Ezekiel 20

Ezekiel 20:1

Jerome: (Chapter 20, Verse 1) And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth, in the tenth month, men came from the elders of Israel to inquire of the Lord, and they sat before me. After eleven months and five days of the previous vision, again the word of the Lord came to the prophet, after men came from the elders of the house of Israel to inquire of the Lord and sat before him. However, many examples testify that it was the custom of the people of Israel to seek whatever they desired to know from the Lord through the prophets. Saul, looking for donkeys, goes to Samuel and receives advice from a young boy to offer a quarter shekel to the prophet. When Jeroboam’s son is sick, he is sent to Shiloh to the prophet Achiam (also known as Abiam), bringing gifts of bread, cakes, grapes, and a jar of honey, to learn about the illness of his son. David also consults the prophet Nathan, asking whether he should build a temple for the Lord. And Ahab inquires whether he should go up to Ramoth Gilead or not (3 Kings 22). In Isaiah (Isa. 37) and in the book of Kings (4 Kings 19), it is announced what will happen with Sennacherib. It is not surprising that in the Old Testament the prophets announce everything that is going to happen, since we have read that Agabus prophesied to Paul what was going to happen (Acts 21). It is written in Deuteronomy: The nations that the Lord is going to destroy before you, they will listen to dreams and divinations, but the Lord your God has not given you this (Deut. 18:14). For it is the practice of the Gentiles to consult the Chaldeans, augurs, diviners, soothsayers, and oracles of demons, by which their error is mocked. Therefore, even now the elders of Israel approach a prophet to inquire of the Lord through him, and yet they are silent about their inquiry, with the one who was to be questioned knowing what they were asking, so that a miracle occurred in him, knowing why they had come and answering the unspoken thoughts in their minds. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:2

Jerome: (Verse 2, 3.) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God: Have you come to inquire of me? As I live, I will not answer you, says the Lord God. To the righteous and worthy who ask, a promise is given. As you continue to speak, I will say: Here I am. But to the sinners, like the elders of Israel, whose crimes are described by the prophets that follow, there is no answer; only rebuke for their sins. And an oath is added: As I live, the sentence of denial is made stronger. But as for what the LXX said, if I were to respond to you, Symmachus translated it more clearly, I will not respond to you. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:4

Jerome: (Verse 4) If you judge them: if you judge, O son of man. LXX: if I avenge them with vengeance, O son of man: They have indeed come to interrogate me, desiring to know about those things about which they are in doubt, and the future; but you, O son of man, judge them, so that the prophet’s response may not be, but rather the sentence of the judge for the injustices they have committed, and for following the crimes of their fathers. Or certainly, if I avenge them with vengeance, it can be understood in this sense: They are so covered in wickedness that they are not even worthy of correction and reproof, according to what is said by the prophet: I will no longer visit your daughters, and your daughters-in-law, when they commit adultery (Hosea 4). Wherefore sinners, who have descended into the depths of sin, are forgiven to fulfill the desires of their hearts (Prov. XVIII).

Show them the abominations of their fathers, and you shall say to them: ‘LXX: Rebuke them for the iniquities of their fathers, and you shall say to them: If the sins of the fathers do not flow over to their children, why are the abominations and iniquities of the fathers now placed upon the elders? Clearly it is for this reason, that similar actions may be shown to be done by their parents, and that they may drag the longest rope of inherited evils, so that they may fear the punishments of those whose vices they imitate.’ — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:5

