Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 36:8
But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.
8. at hand to come ] The presentiment of the prophet is that the restoration of the people and the age to which all these promises which he gives (ch. 33 37) belong is close at hand.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
8 15. Positive promise to the mountain-land of Israel. In the age of the regeneration, which is at the door, it shall be luxuriantly fruitful ( Eze 36:8-9), and populous ( Eze 36:10-12); it shall no more kill its inhabitants with scarcity ( Eze 36:13-14), nor any more be subject to the reproach of the nations on this account ( Eze 36:15).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They are at hand to come – i. e., under Zerubbabel.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. For they are at hand to come.] The restoration of the Jews is so absolutely determined that you may rest assured it will take place; and be as confident relative to it, as if you saw the different families entering into the Israelitish borders. It was near at hand in God’s determination, though there were about fifty-eight of the seventy years unelapsed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Shall shoot; shall be fruitful, and send forth the branches, trees, plants, herbs, and grass, that are proper for you, and these branches shall not have leaves only, but they shall bring forth their fruit.
They are at hand; the time will come, yea is near, when my people shall come out of Babylonish captivity to resettle in their own land. I will perform my word, and give them assured peace, and this will not be long ere it is begun at least.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. they are at hand to comethatis, the Israelites are soon about to return to their land. Thisproves that the primary reference of the prophecy is to the returnfrom Babylon, which was “at hand,” or comparatively near.But this only in part fulfilled the prediction, the full and finalblessing in future, and the restoration from Babylon was an earnestof it.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But ye, O mountains of Israel,…. Literally understood, as appears by what follows; for though they could not hear what was said, the proprietors of them could, now in captivity; and the efficacy of the word should be seen on them, producing the following effects:
ye shall shoot forth your branches; that is, the trees that grew upon them should; the vines, and the olive trees, planted on hills and mountains, as was usual, as appears from the mount of Olives, and other places:
and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; not only put forth branches, but bear fruit; and which should be given to the right owners, the people of Israel, and not to the Heathens, who had claimed the ancient mountains for their possession:
for they are at hand to come; the Israelites; either by repentance, as Kimchi; or by a return from the Babylonish captivity, which was about forty or fifty years after this prophecy; and which was but a shadow and figure of their restoration in the latter day, yet to come; which might be said to be at hand, or near, with respect to God, with whom two or three thousand years are as nothing. The Targum is,
“for the day of my redemption is near to come.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
B. The Repopulation of the Land 36:815
TRANSLATION
(8) But as for you, O mountains of Israel, you shall put forth your branches, and your fruit you shall bear for My people Israel; for they are near to come. (9) For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown; (10) and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built up; (11) and I will multiply men upon you and cattle, and they shall increase and be fruitful; and will cause You to be inhabited as in former times, and I will make it better than your beginnings; and you shall know that I am the LORD. (12) And I will cause men to walk upon you, even My people Israel, and they shall possess you, and you shall be an inheritance for them; and you shall no more bereave them of their children. (13) Thus says the Lord GOD: Because they are saying to you: You are a devourer of men, and you have been a bereaver of your nations; (14) therefore you shall not devour men any more, and your nations you shall not again bereave (oracle of the Lord GOD); (15) nor will I allow the shame of the nations to be heard against you any more; nor shall you bear the reproach of peoples any more; nor shall you bereave your nations any more (oracle of the Lord GOD).
COMMENTS
The fertile hills of Canaan would yet yield their fruit to Israel, not to strangers. The people of God were at hand to come, i.e., the end of the exile was not far off (Eze. 36:8). The divine I am against you which God uttered against Mt. Seir (Eze. 35:3) is reversed as regards the mountains of Israel. God is not only for the mountains of Israel, He is about to turn unto them, i.e., take an active interest in them. As a result those hills and valleys would once again be cultivated (Eze. 36:9). Men would be multiplied in the land as former citizens of both kingdoms united to rebuild their ruined land (Eze. 36:10). Beast as well as man would increase until their numbers were equivalent to their former strength in pre-exilic times. Yet God would bless them beyond anything they had experienced in bygone days (Eze. 36:11). The feet of Gods people would yet walk over the mountains of Canaan. They would again possess those hills as their national inheritance. No more would those hills rob Gods people of their children through war, pestilence and famine that in former days had occurred there (Eze. 36:12).
