Ezek. 20 God refuseth to be consulted by the elders of Israel, Ezek. 20:1–3. He rehearseth the rebellions of their ancestors in Egypt, Ezek. 20:4–9; in the wilderness, Ezek. 20:10–26; and in the Promised Land, Ezek. 20:27–29.

The seventh year of Jeconiah’s captivity and Zedekiah’s reign, two years and five months before Nebuchadnezzar did besiege Jerusalem. The fifth month; August. The tenth day; which answers to cur twenty-seventh. Certain, Heb. men. Some of note among the elders and rulers of Israel.

While these men were with Ezekiel God gives him instruction what to say to them.

Son of man: see Ezek. 2:3. Speak unto the elders of Israel; speak plainly, boldly, and to their faces, fear not their frowns; if they are deputies from Zedekiah, yet let not that character make thee mealymouthed. Thus saith the Lord God: this expression carries enough to encourage him.

Wilt thou judge them? either, Wilt thou judge charitably, and, supposing they are upright and teachable, wilt thou plead with me for them? as Ezek. 14:3, or as Jer. 14:9.

In the day; at the time, the season; it speaks not of that precise portion of hours which make up the natural day, but of the time wherein God began to show them his great mercy.

After the manner of man God speaks, as if he had been the spy to go from place to place to search out the best, and to appoint it for them; it was his wise and good providence which assigned this land to them.

Then, Heb. And, which connects the words; and though we read it then, this doth not point out the time when God spake this, though it is certain, when he had brought them out of Egypt he gave them his ordinances and laws of worship; nay, it is sufficiently included, in that they were to go out that…

They rebelled against me; so great a sin is idolatry, it is against God, as open hostility is against a sovereign whom subjects fight against. All sin is against God, but idolatry is much more so.

I wrought, according to my promise, ny infinite mercy, and the hopes of those few that heard and obeyed. For my name’s sake; for my glory: had you been used as you deserved, you had died slaves in Egypt, and there had been your graves; but the glory of God’s mercy and faithfulness is the motive of…

Wherefore, Heb. And. I caused them to go forth; removed all obstacles, furnished them with all necessaries, went before them, and showed them the way they should go, as is expressed, Ex. 13:17. And brought them; I brought; it was not Moses’s error, though Pharaoh thought so, Ex.

I, who spared them in Egypt, had brought them forth, and owned them as the children of Abraham my friend: God gave his law by Moses, and now Israel’s laws are really of Divine origin, when others did but pretend it.

I gave; both commanded, and also sanctified, those portions of time to be holy rests. My sabbaths; either the weekly sabbath, which, recurring every seventh day, soon multiplied into many, and was to be the commemoration of God’s rest from his labour, Israel’s delivery out of Egypt, Deut.

The house of Israel; not a few, this I might have borne in silence, but most of them; they were, as we are, a rebellious house. Rebelled against me; provoked me bitterly to indignation by their contumacies, and that frequently, as Ex. 17:7, Num. 20:24, Deut. 1:26, Deut.

See Ezek. 20:9, where these words are paraphrased.

Yet also; moreover also, as the same particles are rendered, Ezek. 20:12. I lifted up my hand unto them; see Ezek. 20:5; sware in his wrath against them, Ps. 95:11.

See the whole former part of this verse explained already, Ezek. 20:13. Their heart went after their idols; their will and affections, their zeal and resolution, were for their idols which they served in Egypt, and which they had brought with them out of Egypt.

Nevertheless mine eye spared them; though they did highly provoke God, and deserved to be cut off, yet his eye pitied them: they provoked his wrath, he stirred up his compassions.

But, and, or then I said. The fathers were refractory, and deaf, would not hearken, therefore God turns his advice to children. Though the particular place is not specified, yet among the calamities of that mournful age, and at the funerals of so many as then died, there were some that had piety,…

The Lord; the only God; idols, though your fathers’ idols, are no gods, therefore let them never be that to you which they are not, cannot be in themselves, the object of worship, and trust, and love.

Hallow my sabbaths; remember to keep them holy, employ them on holy works of God’s solemn and public worship, and cease from servile and worldly businesses. A sign: see Ezek. 20:12.

These unhappy children do even as their fathers in all points of disobediences to God; are as deaf to his counsel, and as averse to his law, which here is point by point recounted, and is the same with Ezek. 20:13, where see it explained.

Nevertheless, Heb. And. God seems to take to himself the posture of one that was just going to smite, yet draws back that he might spare, and act like his own infinite goodness, not suitable to the sin of this generation. Wrought: this is explained Ezek. 20:9.

On this solemn gesture and signification, see Ezek. 20:5. Here it is an oath added to a threat, to make it more dreadful to them, and to make it successful in keeping them from the sin threatened.