Jerome: (Verses 5, 6.) Thus says the Lord God: In the day that I chose Israel, and raised my hand for the offspring of the house of Jacob, and appeared to them in the land of Egypt, and raised my hand for them, saying: I am the Lord your God. In that day I raised my hand for them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into the land which I provided for them, flowing with milk and honey: which is excellent among all lands. LXX: Thus says the Lord God: From the day that I chose the house of Israel, and became known to the seed of the house of Jacob, and was recognized by them in the land of Egypt, and received them, saying: I am the Lord your God: in that day I took hold of them by my hand, saying: to bring them out of the land of Egypt into the land which I prepared for them, a land flowing with milk and honey: a Paradise beyond all lands. For what the Seventy said, ‘honeycomb’ is beyond all lands, for which we have interpreted it, ’excellent’ is among all lands. The first edition of Aquila placed ‘firmament’; the second, ‘illustrious’; Symmachus, ‘region’; Theodotion, ‘strength’; that is to say, this is the foundation of all lands, that in it there is the religion of God, and temple, and ceremonies, and knowledge of God; and to such an extent did the people of Israel, established in Egypt, not know God, that when Moses was sent to them, he said, ‘If they ask me, who sent you?’ What should I say to them? Say, he said, to them: ‘I AM has sent me’ (Exodus 3:13, 14). He became known to the people in Egypt and to the offspring of the house of Jacob when he raised his hand against the Egyptians for them, and said, ‘I am the Lord your God,’ and he chose them to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey. For they were not yet able to eat solid food, but like infants and nursing babies, they were in need of milk and honey. Indeed, whoever considers the land of Judea, letter by letter, from Rhinocorura to Mount Taurus, and the entire land along the Euphrates River, will not be able to doubt that it is famous and more fertile than all other lands, and the power and beauty of the cities and the pleasantness of the regions - namely Palestine and Phoenicia, Arabia, Syria Coele, Cilicia, and the other regions which the Lord promised to the Israelites if they had kept God’s commandments, but because they did not receive them, it was a fault of their disbelief. For even in Palestine and the province of Judea, many people remained who were not expelled. For the sponsor is not at fault if the one to whom the promise is made proves himself unworthy of the pledge, especially when the option of the promisor is presented: ‘If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword.’ Therefore, choices are made in the present; and the one who is chosen is not immediately capable of being tempted or destroyed, because both Saul, who was chosen as king, and Judas, who was chosen as an Apostle, later fell due to their own fault. The raising of the hand, or extension, indicates the posture of a striker: to strike against the Egyptians, and to free the people of Israel from Egypt. — Commentary on Ezekiel

John Chrysostom: Is it not true that from the beginning and long before today you lived with countless transgressions of the law? Did not the prophet Ezekiel accuse you ten thousand times when he brought in the two harlots, Oholah and Oholibah, and said, “You built a brothel in Egypt, you passionately loved barbarians, and you worshiped strange gods.” — DISCOURSES AGAINST JUDAIZING CHRISTIANS 6:2.5

Ezekiel 20:7

Jerome: (Version 7) And I said to them: Let each one cast away the offenses of their eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. LXX: And I said to them: Let each one cast away the abominations of their eyes, and do not be polluted with the inventions of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Regarding the offenses, which are called ‘Secuse’ in Hebrew, Symmachus interpreted them as nausea, the second edition of Aquila as excisions, to signify that they should be cast away like the blemishes that hinder vision and create a sense of vomiting for those who see them. The word ‘gelule’ is also a Hebrew term, which the LXX invented. The first edition of Aquila was defiled; the second edition of Symmachus and Theodotion interpreted as idols, whom we also follow at present. However, he commands those who are leaving Egypt to forget the idols they have served for a long time, and indeed to cast them away from their eyes so that they do not even regard them with their sight. And those who have been defiled for a long time should no longer consent to them. I, he says, am the Lord your God; not the Egyptian portents, not the figments of various monsters. But even to us, when we come out of Egypt, it is commanded that we cast off the offenses of our eyes: lest we be delighted by those things with which we were previously delighted in the world, lest we be polluted by the idols of Egypt, namely, the inventions of philosophers and heretics, which are rightly called idols. Let us also remove our eyes from the spectacles, or rather offenses, of Egypt: the arenas, the circuses, the theaters, and all things that contaminate the purity of the soul and enter through the senses into the mind; and let what is written be fulfilled: Death has entered through your windows (Jeremiah 9:21). — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:8

Jerome: (Verse 8) And they have provoked me. LXX: And they have departed from me. Or as Symmachus interpreted: They have not found rest with me. And immediately when called, they depart from God, so that there is no space between the calling and the departure. And it should be noted that no one departs from God unless they were with Him before. Hence, the dragon in the book of Job is called an apostate, a transgressor, and a deserter (Job XXXIV).

