33<\/strong>. This resolution of the people to sink themselves among the heathen shall not stand; Jehovah will<\/em> assert his sovereignty over them, amidst terrible manifestations of his power and anger.<\/p>\n rule over you<\/em> ] be<\/strong> or, become king<\/strong> over you. The mighty hand (Exo 13:9<\/span>; Deu 5:15<\/span>) and the stretched out arm (Exo 6:6<\/span>; Deu 7:19<\/span>; Deu 11:2<\/span>, &c.), were turned at the exodus against their enemies, here partly at least they are directed upon the disobedient people themselves ( Eze 20:35<\/em><\/span>).<\/p>\n As I live:<\/B> see Eze 20:3<\/span>. <\/P> A mighty hand; <\/B>so mighty, that you shall never wrest yourselves out of it: you think to revolt, and get out of my hand, but you shall hereby discover your own folly, malice, and weakness. <\/P> A stretched out arm, <\/B>which reacheth every where, whence you can never flee, which shall be most visible. <\/P> With fury; <\/B>in hot, but just indignation. <\/P> Poured out; <\/B>as an inundation from a mighty river, or like a violent storm poured from the clouds, or as a full vessel emptied all at once. <\/P> Rule over you; <\/B>retain my right over you, and exercise it on you, us on combined rebels, since you will refuse my rule, as over-loyal subjects. If you will not be my free subjects, you shall be lettered slaves; the chains of affliction, the restraints of providence crossing you, the execution of my menaces, shall be too sharp and thick a hedge for you to break through; I will make every place where you are a prison for strength to confine you, and I will make it a prison for the sorrows and hardships you shall there endure, and all this in my fury. <\/P> <\/p>\n 33.<\/B> Here begins the seconddivision of the prophecy. Lest the covenant people should abandontheir distinctive hopes and amalgamate with the surrounding heathen,He tells them that, as the wilderness journey from Egypt was madesubservient to discipline and also to the taking from among them therebellious, so a severe discipline (such as the Jews are now for longactually undergoing) should be administered to them during the nextexodus for the same purpose (Eze20:38<\/span>), and so to prepare them for the restored possession oftheir land (Hos 2:14<\/span>; Hos 2:15<\/span>).This was only partially fulfilled before, and at the return fromBabylon: its full and final accomplishment is future. <\/P> with a mighty hand, . . .will I rule over you<\/B>I will assert My right over you in spiteof your resistance (Eze 20:32<\/span>),as a master would in the case of his slave, and I will not let you bewrested from Me, because of My regard to My covenant.<\/P><\/p>\n As I live, saith the Lord God<\/strong>,…. The form of an oath; the Lord swears by his own life, used more than once before; it supposes something of moment, and the certain performance of it:<\/p>\n surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm<\/strong>; from which none can escape, and which none can withstand:<\/p>\n and with fury poured out<\/strong>: like floods of water, in a violent hasty shower of rain; it denotes the abundance of divine wrath, and the sudden and sure execution of it:<\/p>\n will I rule over you<\/strong>; not in a gentle and merciful way, but with great rigour and severity; though they had contrived to withdraw themselves from under his domination and government, by joining with the Gentiles, and conforming to their laws and customs, and complying with their religious rites and idolatrous practices; yet they should not be able to accomplish their designs; they should be so far from being free men, as they promised themselves, that whereas they did not choose to be his voluntary and faithful subjects, he would keep a watchful eye and a strict hand over them as rebels, and rule them with a rod of iron, as well as with a sceptre of righteousness; and would be King over them, and they should be subject to his authority, whether they would or not.<\/p>\n The Sins of Israel.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD> B. C.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> 592.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/FONT><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> <\/TABLE> 33 As<\/I> I live, saith the Lord GOD<\/B>, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: 34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. 35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. 36 Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD<\/B>. 37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: 38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am<\/I> the LORD<\/B>. 39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD<\/B>; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also,<\/I> if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols. 40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD<\/B>, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the first-fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. 42 And ye shall know that I am<\/I> the LORD<\/B>, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for<\/I> the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. 43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. 44 And ye shall know that I am<\/I> the LORD<\/B>, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD<\/B>.<\/P> The design which was now on foot among the elders of Israel was that the people of Israel, being scattered among the nations, should lay aside all their peculiarities and conform to those among whom they lived; but God had told them that the design should not take effect, v.