Ezekiel 36:17

(17) They defiled it.—In Eze_36:17-20 the sin of Israel in the past is set forth as the reason of their present condition. “The land” is always regarded in Scripture as peculiarly consecrated to God, and defiled by the sin of the people. (Comp. Lev_18:28; Num_35:34.) The comparison is with a woman who has been set apart for uncleanness (Lev_15:19), who until her purification was not allowed to come into the sanctuary.

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

Eze 36:17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

Ver. 17. When the house of Israel.] Ubique Scriptura vindicat gloriam Dei, maxime autem hoc loco. {a} This place of Scripture doth singularly set forth the glory of God’s grace, while it showeth that man’s destruction is wholly of himself, his help only of God.

As the uncleanness.] As a menstruous clout, abhorred by all.

{a} Oecolamp.

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 36:17-19. When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land — In fulness of bread, ease, and security, as they did in days past; they defiled it — Rendered it abominable before God, and uncomfortable to themselves; by their own way and by their doings — By the way of their own choice, their wicked way, forsaking my law, despising my counsel, deserting my worship and temple; and by their unholy conversation and unrighteous practices. Their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman — As a woman under a legal pollution was forbidden to come within the courts of the temple, or to attend upon God’s worship there; so the defilements which the Jews had contracted by their idolatries, adulteries, murders, and other heinous sins, rendered them unfit to be acknowledged as God’s people, or to offer up any religious service to him. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them — These and their other sins were the true causes of the desolation of their country, and of all the miseries which they underwent, and not any thing in the land itself, as the heathen said, Eze 36:13. According to their doings I judged them — God frequently repeats that his judgments upon the Jews were no more than what their own ways or doings obliged him to inflict. There was in his dealings with them no arbitrary exercise of sovereignty, but they were dealt with according to their own conduct. And thus God deals with mankind in general: his actions, in regard to them, are not founded in an arbitrary exercise of his absolute sovereignty over them, but in impartial justice, wisdom, and goodness, and he judges them according to their own ways, and not according to the dictates of an arbitrary will.

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

36:17 Covenant curses had come to Israel because God’s people had defiled . . . their own land by their sinful behavior. • A menstrual cloth became polluted by contact with a woman’s monthly flow of blood. This natural process was not sinful, but it was defiling in the same way that any loss of bodily life-fluids such as blood, sweat (see study note on 44:17-19), or semen made people ceremonially unclean (see Lev 15).

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

removed woman-- (Lev 15:19, &c.).

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 17. When the house of Israel dwelt in their own land] Had they continued faithful to me, they had never been removed from it: but they polluted it with their crimes; and I abhorred the land on that account, and gave both them and it up to the destroyers.

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

16–23. Israel’s past history and the principles which it illustrates

17. When in their own land the people defiled it with their doings. The land was “holy” being sanctified by Jehovah’s presence in it. The sins of the people, idolatry and bloodshed, desecrated it and made it unclean. Holy embraces “clean” under it, as the general does a particular, Jer_2:7; Lev_18:25. Ezek., however, seems to call all sins “uncleanness.” This way of speaking and thinking could hardly have arisen except under the influence of a law of ceremonial defilements (which were real defilements) and purifications.

uncleanness of a removed] the uncleanness of a woman’s impurity. Lev_15:19. The comparison expresses the extreme of loathing, ch. Eze_7:20.

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.

Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land,.... The land of Canaan, which the Lord their God gave unto them; a land abounding with all good things, where they dwelt in great ease, plenty, and prosperity; and which also was a holy land, peculiarly chosen of God for his worship and service:

they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: by their sinful ways and evil works: sin is of a defiling nature; it defiles the bodies and souls of men; it defiles their own, and it defiles others; it defiles a land, and the inhabitants of it, and makes them loathsome and abominable to a pure and holy God:

their way was before me, as the uncleanness of a removed woman: of a menstruous woman in the time of her separation; when she was debarred the company of her husband, and might not enter into the sanctuary of the Lord: this shows what an evil thing sin is, what an uncleanness it is in the sight of God, how abhorrent sinful ways are to him; and though he was the husband of these people, yet, because of their sins, he separated from them, and removed them from and out of their land, as not fit to be in his presence, nor to live there.

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

In their own land; in fullness, case, and security, as in days past they did.

They defiled it; brought in much sin and great guilt upon the land, i.e. on themselves who dwelt there, and sinned greatly.

By their own way; leaving my law, despising my counsel, forsaking my worship and temple.

By their doings; by their carriage and practices in their whole conversation.

As the uncleanness, & c.; or as one excommunicate, and cut off from the congregation, because of some great sin. Or, since idolatry is so often compared to fornication and whoredom, possibly it may be here the filthiness of spiritual whoredom. I hated and loathed the filthiness of their ways, as I would the impurity of a whorish woman prostituting herself for gain. The word may include the reward of a whore, as it doth Eze 16:33.

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

Their way was before me. Their ways and doings, i.e. their violent deeds and idolatrous practices (ver. 18), were as morally loathsome in Jehovah"s sight as the uncleanness of a woman in her separation was materially disgusting. The comparison may have been derived from Isa_64:6, but was as likely to have been original, seeing Ezekiel was a priest-prophet, to whom the details of the Levitical Law must have been familiar. (comp. Eze_18:6; Lev_15:19)

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

Son of man! The house of Israel, as long as they lived, etc., like the uncleanness of a woman in the period of her separation Scripture likened them to a woman in the period of her separation, whose husband looks forward to when she will become clean, and longs to return to her.

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.