And they did not want to listen to me. Each one did not cast away the abominations of their eyes, nor did they leave the idols of Egypt. LXX: And they did not want to listen to me. They did not cast away the abominations of their eyes, and they did not leave the inventions of Egypt. Therefore, they have provoked me, says the Lord, and they have turned away from me, because they did not want to listen to me while the free will of man is preserved; and they have done all the things that I commanded them not to do according to the law. Immediately, despairing of salvation, they murmur against Moses and distrust the promises of God. Unde sequitur:

And I said that I would pour out my indignation upon them, and execute my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. Because they had not yet gone out of Egypt. For it follows below: I have cast them out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the desert. From which it is shown that they had not yet gone out of Egypt, when he wanted to pour out his indignation, and fill his anger upon them, and strike them in the midst of the land of Egypt. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:9

Jerome: (Verse 9) And I did it for the sake of my name, so that it would not be violated in the presence of the nations among whom they were, and among whom I appeared to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt. What I planned to do, I did it for the sake of justice, not because of the greatness of my mercy, so that my name would not be defiled and it would seem that I could not fulfill what I had promised to Israel. Therefore, I spared my name, so that the nations among whom I became known to them in the land of Egypt would not have an opportunity to blaspheme. The prophet describes what He had promised to them when they were settled in the land of Egypt, and how they immediately offended, and what the Lord had planned against them, and yet did not do. The following things, He spoke after their departure from Egypt. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:10

Jerome: (Verse 10 and following) Therefore I expelled them from the land of Egypt, and brought them into the desert, and gave them my commandments, and showed them my judgments, which a man should do and live by them. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel provoked me in the desert. They did not walk in my commandments and they cast away my judgments, which a man should do and live by them, and they greatly violated my Sabbaths. Therefore, I said that I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness and consume them, and I did so for the sake of my name, so that it would not be profaned in the sight of the nations, from whom I had brought them out. These things are said to those who were brought out of Egypt into the wilderness: that, having been freed from the vices of the Egyptians, they might more easily fulfill the commandments of God in the solitude and observe his judgments and keep the Sabbath. These things were given as a sign between the one who gave them and those to whom they were given, as the Scripture says: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: And you, command the Israelites, saying: See, and keep my Sabbaths, which is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you, and keep the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Whosoever violates it shall be put to death. Everyone who works on it shall have that soul cut off from among his people (Exod. XXXI, 13, 14). Therefore, the Sabbath and circumcision are given as a sign of the true Sabbath and true circumcision: so that we may know that we must rest from the works of the world and circumcise not the flesh, but the heart. Thus, by working for six days, we rest on the seventh day, doing nothing else day and night except acknowledging that everything we live is owed to the Lord, and at the return of the week, we consecrate ourselves entirely to His name, so that through the sanctification of the day, we may remember the Lord who sanctifies us. The Lord gave these commandments and statutes and the observance of the Sabbath in the desert, so that those who did them would live by them and not go beyond them, as promised in the Gospel. They violated them, not once or a little, but greatly, so that the extent of the violation would be shown. Therefore, he said and decided in his mind to pour out his anger upon them in the desert and consume them, as he spoke to Moses: ‘Leave me, and in my anger, I will destroy them.’ (Exodus 32:10). But he did not want to do it, sparing the Egyptians and the other nations, so that they would not be scandalized, and waiting for the repentance of those he had mercy on. And it should be noted that when he spoke to the Israelites after the offense that he said, ‘I did it for the sake of my name, so that it would not be violated in the presence of the nations from which I expelled them.’ At that time, they were still in the midst of those nations, as they had not yet left. But now, after they have left, it is said, ‘From the nations from which I expelled them.’ — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:12

