Ezekiel 20:6

Eze 20:6 In the day [that] I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which [is] the glory of all lands:

Ver. 6. Into a land that I had espied for them.] Humanitus dictum. Finding it out, as it were, by diligent search. {Num 10:33} Look how a father findeth out for his son a habitation fit for him, a help meet for him, other things necessary for his comfortable subsistence; so dealt God by his Israel. He brought them to a land which himself had carefully sought out; his eyes were always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. {Deu 11:12}

Flowing with milk and honey,] i.e., Abounding with choice and cheap commodities.

Which is the glory of all lands.] Or, Flower; decorem et desiderium. It was so then, it is not so now, since the Jews were disprivileged and dejected; but as in the earthly paradise, after man fallen, cecidit rosa, mansit spina, the rose fell off, the brier whereon it grew remained; so here. See on Dan 8:9; Dan 11:16.

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_20:6

A land . . . which is the glory of all lands.

The glory of all lands

Palestine, as it appears to the modern traveller, is so totally different from the land as it is described in the Bible, that anticipations are disappointed on seeing it. One never sees the brooks, or the fountains, or the milk and honey. A more sterile--save for the plains along the seaboard--a more forbidding country it is scarcely possible to conceive. Is there anything that by any stretch of imagination could justify us in turning to the world with the Bible in our hands and saying, Here is the glory of all lands? Has its geographical position given it that prominence? A rugged strip of country, with a confused mass of rugged hills, many of them, especially towards the south, absolutely forbidding, so bare, so barren, so scarred are they that one would think some cancer had eaten into them. And this is the land, no bigger than Wales, half the size of Scotland, with a population not equal to a fourth-rate town in Scotland, that is said to be the glory of all lands. It is not its position, therefore, or anything we can see in its towns. What, then, is it? Its beauty? Why, no one would ever dream of going to the Holy Land for its scenery. No doubt the Lake of Galilee is a pleasant sheet of water, but anyone who has stood on the shores of Loch Lomond would never for a moment dream of comparing them. There is nothing in the scenery. No one who is a mere pleasure seeker, no artist, would ever dream of spending time and strength in such a land. Nor would the mere holiday seeker find anything to justify or anything to repay his visit. Travelling through the land is toilsome and perilous for lack of roads, and even where roads are, they are extremely dangerous. Suppose the scientist goes, there is no attraction for him. The botanist will add nothing particular to his store. Even the boasted Rose of Sharon is but a bastard poppy. A scientist has nothing to gain, nor an archaeologist, nor a student. There are no old libraries, there is no native literature, no great school. And those who go for gaiety have gone to the wrong place. There is no theatre, no music hall. No poet could weave romance round such a land as Palestine. What, then, is the attraction? It is the religious. The Crusaders left home, birth, everything, not to add to territory, not for the mere love of conquest. It was the Cross that was the emblem carried before them, and that accustomed them to all the hardships they endured and the triumphs that they won. So, too, with the modem traveller. There is but one Holy Land, and the one thing that makes it holy is that there the Word was made flesh. It is that that makes the land holy, that makes it the glory of all lands. They can take the obelisks of Egypt, and bring them to Paris and to London, and so in some measure transfer the glory of the past; but there is a glory upon that land that no power can take from it or transfer to another land. The Galilean has triumphed. And if He had not, where would have been the glory of the land? There is nothing to make it in ones mind conceivably associated with grand events; and yet see how they flock to it, how many hearts draw to it, how many hearts throb at the mere mention of it--all because Christ has made it the glory of all lands. (G. Davidson, B. Sc.)

The Divine conditions of nationality

I. A country was chosen and assigned to them, and this was the very first step in the process of preparation for the national existence. It is very evident that the repeated references to the land in connection with the prophecies and promises of a national existence and mission made the impression upon the mind of the patriarchs that the possession and enjoyment of the country was essentially a condition of nationality. Accordingly the occupation of Canaan became the object of their highest hopes and the goal of their aims in labour and patience (Gen_50:24-26). And the land was adapted to furnish all the needful conditions of support and unification of the nation.

1. It was described as a land flowing with milk and honey. It was able to afford not merely subsistence, but the means of wealth ample for the material and appliances of an advanced civilisation.

2. The means of communication were sufficient. For the land was not large, and although broken by ranges of hills, was permeated by valleys and torrent beds dry for a considerable portion of the year, and bordered by the sea, which was the highway of the ancient peoples.

