Ezekiel 20:17

17 With all this, my eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.

Ezekiel 20:17 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:17

Nevertheless, mine eye spared them from destroying them
Utterly, so as to leave neither root nor branch; for though the whole generation died excepting two, either by the immediate hand of God in wrath, or else by ordinary deaths; yet there was a generation raised up in their stead, to whom mercy was shown: neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness;
that they should be no more a nation and people; though the carcasses of them that believed not fell in the wilderness, and never saw the good land, yet their posterity was spared to see it, and did.

Ezekiel 20:17 In-Context

15 Yet I also lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, with an oath that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the most beautiful of all lands,

16 because they despised my rights and did not walk in my statutes but polluted my Sabbaths, for their heart went after their idols.

17 With all this, my eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.

18 But I said unto their sons in the wilderness: Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, neither keep their laws, nor defile yourselves with their idols:

19 I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my rights, and do them;