When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name; in that men said of them, ‘These are Yahweh’s people, and have left his land.’
Parallel Translations
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When they came to the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name; in that men said of them, ‘These are Yahweh’s people, and have left his land.’
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And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.
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And when they came unto the nations, whither they came, they profaned My holy name; in that men said of them: These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of His land.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Ezekiel 36:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 52:5 “Now therefore, what do I do here,” says Yahweh, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock,” says Yahweh, “and my name is blasphemed continually all day long.
- Romans 2:24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.
- Jeremiah 33:24 “Don’t consider what this people has spoken, saying, ‘Has Yahweh cast off the two families which he chose?’ Thus they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.”
- Exodus 32:11-13 Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians talk, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?’ Turn from your fierce wrath, and turn away from this evil against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’ ”
- Daniel 3:15 Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and worship the image which I have made, good; but if you don’t worship, you shall be cast the same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. Who is that god that will deliver you out of my hands?”
- Numbers 14:15-16 Now if you killed this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of you will speak, saying, ‘Because Yahweh was not able to bring this people into the land which he swore to them, therefore he has slain them in the wilderness.’
- Joshua 7:9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. What will you do for your great name?”
- 2 Kings 18:30 Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”
- 2 Kings 18:35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’ ”
- 2 Kings 19:10-12 ‘Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this: “Don’t let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly. Will you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered them, which my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden who were in Telassar?
- Ezekiel 12:16 But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the nations where they come. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’ ”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 36:20 And when they entered unto the heathen,…
Eze 36:20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These [are] the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.
Ver. 20. These are the people of the Lord.] And these are the fruits of their religion. Are these the holy people? &c. Lactantius {a} complaineth of his times, that God’s truth was evil spoken of by the heathen, because Christians lived loosely and lewdly. Whereupon Erasmus {b} crieth out, O rem miseram! Oh, lamentable! Even in those purer times the piety of Christians was so much abated, that the gospel was therefore evil spoken of, for the evil lives of many that professed it. What marvel then, saith he, that Turks cry out upon us? that the banks of blasphemy are broken down in persons disaffected to the power of godliness?
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{a} Lactant., de Opific. Dei; Proaem.
{b} Erasm. in Lactant.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain When they entered; when they were come into Babylon,…
When they entered; when they were come into Babylon, and entered into familiarity with the inhabitants as neighbours.
Profaned my holy name; did profanely sin against those precepts of my law, which heathens did know, venerate, and observe better than the Jews; or it may include the misery their sins had brought them to, which misery reflected upon their God in the opinion of the heathen.
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They said, their heathen neighbours, to them, the miserable and profane Jews,
These are the people of the Lord; with taunt and cutting reprimand. These, these captive slaves, that are most forlorn of men, will have it that their God is the Lord, the mighty and the good God, the true and faithful One, that gave them the land out of which they are driven. If he be good, as they boast, how comes it to pass his people are in such ill state? Or is he not able to better their state? Was he weak, and could not keep them in their own land? or doth he falsify his word? You miserable Jews, say what this meaneth. But by their impure life they opened the mouths of the heathen more to blaspheme, and call the holiness of God into question; when they saw his people so unholy, they concluded. As is the people so is their God; and this, as it was a great offence and scandal to the heathen, so it was a great dishonour to God.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And when they entered unto the Heathen, whither they…
And when they entered unto the Heathen, whither they went,.... When the Jews went into the Heathen countries, whither they were carried captive, either by the Chaldeans, or by the Romans:
they profaned my holy name; by their irreligion and immorality; by their violation of both tables of the law; by their wicked lives and conversations, whereby they gave the enemy an occasion to reproach them, their religion, and their God, Rom 2:24,
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when they said to them, these are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth out of his land; these are the men that boast they are the people of the Lord, whom he has chosen above all people, and see what a wicked people they are; for their sins they are driven out of the land, and become our captives: or though they were the Lord's people, as they pretend, and were under his care and protection; yet he was not able to keep them in their own land, and deliver them out of our hands, but they are carried captive by us; and thus the name of God, his being and perfections, were blasphemed, and his word, worship, and worshippers, were ridiculed by them. The Targum is,
"if these are the people of the Lord, how is it that they are gone out of the land of the house of his majesty?''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Entered - When they were come into Babylon. Profaned…
