Ezekiel 20:32
 Ezekiel 20:32 
New International Version (©2011)
"'You say, "We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone." But what you have in mind will never happen.

New Living Translation (©2007)
"You say, 'We want to be like the nations all around us, who serve idols of wood and stone.' But what you have in mind will never happen.

English Standard Version (©2001)
“What is in your mind shall never happen—the thought, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of the countries, and worship wood and stone.’

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"What comes into your mind will not come about, when you say: 'We will be like the nations, like the tribes of the lands, serving wood and stone.'

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
When you say, 'Let us be like the nations, like the peoples of other countries, worshiping wood and stone,' what you have in mind will never happen.

International Standard Version (©2012)
The thing that you're imagining is never going to happen, since you're thinking, "We'll be like the nations, like the clans of other lands who serve gods made from wood and stone."'"

NET Bible (©2006)
"'What you plan will never happen. You say, "We will be like the nations, like the clans of the lands, who serve gods of wood and stone."

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
What you have in mind will never happen. You think that you want to be like other nations, like the different people in other countries. You want to serve wood and stone.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, that you say, We will be as the Gentiles, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

American King James Version
And that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, that you say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

American Standard Version
and that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, in that ye say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Neither shall the thought of your mind come to pass, by which you say: We will be as the Gentiles, and as the families of the earth, to worship stocks and stones.

Darby Bible Translation
And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, in serving wood and stone.

English Revised Version
and that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all; in that ye say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

Webster's Bible Translation
And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

World English Bible
and that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, in that you say, We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

Young's Literal Translation
And that which is going up on your mind, It is not at all -- in that ye are saying: We will be as the nations, as the families of the lands, To serve wood and stone.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:32. God is justly angry with those who are resolved to go on still in their trespasses. Cause the people to know the evil deeds of their fathers, that they may see how righteous it was with God to cut them off.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 32. - That which cometh into your mind, etc. The prophet reads tide secret thoughts of the inquirers. If the temple were destroyed, they thought, then the one restraint on the idolatries they loved would be removed. They would be no longer a separate people, and would be free to adopt the cultus of the heathen among whom they lived. If that was not Jehovah's purpose for them, then there must be no destruction of the temple, no dispersion among the nations. They come to Ezekiel to know which of the two alternatives he, as the prophet of Jehovah, has in store, and his answer is that he is bound to nether. They could not abdicate their high position, and would remain under the burden of its responsibilities. Scattered though they might be among the heathen, yet even there the "mighty hand and the stretched-out arm" (we note the phrases as from Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 5:15) would hunt them down, and punish them for their iniquities.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all,.... What they had contrived in their own breasts, and laid a plan of, and would gladly have brought about, should be frustrated, take no effect, and come to nothing:

that ye say, we will be as the Heathen; live without God; not be in subjection to him, or under his government, or be called by his name, or attend to his word, worship, and ordinances; but join ourselves to them; enter into alliance, and intermarry with them; carry on trade and commerce with them, and embrace the same religion; and then we shall prosper as they do, as well as no more incur the reproach of singularity or preciseness in religion:

as the families of the countries: being incorporated into them, dwelling with them, and joining with them in the same exercises of religious worship:

to serve wood and stone; images made of wood and stone. Strange! that a people that had a revelation from God, and such an experience of his power and goodness, should ever form such a scheme, or once think of entering into such measures, so grossly absurd and scandalous.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

32. We will be as the heathen—and so escape the odium to which we are exposed, of having a peculiar God and law of our own. "We shall live on better terms with them by having a similar worship. Besides, we get from God nothing but threats and calamities, whereas the heathen, Chaldeans, &c., get riches and power from their idols." How literally God's words here ("that … shall not be at all") are fulfilled in the modern Jews! Though the Jews seemed so likely (had Ezekiel spoken as an uninspired man) to have blended with the rest of mankind and laid aside their distinctive peculiarities, as was their wish at that time, yet they have remained for eighteen centuries dispersed among all nations and without a home, but still distinct: a standing witness for the truth of the prophecy given so long ago.


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Rebellion in the Land
30Why say to the house of Israel, Thus said the Lord GOD; Are you polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit you prostitution after their abominations? 31For when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons to pass through the fire, you pollute yourselves with all your idols, even to this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, said the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you. 32And that which comes into your mind shall not be at all, that you say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.

Jeremiah 2:25 Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, 'It's no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.'
Jeremiah 44:17 We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.
Ezekiel 11:5 Then the Spirit of the LORD came on me, and he told me to say: "This is what the LORD says: That is what you are saying, you leaders in Israel, but I know what is going through your mind.