Ezekiel 14:20

20 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, they wouldn’t be able to save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved by their righteousness.

Ezekiel 14:20 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 14:20

Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, [were] in it
Who are again mentioned by name, as in ( Ezekiel 14:14 ) ; and are the three men referred to in ( Ezekiel 14:16 Ezekiel 14:18 ) ; [as] I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor
daughter;
not so much as an only son, or an only daughter, no, not even a single child: the plural number is used before, as in ( Ezekiel 14:16 Ezekiel 14:18 ) ; here the singular, to show how resolutely determined the Lord was upon the destruction of the land; that even the prayers of the best of men among them should not prevail with him to save a single person, no, not a single infant: they shall [but] deliver their own souls by their righteousness;
(See Gill on Ezekiel 14:14).

Ezekiel 14:20 In-Context

18 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, even if those three men were there, they wouldn’t be able to save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved.

19 “Or suppose I were to pour out my fury by sending an epidemic into the land, and the disease killed people and animals alike.

20 As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, they wouldn’t be able to save their own sons or daughters. They alone would be saved by their righteousness.

21 “Now this is what the Sovereign LORD says: How terrible it will be when all four of these dreadful punishments fall upon Jerusalem—war, famine, wild animals, and disease—destroying all her people and animals.

22 Yet there will be survivors, and they will come here to join you as exiles in Babylon. You will see with your own eyes how wicked they are, and then you will feel better about what I have done to Jerusalem.