Ezekiel 20
It opens with a date and a delegation. Certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of the LORD, and sat before me (v. 1). They are exiles in Babylon, and they have come to the prophet for a word from God. The answer is a refusal: Are ye come to enquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you (v. 3). But the refusal is not silence. In place of the oracle they wanted, God gives them their own past. Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers (v. 4). What follows is one of the most sustained recitals of national failure anywhere in Scripture - the covenant story told from God's side, stage by stage, with the rebellion never softened and never hidden.3
The history moves through clear stages. God chose Israel and revealed Himself in Egypt - and there, before the rescue was even complete, they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me (v. 8). He brought them into the wilderness and gave them His statutes and His Sabbaths - and that generation rebelled too (v. 13). He warned their children - and the children rebelled (v. 21). He brought them into the land - and there they sacrificed on every high hill (v. 28). At each stage the same refrain answers the same sin: God would have been just to pour out His fury, but I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen (vv. 9, 14, 22). The honour of His own name, not the worth of His people, is what again and again stays His hand.
Then the chapter turns toward what God will yet do. To the exiles who imagine they can simply melt into the nations - We will be as the heathen… to serve wood and stone (v. 32) - He answers that this shall not be at all. He will gather them out of the countries with a mighty hand, plead with them face to face as He once did in the wilderness, and purge out from among you the rebels (vv. 33-38). And the long, sober story arrives at a promise of acceptance: on His holy mountain He will receive them, I will accept you with your sweet savour… and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways (vv. 41, 44).2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Ezekiel 20:1-9I Will Not Be Enquired Of by You
1And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of the LORD, and sat before me. 2Then came the word of the LORD unto me, saying, 3Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye come to enquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you. 4Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers: 5And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the LORD your God; 6In 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: 7Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. 8But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. 9But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.
The chapter opens with a date and a visit: certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of the LORD, and sat before me (v. 1). These are leaders of the exiled community in Babylon, and they have come to the prophet hoping for a word - some guidance, some oracle, perhaps some assurance about the future. The answer they receive is startling: Are ye come to enquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you (v. 3). God refuses to be consulted. The refusal is not coldness or absence; it is a verdict. To come asking God for direction while clinging to the very idolatry He hates is to treat Him as one more god among many, a source of useful information rather than the Lord of one's life. So instead of the oracle they wanted, God turns the visit into a reckoning: cause them to know the abominations of their fathers (v. 4). Before there can be any word for the future, there must be an honest look at the past. The history that follows is God's answer to their inquiry - not the answer they came for, but the one they needed.3
God begins the history where Israel's history begins - with His own free choosing: In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt (v. 5). The phrase lifted up mine hand is the language of a sworn oath; God bound Himself by solemn promise to this people. And He took the initiative at every point - He chose, He swore, He revealed Himself, He declared I am the LORD your God, He pledged to bring them out of Egypt into a land… flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands (v. 6). None of this was earned. Israel did not find God; God made Himself known to Israel. Then, before the rescue was even complete, He gave one plain command: Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt (v. 7). The relationship was to begin with a turning - away from the gods of Egypt and toward the God who was about to set them free. The choosing was all grace; the only thing asked in return was that they let go of the idols.
The first stroke of the indictment falls hard: But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt (v. 8). This is a striking claim, and a sobering one. Even in Egypt, even before the Red Sea, even while groaning under slavery and crying out for deliverance, Israel was holding onto the idols of their captors. The God who was about to break their chains was being worshipped alongside the gods of the land that enslaved them. The just response is named without flinching: I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. By every measure of fairness, the story could have ended there, before it began. But it did not. The verse that follows turns the whole account: But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen… in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt (v. 9). God restrained His fury and went ahead with the rescue - and the reason given is not Israel's repentance, for there was none. The reason is the honour of His own name among the watching nations. The first sounding of the refrain that will govern the entire chapter is heard here: God acts for His name's sake.
Ezekiel 20:10-26Two Generations in the Wilderness
10Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. 11And I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. 12Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them. 13But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. 14But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. 15Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; 16Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols. 17Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.
The rescue is followed at once by gift upon gift. God brings them into the wilderness and there gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them (v. 11). The law was not a burden hung on a freed people; it was a gift of life, the wise shape of a flourishing existence, given by the God who had just broken their chains. The little clause he shall even live in them is the heart of it: God's commands were meant to lead to life, not death. And He added another gift - my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them (v. 12). The Sabbath was a weekly token of the covenant, a recurring reminder that they belonged to the God who sets a people apart for Himself. So this generation was lavishly provided for: rescued, given a law that leads to life, given a sign of belonging, fed and led through the waste places. Everything was in place for them to flourish. What they did with it is the tragedy the next verse tells.
