Ezekiel 20:35

Eze 20:35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

Ver. 35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people.] Into the most solitary and savage places of the world, for a fulness of misery without the benefit of any good society.

And there will I plead with you face to face,] i.e., Solus cum solis et sine arbitris, Having you there alone, I will punish you to some purpose.

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.

Eze_20:35

I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

The spiritual wilderness

Many awful threatenings and delightful promises are scattered up and down in the Word of God. Our text seems to be of a mixed nature: the threatening and the promise are blended together, to excite a holy fear of God and a humble trust in Him.

I. I will bring you into the wilderness of the people?

1. God often brings His people into the wilderness gradually, by little and little. The terrors and dangers of the wilderness are concealed; slight convictions are at first impressed which afterwards grow stronger; small rumblings precede the loud claps of thunder; sometimes the clouds seem to break, and promise fair weather; then they grow thicker, and wear a more formidable aspect than ever.

2. The Lord brings them in with an high hand and an outstretched arm, as He did the children of Israel of old. However gently He may act, yet He acts powerfully, and the greatest mildness is attended with an irresistible energy. We may be fretful and impatient, unruly and unmanageable; but He who has taken the work in hand will not leave it unfinished. We may stifle our convictions, but God will revive them; may lull conscience asleep, but He will awaken it again.

3. God brings into the wilderness with a design to bring out of it again (Isa_57:16-18; Lam_3:32; Hos_6:1-2).

II. And there will I plead with you face to face. He does not say that He would plead against them, nor yet that He would plead for them; but He would plead with them, and that face to face, so that they should both see and hear Him. And what would He plead with them about? Perhaps the sins they had committed, and the calamities thereby brought upon themselves. He will also plead the equity of His own proceedings, and the unreasonableness of their conduct. He also pleads with them on the futility of their attempts to help themselves, and the necessity of looking to another quarter for relief (Jer_3:17; Jer_3:31; Jer_3:36; Jer_8:22).

1. He pleads powerfully. How forcible are right words, says Job. And such are the words of God: they are founded upon truth, plain and direct, and carry with them an irresistible energy.

2. He pleads convincingly. God will overcome when He judgeth. When He is opponent, no man can be respondent.

3. He pleads tenderly and in love; His appeals are made to the understanding and the heart, and an ingenuous mind must feel their force (Mic_6:3; Isa_1:18). What has been said condemns three sorts of persons--

(1) Those who have always been in the wilderness of sin, but not in that of sorrow; who are merry and jovial, saying, Tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

(2) Those who think they are in the wilderness of godly sorrow, but who mistake every transient pang for real conviction, and every motion of the affections for the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart.

(3) Those who are in the wilderness, and struggling to get out of it before the Lords time. It is better to be in the wilderness than in Egypt; yea, it is better, unspeakably better, to be in the wilderness, though we continue there all our days, than to be in hell. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

Gods tireless pleading

Manton says: As one that would gladly open a door, trieth key after key, till he hath tried every key, in the bunch, so doth God try one method after another to work upon mans heart. His persevering grace will not be baffled. He frequently begins with the silver key of a mothers tearful prayers and a fathers tender counsels. In turn He uses the church keys of His ordinances and His ministers, and these are often found to move the bolt; but if they fail He thrusts in the iron key of trouble and affliction, which has been known to succeed after all others have failed. He has, however, a golden master key, which excels all others: it is the operation of His own most gracious Spirit by which entrance is effected into hearts which seemed shut up forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will bring you among strange nations as into a wilderness, and there will visit you, and so call you to repentance, and then bring the godly home again, Isa. 65:9.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

wilderness of the people--rather, "peoples," the various peoples among whom they were to be scattered, and about whom God saith (Eze 20:34), "I will bring you out." In contrast to the literal "wilderness of Egypt" (Eze 20:36), "the wilderness of the peoples" is their spiritual wilderness period of trial, discipline, and purification while exiled among the nations. As the state when they are "brought into the wilderness of the peoples" and that when they were among the peoples "from" which God was to "bring them out" (Eze 20:34) are distinguished, the wilderness state probably answers partially to the transition period of discipline from the first decree for their restoration by Cyrus to the time of their complete settlement in their land, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temple. But the full and final fulfilment is future; the wilderness state will comprise not only the transition period of their restoration, but the beginning of their occupancy of Palestine, a time in which they shall endure the sorest of all their chastisements, to "purge out the rebels" (Eze 20:38; Dan 12:1); and then the remnant (Zac 13:8-9; Zac 14:2-3) shall "all serve God in the land" (Eze 20:40). Thus the wilderness period does not denote locality, but their state intervening between their rejection and future restoration.

plead--bring the matter in debate between us to an issue. Image is from a plaintiff in a law court meeting the defendant "face to face." Appropriate, as God in His dealings acts not arbitrarily, but in most righteous justice (Jer 2:9; Mic 6:2).

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

Verse 35. I will bring you into the wilderness of the people] I will bring you out of your captivity, and bring you into your own land, which you will find to be a wilderness, the consequence of your crimes.

There will I plead with you] There I will be your king, and rule you with a sovereign rule; and the dispensations of my justice and mercy shall either end you or mend you.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He specially marks this reason here, which is a medium between rejection and reconciliation to favor: for God’s bringing the Israelites out of Chaldaea might seem a sign of favor, as if he were again their deliverer. But he here defines why he intended to bring them forth, namely, to plead with them in the desert as with their fathers. We know that when the people came out of Egypt they did not possess the promised land, because they shut the door against themselves by their ingratitude: but if there had been no hope left, it was better for the people to spend their time under the tyranny of Egypt than to pine away in the desert. For it was a kind of life scarcely human to wander in a wilderness and to behold nothing pleasant or agreeable; a mere solitude instead of cultivated fields, and nothing but discomfort instead of beautiful flowers and trees and undulating ground: and besides this, to feed on nothing but manna, to taste no wine, to drink only water from the rock, and to endure heat and cold in the, open air. Such freedom then was by no means agreeable, unless they had hoped to become possessors of the land of Canaan. But a whole generation was deprived of that advantage through their ingratitude. God therefore appositely compares them to their fathers, who had gone forth into the wilderness, and he says, I will make you pass into the desert of the nations. Here he compares the desert of Egypt to that of the Gentiles. Although the passage from the land of Canaan to Chaldaea is partly across an unfruitful wilderness, yet I do not doubt that God here metaphorically points out the state of the people after their return from exile.

The complete meaning is, as he surrounded their fathers throughout their whole life in the wilderness, so after they were brought back from Chaldaea their life should be as solitary as if they were banished to an obscure corner of the world, and to a miserable and deserted land. Here, therefore, another region is not intended, but the state of the people when dwelling in the land of Canaan; although he speaks not only of that small band which returned to their country, but of the liberty promiscuously given to all. He calls that state a desert of the Gentiles, to which all were subjected, whether they remained in distant regions or returned home. We must hold, then, that God would be so far the deliverer of the people that the benefit would reach only a few, since, when the multitude wandered in the desert, they perished there, and did not enjoy the promised inheritance. We now see how God established his sway over the Israelites, when he did not suffer them to be perpetually captive, and yet did not show himself appeased when he brought them back, since he still remained a severe judge. I will bring you, therefore, into the desert of the nations; this is the heat of anger of which he had spoken, and I will judge you, or plead with you, face to face. He signifies by these words, that although their return to Judea was evident, yet he was not propitious, since he met them as an adversary. There, says he, I will meet with you face to face, as when contention is rife, adversaries become opposed, and contend hand to hand: thus God here points out the extremity of rigor when he says, that he will dispute with them face to face. But he says, that he was a pleader in the desert of Egypt, and the sense extends to the future; not that it ought to be understood that God descended to plead a cause, and place himself at another’s tribunal; still it was a kind of pleading when the people were compelled to feel that their impiety and obstinacy was not excusable; and also when experience at the same time taught them that God was by no means appeased, since his wrath was again stirred up. Isaiah’s language is slightly different: Come you, says he, let us reason together, I will plead with you. (Isaiah 1.) He is there prepared to argue his cause, as if with an equal. But the case is soon closed and the sentence passed, since it is evident that the people are deservedly punished by God on account of their sins. Thus he pleaded with their fathers in the Egyptian desert when he deprived them all of entrance into the promised land. And afterwards he often punished them for their murmurs, perverse cravings, lusts, idolatries, and other crimes. Hence, let us learn that God is pleading with us whenever any signs of his anger appear; for we cannot derive any advantage from obstinate resistance: and hence nothing remains but to accuse ourselves for our faults. It follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(35) Into the wilderness of the people.—As in the past there was a period of probation and discipline in the wilderness, so shall there be in the future. The similarity is insisted upon in Eze_20:36, and the phrase “face to face” is taken from Deu_5:4, not to show that the Lord will interpose again with the same sensible manifestations, but will plead with them in ways equally adapted, in their more advanced condition, to show them His overruling hand. As this phrase is plainly to be understood according to its sense, and not according to the letter, so it is quite idle to attempt to locate “the wilderness of the people” as any material wilderness, as that of Arabia, or that between Babylonia and Palestine. The phrase must mean that wilderness condition of the people, scattered among the nations, in which the Lord will plead with them as He did with their fathers. This might refer, as some commentators think, to the state of the Jews in our own time, dispersed among all nations; but there is nothing in the connection to indicate so distant a future, and it may quite as well refer to the then approaching condition of the people. Already many thousands of them had been carried captive to Babylon; others (see Jer_10:12; Jer_43:5) had been scattered among all the surrounding nations; the mass of the ten tribes had long before been carried by the king of Assyria to other regions; and the large remnant still left in Judæa, influenced by their own fears, soon afterwards went down to Egypt. In Ezekiel’s own life-time, Israel was scattered widely among all the prominent nations of the earth, and thus brought into the “wilderness of the people.”

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

35. of the people] peoples. This wilderness of the peoples is the Syro-Babylonian wilderness, adjoining the peoples among whom they were dispersed; as that into which their fathers were brought was the wilderness of Egypt, i.e. adjoining Egypt. Isa_40:1-11 also represents Jehovah as marching at the head of his people, redeemed from exile, through the wilderness from Babylon to Jerusalem. Ezek. may follow Hos_2:14-15, but cf. Jer_31:2 seq.

plead … face to face] With no intermediaries, no heathen people on whose fellowship they could stay themselves, absolutely cut off from men and alone with their God (Hos_2:4). Jehovah’s “pleading” or litigating is sometimes in terrible deeds (ch. Eze_17:20), sometimes in words of reason (Isa_1:18; Mic_6:2 seq.). Gathered out from the nations and far from their seductive influences Israel will respond to the discipline of her God as in former days (Hos_2:15).

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.

And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people,.... Into Babylon, and into captivity there, which they thought to avoid by fleeing to other countries. Some think that those inhospitable nations are meant, Syro-media, Caspia, Hyrcania, Iberia, and others, into which many of the Jews were brought, who sought to live elsewhere than at Babylon; and others are of opinion that this respects the time of their return from Babylon to their own land, between which lay a wilderness, here referred to; but perhaps the prophecy respects the present state of the Jews, in which they have continued ever since their destruction by the Romans; through whom they have been brought among the several nations of the world, particularly the Roman empire, compared to a wilderness; and represented as a populous one, as it is, and in which the beast, or antichrist, now is; see Rev 17:3 and there will I plead with you face to face; judge, condemn, and take vengeance, or inflict punishment on them in the most public manner, as he now does. The Targum is, "and I will take vengeance on you face to face".

and there will I plead with you face to face; judge, condemn, and take vengeance, or inflict punishment on them in the most public manner, as he now does. The Targum is, "and I will take vengeance on you face to face".

Ezekiel 20:36

eze 20:36

eze 20:36

eze 20:36Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt,.... Which was opposite the land of Egypt, near unto it, on the borders of it; and into which the people immediately went, when they came out of Egypt, and passed the Red sea; and the Arabic version is,

"when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.''

This refers to the controversy the Lord had with the Israelites for murmuring upon the report of the spies; and the sentence he passed upon them, that they should not enter into the land of Canaan, but their carcasses should fall in the wilderness, Num 14:29,

so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God; take vengeance on them, as the Targum; who disbelieve the Messiah, reject him, and will not have him to reign over them; these are now punished, by a dispersion of them in the wilderness of the nations, where they die and perish, and see not their own land.

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

Of people. That is, a desert, in which there are no people; (Challoner) meaning Judea, to which they should return.

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).

