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Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Ezekiel 20:1-26

Idolatry in the past (20:1-26)Ezekiel records another occasion when the leaders of the exiles came to him with certain questions. God told him not to waste time dealing with their questions (20:1-3). Rather Ezekiel was to deal with the more important issue of the people’s false understanding of God. Since wrong attitudes had been passed on from generation to generation, Ezekiel began to recount Israel’s history from the time the people were in Egypt (4-6). Even in Egypt they had been attracted... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Ezekiel 20:26

Ezekiel 20:26. And I polluted them, &c.— The common interpretation, says Bishop Warburton, is this: "I permitted them to fall into that wicked inhumanity, whereby they were polluted and contaminated, in making their children pass through the fire to Moloch, in order to root them out, and utterly destroy them." But this explanation hath already been exposed in the note on the preceding verse; and there is another, which so exactly quadrates with the sense given to that verse, that it... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Ezekiel 20:26

26. I polluted them—not directly; "but I judicially gave them up to pollute themselves." A just retribution for their "polluting My sabbaths" (Ezekiel 20:24). This Ezekiel 20:26 is explanatory of Ezekiel 20:25. Their own sin I made their punishment. caused to pass through the fire —FAIRBAIRN translates, "In their presenting (literally, 'the causing to pass over') all their first-born," namely, to the Lord; referring to the command (Exodus 13:12, Margin, where the very same expression is used).... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Ezekiel 20:1-44

1. The history of Israel’s rebellion and Yahweh’s grace 20:1-44The structure of this passage is quite clear. It consists of a review of Israel’s history with an introduction and a concluding application."The chapter is remarkable in that it shows a uniform moral plane sustained by the nation throughout its history." [Note: Feinberg, p. 108.] Other important themes in this chapter include God’s faithful grace in spite of Israel’s persistent rebelliousness, the repetition of a wilderness... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Ezekiel 20:10-26

Israel’s rebellion in the wilderness and God’s grace 20:10-26 read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Ezekiel 20:25-26

The Lord also gave them statutes that were not good for them in the sense that He allowed them to choose to live by worldly rules that caused them misery and death (cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28:15 to Deuteronomy 29:19; 2 Kings 17:26-41). He also gave them ordinances that were too difficult for them to keep in that He did not lighten the burden of responsibility that the Mosaic Law imposed. When the people offered their children as burnt offerings to the idols, the loss of their children was... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 20:1-27

§ 5. A Final series of Prophecies on the necessity of Israel’s Punishment and the Destruction of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 20-24)Date, Aug.-Sept. 590 b.c. to Jan.-Feb. 587 b.c.This group includes a warning to the exiles against idolatry (Ezekiel 20:1-44), a description of the sword of the Lord directed against Jerusalem (Ezekiel 20:45 to Ezekiel 21:27), a short prophecy against the Ammonites, connected with the foregoing (Ezekiel 21:28-32) an indictment of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 22), an allegorical... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 20:1-44

History Repeating itselfSome four years before the fall of Jerusalem the elders of Tel-abib again came to consult Ezekiel, who declared that God had no answer to give them. The reason was that their enquiry was insincere, and this passage is consequently an illustration of the principle of Ezekiel 14:3. The exiles were beginning to avow idolatrous tendencies (Ezekiel 20:32), with which the elders were in secret sympathy. Ezekiel recounted how God had dealt with Israel’s idolatrous spirit in the... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Ezekiel 20:1-49

§ 5. A Final series of Prophecies on the necessity of Israel's Punishment and the Destruction of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 20-24)Date, Aug.-Sept. 590 b.c. to Jan.-Feb. 587 b.c.This group includes a warning to the exiles against idolatry (Eze 20:1-44), a description of the sword of the Lord directed against Jerusalem (Eze 20:45 to Eze 21:27), a short prophecy against the Ammonites, connected with the foregoing (Eze 21:28-32) an indictment of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 22:0), an allegorical history of the sins... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Ezekiel 20:26

(26) To pass through the fire.—The word “fire” here, as in Ezekiel 16:21; Ezekiel 23:37, is not in the original, but is rightly supplied from Ezekiel 20:31. The custom referred to was probably that of consecrating their seed to Moloch, expressly forbidden in Leviticus 20:1-5. (Comp. also Acts 7:43.) The causing children to pass through the fire continued a common sin even to the later days of the monarchy (2 Kings 17:17; 2 Kings 21:6). read more

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