<\/I><\/span> 32<\/span>. Now, in these verses, he shows particularly how it should be frustrated. They aimed at the mingling<\/I> of the families of Israel with the families of the countries;<\/I> but it will prove in the issue that the wicked Israelites, notwithstanding their compliances, shall not mingle with them in their prosperity, but shall be distinguished from them for destruction; for idolatrous Israelites, that are apostates from God, shall be sooner and more sorely punished than idolatrous Babylonians that never knew the way of righteousness. Read and tremble at the doom here passed upon them; it is backed with an oath not to be reversed: As I live, saith the Lord God,<\/I> thus and thus will I deal with you. They think to make both Jerusalem and Babylon their friends by halting between two; but God threatens that neither of them shall serve for a rest or refuge for them.<\/P> I. Babylon shall not protect them, nor any of the countries of the heathen; for God will cast them out of his protection and then what prince, what people, what place, can serve to be a sanctuary to them? God was Israel’s King of old, and had they continued his loyal subjects he would have ruled over them<\/I> with care and tenderness for their good, but now with a stretched-out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over them,<\/I> v.<\/span> 33<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. That power which should have been exerted fore their protection shall be exerted for their destruction. Note, There is no shaking off God’s dominion; rule he will, either with the golden sceptre or with the iron rod; and those that will not yield to the power of his grace shall be made to sink under the power of his wrath. Now when God is angry with them, though they may think that they shall be lost in the crowd of the heathen among whom they are scattered, they will be disappointed; for (v.<\/I><\/span> 34<\/span>) I will gather you out of the countries wherein you are scattered,<\/I> as, when the rebels are dispersed in battle, those that have escaped the sword of war are pursued and brought together out of all the places whither they were scattered, to be punished by the sword of justice. They shall be brought into the wilderness of the people<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 35<\/span>), either into Babylon, which is called a wilderness<\/I> (ch.<\/I><\/span> xix. 13<\/span>), and the desert of the sea<\/I> (Isa. xxi. 1<\/span>), or into some place which, though full of people, shall be to them as the wilderness was to Israel after they came out of Egypt, a place where God will plead with them face to face,<\/I> as he pleaded with their fathers in the wilderness of Egypt<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 36<\/span>),– where their carcases shall fall and where he will swear concerning them that they shall never return to Canaan, as he did swear concerning their fathers that they should never come into Canaan,–where he will avenge the breach of his law with as much terror as that with which he gave it in the wilderness of Sinai. Note, God has a good action against apostates, and will find not only time, but a proper place, to plead with them in upon that action, a wilderness even in the midst of the people for that purpose.<\/P> II. Israel shall be no more able to protect them than Babylon could; nor shall their relation to God’s people stand them in any more stead for the other world than their compliance with idolaters shall for this world; nor shall they stand in the congregation of the righteous<\/I> any more than in the congregation of evil-doers; for there will come a distinguishing day, when God will separate between the precious and the vile; he will cause them,<\/I> as the shepherd causes his sheep, to pass under the rod,<\/I> when he tithes them (Lev. xxvii. 32<\/span>), that he may mark which is for God. God will take particular notice of each of them, one by one, as sheep are counted, and he will bring them into the bond of the covenant<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 37<\/span>); he will try them and judge of them according to the tenour of the covenant, and the difference made between some and others by the blessings and curses of the covenant. Or it may refer to those among them that repented and reformed; he will cause them to pass under the rod of affliction, and, having done them good by it, he will bring them again into the bond of the covenant,<\/I> will be to them a God in covenant, and use them again as heirs of promise.<\/I><\/P> 1. He will separate the wicked from among them (v.<\/I><\/span> 38<\/span>): “I will purge out from among you the rebels,<\/I> who have been a grief and scandal to you, and who have by their rebellions brought all these calamities upon you.” The judgments of God shall find them out, and their naming the name of Israel shall be no shelter to them. They shall be brought out of the countries where they sojourn,<\/I> and shall not have that rest in them which they promised themselves. But they shall not enter into the land of Israel,<\/I> nor enjoy the benefit of that rest which God has promised to his people. Note, Though godly people may share with the wicked in the calamities of the world, yet wicked people shall have no share with the godly in the heavenly Canaan; but it shall be part of the blessedness of that world that they shall be purged out from among them,<\/I> the tares from the wheat, the chaff from the corn, ch.<\/I><\/span> xiii. 9<\/span>. But wherever these idolaters of the house of Israel<\/I> were contriving to worship both God and their idols, thinking to please both, God here protests against it (v.