Ezekiel 20:17

17 Nevertheless, ¹my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or ²make a full 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 Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands,

16 because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.

17 Nevertheless, my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or make a full end of them in the wilderness.

18 "And I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols.

19 I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules,

Cross References

• 1. See Ezekiel 5:11
• 2. [Ezekiel 11:13]