Augustine of Hippo: It is this truth that we shall realize perfectly when we shall be perfectly at rest and perfectly see that it is he who is God. — City of God 22.30

John Chrysostom: For indeed the sabbath did at first confer many and great benefits; for instance, it made them gentle toward their household and humane; it taught them God’s providence in the creation; as Ezekiel says, it trained them by degrees to abstain from wickedness and disposed them to regard the things of the Spirit. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF Matthew 39:3

Ezekiel 20:15

Jerome: (Verse 15) Therefore I lifted up my hand against them in the wilderness, to not bring them into the land that I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the most excellent of all lands, because they had rejected my judgments and had not walked in my commandments, and had violated my sabbaths. After idols their heart went, and my eye spared them so as not to kill them, nor did I consume them in the wilderness. LXX: And I lifted up my hand against them in the wilderness, so as to not bring them into the land that I had given them: a land flowing with milk and honey: a hive beyond all lands: because they rejected my justifications, and had not walked in my commandments, and had violated my sabbaths, and had walked after the thoughts of their own hearts. And my eye spared them, so that I would not destroy them, and I did not kill them in the wilderness. Indeed I resolved to pour out my fury on them and to destroy them, but I acted for the sake of my name, so that it would not be profaned among the nations, namely the Amalekites and the others who fought against them in the wilderness. I did not allow them to enter the land that I had promised to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey, which is the most excellent of all lands, like a honeycomb. The cause of this punishment and sentence is that they rejected my judgments, did not walk in my statutes, and violated my Sabbaths. The cause of this cause is that they did not do these things because their heart followed the idols of Egypt. However, my eye spared them, saying that I would not kill them and destroy them completely. But it is asked, how did I spare them when their corpses fell in the wilderness, and no one entered the promised land except Joshua and Caleb, the son of Jephunneh. From which we understand that they are not kept for eternal punishments, nor erased from the book of the living, nor consumed in the presence of the Lord. For if it is believed that they perished because they were not admitted into the land of promise, then Moses also perished, who only saw the land of promise and did not enter it. This is mentioned in the book of the Lord Jesus: My servant Moses has died (Deut. XXXIV, 5). And in Malachi: Remember the Law of Moses my servant (Malachi 4:4). And in Jeremiah, as if speaking to a friend and familiar, God says: If Moses and Samuel stood before me (Jeremiah 15:1). Otherwise, it must be believed that the prayers of Moses were heard, when he interceded for the people, saying: If you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written (Exodus 32:32, 33). But so that we may know that God’s intention towards his sons and servants is for their improvement, not their destruction, let us listen to the testimonies of the Scriptures. My son, do not be saddened by the discipline of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him (Prov. III, 11). For whom the Lord loves, He corrects; and He chastises every son whom He receives (Heb. XII, 6). And in another place: When He killed them, then they sought Him (Ps. LXXVI, 34). And in the Song of Deuteronomy it says: I will kill, and I will give life (Deut. 32:39). We can also say this literally, that He did not destroy them, nor did He consume them with their offspring and descendants, but after killing the fathers, He spared the sons, whom He brought into the Promised Land. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:18

Jerome: (Verse 18 onwards) But I said to their children in the wilderness: Do not follow the commands (or laws) of your fathers, nor keep their judgments, nor be defiled by their idols (or thoughts). I am the Lord your God. Walk in my commands, and keep my judgments, and do them, and sanctify my Sabbaths, that it may be a sign between me and you, and that it may be known (or that you may know) that I am the Lord your God. After the killing of the fathers who fell in the desert, he gives commands to his sons, in whose salvation he had mercy on the fathers. And he said, ‘The eye of the Lord should not entirely destroy them and wipe them out, but should preserve the fathers in their sons.’ And he testifies to the same things that he spoke to the fathers: that after they have walked in his commandments and kept his judgments and preserved the sanctification of the Sabbath, which is a sign given, then they shall know that he is their Lord God. However, the precepts and legitimate laws of the fathers, and their judgments, signify an unusual error: that they may not imitate the sins of those whose torments they witness. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:21