<\/I><\/span> 39<\/span>), as Elijah had done in his name: “If the Lord be God, then follow him, but, if Baal, then follow him;<\/I> if you will serve your idols, do, and take what comes of it; but then do not pretend relation to God and a religious regard to him, nor pollute his holy name with your gifts<\/I> at his altar.” Spiritual judgments are the sorest judgments. Two of that kind of judgments are threatened in this verse<\/span> against those that were for dividing between the God of Israel and the gods of the nations:– (1.) That they should be given up to the service of their idols. To them he said ironically, “Since you will not hearken unto me, go you, serve every one his idols,<\/I> now that you think it will be for your interest, and hereafter also.<\/I> You shall go on in it. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone;<\/I> let him take his course, and see what he will get by it at last.” Note, Those who think to serve themselves by sin will find in the end that they have but enslaved themselves to sin. (2.) That they should be cut off from the service of God and communion with God: “You shall not pollute my holy name<\/I> with your vain oblations,<\/I> Isa. i. 11<\/I><\/span>. You bring your gifts in your hands, wherewith you pretend to honour me, but at the same time you bring your idols in your hearts, and therefore you do but pollute me, which I will not suffer any more,” Amo 5:21<\/span>; Amo 5:22<\/span>. Note, Those are justly forbidden God’s house that profane his house.<\/P> 2. He will separate them to himself again. (1.) He will gather them<\/I> in mercy out of the countries whither they were scattered,<\/I> to be monuments of mercy, as the incorrigible were gathered to be vessels of wrath, v.<\/I><\/span> 41<\/span>. Not one of God’s jewels shall be lost in the lumber of this world. (2.) He will bring them to the land of Israel,<\/I> which he had promised to give to their fathers;<\/I> and the discontinuance of their possession shall be no defeasance of their right; it is the land of Israel<\/I> still, and thither God will bring them safely again, v.<\/I><\/span> 42<\/span>. (3.) He will re-establish his ordinances among them, will set up his sanctuary in his holy mountain, which is here called the mountain of the height of Israel;<\/I> for, though the Mount Zion was none of the highest mountains, yet the temple there was one of the highest honours of Israel. It is promised that those who preserved their integrity, and would not serve idols, in other lands, shall return to their prosperity and shall serve the true God in their own land: All of them in the land shall serve me.<\/I> Note, It is the true happiness of a people, and a sure token for good to them, when there is a prevailing disposition in them to serve God. Whereas God had forbidden the idolaters to bring their gifts to his altar, of these he will require offerings and first-fruits,<\/I> and will accept them, v.<\/I><\/span> 40<\/span>. What he does not require he will not accept, but what is done with a regard to his precepts he will be well pleased with. He will accept them with their sweet savour,<\/I> or savour of rest<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 41<\/span>), as being very grateful to him and what he takes a complacency in; whereas, to hypocritical worshippers, he says, I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.<\/I> (4.) He will give them true repentance for their sins, v.<\/I><\/span> 43<\/span>. When they find how gracious God is to them they will be overcome with his kindness, and blush to think of their bad behaviour towards so good a God:<\/I> “There, in my holy mountain,<\/I> when you come to enjoy the privileges of that again, there<\/I> shall you remember your doings,<\/I> wherein you have been defiled.” Note, The more conversant we are with God’s holiness the more we shall see of the odious nature of sin. There you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight.<\/I> Note, Ingenuous evangelical repentance makes people loathe themselves for their sins, as Job 42:5<\/span>; Job 42:6<\/span>. (5.) He will give them the knowledge of himself: They shall know<\/I> by experience that he is the Lord,<\/I> that he is a God of almighty power and inexhaustible goodness, kind to his people and faithful to his covenant with them. Note, All the favours we receive from God should lead us into a more intimate acquaintance with him. (6.) He will do all this for his own name’s sake, notwithstanding their undeservings and ill-deservings (v.<\/I><\/span> 44<\/span>); he has wrought with them,<\/I> that is, wrought for them, wrought in favour of them, wrought in concurrence with them, they doing their endeavour; he has wrought with them purely for his name’s sake.<\/I> His reasons were all fetched from himself. Had he dealt with them according to their wicked ways and their corrupt doings,<\/I> though they were the better and sounder part of the house of Israel, he would have left them to be scattered and lost with the rest; but he recovered and restored them for the sake of his own name, not only that it might not be polluted<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 14<\/span>), but that he might be sanctified in them before the heathen<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 41<\/span>), that he might sanctify himself<\/I> (so the word is); for it is God’s work to glorify his own name. He will do well for his people that he may have the glory of it, that he may manifest himself to be a God pardoning sin and so keeping promise, that his people may praise him, and that their neighbours may likewise take notice of him, as they did when God burned again their captivity,<\/I> Ps. cxxvi. 