One of the derogatory allegations hurled at the land of Canaan was that the land devoured its inhabitants. The original inhabitants, the Canaanites, had been destroyed; now Israel had undergone a similar fate.[460] It seemed that every nation which had occupied that land had been bereaved (Eze. 36:13). But once Israel returned to that land things would be different. Gods people would neither be devoured nor bereaved (Eze. 36:14). No more would they have to endure the derision of the nations because of what occurred to them in that land. The land of Canaan would no more be a stumblingblock to the people who lived in it. They would dwell safely and securely in that land (Eze. 36:15). These promises, of course, are conditional. As long as the returnees were faithful to God He would bless them in these ways. History records that even after their return to the land, the Jewish people failed to live up to their commitment to the Lord.
[460] Cf. Num. 13:12 where the spies reported that Canaan was a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(8) Shoot forth your branches.The land of Israel, represented by its mountains, is now to put forth its fruit, for the time is at hand when the people will returna strong and vivid way of setting forth at once the certainty and the nearness of the return.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8-14. Let the mountains of Israel rejoice and bear good crops, for the return of the rightful inhabitants is “at hand” (Eze 36:8, compare Eze 11:17), and Jehovah will again return to the land from which he had departed (Eze 10:18-20; Eze 11:13-20, etc.), and the fields shall be fruitful and the villages multiplied (Eze 36:33; Eze 34:13-14), and the Lord’s people shall be greater than even at the beginning (Deu 30:5), as they walk again over their old inheritance, Which shall no more deserve its former reputation of being a devourer of men (Eze 36:13), and bringing destruction upon its “children” (Eze 36:12, A.V., men) because of the frequent famines (Eze 36:30, compare Num 13:32) and other judgments upon the “nation” (Eze 36:13-15, Hebrews) for its wickedness (Eze 36:12; Eze 36:17; Eze 34:28).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 36:8. For they are at hand to come For these things are about to happen in a short time. “The time of the deliverance of my people approacheth.” There can be no doubt that, though this prophesy may have an immediate reference to the return of the Jews from Babylon; yet it has a farther reference to the general return of the Israelites, and to the universal reign of the Messiah. See Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eze 36:8 But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.
Ver. 8. Ye shall shoot forth your branches. ] Reflourish and fructify; the Christian churches (those spiritual mountains) shall especially. Rev 22:2
For they are at hand to come.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 36:8-15
Eze 36:8
“But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown; and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be builded; and I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more bereave them of children. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because they say unto you, Thou land art a devourer of men, and hast been a bereaver of thy nation; therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nation any more, saith the Lord Jehovah: neither will I let them bear any more the shame of the nations, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the peoples any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nation to stumble any more, saith the Lord Jehovah.”
ISRAEL’S RESTORATION TO PALESTINE (Eze 36:8-15)
“They are at hand to come …” (Eze 36:8). Despite the fact that about forty years would yet expire before Israel reentered Palestine, their repatriation is represented as something “at hand.” This is in keeping with the custom of all the prophets of considering that anything God has promised to do is actually “at hand,” regardless of exactly when it will occur. The promise of God makes itas sure as if it had already happened.
Pearson has summarized the promises of Israel’s re-entry into Palestine as inclusive of: “(1) The wonderful fruitfulness and productivity of the land; (2) the re-population of Palestine; (3) the elimination of scarcity; (4) freedom from reproach; and (5) the security and prosperity of the nation in a degree even surpassing their former estate’ and the time of their `beginnings.’
We agree with Cook that these great promises of material blessings in their ultimate meaning were typical of the spiritual blessings in the times of Messiah; “But we may not doubt that the prophecy had as its first objective the return of prosperity to the land and the people, after their return from Babylon.
