Ezekiel 6:9

9 In the foreign countries where they're taken as prisoners of war, they'll remember me. They'll realize how devastated I was by their betrayals, by their voracious lust for gratifying themselves in their idolatries. They'll be disgusted with their evil ways, disgusting to God in the way they've lived.

Ezekiel 6:9 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 6:9

And they that escape of you shall remember me
Either my grace and mercy to them, as Jarchi; or the fear of me, as the Targum; and so return by repentance, and worship the Lord their God, being influenced by his kindness and goodness to them: even when among the nations, whither they shall be carried captive;
so that their afflictions should be sanctified and made useful to them: in prosperity men are apt to forget God; in adversity they are brought to a sense of themselves and duty; and happy it is when chastening dispensations are teaching ones, and bring to God, and not drive from him: because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from
me:
by committing spiritual adultery, which is idolatry. The sense is, either that he was grieved at heart with their idolatry, which was the reason of their being carried captive, which, when they were sensible of, wrought repentance in them; or that he was full of compassion towards them; his heart was tender and pitiful towards them, though they departed from him in such a dreadful manner, justly to be resented by him. The Targum is,

``I have broken their foolish heart;''
and so the Syriac and Vulgate Latin versions, "I have broken their whorish heart"; by afflictive providences humbled them, and brought them to repentance: and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols;
they committed fornication with their heart and eyes in a spiritual sense, as wicked men do in a natural sense; see ( 2 Peter 2:14 ) ; and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have
committed in all their abominations;
abominable idolatry, ( 1 Peter 4:3 ) ; when men remember God, against whom they have sinned, and consider how grieving sin is to him; and when they are broken for it themselves, they then loathe their sins, and themselves for it; and where all this is there is true repentance.

Ezekiel 6:9 In-Context

7 Corpses everywhere you look! Then you'll know that I am God.
8 "'But I'll let a few escape the killing as you are scattered through other lands and nations.
9 In the foreign countries where they're taken as prisoners of war, they'll remember me. They'll realize how devastated I was by their betrayals, by their voracious lust for gratifying themselves in their idolatries. They'll be disgusted with their evil ways, disgusting to God in the way they've lived.
10 They'll know that I am God. They'll know that my judgment against them was no empty threat.
11 "'This is what God, the Master, says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, yell out, "No, no, no!" because of all the evil obscenities rife in Israel. They're going to be killed, dying of hunger, dying of disease -
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.