3<\/I><\/span>. Then said they among the heathen, The Lord has done great things for them.<\/I><\/P> <\/p>\n THE FUTURE JUDGMENT OF ISRAEL<\/strong><\/p>\n Verses 33-44:<\/strong><\/p>\n Verse 33 begins <\/strong>a second division of Ezekiel’s prophecy offer of hope for a future restoration of the Jews to the promised land, lest their long dispersion judgment should cause them to abandon all hope, and to amalgamate racially with the heathen nations, so far as to lose their identity. The Lord declared that He would rule over them with a mighty hand, stretched out arm, and poured out fury. This was to liberate them from among the nations, as He did from the Egyptians, Exo 6:1<\/span>; Exo 6:6<\/span>; Deu 4:34<\/span>; Deu 5:7<\/span>; Deu 5:19<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 34 related <\/strong>how God will bring back the dispersed nation of Israel from among the people and countries where they have been scattered. That regathering is to be by His omnipotent (all mighty) outstretched hand and arm of fury, or accompanied with judgment upon them, even to the final “round-up,” Jeremiah 21. It is not all over yet; He will yet rule over them, Luk 1:32-33<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 35 declares <\/strong>that the Lord will bring Israel, in her desperation and judgment of fury, into the “wilderness of the people,” the masses of the gentile world, not “the wilderness of wild beasts,” where they once were judged forty years in the midst of roaring lions, howling wolves and jackals, and scorpions and serpents, Deu 8:15<\/span>; Deu 32:10<\/span>; Isa 30:6<\/span>. God will plead with them there as a plaintiff in court pleads against a defendant, “face to face.” For God acts justly in all His acts, Dan 12:1<\/span>; Zec 13:8-9<\/span>; Zec 14:2-3<\/span>; Jer 2:9<\/span>; Mic 6:2<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 36 assures <\/strong>them that as God pled with their fathers, to purify themselves and follow Moses in leaving Egypt behind, with her oppressions and pollutions and abominations of idols; So would He plead in longsuffering toward them in the latter days, Num 14:21-23<\/span>; Num 14:28-29<\/span>; Num 20:5<\/span>; Num 21:5<\/span>; Deu 8:1<\/span>. He later destroyed in the wilderness them that believed not Jud 1:8<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 37 explains <\/strong>that He would cause them to “pass under the rod,” as a shepherd counts his sheep, Lev 27:32<\/span>. He counts them, examines them, as they pass under the rod, because He cares for them. If any is wounded He cares for it, Jer 33:13<\/span>. He pledges, even yet, to bring them into the bond of the covenant He made with them, Mic 7:14<\/span>; Exo 19:1-8<\/span>; Hos 11:4<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 38 asserts <\/strong>that in their dispersion and final regathering to their land God will purge or separate from among them the rebels and repeated transgressors, not permitting them to be in the regathering, v. 33. Then will they recognize that He is the Lord, Num 14:30<\/span>; Jer 44:14<\/span>; Heb 4:6<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 39 challenges <\/strong>them to go and do as they please, as free moral agents, if they think they can do so, and escape His fury; But as long as they worshipped idols, they were charged to pollute His name no more, by using it in association with false gods, Jdg 10:14<\/span>; Psa 81:12<\/span>; Amo 4:4<\/span>. The tone of address is one of irony as found Ecc 11:9<\/span>; Rev 22:11<\/span>; Psa 81:12<\/span>; Pro 21:27<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 40 declares <\/strong>that the Lord will be served one day by all of the house of Israel, bringing gifts to Him in the heights of His holy mountain (Mount Zion) Isa 2:2<\/span>. There He will receive from them, at Mt Moriah, all the firstfruits of their oblations and their holy sacrificial things, as they voluntarily bring them to Him with praise and glory, Isa 56:7<\/span>; Isa 60:7<\/span>; Zec 8:20<\/span>; Mal 3:4<\/span>; Rom 12:1<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 41 further <\/strong>prophecies that the Lord will receive to Himself, in that day of restoration, all Israel with her sweet savour of sacrificial odor, of satisfaction or acceptance, Gen 8:21<\/span>; Eph 5:2<\/span>; Php_4:18. Having gathered Israel from their dispersed scattering among the nations of the earth, He shall be glorified in them upon their return, with heathen nations looking on, Dan 9:26-27<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 42 affirms <\/strong>that they will then know or comprehend that He is the Lord (the one God), when He has preserved them and brought them back to their homeland, where He lifted up His hand or made a covenant with them, as with Abraham before, Gen 12:1-3<\/span>; Exo 19:1-8<\/span>; See also Eze 11:17<\/span>; Eze 34:12<\/span>; Eze 36:24<\/span>. See also Jer 24:7<\/span>; Joh 17:3<\/span>; 1Jn 5:20<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 43 reminds them that there, in their land, they will come to remember their ways and days of defilement and loathe themselves in their own sight, Eze 16:16<\/span>; An indication of national repentance, Lev 26:39<\/span>; Eze 6:9<\/span>; Hos 5:15<\/span>.<\/p>\n Verse 44 explains <\/strong>that they will then come to know Him as Lord by His willingness to restore and forgive them for the honor of His name’s sake, or His character, Eze 36:22<\/span>; Not merely because of His former judgments for their wickedness, Zec 12:10<\/span>; Rev 1:7<\/span>.<\/p>\nFuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n