Ezekiel 20:39 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ezekiel 20:39
As 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.
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
pollute
תְחַלְּלוּte.cha.le.lu-
H2490
properly · verb, piel imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
holy
קָדְשִׁי֙kod.shi
H6944
a sacred place or thing · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
name
שֵׁ֤םshem
H8034
an appellation · noun, common masculine singular construct
gifts
בְּמַתְּנֽוֹתֵיכֶ֖םbe.ma.te.no.tei.Khem
H4979
a present · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
idols
וּבְגִלּוּלֵיכֶֽםu.ve.gi.lu.lei.Khem
H1544
properly · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Judges 10:14 Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.
Isaiah 1:13-15 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with;…
Ezekiel 20:25-26 Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;
Ezekiel 43:7 And he said unto me, Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the child…
Hosea 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
2 Kings 3:13 And Elisha said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee? get thee to the prophets of thy father, and to the prophets of thy mot…
Psalms 81:12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
Proverbs 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 20:33-44
The design which was now on foot among the elders of Israel was that the people of Israel, being scattered among the nations, should lay aside all their peculiarities and conform to those among whom they lived; but God had told them that the design should not take effect, Eze 20:32. Now, in these verses, he shows particularly how it should be frustrated. They aimed at the mingling of the families of Israel with the families of the countries; but it will prove in the issue that the wicked Israelites, notwithstanding their compliances, shall not mingle with them in their prosperity, but shall be distinguished from them for destruction; for idolatrous Israelites, that are apostates from God, sh…
Equivalent to, "I would rather have you open idolaters than hypocrites, fancying you can worship Me and yet at the same time serve idols" (Amo 5:21-22, Amo 5:25-26; compare Kg1 18:21; Kg2 17:41; Mat 6:24; Rev 3:15-16).
Go ye, serve--This is not a command to serve idols, but a judicial declaration of God's giving up of the half-idol, half-Jehovah worshippers to utter idolatry, if they will not serve Jehovah alone (Psa 81:12; Rev 22:11).
hereafter also--God anticipates the same apostasy afterwards, as now.
Adam Clarke on Ezekiel 20:39
Go ye, serve ye every one his idols - Thus, God gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they could not live, by thus permitting them to take their own way, serve their gods, and follow the maxims and rites of that abominable worship.
John Gill on Ezekiel 20:39
As for you, O house of Israel,.... The then present house of Israel, and the elders of it, who were upon the spot with the prophet:
go ye, serve ye everyone his idols; or dunghill gods; since they liked not to serve the true God: this is not giving them leave to serve idols, or approving their idolatrous practices; but is said "ironically", as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe, who compare it with Ecclesiastes 11:9,
and hereafter also, if ye will not hearken unto me; not only serve them now, but for the future; seeing ye choose not to hearken to my voice, to obey my laws, and to worship me, and me only; for it suggests, that it was better to attend to the service of the one, or of the other, a…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 39.) And you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: each one of you after your idols walk, and serve them. But if you will not listen to me even in this, and you will further defile my holy name in your gifts and in your idols. LXX: And you, house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: Each one of you take away your inventions, and after this, if you will listen to me, and you will no longer defile my holy name in your gifts and in your pursuits. Symmachus has interpreted this passage more clearly: Each of you, going after your own idols, serve them, because you do not want to listen to me. But do not further pollute my holy name with your offerings and statues. On my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord God, there the whole house of Israel will serve me. The translation by Symmachus has this meaning: Because you do not want to serve me, go and serve the idols, and trample the footsteps of your own statues. For you do not want to hear me, so that you do not sacrifice offerings to me, nor burn incense, nor call yourselves my people. For my worshippers do not serve me in the places of light, temples, and idols, like you do, but on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel. Moreover, the Septuagint explains the true meaning. Abandon your former thoughts and remove the sins of evil inventions; and if after this you listen to me and do not defile my name in your gifts and idols, then you shall offer sacrifices to me on my holy mountain and all the house of Israel shall serve me. But Aquila, on Symmachus' side, agrees in part and disagrees in part: 'Go,' he says, 'after your idols, and serve them, because you are unworthy of my reign, and your worship does not please me. But if you do not even hear me on this matter, but defile my holy name, pretending to offer to me what you offer to idols, and you blaspheme my name alone, so that, as worshipers of idols, you call yourselves my own; know this, that on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, there all the house of Israel will serve me, not you who serve idols, but all the house of Israel that will believe later.'
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Hypocrisy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Idolatry · They who practise: Pollute the name of God — They who practise: Pollute the name of God
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Ezekiel 20:39
39. As 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.
39. Et vos domus Israel, sic dicit Dominator Iehovah, Quisque idolis suis ite servite, postquam non auditis me, et nomen sanctitatis meae, [291] ne profanetis amplius in muneribus vestris, et idolis vestris.
Now again God expressly bears witness that he rejects the Israelites because they infected the pure worship of the law with their mixtures; for we said that they were deceived by a vain imagination when they thought God pleased with their obedience, wh…
The Ultimate Gathering of Israel, and Its Conversion to the Lord
Eze 20:39. Ye then, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Go ye, serve every one his idols! but afterwards - truly ye will hearken to me, and no longer desecrate my holy name with your sacrificial gifts and your idols, Eze 20:40. But upon my holy mountain, upon the high mountain of Israel, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, there will all the house of Israel serve me, the whole of it in the land; there will I accept them gladly; there will I ask for your heave-offerings and the first-fruits of your gifts in all that ye make holy. Eze 20:41. As a pleasant odour will I accept you gladly, when I bring you out from the na…
The people of Israel might continue to worship . . . idols, but in the end, they would worship God in spirit and in truth on his holy mountain (see chs 40–48, in which the purified worship of God is restored in the Temple; cp. John 4:21-24). God’s purpose in choosing Israel to be a holy nation would ultimately stand. The people would be a pleasing sacrifice to him and would display God’s holiness. The result of this new exodus would be pure worship, offered by a purified people who were saved by sovereign grace.
Rashi on Ezekiel 20:39
go worship and do not show the nations that you are called by My Name by coming to the prophet to inquire of him [about the] Torah, and, after he tells you My words, not hearkening to Me, as the matter that is stated (33:32): “And behold you are to them like the song of the flutes, etc.” They hear your words, but they do not carry them out.
with your gifts and with your idols For you separate the first born to be designated as a firstborn as I commanded you, but once My Name is called upon the thing, you sacrifice them to idols.