Entered - When they were come into Babylon. Profaned - They sinned. They - Their heathen neighbours. Them - The profane Jews. These - These profane slaves, call themselves the people of the Lord and say, he gave them the land out of which they are driven.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. And when they entered unto the heathen]…
Verse 20. And when they entered unto the heathen] So bad were they, and so deeply fallen, that they profaned the Lord's name among the heathen; and, on their account, the true God was blasphemed. These, say they, are the people of Jehovah! O what an abominable people are these! and what a being must that God be who can have and own such for his people!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Eze 36:20. When they entered unto the heathen, they…
Eze 36:20. When they entered unto the heathen, they profaned my holy name — 1st, By their evil practices they brought a scandal on God’s name, and gave occasion to the heathen to say, See what profligate wretches these are, who call themselves Jehovah’s peculiar people; judge what sort of a God he is who has such worshippers. The Jews were no credit to their profession wherever they went; but, on the contrary, a reproach to it, and the name of God and his holy religion was blasphemed through them, Rom 2:24. Observe, reader, when those that pretend to stand related to God, as his servants and children, and to be in covenant and communion with him, are nevertheless found corrupt in their morals, slaves to their appetites and passions, dishonest in their dealings, and false to their words, and the trusts reposed in them, the enemies of the Lord have thereby great cause given them to blaspheme both him and his religion. 2d, God’s name was profaned by the sufferings of Israel; for from them the enemies of God took occasion to reproach God, as unable to protect his own worshippers, and to make good his own grants. They said in scorn, These are the people of the Lord; these wicked people! you see he could not keep them in their obedience to his precepts; these miserable people! he could not keep them in the enjoyment of his favours. These are the people that came out of Jehovah’s land; they are the very scum of the nations!
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Land. Yet their conduct was no better than that…
Land. Yet their conduct was no better than that of infidels. Thus they throw the blame on the law, and upon God himself, Jeremias xlviii. 9., &c. (Calmet) --- The Jews had provoked God to punish them with captivity; and hence the nations took occasion to blaspheme, that he could not protect them. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain profaned my holy name, when they--the heathen
profaned my holy name, when they--the heathen
said to them--the Israelites.
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These, &c.--The Israelites gave a handle of reproach to the heathen against God, who would naturally say, These who take usury, oppress, commit adultery, &c., and who, in such an abject plight, are "gone forth" as exiles "out of His land," are specimens of what Jehovah can or will effect, for His people, and show what kind of a God this so-called holy, omnipotent, covenant-keeping God must be! (Isa 52:5; Rom 2:24).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. These disasters which the people of Jehovah brought…
20. These disasters which the people of Jehovah brought on themselves led to the desecration of his name among the heathen. The nations judged him weak and unable to protect his people. In the eyes of the nations the interests of the god and his people were one; if a people was subdued by another it was because its god was too feeble to protect it. Naturally the idea of a god exercising a moral rule over his own people would not yet occur to them. That Jehovah so rules is the lesson which the history of Israel, its dispersion and restoration, is intended to read to the nations of the earth. This lesson was one which Israel itself was slow to learn, and when Amos (Eze_3:2) read it to them, it was perhaps as strange to some as it might be to the heathen.
they profaned] i.e. Israel. Israel by bringing their dispersion upon themselves led to the desecration of Jehovah’s name by the nations, and hence they are said directly to have profaned his name (Eze_36:21).
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when they said to them] when it was said of them, These are … and they are gone forth …, i.e. though the people of Jehovah, they have been driven into exile out of the land—he has not been able to protect them.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (20) When they said to them.—We are not here…
(20) When they said to them.—We are not here to understand that the Israelites profaned God’s name among the heathen in the way spoken of in Rom_2:24, though this also may have been done; but they profaned it by the very fact of their captivity, the consequence of their former sins. The heathen regarded Jehovah as merely the national God of the Israelites, and seeing them dispersed, in distress, and in captivity, concluded that He was unable to protect them. Hence, for the vindication of His name (Eze_36:21-24) God would restore His people to their land.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain They profaned my holy Name; or, the name of…
They profaned my holy Name; or, the name of my holiness. According to Kliefoth, the subject of the verb is "the heathen," but expositors generally regard it as "the house of Israel" of ver. 17. Plumptre thinks that "while grammatically the words may refer to either the heathen or the exiles of Israel, possibly the sentence was purposely left vague, so as to describe the fact in which both were sharers," and cites in support of this view similar constructions in Isa_55:5 and, Rom_2:24. What led to the profanation of Jehovah"s Name by the heathen was the arrival among them, not of the news of the calamity which had befallen Israel (Kliefoth, Hengstenberg) but of the house of Israel itself; and the actual profanation lay in this, that, having beheld the exiles, they said, These are the people of the Lord, and they are gone forth out of his land. As the heathen recognized only local divinities, they concluded Jehovah had either behaved capriciously towards his people and east them off, (comp. Jer_23:40 Jer_29:18 Jer_33:24) or had proved unequal to the task of protecting them so that they had been driven off. (comp. Eze_20:5, Num_14:16; Jer_14:9) In either case, the honor of Jehovah had been lessened in the minds and tarnished by the words of the heathen, and inasmuch as this result had been brought about by Israel"s sin, on Israel properly the blame lay.