The sad thing is that this projected picture of the restored Israel in Palestine never turned out that way at all. There are two explanations offered by different schools of thinking as to the meaning of this fact. (1) The millennialists postpone the actual and complete fulfillment of these promises to some future time during the Millennium. (2) Others point out that, since all of God’s promises are contingent, absolutely, upon some acceptable degree of obedience and cooperation of the people themselves to whom the promises came (See Jer 17:7-10), and that no such obedience or cooperation on the part of Israel ever occurred, the prophecies have never been fulfilled, nor will they ever be. The continued apostasy of Israel, the further development of that judicial hardening already pronounced against the race of Israel by Isa 6:9, never diminished, but became worse and wore, until it was confirmed by Jesus Christ himself as terminal and irrevocable (Mat 13:14 f), resulting finally in their rejection and murder of the Christ himself when he came, incurring the judgment of destruction upon the nation and their city of Jerusalem, as recorded in Matthew 24, a judgment executed by the overthrow of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In view of all these things, the prophecies here were unfulfilled, nor shall they ever be fulfilled.
This writer accepts this explanation as correct and is fully convinced that the Jewish race, along with all other races, as such, are not vital factors at all in the problem of human redemption. God’s message to all races and nations is simply this: “Whosoever will may come!” No man will ever be either saved or lost eternally on the basis either of his race or his “nation.” Salvation, beginning with the Advent of Jesus Christ and ever afterward is an individual matter.
All of the wonderful things prophesied of Israel in this chapter, as regards their physical and temporal welfare, were things God intended to do and would have done if Israel had done their part.
Look what Israel did. When God ordered them to go back to Palestine, and when Cyrus the king of Persia himself authorized their departure and even paid part of the cost, only a pitiful little handful of the captives responded. The vast majority, according to Josephus, already growing wealthy in Babylon, elected not to go.
And the group that went, look what they did. Malachi records that the priesthood itself turned out to be a bunch of robbers, robbing God himself; and the people were not paying their tithes, nor doing anything else that Jehovah had commanded; and even the ones who brought sacrifices brought the sick, the lame, and the blind and other illegal sacrifices. God even cursed the reprobate priesthood.
Malachi even challenged the people to obey the Law of Moses and to bring the whole tithe into God’s storehouse, “Prove me now, saith Jehovah of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Mal 3:10). Did it happen? Certainly not. The wickedness of Israel prevailed. This same wickedness prevented many other of the projected blessings of Israel from being given by the Lord.
And yet, enough of the promises were fulfilled to encourage and bless the remnant who “waited for the kingdom of God.”
They were indeed returned to Palestine; the cities were rebuilt, the land repopulated, and they were the objects of God’s signal protection, especially from the ravages of Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. Also the hand of God is clearly seen in many other inter-testamental developments: (1) the provision of the Greek language as the near-universal medium of communication, (2) the tragedy leading to the building of synagogues, (3) the events leading to the reading of the prophets, along with the Law, in the weekly sabbath services, (4) the complete disillusionment of the whole pagan world with the prevailing paganism of the times, and (5) the development of the judicial hardening of all mankind as a prelude to the First Advent of Christ.
Also, throughout this period, the preservation of the Jewish records of the genealogies of the tribes and of the House of David made it possible for Jesus Christ Himself to be positively and accurately identified as the legitimate heir to the throne of David, and at the same time a descendant of David through Nathan instead of Solomon (Matthew 1 and Luke 3).
Feinberg freely admitted that these prophecies were not fulfilled upon the return of Israel from Babylon, stating that, “The conditions depicted here are clearly millennial.” This opinion is echoed by a number of scholars; and as long as the fact of the reign of Christ in this present dispensation is understood as the Millennium, the opinion is correct. However, when the Millennium is projected as a literal thousand years reign of Jesus Christ on a literal throne in Jerusalem involving a wholesale return of racial Israel as Christ’s followers, such notions must be rejected as unsupported by the Holy Scriptures. (For those who may be interested in the pursuit of this subject, see Revelation 20 of my series of commentaries on the New Testament.)
“Thou shalt no more devour men … nor bereave …” (Eze 36:13). It will be remembered that this was precisely the charge that the unfaithful spies brought against “the mountains of Israel” when they gave their evil report to Moses (Num 13:32). It is still not clear what lay behind such a false charge. “A land incapable of supporting its people, or wherein they suffered loss through war or other divine scourges could be said to bereave the people.