Jerome: (Verse 21, 22.) And my children have provoked me, they have not walked in my commandments, and they have not kept my judgments, to do the things that if a man does, he shall live in them, and they have violated my sabbaths. And I threatened to pour out my fury upon them, and to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness. But I turned away my hand, and I did it for the sake of my name, so that it would not be violated in the sight of the nations, from whom I cast them out. But the sons, he says, followed the crimes of their parents and did everything that they had done: therefore, they deserved a similar punishment. However, the same mercy by which their fathers were spared because of the greatness of my compassion, and for the same reasons for which I had pity on their fathers: so that I, as the sole and same Creator of both, might temper my anger with similar patience. We have traversed the obvious and proceeded to more obscure matters. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:25

Ambrose of Milan: For a paedagogus, as the word is rendered in the Latin, is the teacher of a boy; and he cannot apply perfect precepts to an imperfect age, because it cannot bear them. Again, the God of the Law says by the Prophet, I gave them also statutes that were not good, that is, not perfect. But the same God has preserved more perfect things for the Gospel, as He says, I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil the Law. — Letter 74.2

Augustine of Hippo: But, why should I not say that the requirements of ancient ceremonies are not good because people are not justified by them; they are figures that foreshadow the grace, by which we are justified.… They are not bad, because they were precepts of divine origin, adapted to times and people, although in this estimate I am supported by the prophetic statement in which God said that he had given to that people “statutes that were not good.” It happens that he did not say that they were bad but only that they were not good: that is, such that with them, people become good; without them, they do not. I would like your kind sincerity to inform me whether any oriental saint who comes to Rome and fasts on Saturday—except the eve of Easter—is acting deceitfully. If we say that is wrong, we shall condemn the Roman church and also many places near it and others somewhat further away, where the same custom continues to be observed. — LETTER 82

Jerome: [Israel] received statutes that were not good and commandments that were altogether evil whereby it should not live but should be punished through them. — LETTER 79.10

John Cassian: Whoever lives under the light of the grace of the gospel and overcomes evil not by resisting it but by bearing it and who does not hesitate of his own free will to give his other cheek to one who strikes his right cheek, who gives his cloak also to one who wants to raise a lawsuit against him for his coat, and who loves his enemies and prays for those who slander him, this man has broken the yoke of sin and burst its chains. For he is not living under the law, which does not destroy the seeds of sin. — CONFERENCE 21:33

John Chrysostom: To convince you that these laws contribute not to any virtue but were given to them as a sort of curb, providing them with an occasion of perpetual labor, hear what the prophet says concerning them: “I gave them statutes that were not good.” What does “not good” mean? Statutes that did not contribute greatly toward virtue. Therefore he adds also, “and ordinances whereby they shall not live.” — HOMILIES ON 1 Corinthians 7:9

John Damascene: God finds fault with the commandments of the Old Testament, for he says, “I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life,” because of their hardness of heart. — ON DIVINE IMAGES 2:15

Origen of Alexandria: Having forgotten the benefits and marvels performed by God, they set up the head of a calf. For this reason, therefore, precepts are given to them by which they are tested. Hence it is that through the prophet Ezekiel the Lord says to them, “I gave you precepts and ordinances that were not good, by which you will not live.” For when they were tested in the precepts of the Lord, they were not found faithful. — HOMILIES ON Exodus 7:2