Vers. 20-24Profanation and pity.
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The conjunction is somewhat singular. Israel has profaned God"s Name. Upon this suggestion the Lord, pitying his own Name, resolves to sanctify it, and to this end, and not for Israel"s deserts, succors and restores his people. The several steps in this progress of thought should be attentively traced.
I THE ISRAELITES HAVE PROFANED GOD"S NAME AMONG THE HEATHEN. They are universally known as the people of Jehovah. When exiled from their land, they are the objects of derision and contempt to the heathen who behold them, and who, despising them, despise also the Name of Jehovah.
II THE LORD IS MOVED WITH PITY FOR HIS OWN NAME. The language, nay, the very thought, is remarkably bold. But especially as it is repeated, it must be taken as deliberate and intentional, and as corresponding with a wonderful and Divine, though but partially comprehensible, reality. His Name, his reputation, even among the heathen, is dear to him, and he deigns to be concerned when men speak lightly of his Name and blaspheme him openly. In human language, he is distressed at the evil things which are said of him among the enemies of his people.
III THE PURPOSES OF GOD"S MERCY ARE NOT PROMPTED BY ANY DESERTS OF ISRAEL. "I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel." This is a principle which should ever be borne in mind in interpreting Old Testament history. The Hebrew writers are faithful, candid, and outspoken in describing the national character, in relating the actions of their countrymen. They were a rebellious and stiff-necked people. They had their good qualities, but their many and grievous sins are not extenuated. If God chose them as his peculiar people, it was not for any special excellence or meritorious ness in themselves. And when he restored them from captivity, he let it be understood that he did this not from a regard to their deserts.
IV GOD"S PURPOSES OF MERCY TO ISRAEL ARE PROMPTED BY A REGARD TO HIS OWN NAME. He had made certain promises to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and those promises he must needs fulfill. He has intentions of mercy to mankind to be realized by means of the "children of promise," and he will not allow those intentions to be frustrated. He has his own faithfulness to vindicate, his own moral attributes to manifest. By his Name must be understood his character, especially as known among men; and, this being the case, it is not difficult to comprehend the meaning of "having pity on his holy Name.
V PITY BECOMES PRACTICAL IN THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL TO THEIR OWN LAND, BY WHICH GOD"S NAME IS SANCTIFIED. There is dignity and even moral grandeur in the resolution which is expressed in this passage; it is felt to be worthy of him in whose lips it is placed by the prophet. When the great work of restoration is achieved, the nations who behold it see that the taunts and ridicule in which they have indulged are both foolish and blamable. Israel is proved to be the consecrated nation, preserved by God"s wisdom and goodness as the instrument in effecting his purposes. The Lord God is seen to be, not powerless like the so-called gods of the nations, but omnipotent and just. His promises are vindicated as faithful. "I will sanctify my great Name and the nations shall know that I am the Lord. T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain They profaned My holy name.
Eze_36:20
They profaned My holy name.
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How Gods name is profaned
Men sanctify Jehovah when they recognise that which He is, or ascribe to Him His true nature. On the other hand, when the iniquities of His people constrain Him to act in such a way as to disguise any of His great attributes, such as His power, in the eyes of the nations, so that they misinterpret His being, His holy name is profaned, as, on the contrary, He is sanctified in the eyes of the nations by the restoration of His people, and their defence when restored and righteous. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
The nations conceptions of Jehovah regulated by His peoples conduct
These disasters which the people of Jehovah brought on themselves led to the desecration of His name among the heathen. The nations judged Him weak, and unable to protect His people. In the eyes of the nations, the interests of the god and his people were one; if a people were subdued by another, it was because its god was too feeble to protect it. Naturally, the idea of a god exercising a moral rule over his own people would not yet occur to them. That Jehovah so rules is the lesson which the history of Israel, its dispersion and restoration, is intended to read to the nations of the earth. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 36:20 This scattering also brought shame on the Lord’s…
36:20 This scattering also brought shame on the Lord’s holy name. It was not so much the behavior of the exiles that robbed the Lord of his glory, but the very fact that they were in exile, insofar as it made the surrounding nations conclude that Israel’s God had been unable to keep them safe in his own land.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.