3. The land was separated from the surrounding peoples by the sea and the deserts; passable for purposes of commerce, natural barriers in time of war.

II. At the time of founding of the nation a code of laws was given and promulgated. The principles of government may be gathered by analysis of the statutes and synthesis of the results. There can be no doubt that there was an intention to provide for the greatest good and largest liberty of the individual compatible with association, at least in view of the state of the people in that early age, and in their rise from a servile condition. And in the first instance a popular form of government was contemplated rather than a monarchy. The latter was considered as dependent upon certain contingencies, and if it was foreseen as a necessity it was only because it was to be made a necessity by the people themselves. Provision was made for education and discipline in the knowledge of the law, and in habits of obedience. The first, the best, and the only really effective school of instruction and culture was secured and guarded, namely, the family. The infant child was marked with the sign and seal of his rights and duties in the commonwealth, and the household was ordained as a means of training and practice in obedience to righteous precepts. Besides this domestic education, provision was made for public teachers of the law. These were not merely instructors in specifically religious duties, but in social and civil duties also. It would be impossible to cite all the passages in the history which makes it manifest that the Lawgiver expected obedience to be secured through the moral judgment and sensibility. Indeed, the careful student of his teaching cannot fail to find abundant sources for the impression that he intended to secure his people a distinctively and intense ethical life. His aim was righteousness. The accomplishment of this was necessary in his view to the fulfilment of the mission of the nation in the earth. And, finally, to the moral motives to obedience he added the sanctions of religion. He taught that the law came from God Himself, that obedience to the law was loyalty to God, and disobedience was rebellion against God.

III. Provision was made for the nurture of patriotism and for the strengthening of the national bond. The people were attached to the soil by the law of the permanence of the tenure of it in the families and tribes to whom it was assigned after the conquest. The title to each estate was perpetual. And ample provision was made that the life of toil might be lightened and graced by the enjoyments and ceremonies of domestic, social, and national festivals. The seasons of the year of labour were marked by the gathering of the families, and common participation in the fruits of the earth and the more joyful services of religion. Three times each year the heads of families were summoned to the metropolis and the common altar, and in their journeyings to and from the Holy City, and their fellowship within its walls, its dwellings, and its temple courts, they were knit together in personal friendships and united in the common bond of citizenship.

IV. The national spirit was animated and nourished by the call to a mission for all the peoples on the earth. At the very beginning it was said to the father of the Hebrew people, In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And this was repeated again and again in ampler form by lawgiver, and teacher, and king, and prophet, and it became the matter of the highest reaches of patriotic eloquence and the burden of the loftiest inspirations of national song. The Messianic hope was the very life of the nation in its greatest days, send the anchor of its faith in the darkest days of humiliation and suffering. And by it the fainting national life was revived and reinvigorated after the deliverance from captivity, and sustained in the conflicts of the Maccabean age and the struggle of the Grecian conquest, and the endurance of the Roman domination. (J. T. Duryea, D. D.)

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

Eze 20:6. To bring them into a land that I had espied for them — Which I chose out of all others to bestow it upon them. So God is said to go before them, to search out a place to pitch their tents in, Deu 1:33. The expressions import, that every step the people took, till their settlement in the land of Canaan, was under the immediate care and conduct of providence. Flowing with milk and honey — Judea is often called a land flowing with milk and honey, both on account of its own fruitfulness, and also from God’s peculiar blessing upon it: see Deu 11:12. The great number of inhabitants which it nourished is an evident proof of its fertility. Bochart observes, that this phrase occurs about twenty times in the Scriptures; and that it is an image frequently used in the classics: as Ρει δε γαλακτι πεδον, ρει δ’ οινω, ρει δε μελισσων νεκταρι. The land flows with milk, flows with wine, flows with nectar of bees. Eurip. Bacch. 142. Which is the glory of all lands — The Hebrew, צבי היא לכל הארצות, may either mean, that this circumstance of flowing with milk and honey is a glory to all lands, namely, in which it is found; or, that Judea was the glory of all lands. The Vulgate takes it in the latter sense, rendering the clause, Quæ est egregia inter omnes tetras, which is excellent among all lands. Judea might justly be called the glory of all lands, because it was the place where the temple of the true God was fixed, Psa 48:2-3; Dan 11:16; Dan 11:41; Dan 11:45.