The pattern of Egypt repeats itself in the wilderness, almost word for word: But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments… and my sabbaths they greatly polluted (v. 13). The very gifts meant for their life were trampled. They despised the judgments that would have made them flourish; they profaned the sign of their own belonging. And the diagnosis beneath the behavior is laid bare: their heart went after their idols (v. 16). This is the root the whole chapter keeps exposing - not merely wrong actions but a wandering heart, an affection that kept drifting back to other gods. Again the just sentence is spoken: I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them. And again it is held back: But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen (v. 14). The refrain returns with growing weight. How many times will the people rebel, and how many times will God stay His hand? Yet His patience is not the same as indulgence. There is a real consequence: I lifted up my hand… that I would not bring them into the land (v. 15). That whole generation would die in the wilderness and never see the promise. God's mercy spared them from being consumed; His justice still kept them out of the rest they had despised.
18But I said unto their children in the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols: 19I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; 20And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God. 21Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. 22Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. 23I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries; 24Because they had not executed my judgments, but had despised my statutes, and had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols. 25Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; 26And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD.
A new generation rises, and God begins again with them, patiently and plainly: Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers… I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments… And hallow my sabbaths (vv. 18-20). He does not visit the parents' guilt on the children; He gives them a clean start and the same gifts of life. But the result is the same single word that has shadowed the whole account: Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me (v. 21). The pattern holds across the generations - the same despising of the statutes, the same polluting of the Sabbaths, the same heart going after idols. And again the sentence is spoken and again the hand is withdrawn: Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake (v. 22). Yet the consequences deepen. Now God announces the exile itself in advance: I lifted up mine hand… that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries (v. 23). The very elders sitting before Ezekiel in Babylon are the fulfilment of that ancient warning. The scattering they are living through was no accident of history; it was the long-foretold harvest of a long-sown rebellion. God's patience had held off the worst for centuries - but it had never pretended the rebellion did not matter.
Verses 25 and 26 are among the most difficult sentences in the book, and they must be handled with the text's own sober care: Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live; and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb (vv. 25-26). The God who gave statutes… which if a man do, he shall even live in them (v. 11) now speaks of statutes that were not good. The contrast is deliberate and chilling. Read in the flow of the chapter, this is the language of judgment, not of God authoring evil. A people who would not walk in the good statutes that lead to life were given over to the deadly “statutes” of the nations they had chosen to imitate - including the horror named here, the passing of children through the fire in pagan sacrifice, a practice God elsewhere calls an abomination He never commanded and that never entered His mind. When a heart insists on idols, God may at last hand it over to the idols and their deadly demands, so that the ruin they bring becomes plain. The terrible purpose is stated even here: that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD. Even the giving-over has, behind it, a will that the people might finally come to their senses and know the LORD. The verse states what it states with restraint; it is wiser to feel its weight than to explain it away.3
Ezekiel 20:27-32We Will Be as the Heathen
27Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me. 28For when I had brought them into the land, for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet savour, and poured out there their drink offerings. 29Then I said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go? And the name whereof is called Bamah unto this day. 30Wherefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations? 31For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you. 32And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.
The history reaches the land of promise, and even there the pattern does not break. When I had brought them into the land… then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices (v. 28). The very land God had sworn to give them, the good land flowing with milk and honey, became the scene of fresh idolatry. On every prominent hilltop and under every leafy tree - the customary sites of Canaanite worship - Israel set up its altars and poured out its offerings to other gods. There is a bitter irony in one phrase: there also they made their sweet savour (v. 28). The pleasing aroma of sacrifice, which belonged to the LORD alone, they offered to idols. The chapter will return to that very phrase at its end - but transformed. God asks, almost wearily, What is the high place whereunto ye go? (v. 29), and the answer is that these illicit shrines were simply called Bamah, “high place,” a fixture of the landscape unto this day. Idolatry had become so settled, so ordinary, that it had its own familiar name. The deepest danger was no longer dramatic rebellion but the way false worship had simply blended into normal life.
Now God brings the long history home to the exiles in the room. The same blasphemy continues in their own generation: Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers?… ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day (vv. 30-31). And so the refusal of verse 3 returns, sealing the indictment: shall I be enquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you (v. 31). Then God exposes the secret thought lurking in the exiles' hearts - the quiet temptation of a scattered, defeated people: And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone (v. 32). Here is the real spiritual crisis of the exile. Far from the temple, surrounded by the gods of Babylon, the people are tempted to simply give up the struggle - to stop being a distinct, covenant people and melt into the nations, worshipping wood and stone like everyone around them. It is the path of least resistance, the relief of no longer standing out. And God's answer is flat and absolute: it shall not be at all. He will not permit it. The very next verses explain why - not because the people are too faithful to fall away, but because God Himself will intervene to keep them His own.