Origen of Alexandria: We hold, then, that the law has a twofold sense—the one literal, the other spiritual—as has been shown by some before us. Of the first or literal sense it is said, not by us but by God, speaking in one of the prophets, that “the statutes are not good, and the judgments not good”; whereas, taken in a spiritual sense, the same prophet makes God say that “his statutes are good, and his judgments are good.” — AGAINST CELSUS 7:20

Ezekiel 20:30

Jerome: (Verse 30, 31.) Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: You are defiling yourselves in the way of your fathers and indulging in their abominations; you are defiling yourselves with all your idols to this day. Shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, declares the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.’ Imitate the vices of your fathers and walk in the same paths, so that similar sins may deserve a similar punishment, and you have advanced so far in wickedness that you offer your sons to demons by fire: and it is not enough for you to have done this once, but you continue to do the same up to the present. Not that the elders do these things in captivity, but that those who dwelt in Jerusalem and were threatened with captivity did not cease to do all these things. And when you are bound by such great sins, you seek my response? As I live, says the Lord God, I swear by myself that I will not answer you, and what follows: — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:32

Jerome: (Verse 32, 33.) And the thought of your minds shall not be, of those saying: We shall be like the nations, and like the kindreds of the earth, to worship wood and stones. As I live, saith the Lord God: With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will reign over you. This has this meaning: Do not think that your thoughts, with which you blaspheme against me, can be fulfilled. For I say: We do not want to be under the Lord, nor to be called His people. But as all nations are in the whole world, and each people lives according to its own will, to worship wood and stones, and to serve idols, even we shall be one people among many. To which God responds and swears by Himself, saying: I will not abandon you nor despise you, as negligent runaway servants often despise their masters, but I will draw you back to my reign, and with outstretched arm, striking and pouring out fury, I will restore you to your former slavery, and I will reign over you: whether you want it or not, you will have me as your king, and you will experience the wrath of a king, whose kindness you have neglected. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Origen of Alexandria: The first Passover belongs to the first people; the second Passover is ours. For we were “impure in soul,” who “used to worship wood and stone” and “not knowing God, we used to serve those things that by nature were not gods.” — HOMILIES ON Exodus 7:4

Ezekiel 20:34

Jerome: (Verse 34) And I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you were scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out I will reign over you. ‘I will not let you be in the nations any longer, nor will I allow you to be held in everlasting captivity, but I will bring you out from the peoples, and gather you from the countries where hostile necessity has dispersed you to serve. However, I will do this not to destroy and obliterate you, but to be your king.’ From which we also understand that what the heretics call the cruelty of the Creator, sounds like mercy: while he is angry and furious for this purpose, and pours out all his fury, in order to draw them back to his kingdom, who have chosen to serve the tyranny of demons. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Tertullian: He commands us to be completely separated from idolatry and have no close dealing with it, because even the earthly serpent sucks people into its jaws at a distance with its breath. — THE CHAPLET 10:7

Ezekiel 20:36

Eusebius of Caesarea: Here is a clear witness that but few will come under God’s staff and that this will be when the rest of Israel has fallen away from the promises. I have proved that the divine prophecies did not foretell good things to all the members of the Jewish race universally and indiscriminately whatever happened, to the evil and unholy and those who were the reverse, but to few of them and those easily numbered, in fact to those of them who believed in our Lord and Savior or those justified before his coming. I, therefore, consider that I have shown sufficiently that the divine promises were fulfilled not indiscriminately to all the Jews and that the oracles of the prophets are not more applicable to them than to those of the Gentiles who have received the Christ of God. — PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 2:3.60*

Ezekiel 20:39

Jerome: (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.’ — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:40

Cyril of Alexandria: Admittedly the divine, because it is without a body, is untouchable and entirely intact, because the divine is beyond every creature, both visible and intelligible, and in nature it is incorporeal, immaculate, untouchable and incomprehensible. Since the only-begotten Word of God, having taken a body from the holy virgin, and, as I already said over and over again, having made it his own, offered himself in an odor of sweetness to God the Father as a spotless sacrifice, in this way it is asserted that he endured on our behalf what happened to his flesh. Everything that happened to flesh would rightly be attributed to him, sin alone excepted, for it is his own body. Accordingly, since God the Word became man, he remained impassible as God, but, because he necessarily made the things of his flesh his own, it is asserted that he endured what is according to flesh, although he is without experience of suffering in so far as he is thought of as God. — LETTER 50:11

