Ezekiel 20:4

4 Will you be their judge, O son of man, will you be their judge? make clear to them the disgusting ways of their fathers,

Ezekiel 20:4 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:4

Wilt thou judge them, son of man?
&c.] Excuse them, patronise them, defend their cause, and plead for them? surely thou wilt not; or rather, wilt thou not reprove and correct them, judge and condemn them, for their sins and wickedness? this thou oughtest to do: wilt thou judge [them]?
this is repeated, to show the vehemency of the speaker, and the duty of the prophet: cause them to know the abominations of their fathers:
the sins they committed, which were abominable in themselves, and rendered them abominable unto God, and what came upon them for them; by which they would be led to see the abominable evils which they also had been guilty of, in which they had imitated their fathers, and what they had reason to expect in consequence of them.

Ezekiel 20:4 In-Context

2 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

3 Son of man, say to the responsible men of Israel, This is what the Lord has said: Have you come to get directions from me? By my life, says the Lord, you will get no directions from me.

4 Will you be their judge, O son of man, will you be their judge? make clear to them the disgusting ways of their fathers,

5 And say to them, This is what the Lord has said: In the day when I took Israel for myself, when I made an oath to the seed of the family of Jacob, and I gave them knowledge of myself in the land of Egypt, saying to them with an oath, I am the Lord your God;

6 In that day I gave my oath to take them out of the land of Egypt into a land which I had been searching out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands: