Ezekiel 20:43

Eze 20:43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.

Ver. 43. Ye shall remember your ways.] Recognition is the first thing in reformation. See Eze 16:61.

And ye shall loathe yourselves.] Dissecabimini in faciebus vestris. {a} Ye shall be, as it were, slashed with a sword over your faces, like as those {Act 2:37} were pricked at heart: they felt their sins as so many daggers at their hearts.

{a} Percutietis facies vestras. - Sept.

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_20:43-44

And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight.

Gods method of mercy used or abused by man

I. The method of mercy was very remarkable in the case of Israel. The loving kindness of God is infinite. Christ commanded that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Surely this single circumstance, viewed in connection with Gods ancient dealings with Israel, as brought before us in this chapter, is a proof that Christianity is the religion of the same God, and that His mercy endureth forever. And have not His dealings with the Christian Church been so similar as to show that He is still pursuing a method of mercy and of grace? He has not cut us off in our sins; He still follows us with invitations, He quite presses us with entreaties, to be reconciled to God. Is not Christ able and willing to save to the uttermost, any or all of us, who come unto God by Him? Have not some of us found already--and may not the rest find soon--that with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him there is plenteous redemption?

II. But suppose it so found; then what will be the gracious effect on us? Is it carelessness, or indifference, or licentiousness of living? Not so; surely the goodness of God leadeth to repentance. Then, when thus restored to the Divine favour--then, when this method of mercy shall have been successful--then shall ye remember your ways, etc. Here is work for the mind and memory. Do ye not remember some of your ways in former years--ways which certainly were wrong, perverse, and corrupt? Have ye forgotten all those doings, which certainly were not right? Do ye not remember the circumstances of your sins--how many things concurred to aggravate them in your cases? Therefore exercise your mind and memory, with prayer for the Holy Spirit, in recalling our was and doings. But if truly penitent, ye will also exercise the heart and soul on this subject; and ye shall loathe yourselves, etc. And if you loathe yourselves for having sinned, you will not return to sin. Men do not return willingly to look on a loathsome object. What they abhor they shun. (John Hambleton, M. A.)

Conversion: in its commencement and progress

I. In its commencement God accomplishes it in a variety of ways.

1. By the dispensations of His providence.

2. By the conversion of some pious friend.

3. By the public ministry of the Word.

4. By the secret operation of His Spirit upon the soul.

II. In its progress.

1. He reveals that covenant to us.

2. He enables us to lay hold on it.

3. He confers upon us all the blessings.

Remarks--

1. How sovereign God is in the dispensations of His mercy.

2. How mysterious are His dealings with the children of men.

3. How you may best answer all the purposes of His grace. (C. Simeon, M. A.)

Awakened memory of past sins

Manton says: Old bruises may trouble us long after, upon every change of weather, and new afflictions revive the sense of old sins. We know one who broke his arm in his youth, and though it was well set, and soundly healed, yet before a rough season the bones cry out bitterly; and even so, though early vice may be forsaken, and heartily repented of, and the mind may be savingly renewed, yet the old habits will be a lifelong trouble and injury. The sins of our youth will give us many a twist fifty years after they have been forgiven. How happy, then, are those who are preserved from the ways of ungodliness, and brought to Jesus in the days of their youth, for they thus escape a thousand regrets. It is well to have a broken bone skilfully set, but far better never to have had it broken. The fall of Adam has battered and bruised us all most sadly; it is a superfluity of naughtiness that we should incur further damage by our own personal falls. The aches and pains of age are more than sufficient when every limb is sound, and recklessly to add the anguish of fractures and dislocations would be folly indeed. Young man, do not run up bills which your riper years will find it hard to pay; do not eat today forbidden morsels, which may breed you sorrow long after their sweetness has been forgotten. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for My names sake.

Moral Tower: its Divine source

There is a force which fashions suns and impels the movements producing their huge stores of heat; a force which sustains the march of constellations through terms of time that mock our little earthly history, a force which drives the tides and sweeps through the tempests, a force which vivifies and upholds the restless and ever-extending mystery of life, a force which rules the rise and fall of empires and civilisation--and that force is infinite. But from the same spring there issues a less obtrusive force belonging to another order of operations--the force which detaches man from idols; the force which frees him from the legion evils that have trampled his greatness in the dust, which makes sympathies and antipathies strangely change places in his nature, so that he comes to hate what he loved, and to love what he once hated; the force which works out the new creation of the Gospel--and that force is no less infinite though it is dealing with persons rather than things. In the realms of thought, morals, human conduct, Gods power is just as far-reaching as in the realm of physics. (T. G. Selby.)

