Ch. 36 Positive prophecy in behalf of the Land

(1) Ezekiel 36:1-7. The mountain land of Israel shall be delivered out of the hand of the heathen round about, who have usurped it. These nations shall bear their shame.

(2) Ezekiel 36:8-15. The land shall in the age to come be luxuriantly fruitful. The reproach that it ate up its inhabitants shall no more fall upon it.

(3) Ezekiel 36:16-38. The redemptive principles illustrated in these blessings of the future, and in all Israel’s history. Not for Israel’s sake but for his own name’s sake it is that Jehovah will accomplish these things.

1 seq. Deliverance of the mountains of Israel from the nations who have usurped it. The passage is the reversal of all that which was threatened in ch. 6.

mountains of Israel] i.e. mountain land of Israel, Ezekiel 6:2, Ezekiel 17:22, Ezekiel 33:28, &c.

2. Cf. Ezekiel 25:3, Ezekiel 26:2.

ancient high places] “High places” is not used here in the usual religious sense of rural sanctuaries, but said of the mountain—land of Israel, cf. Deuteronomy 32:13; Micah 3:12. On ancient or “eternal” as an epithet of mountains cf. Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:15; Psalm 24:7. For “high places” LXX. reads “wastes,” cf. perpetual desolations, Ezekiel 35:9.

3. Because …] lit. because, because, Ezekiel 13:10. The passage throughout betrays passionate feeling on the part of the prophet. His patriotism is aglow as the loved mountains of his native land rise before his mind; cf. the pathetic words in reference to the exiled king, Ezekiel 19:9. Hence the excitation and solemnity displayed in introducing the prophecy, which itself is expressed (Ezekiel 36:7 seq.) only after four or five commands to utter it (Ezekiel 36:3-6). For made desolate gaped for might be read, Isaiah 42:14.

and ye are taken up] Or, and are come up upon the lips, Deuteronomy 28:37; Lamentations 2:15; Daniel 9:16 (niph. not unusual in this verb, Jeremiah 37:5).

5. fire of my jealousy] “Jealousy” is injured self-consciousness; it is the reaction of Jehovah’s sense of himself against the injurious conduct of Edom and the nations in relation to him or that which is his, cf. my land.

to cast it out] The expression is difficult both in grammar (as Ezekiel 17:9) and meaning. To take “cast it (the land) out” in the sense of cast out the inhabitants is not quite natural, though cf. Ezekiel 24:6. The reading may be faulty.

6. borne the shame of the heathen] The shame cast on them by the heathen, cf. Ezekiel 36:15, Ezekiel 34:29.

7. lifted up mine hand] The gesture of taking an oath, Ezekiel 20:5. Strictly the rendering is I lift up, so I speak, Ezekiel 36:5-6.

bear their shame] As Israel has borne the shame of the reproaches and taunts of the heathen, so they, when their destruction cometh (as it is near), shall bear the shame of it.

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.

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 (Ezekiel 36:8-9), and populous (Ezekiel 36:10-12); it shall no more kill its inhabitants with scarcity (Ezekiel 36:13-14), nor any more be subject to the reproach of the nations on this account (Ezekiel 36:15).

10. Cf. Ezekiel 36:33; Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:4; Zechariah 8:12.

11. Jeremiah 31:27; Jeremiah 33:12-13; Hosea 2:23; Zechariah 8:4-5. On “old estates,” i.e. former condition, cf. Ezekiel 16:55.

your beginnings] i.e. early or former estate, Job 8:7; Job 42:12. The phrase “increase and bring fruit (multiply),” common in some parts of Pent. (Priests’ Code), is wanting in LXX.

12. bereave them of men] Properly the term means to bereave of children, here it is used generally, to bereave the people, i.e. destroy its members, Jeremiah 15:7.

13. Comp. the report of the spies, Numbers 13:32, “the land is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.” The land whose population perishes of scarcity is regarded as itself devouring them. It is doubtful if there is any reference to such things as the unhealthy situation of the land (2 Kings 2:19), or even to the wars by which the country had been decimated. The true meaning is given Ezekiel 36:30.

bereaved thy nations] thy nation, i.e. population, and so Ezekiel 36:14-15. The plur. could hardly refer to the two nations, Israel and Judah (Ezekiel 35:10), although it might possibly be used like “peoples” of the nation considered as made up of a number of portions (Hosea 10:14). The land of Israel was subject to droughts (Jeremiah 14:1; 1 Kings 17 seq., Amos 4:7), to blasting and mildew (Amos 4:9), as well as to the scourge of locusts (Joel 1). Comp. the struggles with famine which the returned exiles had, Haggai 1:10-11; Haggai 2:17.

