Commentary on Ezekiel Chapters 1-20 John Calvin
JOHN CALVIN
of Judea. Since then they were disinherited, they thought themselves free on their part, and they no longer regarded the authority of God, since they ceased to be his peculiar heritage when they were deprived of the promised land. Here God reminds them that although he had emancipated them for the time, yet they were in some sense under his hand, since he would collect them again, and so subdue them, that they should not escape his authority. I will draw you back, says he, and gather you with an outstretched arm and with a strong hand. But what he adds concerning the fury of his wrath does not seem consistent with this. For it was a sign of favor to collect them again, although hard and sorrowful slavery awaited them; yet they might perceive some taste of the divine goodness in gathering them from exile. For we know the bitterness of their captivity; especially under the Chaldaeans, by whom they were subdued. But the phrase wrath may relate as much to the Gentiles as to the Israelites themselves: yet I explain it more willingly of the Israelites, because although God in reality shows that he did not altogether neglect them, yet he asserts his right as a master grievously offended. Just as a person who had lost his slave may afterwards receive him into his house, and yet that house may be like a sepulcher, because he is either thrust into a deep dungeon, or three or four times as much is exacted of him as he can bear. So therefore God pronounces, although he may gather the Israelites again under his hand, yet they shall feel him to be displeased with them, since he nevertheless will require the punishment of their impiety; and this will be better understood from the context.
Ezekiel 20:35-36
35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
35. Et introducem vos in desertum gentium, et judicabor vobiscum illic 559 facie ad faciem.
36. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD.
36. Quemadmodum judicatus sum 560 cum patribus vestris in deserto terrae
sic disceptabo vobiscum dicit Dominator Iehovah.
He specially marks this reason here, which is a medium between rejection and reconciliation to favor: for God's bringing the Israelites out of Chaldaea might seem a sign of favor, as if he were again their deliverer. But he here defines why he intended to bring them forth, namely, to plead with them in the desert as with their fathers. We know that when the people came out of Egypt they did not possess the promised land, because they shut the door against themselves by their ingratitude: but if there had been no hope left, it was better for the people to spend their time under the tyranny of Egypt than to pine away in the desert. For it was a kind of life scarcely human to wander in a wilderness and to behold nothing pleasant or agreeable; a mere solitude instead of cultivated fields, and nothing but discomfort instead of beautiful flowers and trees and undulating ground: and besides this, to feed on nothing but manna, to taste no wine, to drink only water from the rock, 559That is, "I will plead with you by right." — Calvin. 560That is, "I have pleaded." — Calvin.