And one polluted them in their own gifts,.... Suffered them to defile themselves; or declared them to be, and treated them as polluted persons, in the gifts and sacrifices which they offered to idols, particularly their firstborn: as the next clause explains it:
in that they caused to pass though the fire all that openeth the womb; this very likely they did, when they sacrificed to Baalpeor, the same with Molech, Numbers 25:3;
that I might make them desolate; their families, by stripping them of their children, their firstborn, and strength:
to the end that they might know that I am the Lord; a righteous God, in punishing men for sin, in a way it deserves. Some interpret this, not of caus…
John Calvin on Ezekiel 20:26
Ezekiel 20:26
26. And 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.
26. Et contaminavi ipsos in suis muneribus, trajiciendo quidquid aperit vulvam, ut perderem ipsos, ut quod, (sed supervacuum est,) ut cognoscant quod ego Iehovah.
There is no doubt that God here continues the same doctrine' hence we gather that injurious laws were given to the people when they adopted various errors and worshipped idols of their own fabrication instead of God: hence it is added, I polluted them in their gifts. This, then, was added by the Prophet, lest the Jews…
Read the whole note in the consoleKeil & Delitzsch on Ezekiel 20:18-26
The Generation that Grew Up in the Desert
Eze 20:18. And I spake to their sons in the desert, Walk not in the statutes of your fathers, and keep not their rights, and do not defile yourselves with their idols. Eze 20:19. I am Jehovah your God; walk in my statutes, and keep my rights, and do them, Eze 20:20. And sanctify my Sabbaths, that they may be for a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am Jehovah your God. Eze 20:21. But the sons were rebellious against me; they walked not in my statutes, and did not keep my rights, to do them, which man should do that he may live through them; they profaned my Sabbaths. Then I thought to pour out my wrath upon them, to accomplish my anger…
Read the whole note in the consoleRashi on Ezekiel 20:26
And I defiled them with their gifts Those gifts that I legislated for themto hallow for Me every firstborn—I delivered them into the hands of their temptation: to pass those firstborn to the Molech. Hence the statutes that are not good.
in order that I lay them desolate Heb. אֲשְּׁמֵם. I shall lay them desolate and destroy them. אֲשְּׁמֵם, is an expression of שְּׁמָמָה, desolation. Whoever explains it as an expression of אַשְּׁמָה, guilt, errs, because the ‘aleph’ is not part of the radical.
that they know when I will bring upon them the evil.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
