Ezekiel 20:17

17 However, I spared them from complete destruction; I did not completely finish them off in the desert.

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 raised my hand and swore to them in the desert that I would not bring them into the land I was giving them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands;
16 because they had rejected my rulings, did not live by my laws and profaned my shabbats; since their hearts went after their idols.
17 However, I spared them from complete destruction; I did not completely finish them off in the desert.
18 "'I said to their children in the desert, "Don't live by the laws of your fathers, observe their rulings or defile yourselves with their idols.
19 I am ADONAI your God; live by my laws, observe my rulings, and obey them,
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.