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

espied for them--as though God had spied out all other lands, and chose Canaan as the best of all lands (Deu 8:7-8). See Dan 8:9; Dan 11:16, Dan 11:41, "the glorious land"; see Margin, "land of delight," or, ornament"; "the pleasant land," or "land of desire," Zac 7:14, Margin.

glory of all lands--that is, Canaan was "the beauty of all lands"; the most lovely and delightful land; "milk and honey" are not the antecedents to "which."

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 6. To bring them forth of the land of Egypt] When they had been long in a very disgraceful and oppressive bondage.

A land that I had espied for them] God represents himself as having gone over different countries in order to find a comfortable residence for these people, whom he considered as his children.

Flowing with milk and honey] These were the characteristics of a happy and fruitful country, producing without intense labour all the necessaries and comforts of life. Of the happiest state and happiest place, a fine poet gives the following description: -

Ver erat aeternum, placidique tepentibus auris

Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores.

Mox etiam fruges tellus inarata ferebat:

Nec renovatus ager gravidis canebat aristis.

Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant:

Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.

OVID'S Metam. lib. i., 107.

On flowers unsown soft Zephyr spreads his wing,

And time itself was one eternal spring;

Ensuing years the yellow harvest crowned,

The bearded blade sprang from the untilled ground,

And laden, unrenewed, the fields were found.

Floods were with milk, and floods with nectar filled,

And honey from the sweating oaks distilled.

In the flourishing state of Judea every mountain was cultivated as well as the valleys. Among the very rocks the vines grew luxuriantly.

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

(6) The glory of all lands.—So Palestine is constantly spoken of, both in the promise and in its fulfilment. (Comp. Dan_11:16.) However strange this may seem to us now in regard to parts of the land, after centuries of desolation, misrule, and oppression, it is plain from Jos_23:14, and many other passages, that at the time the Israelites entered upon its possession it fulfilled their utmost expectation.

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

6. the day that I lifted] On that day I lifted … 7 and I said unto them. On “milk and honey” cf. Exo_3:8; and on the idea of Canaan as the “glory” of all lands, a frequent judgment in late writings, cf. Jer_3:19; Dan_8:9; Psa_48:2.

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.

In the day that I lifted up my hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt,.... Not only promised and swore to it, but exerted his power in the miracles he wrought, by bringing plagues upon the Egyptians, to oblige them to let them go forth from thence:

into a land that I had espied for them; which he had in his eye and in his heart for them; which he had in his mind provided for them, and was determined in his purposes to bring them to; and which he, as it were, looked out for them, and singled out as the best and most suitable for them:

flowing with milk and honey; a phrase often used, to express the fruitfulness of the land, of Canaan, and the great plenty of provisions in it:

which is the glory of all lands; that is, either which fertility, signified by milk and honey, is the glory of all lands, or makes all countries desirable where they are found; or else, which land of Canaan, being so fruitful, is more glorious or desirable than any other country; it greatly surpassing all others in its situation, soil, and climate. The Targum is,

"which is the praise of all provinces;''

that is, was praised and commended by the inhabitants of all other provinces for the plenty in it; which must needs be very great, to support so large a number of inhabitants in it, and yet its compass but small.

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

Excelleth. Hebrew, "is beauty or a desire." Septuagint, "honeycomb." (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).

After the manner of man God speaks, as if he had been the spy to go from place to place to search out the best, and to appoint it for them; it was his wise and good providence which assigned this land to them. Literally, milk and honey in abundance were in the land of Canaan, and continued till this fruitful land was turned into barrenness, for the sins of its inhabitants. Proverbially, it speaks the choicest, best, the most useful and pleasant, and the plenty and abundance of all these blessings for life, and so to be here taken; and though the whole country in the utmost extent of it, as proposed for Israel, (whose sins kept them out of much of it,) were naturally a fruitful land, yet this great plenty was more from the special favour and blessing of God.

Which is the glory of all lands; makes every country desirable.

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

6. The glory of all lands — This was a favorite phrase of the Hebrews to describe Palestine (Eze_20:15; Psa_48:2; Dan_8:9; Dan_11:41; Jer_3:19).

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

I had espied - God speaks after the manner of men. Milk and honey - Literally milk and honey in abundance were in the land of Canaan. Proverbially it speaks the plenty and abundance of all the blessings of life.

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