Whatever the basis of the saying and regardless of its truth or falsity, God here prophesied the termination of it.
“Israel shall no more bear the shame of nations … neither shall (they) stumble any more …” (Eze 36:15). As we have already seen, “That portion of the nation which returned from captivity not only continued under the rule of the heathen, but also, in various ways, they continued to bear the contempt of the nations; and eventually Israel not only stumbled, but fell very low in their rejection of the Saviour; and the nation of Israel was again conquered, destroyed and scattered; and the land was utterly devastated and wasted.
This projected return of Israel to Palestine implied a gathering of Israel from all the places where God had scattered them; and there is no way that the handful of returnees from Babylon fulfilled that intention upon God’s part. When did such an ingathering happen.’? Cook, it appears to us, was absolutely correct when he declared that, “The reunion will be in those days when Israel shall be gathered into the Church of God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
ye shall: Eze 34:26-29, Psa 67:6, Psa 85:12, Isa 4:2, Isa 27:6, Isa 30:23, Hos 2:21-23, Amo 9:13-15
for: The Edomites, and other enemies of the Jews, who thought they would soon be in possession of the whole land of Judea, might be assured that the predicted seventy years of the captivity were wearing away, and the time would soon arrive when the Jews would repossess and cultivate their own land, and eat its fruits.
at hand: Eze 12:25, Phi 4:5, Heb 10:37, Jam 5:8, Jam 5:9
Reciprocal: Jos 11:16 – the mountain Isa 17:6 – General Isa 44:23 – glorified Isa 58:12 – build Isa 65:9 – I will Jer 3:16 – when Jer 31:5 – mountains Jer 33:12 – in all Eze 6:3 – Ye Eze 36:1 – hear Eze 36:29 – call Hos 2:14 – and speak Joe 2:22 – for the tree Amo 3:9 – the mountains Mic 6:1 – contend
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The land of Palestine had not been damaged by the heathen, but it had been made to lie uncultivated. That was in order for It to enjoy its sabbaths. (See Lev 26:34-35; Lev 26:43.) The most significant thought is in the words to my people. Even had the land produced anything in the 70-year captivity, the people of Israel could not have used it because they were exiles in a country far away.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 36:8-12. But ye, O mountains of Israel, shall yield your fruit, &c. Here the land of Judea is ordered to provide for the sustenance of the people of Israel, who were about to return out of captivity to dwell there again: for, says the prophet, they are at hand to come That is, the deliverance of my people shall be effected in a short time. This prophecy seems to have an immediate reference to the return of the Jews from Babylon; but there can be no doubt, as Calmet justly observes, that it has also a further reference, even to the general return of the Israelites, and to the kingdom of the Messiah; the longest distance of time that the things of this world can extend to being but a moment in respect of eternity. For I am for you, and will return unto you, &c. I will send down again my blessing upon you, and favourable seasons; and cause you to be inhabited, so that you shall again be cultivated and fruitful. This is also addressed, as it were, to the land of Judea. And the cities shall be inhabited The cities and towns that lie in ruins shall be built again. And I will multiply upon you man and beast As God, in his judgments, threatened to cut off man and beast from the land, (Eze 14:17,) so here he promises to replenish it with both. And will do better unto you than at your beginning In bestowing upon you the blessings of the gospel, the promises of which were first made to the Jews and to their children, Act 2:39. The words may likewise imply, that God would give them a more lasting and secure possession of their land than ever they had before: see the following verses. Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you O mountains, or land of Israel, Eze 36:8. And thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men That is, thou shall no more be remarkable for thy inhabitants dying in uncommon numbers, by pestilence, the sword, and famine.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
36:8 But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall {g} shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are soon to come.
(g) God declares his mercies and goodness toward his Church, who still preserves his, even when he destroys his enemies.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Eze 36:8-15 contain four promises concerning the land. First, the land would become productive because the Israelites would soon come back into the land. Yahweh assured the land that He was for it, He would bless it, and it would become cultivated again instead of desolate and uninhabited. Formerly the Lord had said that He was against Mount Seir (Eze 35:3).