Ezekiel 36:13

13 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because they are saying to you: A devourer of men [art] thou, And a bereaver of thy nations thou hast been,

Ezekiel 36:13 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 36:13

Thus saith the Lord God, because they say unto you
The Heathens that dwelt round about the land of Judea said to the mountains, or to the whole land, thou land devourest up men;
eats up the inhabitants of it; which is part of the ill report the spies, in the times of Moses, brought on it, ( Numbers 13:32 ) , to which the allusion is here; suggesting, that either the air was unwholesome; or that the land did not produce a sufficiency of food to support the inhabitants of it; or that the curse of God was upon it; and that one judgment or another was ever on it; either famine, or pestilence, or the sword of the enemy, or internal broils among themselves, or wild beasts, whereby the inhabitants of the land were wasted and consumed: and hast bereaved thy nations;
the several tribes, of men and children; so that they were diminished and depopulated: the allusion seems to be to miscarrying women, or such who kill their children in the womb, and become abortive.

Ezekiel 36:13 In-Context

11 And I have multiplied on you man and beast, And they have multiplied and been fruitful, And I have caused you to dwell according to your former states, And I have done better than at your beginnings, And ye have known that I [am] Jehovah.

12 And I have caused man to walk over you, -- My people Israel, And they possess thee, and thou hast been to them for an inheritance, And thou dost add no more to bereave them.

13 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because they are saying to you: A devourer of men [art] thou, And a bereaver of thy nations thou hast been,

14 Therefore, man thou devourest no more, And thy nations thou causest not to stumble any more, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.

15 And I proclaim not unto thee any more the shame of the nations, And the reproach of peoples thou bearest no more, And thy nations stumble not any more, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'