Yechezkel 18:31

31 Cast away from you all your peysha’im, whereby ye have committed peysha; and get you a lev chadash and a ruach chadashah [i.e., regeneration, new birth see Yn 3:3]; for why will ye die, O Bais Yisroel?

Yechezkel 18:31 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 18:31

Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have
transgressed
As unprofitable and pernicious, to be abhorred and abstained from, and to be cast off, as loads and burdens upon them. Kimchi interprets it of the punishment of their sins, which might be cast off, or escaped, by repentance; perhaps it is best to interpret it of the casting away of their idols, by which they transgressed; see ( Ezekiel 20:7 Ezekiel 20:8 ) ; and make you a new heart and a new spirit;
which the Lord elsewhere promises to give, and he does give to his own elect; (See Gill on Ezekiel 11:19); and if here to be understood of a regenerated heart and spirit, in which are new principles of light, life, and love, grace and holiness, it will not prove that it is in the power of man to make himself such a heart and spirit; since from God's command, to man's power, is no argument; and the design of the exhortation is to convince men of their want of such a heart; of the importance of it: and which, through the efficacious grace of God, may be a means of his people having it, seeing he has in covenant promised it to them. The Targum renders it,

``a fearing heart, and a spirit of fear;''

that is, a heart and spirit to fear, serve, and worship the Lord, and not idols; and so the amount of the exhortation is, yield a hearty reverential obedience to the living God, and not to dumb idols; or that they would be hearty and sincere in their national repentance and reformation they are here pressed unto: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
which is to be understood, not of an eternal death; since the deaths here spoken of was now upon them, what they were complaining of, and from which they might be recovered, ( Ezekiel 18:2 Ezekiel 18:23 ) ; but temporal calamity and affliction, as in ( 2 Corinthians 1:10 ) ( 11:23 ) ; and so in the following words.

Yechezkel 18:31 In-Context

29 Yet saith Bais Yisroel, The Derech Adonoi is not proper. O Bais Yisroel, is My Derech not proper? Is it not the drakhim of you that are not proper?

30 Therefore I will judge you, O Bais Yisroel, every one according to the drakhim of him, saith Adonoi Hashem. Make teshuvah, and turn yourselves from all your peysha’im, so avon shall not be your michshol (stumbling block, downfall).

31 Cast away from you all your peysha’im, whereby ye have committed peysha; and get you a lev chadash and a ruach chadashah [i.e., regeneration, new birth see Yn 3:3]; for why will ye die, O Bais Yisroel?

32 For I have no pleasure in the mot of him that dieth, saith Adonoi Hashem; therefore, make teshuva and live!