (Eze. 36:21).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
16-24. Before the captivity, Israel, because of its bloody deeds and idolatry (Eze 36:18), was as unclean as a woman “in her separation” (Eze 36:17, R.V.), and for this reason was separated from her beautiful land (Eze 36:19; compare Lev 15:19; Lev 18:30, etc.). But instead of repenting and purifying herself, Israel excused or denied her sin (Eze 2:3-5; Eze 18:2), and while professing allegiance to Jehovah gave honor to idols (Eze 14:7; Eze 20:8; Eze 20:39), and thus so belittled and polluted the Holy Name before the nations that these actually supposed that the captivity was due, not to Jehovah’s justice, but to his weakness. For this reason they could speak of the Israelites (“of them,” Eze 36:20, R.V.), saying, “These are the Lord’s people, and yet had to go forth out of his land” (Eze 36:20, Kautzsch). It is not because of the worthiness of fallen Israel (Eze 36:21-22; Eze 36:32; compare Tit 3:5-6) that Jehovah now snatches them again out of their captivity and returns them to their own land, but in order that this reproach may be removed from his own name, when all men shall see that the real cause, both of the captivity and restoration, lies in God’s holiness and justice (Eze 36:23-24). Thus will his name be sanctified, or “set apart” from those of the “idol blocks” with which he is now compared, and his real nature will be revealed. (See valuable remarks in Expositor’s Bible, p. 356 . )
It has been said that this passage (Eze 36:25-27), with that which immediately precedes, deserves study more than any other part of Ezekiel, since it exhibits his “philosophy of history,” and describes with great beauty the principles of Jehovah’s redemption of his people. But this is not merely the philosophy of Ezekiel, it is a revelation of the divine thought. It is the gospel of the Old Testament. In its teaching of moral and spiritual cleansing (Eze 36:25; Eze 36:29) and of the God-given “new heart” and “new spirit” (Eze 36:26-27) which loathes the old life of uncleanness (Eze 36:31) and produces a new life of obedience, purity, and happiness (Eze 36:27; Eze 36:29; Eze 36:33), it indeed “reads like a fragment of a Pauline epistle.” It strikes the same spiritual note which is afterward heard at Bethlehem and Calvary, at Pentecost and Patmos.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Israel’s Past ( Eze 36:16-20 ).
‘Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings. Their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her separation.”
The blood that was poured out through violence is here likened to a woman’s menstrual flow. The menstrual flow of blood was looked on with something akin to horror by the Israelite male. According to the Law it rendered the woman ‘unclean’ (Lev 15:19-24), so that anyone who touched her was unclean. So here the defiling of the land by their behaviour could be looked on as similar to the menstrual discharge. It rendered the land unclean before God, as ‘unholy’, and therefore not touchable by Him. Thus God withdrew in horror and kept apart. (The menstrual flow was presumably used as an example because the behaviour of the people included the wrongful spilling of blood).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Israel’s Inglorious Past and Their Glorious Future ( Eze 36:16-38 ).
As we consider this section we should pause to consider the nature of Biblical prophecy. A Biblical prophet was not a foreteller like Nostradamus is seen as being, who declared events that would happen in the future so that people could mark them off and satisfy their curiosity about particular future historical events, he was rather one who declared what God was going to do. In his prophecy he was concerned with ends rather than specific historical events, except is so far as those events brought about the ends. Thus he would describe processes and then the end result, and the processes might occur at different points over periods of time, and the ends would not necessarily all occur at the same time. There were partial fulfilments followed by deeper fulfilments.
God does not split history into time periods (‘ages’) like we do, He sees the whole process going through from beginning to end in a continual line. Thus to the Apostles the time that they were living in was ‘the end of the ages’ (1Co 10:11; Heb 9:26-28; 1Pe 1:20), ‘the last days’ (Act 2:17). There was nothing beyond but eternity. And His way of salvation was always the same, obtained through grace, by faith, and revealed by response to Him and seen as resulting from the work of the Spirit (Eze 18:31; Psa 51:10-12; Psa 139:7; Psa 143:10). That the outward manifestation of that faith altered through the ages is true, beginning with the primitive worship of Adam and Seth (Gen 4:26), continuing with the family worship of Abraham (Gen 12:8), moving on to the covenant worship resulting from Sinai, and then the Christian worship resulting from the new covenant, but at the heart it was the same and through it men came to God in responsive faith.