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

Eze 20:43-44. And there shall ye remember your ways — There, in my holy mountain, in Zion, when you are restored to your own land; and more especially in the Christian Church, when, in consequence of your conversion, you enter into it, and enjoy the privileges of it, ye shall remember and be humbled on account of your doings, whereby you have been defiled. When you find how gracious I am to you, notwithstanding your long-continued disobedience and repeated rebellions, you will be overcome with my kindness, and blush to think of your refractory conduct toward so good a God. And ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight — See notes on Eze 6:9; Eze 16:63. Thus the prophet fore-tels that the restoration of the Jews to their own land would be accompanied with a general repentance, and a deep remorse for their former mis-doings. And we find, from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, that this was in fact the case with multitudes of them: they fasted and made public confessions of their sins upon their returning to Judea, and entered into a general and solemn engagement to be obedient to God, and observe his laws for the future. And, undoubtedly, this humiliation, godly sorrow, and true repentance, will more especially take place, and be more abundantly manifested in and among that people, when they shall be converted to Christianity in the latter days.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Your own consciences shall convict you after, that you have felt my mercies.

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

there--not merely in exile when suffering punishment which makes even reprobates sorry for sin, but when received into favor in your own land.

remember-- (Eze 16:61, Eze 16:63). The humiliation of Judah (Neh. 9:1-38) is a type of the future penitence of the whole nation (Hos 5:15; Hos 6:1; Zac 12:10-14). God's goodness realized by the sinner is the only thing that leads to true repentance (Hos 3:5; Luk 7:37-38).

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 43. And there shall ye remember your ways] Ye shall be ashamed of your past conduct, and of your long opposition to the Gospel of your salvation.

These promises may, in a certain limited sense, be applied to the restoration from the Babylonish captivity; but they must have their proper fulfilment when the Jews shall accept Jesus as their Saviour, and in consequence be brought back from all their dispersions to their own land.

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

Here God shows that he would at length be propitious to his elect when they repented. Thus he signifies that there was no other means of reconciliation than by the intervention of repentance. And we must carefully remark this, as I have previously mentioned. For we know with what security all men usually indulge themselves, nor are the pious themselves affected with grief sufficiently serious, when God invites them to the hope of safety and at the same time offers pardon. They embrace indeed greedily what they hear, but meanwhile they bury their sins. But God wishes us to taste his goodness, that the remembrance of our crimes should be bitter, and also that every one should judge himself that he may obtain pardon from him. Now, therefore, we understand the Prophet’s intention. We saw a similar passage in Jeremiah: this teaching occurs throughout the Prophets, there, says he, you shall remember me. The circumstance of place is to be noticed, because the Prophet means that after the elect shall have returned to God’s favor, and he shall account them as true Members of his Church, then they thought to be mindful of their former life and to repent of their sins. As if he had said, as long as God afflicts you and you remain under the tyranny of the Gentiles in exile, the sense of your evils will compel you to groan, so the remembrance of your sins should return, since, whether you will or not, their punishment will ever be before your eyes, since they would be easily persuaded that their sentence was usual and common. But he shows them that the sons of God were not only mindful of their sins, when they feel themselves chastised by him, and experience shows his hostility, but when received into favor and in the enjoyment of their inheritance, they live under God’s wings, and he cherishes them as a tender offspring: when, therefore, the faithful are treated so humanely by God, yet the Prophet shows that in their condition they ought to be mindful of their sins, and all your works in which you have been polluted, says he. He now shows to what purpose they were to be mindful. For the wicked are compelled to call their sins to remembrance when God, by forcibly turning their attention to them, draws them to consider what they desire to bury in oblivion. But it is here said, you shall be confounded in your own sight. Since the Hebrew word קוט, kot, signifies to cut off, many interpreters take it for “ye shall be cut off;” that is, you shall judge yourselves worthy of destruction among those whom God will cut off and blot out of the earth. But this seems forced. Since the same word sometimes signifies to litigate, and to become abominable, I willingly take this meaning, that they shall be abominable, or contemptible, in their own sight: that is, they shall be so ashamed, as willingly and fully to acknowledge themselves utterly disgraced. Hence Ezekiel means that the faithful should suffer voluntary disgrace, that they may glorify God by the pure and genuine confession of their shame. If any one prefers to expound it, you shall be condemned or convinced, that sense will suit well enough; but I have already brought forward what seemed more simple. For I said that this was the fruit of penitence, when we he confounded before God and are vile and despicable in our own eyes, and when we not only suffer ourselves to be condemned by others, but inwardly reflect upon our own disgrace, and so of our own accord prostrate ourselves before God. This then is the fruit of penitence, this is true humility, flowing from genuine shame. At length 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.

