Ezekiel 20:23

23. I lifted up … also] Moreover I lifted up, lit. And I on my part, so Eze_20:25.

scatter … among the heathen] The people entered Canaan laden with this heavy threat for their sins in the wilderness. Such threats were always conditional, Jeremiah 18, Jonah. This conditional character is expressed in other passages where a similar idea occurs, Lev_26:33; Deu_28:64. The prophet hardly means that the exile was due to the people’s sins in the wilderness, except in so far as the moral character of the people remained the same throughout down to the generation then living. But cf. Exo_32:34.

23–26. Yet though he wrought for his name’s sake not to destroy them their sins could not be altogether passed by. In two ways they were marked: Jehovah laid a heavy threat upon the people of dispersion among all nations, Eze_20:23-24; and he gave them laws that were not good, that by following them they might be destroyed, Eze_20:25-26.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eze 20:23 I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries;

Ver. 23. See on Eze 20:15.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20:23 Because of Israel’s history of refusing to keep the Lord’s decrees or obey his regulations, God determined to scatter them among all the nations.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

It was to that generation the threat of dispersion was proclaimed (Deu 28:64; compare Eze 29:4).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(23) I would scatter them among the heathen.—This threatening was not designed to be fulfilled in that immediate generation, as abundantly appears from Lev_26:33; Deu_4:27, Deut. 27:64, and the other passages in which it is given, especially Deuteronomy 29, 30. It was given to that generation as representing the nation, but was only to be carried out when, by a long course of obdurate sin, it should be shown to be imperatively required. The threat had now been already realised in part, and was on the eve of being fully accomplished. It was important that the people should be made to understand that this had been the Divine warning from the beginning, and that in its fulfilment they were only receiving that punishment which had always been designed for such sin as they had committed.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I lifted up mine hand also to them in the wilderness,.... Swore unto them, as in Eze 20:5;

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, Lev 26:33; with this compare Psa 106:26.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Again, or also. (Haydock) --- Four times are specified [in] ver. 13, 15, 21., which may allude to the adoration of the calf, the graves of concupiscence, the murmuring, and commerce with the women and idols of Moab, Exodus xxiii., and Numbers x., and xiv., and xxv. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

On this solemn gesture and signification, see Eze 20:5. Here it is an oath added to a threat, to make it more dreadful to them, and to make it successful in keeping them from the sin threatened.

That I would scatter them; foretold them of a captivity which should come upon them for their sins, which it is probable was often inculcated in their hearing before Moses penned it for them, Deu 32:15-42; Le 26:31-33, and it is ingeminated to make it pierce the deeper, and affect them the more.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. I would scatter them among the heathen — Jehovah changes the punishment from annihilation to captivity. This decision was announced with solemn warnings, even while they were yet wandering in the wilderness (Lev_26:33; Deu_28:64). This bondage, of which the companions of Ezekiel complain as an inexplicable providence, and which almost drives them to a distrust of Jehovah’s power and goodness, is itself a proof of the fulfillment of prophecy. It has fallen upon the people solely because of their iniquity and their failure to repent.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That I would scatter them among the heathen. The words seem to refer to the generation that had grown up in the wilderness, and, so taken, do not correspond with the history of the conquest of Canaan. What Ezekiel contemplates, however, as the resolve of Jehovah, is the commutation of the sentence of destruction for that of the dispersion of the people, leaving the time and manner of that dispersion to be determined by his own will. Possibly even in the time of the judges, with its many conquests and long periods of oppression, there were instances of such dispersion, and these, with others that would naturally accompany an invasion like that of Shishak, (2Ch_12:2-9) not to speak of frequent attacks from Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, Edomites, and Syrians, may have seemed to the prophet the working out, step by step, of the dispersion which culminated in the deportation of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser, and of Judah and Benjamin by Nebuchadnezzar. Traces of such dispersions before Ezekiel"s time meet us in Psa_78:59-64; Isa_11:11, Isa_11:12; Zep_3:10, Zep_3:20.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I lifted - I swear.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

Yahweh continues giving Ezekiel his message to the elders of Israel.

I myself also lifted up my hand to swear

Here "lifted up my hand" is a symbolic action that shows he will truly do what he has sworn to do. AT: "I myself also solemnly swore" (See: Symbolic Action)

scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the lands

These two phrases mean basically the same thing. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 12:15. AT: "cause them to separate from each other and live in different nations" (See: Parallelism)

Their eyes were longing after their fathers' idols

Here the word "eyes" represents the person who looks to the idols to worship them. AT: "They were longing after their fathers' idols" (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

desert

oath

nation

disperse

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

to scatter them Back then, I promised them to scatter them (Deut. 4:25ff.): “When you will beget children and children’s children, etc. [the Lord will scatter you among the nations, etc.].”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.