Thus prophecy took in all elements of this activity of God. And as the prophets looked forward, guided by the Spirit, they saw that certain things must be because of Who and What God is. But they did not attempt to present them chronologically, or in a time scale. What mattered was that they would happen, not the sequence or time schedule in which they would happen. Some they saw clearly, others they described pictorially, because they prophesied of things that were beyond their ability to put into words or to fully appreciate. They had no concept of Heaven, or of an afterlife, or of eternity. They saw the future as life continuing for ever as it was in the present, but at a different level. And they prophesied in those terms. It was the New Testament writers who were able to take those descriptions and demonstrate how they dealt with ideas that the prophets could not even have dreamed of. This will come out in the passage we are now to study.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Israel Restored for the Sake of Jehovah’s Name
v. 16. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, v. 17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, v. 18. Wherefore I poured My fury upon them, v. 19. And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries, v. 20. And when they entered unto the heathen whither they went, v. 21. But I had pity for Mine holy name, v. 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, v. 23. And I will sanctify My great name, v. 24. For I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land, v. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, v. 26. A new heart also will I give you, v. 27. And I will put My Spirit within you, v. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, v. 29. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses, v. 30. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, v. 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, v. 32. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you, v. 33. Thus saith the Lord God, In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, v. 34. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by, v. 35. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the Garden of Eden, v. 36. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I, the Lord, build the ruined places, v. 37. Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this, v. 38. As the holy flock,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
What a sad account is here! Is it the Lord’s Israel that is thus spoken of? And do the house of Israel indeed not only thus disgrace themselves by sin, but bring an odium on the good way, by their conduct? Reader! what a solemn thing is it for the children of God to be thus discovered! Lord, keep thy redeemed ones by thy grace, that they cause not the enemy to blaspheme!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 36:16 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ver. 16. Moreover the word. ] See Eze 18:1
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 36:16-21
16Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 17Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds; their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. 18Therefore I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols. 19Also I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them. 20When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD; yet they have come out of His land.’ 21But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went.
Eze 36:16-21 YHWH reminds His people of their sins.
1. they defiled YHWH’s land
2. they shed blood (murder or child sacrifice to Molech)
3. they were idolatrous
therefore, YHWH (recurrent themes in Ezekiel)
1. poured out His wrath on them
2. scattered them among the nations
3. judged them according to their ways and deeds
Instead of revealing YHWH to the nations, they profaned His name (in the land and in exile). YHWH wanted to use a people to reveal Himself to all people (cf. Eze 36:32; Eze 36:36). Israel failed to be a clear reflection of YHWH, as a matter of fact, they distorted His image. He has a universal redemptive plan that will not be thwarted! So, He will act Himself to reveal Himself. The new action is the new covenant of Jer 31:31-34 (i.e., the New Testament). This new covenant, based on YHWH’s actions, is described in Eze 36:22-38.
Eze 36:17 like the uncleanness of a women in her impurity To the Jews all bodily excretions made one ceremonially unclean. See Lev 15:19-30.
Eze 36:18 the blood which they shed This refers either to (1) the murder of righteous people; (2) the murder of poor people; or (3) child sacrifice to Molech. See Special Topic: Molech .
idols See note at Eze 18:15.
Eze 36:19 I scattered them among the nations This is the covenant curse of Lev 26:33 coming to fruition (cf. Eze 20:23). This judgment on Judah’s covenant disobedience became an opportunity for YHWH to reveal Himself to the nations (cf. Eze 36:20-23).
and according to their ways and their deeds I have judged them See note at Eze 33:20.
Eze 36:20 they have profaned my holy name Remember that YHWH was linked to the nation and the nation went into captivity. YHWH was willing for His own name to be impugned that His people might turn back to Him. Israel and Judah profaned YHWH’s name (i.e., reputation) in several ways.
1. covenant disobedience
2. Canaanite worship
3. national defeat
YHWH is jealous for His holiness (cf. Eze 39:7, see Special Topic: Holy ).
Eze 36:21 But I had concern for My holy name YHWH is concerned (lit. took pity, BDB 328, KB 328, Qal IMPERFECT, see the negative in Eze 5:11; Eze 7:4; Eze 7:9; Eze 8:18; Eze 9:5; Eze 9:10) about His reputation (cf. Eze 20:39) because He is in the business of winning all humans made in His image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-27) to faith and repentance in Himself (cf. Eze 36:14). His name stands for His person!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Eze 36:16-20. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it: And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.
All through Scripture we are told that God has great regard to the honour of his holy name. The Lord thy God is a jealous God. And this is no small blessing to us, for it has so happened that, when there has been no other reason for mercy, Gods regard to his own name has found him a reason for dealing mercifully with his unbelieving, undeserving people. See how he had scattered his chosen people; he had sent them away into captivity, justly, on account of their sins. But it came to pass that wherever they went, whether it was into Persia or Babylonia, the people said, These are Jehovahs people; these are Jehovahs people; and they are gone forth out of his land. What was the consequence of this?