Jerome: (Verse 40, 41.) But on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord God, there all the house of Israel shall serve me; all I say in the land in which they will please me, and there I will seek your firstfruits and the beginning of your tithes, in all your sanctifications, I will accept you with a sweet odor, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you from the lands where you were scattered; and I will sanctify myself in you in the eyes of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Concerning this mountain, on which the whole house of Israel is to serve God, Isaiah and Micah sang with equal voice: In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be made manifest on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will flow to it, and many people will go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house ((or mountain)) of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion the law will go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Is. 2 ff.; Mic. 4:1-2). And again Isaiah says: ‘Ascend to a high mountain, you who announce Zion. Lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem.’ (Isaiah 40:9). By the mountain Zion, or the Church, we understand the watchtower, which is elevated and established on the heights of holy teachings. Or we understand the Lord Himself, the Savior, in whom the first fruits, tithes, and all offerings turn into a pleasing aroma. So that all the nations seeing that the people of the Lord have been saved may glorify God and recognize those who have been saved, that He is the Lord. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:41

Tertullian: Consider yourselves as having been transferred from prison to what we may call a place of safety. Darkness is there, but you are light; chains are there, but you are free before God. It breathes forth a foul smell, but you are an odor of sweetness. — TO THE MARTYRS 2:4

Ezekiel 20:42

Jerome: (Verse 42) When I bring you into the land of Israel, the land that I raised my hand to give to your ancestors, then you will know that I am the Lord. I will bring you into the land of Israel, the land that I raised my hand to give to your ancestors, and which they lost due to their own fault. But you, you have received it not by your own merit, but by my mercy. — Commentary on Ezekiel

Ezekiel 20:43

Jerome: (Verse 43, 44.) And you shall remember ((Vulgate: interserit ibi)) your ways, and all your sins, with which you have defiled yourselves in them: and you shall be displeased with yourselves in your own sight for all the evils that you have done, and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I will have done good to you for the sake of my name: not according to your evil ways, and your wicked deeds, O house of Israel, says the Lord God. We cannot remember our sins and vices unless we have been brought into the land of Israel, and there we may say with the Apostle: “I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God” (I Corinthians 15:9). And you will displease, he says, yourselves in your own sight in all your wickedness that you have done. Whether, as Symmachus interpreted, And you little ones will seem small to yourselves because of all the wickedness that you have done (James IV). So that, after they have been exalted, they may believe themselves to be humble: because the Lord gives grace to the humble. And in another place it is written: Before contrition, the heart of a man is exalted, and before exaltation it is humbled (Prov. XVIII, 12). For pride, there is destruction, and from humility comes exaltation. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have done good to you. And we know the Lord our Savior more when He has done good to us, and has suffered for our sins, and has borne our iniquities, and has grieved for us; not for any merit of those who are saved, but for the sake of His name. Otherwise, our ways and our most wicked crimes have not earned mercy, but punishment. But whatever we have said about the people of Israel, who were freed from Egypt and committed many sins in the wilderness, and offended God, and later were led into the promised land, worshipped idols, wood and stones, and afterward were preserved by the mercy of God: let us recount to those who, by the hand of the Lord, were freed from Egypt of this age, brought into the wilderness of vice, and once again longed for Egypt, and did the things for which they deserved to be punished; yet nevertheless, through repentance, they were preserved not by their own merit, but by the mercy of the Lord. — Commentary on Ezekiel

John Cassian: We are thus taught by the words of the Lord himself: everything is granted to us by God, and that the whole of our salvation is to be ascribed not to the merit of our own works but to heavenly grace. — CONFERENCE 13:18

