Ezekiel 20:23

23 What is more, {I swore} to them in the desert to scatter them among the nations and to disperse them in the lands,

Ezekiel 20:23 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 20:23

I lifted up mine hand also to them in the wilderness
Swore unto them, as in ( Ezekiel 20:5 Ezekiel 20:6 Ezekiel 20:15 ) ; that I would scatter them among the Heathen, and disperse them through
the countries;
after they came to be settled in the land of Canaan, they sinning against the Lord; which was fulfilled in the times of the Babylonish captivity, and in their destruction by the Romans; but was threatened and foretold while they were in the wilderness, ( Leviticus 26:33 ) ( Deuteronomy 32:26 ) ; with this compare ( Psalms 106:26-30 ) .

Ezekiel 20:23 In-Context

21 But the children rebelled against me; {they did not walk in my statutes}, and {they did not observe my regulations}, which [if] a person does them, then he will live by them. My Sabbaths they desecrated, and I decided to pour out my rage on them, to finish my anger against them in the desert.

22 But I withheld my hand, and I acted for the sake of my name not to be profaned before the eyes of the nations [before] whom I [had] brought them out before their eyes.

23 What is more, {I swore} to them in the desert to scatter them among the nations and to disperse them in the lands,

24 because they did not [do] my regulations, and my statutes they despised, and my Sabbaths they profaned, and their eyes were after the idols of their ancestors.

25 And in turn I gave to them rules [that were] not good and regulations {by which they will not live}.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "I will raise my hand"