Eze 36:21. But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.
He had pity for his own name. He had a reverence and esteem for his own renown and standing, even among these heathen nations.
Eze 36:22-23. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the LORD GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy names sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen whither ye went. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the LORD GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
Brethren, what must God think of a nation like to ours which has come to be called by his name, albeit it so little deserves that great honour? What, I say, must he think of the fact that if there are any vices yet unknown, white men will teach them to the heathen, and when the heathen have heard the Gospel, the great sources of doubt are the white men Englishmen. Full often the greatest oppressors will spring of our own nation. Certainly we hold the belt for drunkenness, and where our fellow countrymen go the name of Christianity is rendered base among the heathen. The Mohammedan says of such a man, He has been drunk and turned a Christian. I will grant that much that is said is said unwisely, and untruthfully, and slanderously in exaggeration, for these men are no Christians. They know not the Lord. It is not a Christian country: it is a heathen country, as some of us know, not only by what we read, but by what we see and hear. Can you walk the streets without hearing blasphemies more black than might be heard in any streets under heaven? This is a heathen country, but yet it has somehow come to be thought to be a Christian country; and therefore its conduct is bringing dishonour upon the name of the Most High. Oh! that he would have pity upon that name, and interpose, and once more establish the truth and set up a throne of righteousness, and turn the hearts of the people to himself in this country! Oh! that it were so, for his great names sake! He cannot bless us for our own sakes, for we deserve nothing but his wrath; but, oh! that he would once again have pity upon his holy name that is profaned, and bless this our land. The Lord goes on to say concerning his people:
Eze 36:24. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
Now, this stands true of Israel after the flesh. It will assuredly be fulfilled in the latter days. But it stands even more certain concerning Israel, the true Israel, of whom the natural Israel is but the type. Now, we read one form of that new covenant made with God concerning his elect, comprehending all that have believed in Christ, or ever shall believe in him. This is the covenant that he makes with us in these days:
Eze 36:25-26. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Here is, first of all, full justification. From all your filthiness will I cleanse you. And here is next regeneration: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. These are unconditional promises of that covenant which he hath made with his redeemed in the person of Christ Jesus, their covenant-head. See how majestically it is worded: I will and You shall. There is not an if or a but all through it.
Eze 36:27. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Here is sanctification: here is final perseverance. Blessed promises of the covenant of grace.
Eze 36:28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
That is the greatest promise of all. If a man were to preach a series of sermons upon this text during everyday in the year, he would never exhaust the fullness of its meaning. Ye shall be my people, and will be your God.
Eze 36:29. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
And, spiritually, how true this is that whenever God saves us from sin he also saves us from every form of famine. No heart was ever left to hunger and thirst in vain when it was cleansed from its sin. Our wants come out of our sins; but when we walk with God, he lays no famine upon us in spiritual things.
Eze 36:30. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
Then, when I have blessed you thus when I have fully saved you, when I have brought you up from all the places where I have scattered you, when I have enriched you and indulged you with my love:
Eze 36:31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
Repentance is not the root of grace, but the lily-like flower of it. It is not a thing for the early morning of Christian life alone. Repentance will go side by side with faith all through the ways of righteousness, till we get to Heaven Gate. It is when we have most of mercy that we have most loathing for sin.
Law and terrors do but harden All the while they work alone;
But a sense of blood-bought pardon Soon dissolves a heart of stone.
Eze 36:32. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the LORD GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.
There is no man saved for his own sake: there is no man redeemed for his own sake. It is for Gods own glorys sake. There is no motive so high, there is none so worthy of God, as the making known to all generations and all realms the majesty of his love, and the faithfulness of his covenant.
Eze 36:33-36. Thus saith the LORD GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate; I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.
Now, as he will do this, I doubt not, in Palestine, in due season, so does he always make the most desolate places to be built when his people live near to him. Let us have courage, brethren, about London, about England, about the world. It is very wicked; but if we will keep close to God, we are able to overcome this wickedness in Christs name. Let us have comfort about these evil days in which the most of men seem to be departing from the Gospel. We can hold the fort till Christ shall come; let us but have courage. God will give us yet to see better and brighter days. He was thought to be a good citizen who never despaired of his country, and he is a good Christian who never indulges a dreary thought about the ultimate triumph of Christ and the coming of his kingdom: for thine is the kingdom, even now, and the power and the glory, and so shall it be, for ever and ever.
Eze 36:37. Thus saith the LORD GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.
