Ezekiel 36:13

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations; BECAUSE THEY SAY UNTO YOU, THOU LAND DEVOUREST UP MEN - alluding to the words of the spies (). The land personified is represented as doing that which was done in it. Like an unnatural mother it devoured, i.e., it was the grave of its people: of the Canaanites, its former possessors, through mutual wars, and finally by the sword of Israel; and now of the Jews through internal and external ills-e.g., wars, famine (to which , "reproach of famine among the pagan" implies the allusion here is)....

1-15 Those who put contempt and reproach on God's people, will have them turned on themselves. God promises favour to his Israel. We have no reason to complain, if the more unkind men are, the more kind God is. They shall come again to their own border. It was a type of the heavenly Canaan, of which all God's children are heirs, and into which they all shall be brought together. And when God returns in mercy to a people who return to him in duty, all their grievances will be set right. The full completion of this prophecy must be in some future event....

The judgments which God sent upon the land, had so destroyed the inhabitants that men deemed it a fatal land, which brought destruction to all that should occupy it (compare 2 Kings 17:25)....

EXPOSITION EZEKIEL 36:1 The present chapter is entirely devoted to the consolation of Israel, though its parts are derived from two separate "words" of Jehovah. Ezekiel 36:1 belong to the "word" which opened with the first verse of the preceding chapter; Ezekiel 36:16 begins another "word," which only closes at Ezekiel 37:14. The subject of the first part is the comfort offered to Israel in the destruction threatened against the heathen, and in the blessings promised to her land and people. Ezekiel

THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD, BECAUSE THEY SAY UNTO YOU,.... The Heathens that dwelt round about the land of Judea said to the mountains, or to the whole land, THOU LAND DEVOUREST UP MEN; eats up the inhabitants of it; which is part of the ill report the spies, in the times of Moses, brought on it, Numbers 13:32, to which the allusion is here; suggesting, that either the air was unwholesome; or that the land did not produce a sufficiency of food to support the inhabitants of it; or that the curse of God was upon it; and that one judgment or another was ever on it; either famine, or pestilence, or the sword of the enemy, or internal broils among themselves, or wild beasts, whereby the inhabitants of the land were wasted and consumed: AND HAST BEREAVED THY NATIONS; the several tribes, of men and children; so that they were diminished and depopulated: the all

Ezekiel 36:1. With this chapter the great prophetic utterances of Ezekiel begin concerning the future restoration and blessing of Israel. From here on to the end of the book, all is still unfulfilled, nor can it be fulfilled until the Lord Jesus Christ comes again and is enthroned as King. The first seven verses (Ezekiel 36:1)announce once more the future judgment of Israel's enemies. Then comes the promised return to the land Ezekiel 36:8. The mountains of Israel, barren so long, shall be inhabited again. Israel's past sins and chastisement are reviewed in Ezekiel 36:16, and then comes that great message of restoration and blessing th

THE RESTORATION AND RENEWAL OF ISRAEL'S LAND. This chapter is brilliant with hope and promise. First comes a fine apostrophe (Ezekiel 36:1), tremulous with emotion (_cf._ Ezekiel 36:4), to the mountain land of Israel (contrast ch. 6). Mocked and desolated as it had been by the enemy, and especially by Edom, Yahweh, whose own honour has been involved in these insults to His land, solemnly vows that the enemy shall be overtaken by the doom which they had brought upon Israel (Ezekiel 36:1). His favour, however, would restore Israel's mountain land, which, in the near future (Ezekiel 36:8) would be more fertile, prosperous, and populous

THOU LAND DEVOUREST, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Numbers 13:32). App-92....

Positive promise to the mountain-land of Israel. In the age of the regeneration, which is at the door, it shall be luxuriantly fruitful (Ezekiel 36:8), and populous (Ezekiel 36:10); it shall no more kill its inhabitants with scarcity (Ezekiel 36:13), nor any more be subject to the reproach of the nations on this account (Ezekiel 36:15)....

B. The Repopulation of the Land 36:8-15 TRANSLATION (8) But as for you, O mountains of Israel, you shall put forth your branches, and your fruit you shall bear for My people Israel; for they are near to come. (9) For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown; (10) and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built up; (11) and I will multiply men upon you and cattle, and they shall increase and be fruitful; and will cause You to be inhabited as in former times, and I will make it better than your beginnings; and you shall know that I am the LORD. (12) And I will cause men to walk upon you, even My people Israel, and they shall possess you, and you shall be an inheritance for them; and you shall no more bereave them of their children. (13) Thus says the Lor...