Ezekiel 20:33-38With a Mighty Hand Will I Rule Over You
33As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you: 34And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out. 35And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. 36Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD. 37And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant: 38And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
To the people who imagined they could quietly dissolve into the nations, God answers with overwhelming sovereignty: surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you (v. 33). The phrase a mighty hand and a stretched out arm is unmistakable - it is the language of the exodus, the way Scripture again and again describes how God brought Israel out of Egypt. Here it is deliberately reused: God will gather them out of the countries the same way He once brought them out of Egypt - by sheer, irresistible power (v. 34). They thought their exile meant the covenant was over and they were free to go their own way. God declares the opposite: their scattering does not release them from His rule; He will reign over them whether they will or no, and He will bring them back. The same hand that delivers can also discipline - with fury poured out - and both the deliverance and the fury serve the one purpose of reclaiming a people who are His. There is something bracing in this. God's people cannot finally escape Him by drifting; the strong hand that holds them will not simply let go because they have wandered.1
The gathering leads not to instant ease but to an encounter: I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you (vv. 35-36). God will deal with this generation as He dealt with the exodus generation - bringing them into a wilderness where there is nowhere to hide and pressing the matter face to face. This is mercy in the form of confrontation: the pleading is meant to bring them to honesty and to Himself. Then two images describe the sifting. I will cause you to pass under the rod (v. 37) - the picture of a shepherd counting his sheep one by one as they pass beneath his staff, marking off those that are truly his - and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. Those who are gathered are bound again into covenant relationship, no longer drifting. But the same sifting separates: I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me… they shall not enter into the land of Israel (v. 38). The restoration is real, but it is not undiscriminating. God gathers a people and at the same time purges out the unrepentant rebels. And the whole process drives toward one settled end, repeated all through these closing verses: ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel 20:39-49I Will Accept You with Your Sweet Savour
39As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols. 40For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 41I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. 42And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. 43And 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. 44And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.
After the indictment and the sifting comes a promise that turns the whole chapter toward hope. First a sharp word of irony: Go ye, serve ye every one his idols… if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more (v. 39). It is God's way of saying that half-hearted worship - idols on the hilltops and token gifts to Him - is worse than none; if they will serve idols, let them stop dragging His holy name into the mixture. But that is the dark before the dawn. The vision lifts to mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel (v. 40) - the place of true worship restored. There all the house of Israel… shall serve me, and the staggering word is spoken: there will I accept them. The God who refused to be inquired of, who rehearsed centuries of rebellion, now says He will accept this people - receive their offerings, welcome their worship, take them to Himself. And the acceptance is fragrant: I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries (v. 41). The very phrase that named their idolatry - there also they made their sweet savour to false gods (v. 28) - is now redeemed. The pleasing aroma that had been wasted on idols will at last rise to the LORD from a gathered, accepted people.
The promise of acceptance does not bypass repentance; it produces it. 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 (v. 43). This is the deep work that the whole chapter has been driving toward. The remembering and the self-loathing come after the gathering and the acceptance, not before - which is striking. It is God's grace that opens their eyes, not their sorrow that earns His grace. Once they have been received back, then they will see clearly what they were, and be grieved by it. True repentance, the chapter suggests, is often born this way: not as the price we pay to be accepted, but as the response of a people who have already been accepted in spite of everything, and now see the depth of what they were forgiven. And the final verse seals the chapter's whole argument: ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings (v. 44). There it is one last time, in the plainest words - God deals with His people not according to what they deserve, but for my name's sake. The same refrain that spared them in Egypt and the wilderness now grounds their final restoration. From first to last, the chapter rests on a single foundation: the character of God, not the record of His people.
45Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 46Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field; 47And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. 48And all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it: it shall not be quenched. 49Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?