There must be the spirit of prayer and supplication poured out first. We shall see Israel restored to her land when Israel is restored to the mercy-seat; and we shall see great prosperity as a church, and the blessing of God will rest upon our nation, when once Gods people go up to the top of Carmel with their faces between their knees, and cry, and cry, and cry again, expecting that yet the heavenly shower shall end this long drought of the curse, and the blessing shall come. I will yet be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.
Eze 36:38. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
And that is the great end of it all to make men know that the I AM is that the true and real God is still potent among the sons of men and doeth his will both here and among the armies of heaven. Unto his name be glory for ever and ever.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Eze 36:16-21
Eze 36:16-21
“Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their doings: their way before me was as the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. Wherefore I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood which they had poured out upon the land, and because they had defiled it with their idols; and I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. And when they came unto the nations, wither they went, they profaned my holy name, in that men said of them, These are the people of Jehovah, and are gone forth out of the land. But I had regard for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations, whither they went.”
THE REASON FOR ISRAEL’S PUNISHMENT
(Eze 36:16-21)
“As the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity …” (Eze 36:19). The significance of this comparison lies in the fact that the Mosaic law required that a woman “in her uncleanness” was separated from the congregation (Lev 15:19 ff), the point being in the case of Israel that their “uncleanness” was of a type that required them to be separated from the land of Israel.
“When they came into the nations …” (Eze 36:20). This paragraph points out that the continued profanation of the name of Jehovah in those countries where Israel had been scattered was due to what the citizens of those nations were saying.
“In that the men said of them, These are the people of Jehovah …” (Eze 36:20). The implication of pagan enemies in such remarks was that Jehovah was an incompetent and impotent god, unable to protect his people. Although not mentioned by Ezekiel here, Israel was to blame for the blasphemy that rose among the pagan nations in other ways. Paul clearly stated in Rom 2:21-24 that, “The Jews were thieves, adulterers, robbers of temples, idolaters, and transgressors of the law, and that they dishonored the name of God,” by reason of whom, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles.” What Ezekiel says here in no way nullifies what Paul said.
The principal teaching of this whole paragraph is that the conduct of Israel, not only when they dwelt in Palestine, but afterward in the countries where they were scattered, fully justified and even demanded that God remove them from the promised land.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Eze 36:16-17. A few verses will consist. of a direct message of God to Ezekiel in the nature of explanation and for his information. He recounts the events in the history of Israel while they were still in their own land. Their conduct was so corrupt that the Lord likened it to the condition of an unclean woman.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 36:16-38. The Cleansing and Renewing of the People.This is a passage of peculiar interest and importance, carrying us as it does far into the mind and theology of Ezekiel. First, we are reminded that Israels sinsof bloodshed (whether child sacrifice or judicial murder) and idolatryhad obliged Yahweh to drive them into exile. In this way they had profaned His holy name among the nations, who, according to ancient notions, naturally regarded Him as a worthless God, because apparently weak and unable to protect His people. To vindicate His holiness, therefore, and to reassert His reputation, as it were, in the eyes of a world which misunderstands Him and fails to recognise the moral reasons for His temporary rejection of Israel, He decrees and arranges for her restoration to her own land. But the significant thing in Ezekiel is that He is said to do this not out of love for Israel, but for His holy names sake, i.e. to vindicate His character which has been aspersed and misunderstood (Eze 36:17-23).
But for this restoration the people must be worthily prepared: (a) by the forgiveness of their sinssymbolised by the cleansing water (Eze 36:25); (b) by the gift of the new heart or spirit (i.e. disposition or nature), impressionable, responsive to the Divine appeal, obedient to the Divine demands (Eze 36:26 f.). Then the whole country will be blessed with fertility; and this marvellous transformation of the situation, this expression of Yahwehs unmerited grace, has the double effect of leading Israel to loathe herself for her sins (Eze 36:31) and the surrounding nations to recognise the sublime power of Yahweh (Eze 36:35 f.). With the population of the land reduced, and many in exile, so brilliant a prospect seemed remote enough; but to meet this mood of dejection, the prophet promises that in those days men will be as numerous as the sheep that flock into Jerusalem for sacrifice at the sacred festivals.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
The reason for Israel’s scattering 36:16-21
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord told Ezekiel that when the Israelites had lived in the Promised Land they had defiled it by the way they lived. They resembled a woman during her menstrual period who defiled everything she touched (cf. Lev 15:19-23; Isa 64:6).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
4. Restoration to the Promised Land 36:16-37:14
Having prepared the land for the Israelites (Eze 35:1 to Eze 36:15), the Lord would bring them back into it. This prophecy consists of four parts (Eze 36:16-38, and Eze 37:1-14).