Ezekiel 20:13

13 "But in the desert the house of Israel rebelled against me; {they did not walk in my statutes}, and they rejected my regulations, which, if a person does them, he will live by them, and they greatly profaned my Sabbaths, and I decided to pour out my rage on them in the desert to destroy them,

Ezekiel 20:13 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:13

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness,
&c.] Where they were wholly at the mercy of God, entirely dependent upon him; and miracles were wrought every day for the sustaining and preservation of, them from famine, wild beasts, and enemies; yet they rebelled against the Lord; provoked him bitterly by their manifold transgressions, their ingratitude, unbelief, and idolatry; and this not a few of them only, but the whole body of the people, the house of Israel, the whole family, and that for the space of forty years, ( Psalms 95:9 Psalms 95:10 ) ; they walked not in my statutes;
did not make them the rule of their walk and conversation, and steer the course of their lives and actions by them, as they ought to have done: and they despised my judgments;
as not worthy their notice and regard, as useless and unprofitable; nay, had an aversion to them, and a loathing of them, as the word ^F8 signifies; such is the corrupt and wicked heart of man; it is enmity against God and his law, and all that is good: which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them;
(See Gill on Ezekiel 20:11); and my sabbaths they greatly polluted;
or "profaned", or "[made them] common" ^F9; that is, with other days; by going out for manna on them; by gathering sticks upon them; by doing their own work, speaking their own words, and seeking their own pleasure, and worshipping false deities: then I said, I would pour out, my fury upon them in the wilderness to
consume them;
that they should not enter into the land of Canaan; as the generation that came out of Egypt were consumed in the wilderness, excepting two; as the Lord threatened, ( Numbers 14:35 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (woam) "abjeoerunt", Pagninus; "reprobaverunt", Montanus.
F9 (wllx) "prophanarunt", Vatablus, Piscator, Cocceius.

Ezekiel 20:13 In-Context

11 and I gave my statutes to them, and my regulations I made known to them, which, if a person does them, then he will live by them.

12 And also my Sabbaths I gave to them to be a sign between me and between them {so they would know} that I, Yahweh, [am] [the one] sanctifying them.

13 "But in the desert the house of Israel rebelled against me; {they did not walk in my statutes}, and they rejected my regulations, which, if a person does them, he will live by them, and they greatly profaned my Sabbaths, and I decided to pour out my rage on them in the desert to destroy them,

14 and I acted for the sake of my name, [that it] not be profaned before the eyes of the nations {before whom I brought them out}.

15 And also {I myself swore} to them in the desert not to bring them into the land that I had given [to them], flowing with milk and honey--it [is the most] beautiful of all of the lands--

Footnotes

• [a] Or "And"
• [b] Literally "in my statutes not they went"