15. Read peoples for people, as usual.

cause thy nations to fall] Rather: bereave thy nation any more. The same word is read Ezekiel 36:14, but corrected in Heb. marg., and the same correction should be made here (shakal = bereave, kashal = fall). The clause is wanting in LXX.

16–38. Not for Israel’s sake but for his own name’s sake does Jehovah do all this in behalf of his people

The passage is remarkable and deserves to be studied almost more than any other part of Ezek. when one is seeking to understand his general conceptions. It exhibits his philosophy of history (cf. ch. 20), and also describes with great beauty the principles of Jehovah’s redemption of his people, and how step by step this shall be accomplished. The prophet reviews the history of the people from the beginning, running it out till it is lost in its eternal issues, and shewing how it will read to all the nations of the earth the true lesson of that which Jehovah, the God of Israel, is, and leave ineffaceable impressions on the mind of his own people.

First, Ezekiel 36:16-24. The history with its significance up to Israel’s final restoration.—The people defiled the land with their idolatries and bloodshed (Ezekiel 36:17), therefore the fury of Jehovah was kindled and he poured it out upon them, scattering them among the nations (Ezekiel 36:18-19). By these disasters which the people brought upon themselves they “profaned” Jehovah’s name among the heathen. The nations, ignorant of the nature of Jehovah, and incapable of divining the moral principles of his rule of the world and of his people, attributed the calamities of Israel to the feebleness of their God, who was unable to defend them, saying, these are the people of Jehovah, and they are gone forth out of his land. Thus the greatness and power of Jehovah, who is God alone, was detracted from, and the knowledge of him by the nations—which he wills in all that he does to convey to them—was delayed or frustrated (Ezekiel 36:20). Therefore for the sake of his holy name he will interpose and turn the fortunes of his people, that he may be sanctified in the eyes of the nations and known by them to be God omnipotent (Ezekiel 36:21-24, cf. Ezekiel 36:35-36).

Secondly, Ezekiel 36:24-38. The history of Jehovah’s restoration of his people and their full redemption in its successive steps, with the eternal impressions which this history will engrave upon the people’s minds.—In the prophet’s view Jehovah must vindicate himself in the eyes of the nations by the restoration of Israel, not because he is a mere tribal god who will do something for his people, but because he is God alone, and his manifestation of himself to the nations of the world is the goal towards which all history runs.

Jehovah “sanctifies” himself in the sight of the nations not only by convincing them of his power, but even more if possible by displaying his moral rule of his people (cf. Ezekiel 39:23-24), and by the spiritual regeneration which he works among them (Ezekiel 36:25 seq.). But though this great thought of Jehovah’s revelation of himself in the sight of the nations be attractive to the prophet, having touched upon the redemption of Israel he becomes absorbed in these internal operations of Jehovah among his own people, which he pursues in all their details, and the wider thought of their influence on the heathen is not reverted to till Ezekiel 36:35-36. (1) Jehovah will take his people from the nations and bring them again to their own land (Ezekiel 36:24). (2) Then he will sprinkle clean water upon them and wash them from all their past impurities (Ezekiel 36:25). (3) He will also regenerate them, giving them a new heart and a new spirit, putting indeed his own spirit within them (Ezekiel 36:26-27). (4) In this spirit they shall walk in his statutes and judgments, and thus shall inherit the land for ever, which the Lord will greatly bless (Ezekiel 36:27-30). (5) Surrounded thus on all sides by the tokens of Jehovah’s goodness, and looking at themselves and at their past doings with the new mind which the Lord will give them (Ezekiel 36:26), they shall loathe themselves because of all their former impurity and evil, for it is not for what they have been that Jehovah does this to them (Ezekiel 36:31-32). (6) Thus when Israel’s captivity is brought back the nations shall learn the true meaning of their dispersion, and the nature of Jehovah their God, who disperses and restores (Ezekiel 36:33-36).

16–23. Israel’s past history and the principles which it illustrates

17. When in their own land the people defiled it with their doings. The land was “holy” being sanctified by Jehovah’s presence in it. The sins of the people, idolatry and bloodshed, desecrated it and made it unclean. Holy embraces “clean” under it, as the general does a particular, Jeremiah 2:7; Leviticus 18:25. Ezek., however, seems to call all sins “uncleanness.” This way of speaking and thinking could hardly have arisen except under the influence of a law of ceremonial defilements (which were real defilements) and purifications.

uncleanness of a removed] the uncleanness of a woman’s impurity. Leviticus 15:19. The comparison expresses the extreme of loathing, ch. Ezekiel 7:20.

18. The effect of these sins was to awaken the fury of Jehovah. The “blood” may be murder from violence or judicial murder, so often reprobated in the earlier prophets, or it may be the sacrifice of children, Ezekiel 16:36, Ezekiel 23:37.

19. The consequences of Jehovah’s wrath—the people were scattered by him among all the nations, Ezekiel 7:3, Ezekiel 18:30.