The whole 24th verse is already explained Ezek. 4:16, which see. They, that travelled through the wilderness, had not executed my judgments, in all that forty years, wherein their fathers were to be wasted, and by which their children should have learned, kept, and done God’s judgments, but did…

Because they did by such perverse obstinacy reject the statutes I did in mercy give them; my good laws and judgments, saith God, they despised; for this cause God proceeds to punish them in a dreadful kind and manner, Gave them; not by appointing or enjoining, but by permitting them to make such…

Polluted them; either I permitted them to pollute themselves, or discovered that they had polluted themselves, or treated them with loathing and abhorrence, as polluted persons.

Since all this evil and wicked carriage in Egypt and in the wilderness is too true, and cause of a Divine wrath against them, go on; tell what the deportment of those was whom I brought into the land.

When; so soon as settled in the land promised to Abraham and his seed. Lifted up mine hand: see Ezek. 20:5, Ezek. 20:23. Saw; lookest after them, and, when seen, liked and prepared after the manner of the heathen; though this was forbidden, yet this thou didst, buildedst thy high places, and thou…

Then; when they were intent upon this horrid course of sin, God pleaded by his messengers, and prophets, and law, and some faithful priests, What mean you, that ye go to the high place? should you not go to the altar of God, and bring your sacrifices to the temple? Or what God better than Abraham’s…

The house of Israel; those elders that were come to him, as Ezek. 20:1, which see. They come to make inquiry, and now the prophet inquires of them, that their own conscience might make answer, and tell them what to expect: Your fathers, where are they? What became of some, that bore their iniquity?…

Your gifts: see Ezek. 20:26. All your idols; it seems they took a compendious way to increase sin and wrath; they worshipped many idols at once; and this they did still to Ezekiel’s time, to that very day.

God by his prophet, to convince and recover them, tells them what they think and have purposed. Shall not be at all; shall be quite frustrated. Ye say; you have consulted and come to a resolution herein.

As I live: see Ezek. 20:3. A mighty hand; 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.

From the people; Sidonians, Ammonites, Moabites, &c., whoever they were to whom the house of the apostate Jews betook themselves; where they thought to lurk, God will bring them thence into Babylonish captivity. Will gather you; the same thing doubled for greater emphasis.

Bring you; drive you; and since you think of such a course of ease to yourselves by casting me off among the nations, I will bring you among such as you shall be soon weary of.

With your fathers, who died there, and never entered Canaan. In the wilderness; which lay on the further side of the Red Sea, over against the land of Egypt, and is from it called, as here, though it be Arabia Deserta; in which, within the space of less than forty years, all the rebellious…

I will bring you out by number, yet so as you shall either by a voluntary submission own my sceptre and government, or by a conquered subjection yield to my sword and power.

Purge out; cull, and pick out, that they may be rejected, as they deserve, or brought forth to shame and punishment. The rebels, the contumacious sinners, who harden themselves against God; his severe wasting judgments shall find them out in their hiding-places, and drag them out, but not to return…

In short, you have done wickedly as you could, and I have done what was sufficient to reclaim you, I have foretold you what will be the final event, O house of Israel, and further I will not strive with you.

The gifts of idolaters, and all their painted stuff, God rejected in the former verse; now he encourageth the upright, those that feared, and obeyed, and waited on him. Mine holy mountain; Zion, holy hill, Ps. 2:6; holy by designation, and God’s own appointing it for his temple and presence.

The same gracious promise for substance repeated. Sweet savour; incense of a pure and obedient heart. From the people; from Babylon, and the parts of that kingdom, where they had been scattered these seventy years.

Ye shall know more fully by experience that he is your God, who is the great, good, wise, and faithful God, who performs his word; you shall know, and love, fear, obey, and worship him alone, and according to his will. Of the rest of the verse, see Ezek. 20:5, Ezek. 20:23, Ezek.

In your restored state, and in your prosperity, in the land whither you are returned, ye shall review your former ways with sorrow; remember, and grieve. Your ways of your folly, explained by their doings, which defiled them, i.e. all their more notorious sins. Loathe: see Ezek. 6:9.

This 44th verse doth summarily acquaint us that all Goa did for this people was of free, mere mercy, and for his own sake, not theirs. Ye shall know; experimentally, with affection and obedience.

A new prophecy, and which pertains, say some, to the next chapter, which is a large comment on this short prophecy in the three last verses, for the 45th and 46th are introductory.

He was now in Babylon, north from Jerusalem, and being commanded to look toward the south, it is toward Jerusalem, and the land of Canaan. Thy face; thy courage and undaunted mind, manifest in prophesying as thou art commissioned.

Hear; hearken diligently, and consider. The word of the Lord; what God foretells shall be done. I will kindle a fire, I will bring an evil like fire, the Chaldean forces, in thee, in the midst of the land. Every green tree, & c.; all that flourish, and all that are poor.

That is, all the nations round about, near to them, shall clearly see, openly own it, as God’s own work, both kindling this fire, and continuing it till it hath consumed all which God would destroy by it.

When the prophet had done his duty, and prophesied, and they should have heard and understood, he returns with a complaint of their quarrelling, censuring, flouting, and reproaching him for it: one while they account him mad, out of his wits, taken up with raptures and ecstasies, or else doting and…