Ezekiel 20:45

Jerome: (Verse 45 onwards) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face toward the south, and drop your word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field. And say to the forest of the south: Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. And all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it: it shall not be quenched. And I said, ‘Ah, Lord GOD! They say of me, ‘Does he not speak in parables?’ LXX: And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, ‘Son of man, set thy face towards Teman, and prophesy against the forest of the south field; and say to the forest of the south field: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree.’ The kindled flame will not be extinguished, and it will burn in it all faces from the south to the north: and all flesh will know that I, the Lord, have kindled it: it will not be extinguished. And I said: By no means, O Lord, O Lord: they say to me: Is not this a parable? What does it mean to put or harden your face, we have explained more fully above. For the hardening of the face is necessary, and the hardness of the forehead, so that the Prophets may speak fearlessly what is commanded, especially when sad things are announced to the whole multitude of the people. But our translation expresses what they have said, that Nageb should be understood in Hebrew as the leader of the southern land or region, not Sare, as the LXX thought, which signifies the word leader and prince, but it is written Sade, which properly signifies land and region, and because of the similarity of the letters Daleth and Res, the error prevailed. But divine speech speaks in the metaphor of a leap against Jerusalem, which is the dwelling place of beasts and fierce men: that is, it sets it on fire, and all its trees are burned up. It does not call these trees, which were in need of fruit, but rather prepares them as if for a fire. And first it burns the green wood in it, secondly, that which we read in this same Prophet: ‘And begin with my holy ones’; and afterwards the dry wood, which could not have any life in itself: namely, the holy ones and sinners together, so that some escape the evils of captivity through death, and others be handed over to eternal torments. And it also signifies this: from the South to the North, from Jerusalem to Babylon, so that every journey of those proceeding into captivity, falling by sword, famine, and pestilence, is completed. For those who are in Babylon, Jerusalem is situated to the South; just as, on the contrary, the pot in Jeremiah which signifies Jerusalem is set on fire from the face of the North, that is, Babylon. And beautifully in the beginning: a drop, he says, to the South; so that not the whole wrath of God appears to be poured out, but a certain drop and part. But if a drop of such cruelty exists, what is to be valued in all the rains? So that all flesh, which is to see the salvation of God, may know through the burning and flame of the forests, which is extinguished by no one’s help, that He Himself is the Lord. Understanding this, the Prophet responded, ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, or as the Seventy translated, by no means, O Lord, O Lord. And he adds: And they say to me: Does this man not speak in parables? And what is this parable called? And the meaning is: Speak more plainly, we do not understand what you are saying in the parable: reveal to us the meaning in clear language. The names Theman, Nageb, and Darom can be understood tropologically as Egypt: for we often read in Daniel that the South stands for Egypt (Dan. 11), and Egypt refers to the limitations of this world. Therefore, Ezekiel prophesies the future evils that will come to the world, which he calls a desert without fruit-bearing trees, but a dwelling place for wild animals. Of which it is said in the 28th psalm: The voice of the Lord perfecting the deer, and he will reveal the hidden places of the forests (Verse 9). These are the forests and woodlands that devoured more from the army of Absalom in battle than the sword killed (2 Samuel 18). And the first green tree is set on fire in the woods, and then it becomes dry, those who live in evil and those who are dead to righteousness. And what is said: And every face will be burned from the South to the North, this means: From those who seemed to be fervent in spirit to those who, with the increase of iniquity and the cooling of charity of many, have lost their former zeal; so that all flesh may see the flame of the Lord not extinguished. And the prophet prays that what the Lord has threatened may not come to pass, that is, that the forest may not be set on fire and all the trees may not be destroyed, so that either they may still have a place for repentance or the necessity of announcing sad news may not be imposed on them, especially since the people do not understand those things and, because of the obscurity of the words, are more likely to be driven to madness. — Commentary on Ezekiel