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 (Ezekiel 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 (Ezekiel 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.

21. Cf. Ezekiel 20:9; Ezekiel 20:14.

22. do not this for your sakes] Not for what Israel has been or deserved. The ref. is to Israel’s past history; such a meaning as that it is not for any interest which he has in Israel or in order to benefit them that Jehovah delivers them, but only to magnify his own name is entirely extraneous to the passage and a distortion of its sense. Cf. Isaiah 43:22-28; Isaiah 48:9-15. “Name” is not equivalent to person, but is a reflection or expression of the person; hence all that is due to the person or can be said of it, is due to the name and can be employed of it.

23. sanctify my great name] To sanctify is the opposite of to profane. As the latter term means to detract from the power, majesty or purity of Jehovah, or from any of those attributes which belong to his godhead, to sanctify is to manifest or make these attributes conspicuous. Hence the effect of Jehovah’s sanctifying his name is that the heathen know him to be Jehovah—God alone and all that which he is who is God alone. In Ezekiel 36:22 “holy name,” here “great name”; “greatness” is an element in “holiness.”

be sanctified in you] Or reflexive: shew myself holy—where “holy” embraces the attributes of Deity as a whole. Israel is the subject through which Jehovah shews himself to be God, i.e. by his operations in Israel in the sight of the nations.

24 seq. These operations are his restoration and regeneration of Israel. It is certainly possible that the more internal operations of Jehovah on Israel (Ezekiel 36:25 seq.)—his washing them with clean water and putting a new spirit within them that they shall walk in his statutes, are considered part of Jehovah’s sanctifying of himself in the sight of the nations. They do express better what Jehovah is than a mere exhibition of power, cf. Ezekiel 39:23-24; Isaiah 61:3; Isaiah 62:2. At the same time this more general idea seems to pass from the prophet’s mind in the delight with which he dwells on Israel’s religious regeneration. The wider idea is at any rate returned to in Ezekiel 36:33 seq.

25. Dogmatically, sprinkling with clean water might seem merely to express the idea of the forgiveness of past sins. The figure is taken from the washings by which ceremonial defilement was removed, and the figure is part of the idea. By their relation to the idols and service of them the people contracted uncleanness. And when the kind of service which this was is considered, the debasing forms which it took, and the immoralities which accompanied it or formed part of it (Hosea 4:13-14), the depth of defilement will be understood and the strong figure Ezekiel 36:17 will not appear too strong.

26. A new heart] The “heart” is used here generally of the nature. Formerly their heart was strong, obdurate, unimpressible and rebellious (Ezekiel 2:4, Ezekiel 3:7); now they shall receive a “heart of flesh,” impressible and soft, sensitive to the divine admonitions and will. The phrase shews that in the Old Testament no idea of corrupt inclination attaches to the term “flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19). According to usage “spirit” expresses the ruling principle in the mind, the force that gives direction and motion to the current of thought and conduct, or that prevailing current itself. The heart is more passive and receptive and but responds to influences, the spirit is active and regulative. Jeremiah 32:37-39.

27. put my spirit] This great promise is one which does not appear prominently in the prophets till the exile. In Isaiah 11 the Messianic king has the spirit of Jehovah in all the manifoldness of his operation, and in Ezekiel 32:15 the hope is expressed that “the spirit shall be poured on us from on high” (though the passage is held by some to be later than Is.); but it is in exile and post-exile times that the idea is first expressed with great certainty, e.g. Ezekiel 36:27; Ezekiel 37:14; Joel 2:28; Zechariah 4:6 (Ezekiel 12:10). Jeremiah does not use the expression, though his promise that Jehovah will write his law on men’s hearts seems to have much the same sense, or at least it expresses the “new spirit” of Ezek., and in the New Testament this new spirit is the spirit of God. There always attaches to “spirit” the idea of power in operation, the spirit of God is God exerting power.

to walk in my statutes] Being endowed with the spirit of God they will walk in his statutes, for these are expressions of his spirit. The spirit of God will appear both as an inward impulse to fulfil God’s will, and as a power to do it. In the Old Testament the spirit of God, even the prophetic spirit, is usually a dynamic influence, an elevation of the natural human faculties. The “statutes and judgments” are not the mere external enactments of the law; they embrace all the moral laws to which Ezek. so often refers (e.g. ch. 18, 22, 33), and it is doubtful if the prophet refers specially to written laws at all.