Bring you; drive you; and since you think of such a course of ease to yourselves by casting me off among the nations, I will bring you among such as you shall be soon weary of.

Into the wilderness; into the most horrid, barbarous, and savage parts of the inhabited world; into the mountainous barren parts of Media, Hyrcania, Iberia, Caspia, and Albania, and Scythia, inhospitable nations, and mortal enemies to strangers.

Plead; debate, pass sentence, and execute it also on you.

Face to face; not, as the rabbins dream, to conceal the dishonour of the Jews, but indeed plainly, openly, and so as my hand shall be seen.

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

35. The wilderness of the people — The Israelites are now wandering among the nations as formerly their forefathers, because of their sins, wandered in the wilderness after leaving Egypt; but they shall yet heed the pleading of Jehovah, as did their fathers, and be brought to their own land (Isa_40:1-11; Hos_2:14-15; Jer_31:24).

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

A human wilderness.

I WHAT IT IS. Israel is to be brought "into the wilderness of the peoples." The wanderings of their fathers was in "a waste howling wilderness", (Deu_32:10) among the wild beasts and far from the cities and homes of men; but the exile of the nation in Ezekiel"s day was a transportation into the midst of the settled populous country of Babylon. ChaLdea was no Siberia. Banishment from Canaan did not lead to a return to the freedom and the hardships of a nomadic life. The captive Jews were planted among other nations. Although a strange blight has since fallen upon the scene of the exile, and the ruins of the great cities of the Euphrates have now become a veritable wilderness, haunted by lions and hyenas, those cities were at the height of their prosperity and splendour when the prophet lived and wrote. How, then, could he speak of them as a wilderness?

1. A great city is a human wilderness. The greater the city, the more desolate is the wilderness. The social life of small cities like Jerusalem and Athens must have been strong and pleasant. But this life is swamped in the myriads of unknown faces that one sees in a vast city. Great Babylon, Rome, and London the modern Babylon have the character of a wilderness.

2. There is no banishment so terrible as that of being lost in a human wilderness. People who could be tracked over Dartmoor and among the fells of Yorkshire may be utterly lost in London. Every year there are many broken lives that go down in the awful misery that floods the lower parts of a great city, and no one misses them. Their individuality has been drowned in a sea of humanity. The most heart-rending loneliness is that of a friendless man in a crowd so many fellow beings, and not a spark of fellow feeling!

II HOW IT IS USED. The city wilderness is used for the punishment of the Jews; but not for that only.

1. God meets his people in the wilderness. Success blinds us to the presence of God. Society makes us deaf to his voice. Adversity and solitude prepare us to remember him and to hearken to his Word. We need not flee to the wilderness of a John the Baptist to the seclusion of a hermitage among the silent rocks in order to meet with God. He will visit us in the crowded city. When the heart sinks, sad and faint at its own loneliness amid the din of a crowded life in which the lost wanderer has no share, God is ready to whisper words of comfort. He can find his poor suffering child in the crowd, and draw near to him there as well as in the field, the chamber, or the temple. God comes into most intimate relations with his people in their hour of desolation. He meets them "face to face." In the old wilderness of Sinai the Jews shrank from such near contact with God, so that it was reserved for Moses alone. (Exo_33:11) Now it is to be for all Israel. Thus deep distress has its privileges.

2. God pleads with his people. He desires to save; he urges repentance. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord". When (Isa_1:18) men are most cold and repellant, perhaps our heart may be open to the sympathy of God. Then we can see that he seeks us in a great, undying love.

Note, it is a shame to Christendom that there should be a human wilderness among us. Heathen cities were cruel. But brotherhood is essential to Christianity. May we not say that, after pleading with us for our own sakes, God also pleads with us that we may save our lost brothers and sisters?

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

Bring you - Drive you. The wilderness - Into the most horrid parts of the world; into the mountainous parts of Media, Hyrcania, Iberia, Caspia, Albania, and Scythia. Plead with you - Pass sentence, and execute it on you.

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

the wilderness of the peoples That is the wilderness through which they [the children of Israel] traveled for forty years, and so did Hosea prophesy (2:16): “and I will...lead her into the desert.” That is the desert of Sihon and Og. Ezekiel called it the wilderness of the peoples because many nations bordered upon it.

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.