(43) Ye shall lothe yourselves.—The especial sin above all others for which Israel had been reproved in past ages, and which still formed the burden of Ezekiel’s denunciations, was idolatry; from this they were weaned, once for all, at the restoration, and whatever other sins may have been committed by them, into this, as a nation, they have never since relapsed.

With Eze_20:44 this prophecy ends, and here the chapter closes in the Hebrew and in the ancient versions.

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

43. The goodness of Jehovah in restoring them shall fill their hearts with abhorrence of their own past doings, cf. Eze_16:61.

lothe … in your own sight] Omit in your own sight, ch. Eze_6:9.

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 ye shall know that I am the Lord,.... Jehovah their righteousness, their Redeemer and Saviour, Lord and King; they shall know Christ, and him crucified, and God in Christ as their covenant God; See Gill on Eze 20:42; when I have wrought with you for my name's sake; in the thorough conversion of them; not that there is any cooperation with God in that work; ministers indeed are coworkers, not as efficients, but instruments; persons converted are wholly passive in the first work of conversion or regeneration; and in all later actings move as they are acted, turn being turned, walk and run being drawn, not being able to do anything as of themselves: but the phrase signifies a working in favour of them; doing great things for them, and good things in them, well pleasing in his sight, and good unto them; plucking them as brands out of the burning; taking them out of the hands of Satan; calling them out of darkness into light, and bringing them out of bondage into liberty; and all this

for his own name's sake, of his own will and pleasure, according to his abundant mercy, and for the glory of his rich grace:

not according to your wicked ways, not according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God; had he, they must have perished in their sins, and been miserable for ever; but he neither proceeds according to the bad works nor the good works of men, in calling and converting them, but according to his own purpose and grace, Ti2 1:9, their evil works do not hinder his grace when he is resolved to work, and their good works do not merit it; he acts freely, and in a sovereign way.

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

Committed. This is a picture of the converts to Christianity. (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).

In your restored state, and in your prosperity, in the land whither you are returned, ye shall review your former ways with sorrow; remember, and grieve.

Your ways of your folly, explained by their doings, which defiled them, i.e. all their more notorious sins.

Loathe: see Eze 6:9.

In your own sight; your own heart and conscience shall see what you have done, and they shall take shame, and be humbled, though none else see it.

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

And there shall ye remember, etc. The words stretch far and wide, and throw light on many of the problems that connect themselves with the conversion of the sinner and the eschatology of the Divine government. The whole evil past is still remembered after repentance and forgiveness. There is no water of Lethe, such as the Greeks fabled, such as Dante dreamt of as the condition of entering Paradise ("Purg.," 31:94-105). The self-loathing and humility which grow out of that memory, the acceptance of all the punishment of the past as less than had been deserved, these are the conditions and safeguards of the new blessedness. Ezekielteaches us, i.e., that it is possible to conceive of an eternal punishment, the punishment of memory, shame, self-loathing, as compatible with eternal life. So (in ver. 44) the prophet ends what is perhaps, the profoundest and the noblest of his discourses, his "vindication of the ways of God to man."

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

Remember - Review your former ways with sorrow: remember, and grieve.

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

and you will quarrel Heb. וּנְקֹטֹתֶם, an expression of quarreling (קְטָטָה). Another explanation, following the Targum: וְתִּידַנְקוּן, and so does Jonathan render (9:4) הַנֶאֱנָחִים: “and those who groan,” demonir in Old French, to melt away.

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.