28. Again, the consequence of walking in Jehovah’s statutes will be that they shall inherit the land for ever, cf. Ezekiel 28:25, Ezekiel 37:25. The promise attached to the fifth commandment—the first commandment with promise—belongs to the commandments given to Israel as a whole. The keeping of them was the condition of remaining in the land. When the people disregarded them they were driven out, and only when their former sins were forgiven could they be restored (Isaiah 40:2). It may be a question whether there be now any connexion between Israel and the land of Canaan. If there be, the condition of restoration to it is faith and obedience on the part of the people. A restoration of Jews still in unbelief to Canaan, even if it should occur, could have no meaning so far as the redemptive providence of God is concerned, and would not enter into any relation with the Old Testament scriptures. Comp. the order stated Ezekiel 36:33.

29. save you from … uncleannesses] Or, I will save (deliver) you out of your … The phrase “save out of” is pregnant, meaning “save you by purifying you from” …, hardly, save you from the consequences of … Cf. Ezekiel 37:23, and reading there.

call for the corn] Cf. Ezekiel 34:27; Ezekiel 34:29; Hosea 2:21; Jeremiah 31:12 (cf. 2 Kings 8:1).

30. Cf. Ezekiel 34:27 seq.

31. Cf. Ezekiel 6:9, Ezekiel 16:61; Ezekiel 16:63. Omit the words “in your own sight,” ch. Ezekiel 20:43.

32. The verse is closely connected with the preceding: ye shall remember your former evil, for not for your sakes do I this—not because of your good deserving (Ezekiel 36:22); on the contrary their own ways when thought upon could only cause them shame. In Leviticus 26:45 “for their sakes” means “to their benefit,” on their behalf.

33. The order stated here is of course a necessity: as the sins of the people caused them to be cast out of their land, their forgiveness must precede their restoration to it. In the prophets events are not events merely, they are exhibitions of moral principles. So in Isaiah 40-66. the restoration of Israel to Canaan is preceded by the atonement of their sins by the servant of the Lord (Isaiah 40:2).

33–36. The prophet returns to the lessons which Israel’s history, the author of which is their God, will read to the nations of the world. When they behold the desolated land of Israel become like the garden of Eden they shall form another judgment regarding Jehovah, and know that which he is, and the meaning of the history of his people.

36. I … build … plant] Perhaps; have builded … planted. The words hardly express a general characteristic of Jehovah, but refer to the fact that it is he who has restored Israel—comp. last words of the verse. Reflecting on Jehovah’s restoration of the people the nations will recognise not merely his power, but also the deeper principles which underlie his government of his people.

37. yet … be inquired of] Almost: I will let myself be inquired of, which embraces not merely the enquiry or request on the part of the people, but the response to it on the part of the Lord. Cf. Ezekiel 14:3, Ezekiel 20:3; Ezekiel 20:31. As usual “this” refers to what follows—the multiplication of the people.

37, 38. A single point in the Lord’s restoration of Israel is made prominent, the multiplication of the people. The terrible threats of the diminution of their numbers (Ezekiel 36:12), and of the destruction both of those remaining in the land and those going into exile, were no doubt to a great extent fulfilled (Lamentations 5). The scanty population of Jerusalem is referred to by Nehemiah nearly a century after the first exiles returned (Ezekiel 7:4). The old promise that they should be as the sand of the sea is here repeated, cf. Ezekiel 36:10-11; Ezekiel 36:33; Jeremiah 31:27; Hosea 1:10; Zechariah 2:4.

38. the holy flock] i.e. the sacrificial sheep. The solemn feasts (where solemn has its proper sense of “customary,” appointed) may be the three great yearly festivals, though in point of fact Ezek. does not refer to Pentecost, or the feast of weeks, in his concluding chapters. The comparison shews that already in pre-exile times enormous numbers of sacrificial animals were brought to Jerusalem for offerings at the feasts.

flocks of men] lit. sheep-flocks in men. The word “flock” in Heb. is not generalized so as to express a great number—it means a sheep-flock, and is explained by “men.”

Probably no passage in the Old Testament of the same extent offers so complete a parallel to New Testament doctrine, particularly to that of St Paul. It is doubtful if the Apostle quotes Ezek. anywhere, but his line of thought entirely coincides with his. The same conceptions and in the same order belong to both—forgiveness (Ezekiel 36:25); regeneration, a new heart and spirit (Ezekiel 36:26); the spirit of God as the ruling power in the new life (Ezekiel 36:27); the issue of this, the keeping of the requirements of God’s law (Ezekiel 36:27; Romans 8:4); the effect of being “under grace” in softening the human heart and leading to obedience (Ezekiel 36:31; Romans 6, 7); and the organic connexion of Israel’s history with Jehovah’s revelation of himself to the nations (Ezekiel 36:33-36; Romans 11). The prophet’s idea of the divine pedagogic is not precisely the same as that of the Apostle, and the present passage has in some particulars to be supplemented from ch. 16. As put here it is Israel’s historical experiences, their dispersion and restoration, with the thoughts which these suggest, that impress the nations and teach them what Jehovah is.