The chapter closes with a short, vivid parable that points ahead to the judgment still to fall on Jerusalem. God tells the prophet to set thy face toward the south… and prophesy against the forest of the south field (v. 46), and then announces a fire: I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched (v. 47). The fire that spares neither green tree nor dry is a picture of a coming judgment so thorough that it will sweep through the whole land. The exiles in Babylon must not imagine the worst is past; a fire is still to come upon Jerusalem itself. Ezekiel's own reaction is unexpectedly human and a little weary: Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables? (v. 49). The prophet protests that his hearers dismiss his oracles as riddles - clever sayings too obscure to take seriously. It is the perennial dodge of the unwilling listener: treat the hard word as a puzzle rather than a summons, and so excuse oneself from obeying it. The complaint sets up what follows, for the next chapter will drop the imagery entirely and name the fire plainly. The God who speaks in parables will make sure He is finally understood - all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it.3
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Ezekiel 20 with Rashi, Radak, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for the recurring phrase lema'an shemi (vv. 9, 14, 22, “for my name's sake”), for the verb asah (“wrought,” the divine acting that restrains judgment), and for the language of the sovereign gathering with a mighty hand (vv. 33-34).
- Ezekiel 20 ↔ Psalm 106 · Romans 2 · Ephesians 1 & 5Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Ezekiel 20 to the rest of Scripture - God sparing a rebellious people for his name's sake (vv. 9, 14, 22) read alongside he saved them for his name's sake (Ps. 106:8) and acceptance to the praise of the glory of his grace (Eph. 1:6), and the promised acceptance with your sweet savour (v. 41) beside the offering given for a sweetsmelling savour (Eph. 5:2).
- Ezekiel 20 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Ezekiel 20 - the elders' refused inquiry (vv. 1-3), the difficult statement about statutes that were not good (v. 25), the closing parable of the fire in the forest of the south (vv. 45-49), and the recurring formula by which God acts to keep His name from being profaned among the nations.
Where this echoes in Scripture
I Will Not Be Enquired Of by You
- Psalm 106:8Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.The same reading of Israel’s history as verses 9, 14, 22 - salvation grounded in God’s name, not the people’s merit.
- Exodus 32:11-13wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out... Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.Moses appeals to the very logic of this chapter - God’s name before the nations, and the oath He swore.
- Joshua 24:14put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.Confirms the charge of verse 8 - Israel carried the idols of Egypt with them out of slavery.
- Ephesians 1:6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.The New Testament naming of what “for my name’s sake” means - grace that redounds to God’s own glory.
- Romans 2:4the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering... the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.The patient God of this whole history - long-suffering aimed not at ruin but at turning.
Two Generations in the Wilderness
- Leviticus 18:5Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them.The source of the refrain in verses 11, 13, 21 - God’s law given as the path of life.
- Exodus 31:13my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you... that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.The Sabbath as covenant sign, exactly as verses 12 and 20 describe it.
- Numbers 14:28-30your carcases shall fall in this wilderness... ye shall not come into the land.The sentence of verse 15 carried out - the wilderness generation kept from the land they despised.
- Romans 1:24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts.The dynamic behind verses 25-26 - a people handed over to the idols they insisted on.
- Jeremiah 7:31to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart.The horror named in verse 26 - child sacrifice God never commanded and never conceived.
We Will Be as the Heathen
- 1 Kings 14:23they also built them high places... on every high hill, and under every green tree.The very practice charged in verse 28 - altars to other gods on the hilltops of the promised land.
- Jeremiah 2:20upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.The same image of idolatry as spiritual adultery that underlies verses 28-30.
- 1 Samuel 8:19-20Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations.The same impulse as verse 32 - the longing to be like the surrounding nations rather than set apart.
- Romans 12:2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.The opposite of the exiles’ temptation in verse 32 - not melting into the nations but being remade.
With a Mighty Hand Will I Rule Over You
- Deuteronomy 4:34by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm... according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt.The exodus language deliberately reused in verses 33-34 - the gathering as a second exodus.
- John 10:16other sheep I have... them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.The gathering promise of verse 34 taken up by the Shepherd who gathers His scattered own.
- Leviticus 27:32whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD.The shepherd’s rod of verse 37 - the flock counted one by one as it passes beneath the staff.
- Matthew 25:32he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.The sifting of verse 38 - the gathering that also purges out the rebels.
- Zephaniah 3:11I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride... and thou shalt no more be haughty.The purging within the restoration, as in verse 38 - a people gathered and purified together.
I Will Accept You with Your Sweet Savour
- Ephesians 5:2Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.The sweet savour of verse 41 brought to its fulness - the offering that makes a people acceptable.
- Ezekiel 36:31Then shall ye remember your own evil ways... and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities.The same pattern as verse 43 - repentance that follows God’s gracious restoration.
- 2 Corinthians 2:15For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish.The redeemed worship of verse 41 - a people made fragrant to God in Christ.
- Luke 7:47Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.The order of verse 43 - love and grief that flow from having been forgiven, not the price of forgiveness.
- Isaiah 48:11For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it... and I will not give my glory unto another.The chapter’s closing ground in verse 44 - God acting for His own name’s sake, not human merit.