Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 36:20

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.

20. These disasters which the people of Jehovah brought on themselves led to the desecration of his name among the heathen. The nations judged him weak and unable to protect his people. In the eyes of the nations the interests of the god and his people were one; if a people was subdued by another it was because its god was too feeble to protect it. Naturally the idea of a god exercising a moral rule over his own people would not yet occur to them. That Jehovah so rules is the lesson which the history of Israel, its dispersion and restoration, is intended to read to the nations of the earth. This lesson was one which Israel itself was slow to learn, and when Amos (Eze 3:2) read it to them, it was perhaps as strange to some as it might be to the heathen.

they profaned ] i.e. Israel. Israel by bringing their dispersion upon themselves led to the desecration of Jehovah’s name by the nations, and hence they are said directly to have profaned his name ( Eze 36:21).

when they said to them ] when it was said of them, These are and they are gone forth , i.e. though the people of Jehovah, they have been driven into exile out of the land he has not been able to protect them.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Eze 36:20

They profaned My holy name.

How Gods name is profaned

Men sanctify Jehovah when they recognise that which He is, or ascribe to Him His true nature. On the other hand, when the iniquities of His people constrain Him to act in such a way as to disguise any of His great attributes, such as His power, in the eyes of the nations, so that they misinterpret His being, His holy name is profaned, as, on the contrary, He is sanctified in the eyes of the nations by the restoration of His people, and their defence when restored and righteous. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

The nations conceptions of Jehovah regulated by His peoples conduct

These disasters which the people of Jehovah brought on themselves led to the desecration of His name among the heathen. The nations judged Him weak, and unable to protect His people. In the eyes of the nations, the interests of the god and his people were one; if a people were subdued by another, it was because its god was too feeble to protect it. Naturally, the idea of a god exercising a moral rule over his own people would not yet occur to them. That Jehovah so rules is the lesson which the history of Israel, its dispersion and restoration, is intended to read to the nations of the earth. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 20. And when they entered unto the heathen] So bad were they, and so deeply fallen, that they profaned the Lord’s name among the heathen; and, on their account, the true God was blasphemed. These, say they, are the people of Jehovah! O what an abominable people are these! and what a being must that God be who can have and own such for his people!

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

When they entered; when they were come into Babylon, and entered into familiarity with the inhabitants as neighbours.

Profaned my holy name; did profanely sin against those precepts of my law, which heathens did know, venerate, and observe better than the Jews; or it may include the misery their sins had brought them to, which misery reflected upon their God in the opinion of the heathen.

They said, their heathen neighbours, to them, the miserable and profane Jews,

These are the people of the Lord; with taunt and cutting reprimand. These, these captive slaves, that are most forlorn of men, will have it that their God is the Lord, the mighty and the good God, the true and faithful One, that gave them the land out of which they are driven. If he be good, as they boast, how comes it to pass his people are in such ill state? Or is he not able to better their state? Was he weak, and could not keep them in their own land? or doth he falsify his word? You miserable Jews, say what this meaneth. But by their impure life they opened the mouths of the heathen more to blaspheme, and call the holiness of God into question; when they saw his people so unholy, they concluded. As is the people so is their God; and this, as it was a great offence and scandal to the heathen, so it was a great dishonour to God.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

20. profaned my holy name, whentheythe heathen

said to themtheIsraelites.

These, c.TheIsraelites gave a handle of reproach to the heathen against God, whowould naturally say, These who take usury, oppress, commit adultery,&c., and who, in such an abject plight, are “gone forth”as exiles “out of His land,” are specimens of what Jehovahcan or will effect, for His people, and show what kind of a God thisso-called holy, omnipotent, covenant-keeping God must be! (Isa 52:5Rom 2:24).

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

And when they entered unto the Heathen, whither they went,…. When the Jews went into the Heathen countries, whither they were carried captive, either by the Chaldeans, or by the Romans:

they profaned my holy name; by their irreligion and immorality; by their violation of both tables of the law; by their wicked lives and conversations, whereby they gave the enemy an occasion to reproach them, their religion, and their God, Ro 2:24:

when they said to them, these are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land; these are the men that boast they are the people of the Lord, whom he has chosen above all people, and see what a wicked people they are; for their sins they are driven out of the land, and become our captives: or though they were the Lord’s people, as they pretend, and were under his care and protection; yet he was not able to keep them in their own land, and deliver them out of our hands, but they are carried captive by us; and thus the name of God, his being and perfections, were blasphemed, and his word, worship, and worshippers, were ridiculed by them. The Targum is,

“if these are the people of the Lord, how is it that they are gone out of the land of the house of his majesty?”

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(20) When they said to them.We are not here to understand that the Israelites profaned Gods name among the heathen in the way spoken of in Rom. 2:24, though this also may have been done; but they profaned it by the very fact of their captivity, the consequence of their former sins. The heathen regarded Jehovah as merely the national God of the Israelites, and seeing them dispersed, in distress, and in captivity, concluded that He was unable to protect them. Hence, for the vindication of His name (Eze. 36:21-24) God would restore His people to their land.

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

“And when they came to the nations to which they went, they profaned my holy name in that men said of them, “These are the people of Yahweh, and have come forth out of his land.”

But the other consequence was that it reflected on God’s name and reputation. By what had happened to them they had brought God’s name into disrepute, because the nations saw that they had had to leave the land and thus assumed that Yahweh their God could only be weak and helpless. Thus they degraded Yahweh to being a minor god of no importance.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Eze 36:20. These are the people, &c. The Lord was with them, yet are they driven out of his land. Houbigant. As much as to say, “See what profligate wretches these are, who call themselves by the name of God’s peculiar people; when it is evident that they are not so, by his having expelled them for their crimes out of the country which he has given them.” See Houbigant.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Eze 36:20 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.

Ver. 20. These are the people of the Lord. ] And these are the fruits of their religion. Are these the holy people? &c. Lactantius a complaineth of his times, that God’s truth was evil spoken of by the heathen, because Christians lived loosely and lewdly. Whereupon Erasmus b crieth out, O rem miseram! Oh, lamentable! Even in those purer times the piety of Christians was so much abated, that the gospel was therefore evil spoken of, for the evil lives of many that professed it. What marvel then, saith he, that Turks cry out upon us? that the banks of blasphemy are broken down in persons disaffected to the power of godliness?

a Lactant., de Opific. Dei; Proaem.

b Erasm. in Lactant.

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