
Text -- Ezekiel 39:29 (NET)




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collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
JFB -> Eze 39:29
JFB: Eze 39:29 - -- The sure forerunner of their conversion (Joe 2:28; Zec 12:10). The pouring out of His Spirit is a pledge that He will hide His face no more (2Co 1:22;...
The sure forerunner of their conversion (Joe 2:28; Zec 12:10). The pouring out of His Spirit is a pledge that He will hide His face no more (2Co 1:22; Eph 1:14; Phi 1:6).
The arrangements as to the land and the temple are, in many particulars, different from those subsisting before the captivity. There are things in it so improbable physically as to preclude a purely literal interpretation. The general truth seems to hold good that, as Israel served the nations for his rejection of Messiah, so shall they serve him in the person of Messiah, when he shall acknowledge Messiah (Isa 60:12; Zec 14:17-19; compare Psa 72:11). The ideal temple exhibits, under Old Testament forms (used as being those then familiar to the men whom Ezekiel, a priest himself, and one who delighted in sacrificial images, addresses), not the precise literal outline, but the essential character of the worship of Messiah as it shall be when He shall exercise sway in Jerusalem among His own people, the Jews, and thence to the ends of the earth. The very fact that the whole is a vision (Eze 40:2), not an oral face-to-face communication such as that granted to Moses (Num 12:6-8), implies that the directions are not to be understood so precisely literally as those given to the Jewish lawgiver. The description involves things which, taken literally, almost involve natural impossibilities. The square of the temple, in Eze 42:20, is six times as large as the circuit of the wall enclosing the old temple, and larger than all the earthly Jerusalem. Ezekiel gives three and a half miles and one hundred forty yards to his temple square. The boundaries of the ancient city were about two and a half miles. Again, the city in Ezekiel has an area between three or four thousand square miles, including the holy ground set apart for the prince, priests, and Levites. This is nearly as large as the whole of Judea west of the Jordan. As Zion lay in the center of the ideal city, the one-half of the sacred portion extended to nearly thirty miles south of Jerusalem, that is, covered nearly the whole southern territory, which reached only to the Dead Sea (Eze 47:19), and yet five tribes were to have their inheritance on that side of Jerusalem, beyond the sacred portion (Eze 48:23-28). Where was land to be found for them there? A breadth of but four or five miles apiece would be left. As the boundaries of the land are given the same as under Moses, these incongruities cannot be explained away by supposing physical changes about to be effected in the land such as will meet the difficulties of the purely literal interpretation. The distribution of the land is in equal portions among the twelve tribes, without respect to their relative numbers, and the parallel sections running from east to west. There is a difficulty also in the supposed separate existence of the twelve tribes, such separate tribeships no longer existing, and it being hard to imagine how they could be restored as distinct tribes, mingled as they now are. So the stream that issued from the east threshold of the temple and flowed into the Dead Sea, in the rapidity of its increase and the quality of its waters, is unlike anything ever known in Judea or elsewhere in the world. Lastly, the catholicity of the Christian dispensation, and the spirituality of its worship, seem incompatible with a return to the local narrowness and "beggarly elements" of the Jewish ritual and carnal ordinances, disannulled "because of the unprofitableness thereof" [FAIRBAIRN], (Gal 4:3, Gal 4:9; Gal 5:1; Heb 9:10; Heb 10:18). "A temple with sacrifices now would be a denial of the all-sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ. He who sacrificed before confessed the Messiah. He who should sacrifice now would solemnly deny Him" [DOUGLAS]. These difficulties, however, may be all seeming, not real. Faith accepts God's Word as it is, waits for the event, sure that it will clear up all such difficulties. Perhaps, as some think, the beau ideal of a sacred commonwealth is given according to the then existing pattern of temple services, which would be the imagery most familiar to the prophet and his hearers at the time. The minute particularizing of details is in accordance with Ezekiel's style, even in describing purely ideal scenes. The old temple embodied in visible forms and rites spiritual truths affecting the people even when absent from it. So this ideal temple is made in the absence of the outward temple to serve by description the same purpose of symbolical instruction as the old literal temple did by forms and acts. As in the beginning God promised to be a "sanctuary" (Eze 11:16) to the captives at the Chebar, so now at the close is promised a complete restoration and realization of the theocratic worship and polity under Messiah in its noblest ideal (compare Jer 31:38-40). In Rev 21:22 "no temple" is seen, as in the perfection of the new dispensation the accidents of place and form are no longer needed to realize to Christians what Ezekiel imparts to Jewish minds by the imagery familiar to them. In Ezekiel's temple holiness stretches over the entire temple, so that in this there is no longer a distinction between the different parts, as in the old temple: parts left undeterminate in the latter obtain now a divine sanction, so that all arbitrariness is excluded. So that it is be a perfect manifestation of the love of God to His covenant-people (Eze. 40:1-43:12); and from it, as from a new center of religious life, there gushes forth the fulness of blessings to them, and so to all people (Eze. 47:1-23) [FAIRBAIRN and HAVERNICK]. The temple built at the return from Babylon can only very partially have realized the model here given. The law is seemingly opposed to the gospel (Mat 5:21-22, Mat 5:27-28, Mat 5:33-34). It is not really so (compare Mat 5:17-18; Rom 3:31; Gal 3:21-22). It is true Christ's sacrifice superseded the law sacrifices (Heb 10:12-18). Israel's province may hereafter be to show the essential identity, even in the minute details of the temple sacrifices, between the law and gospel (Rom 10:8). The ideal of the theocratic temple will then first be realized.
Clarke -> Eze 39:29
Clarke: Eze 39:29 - -- For I have poured out my Spirit - That is, I will pour out my Spirit; see the notes on Eze 36:25-29 (note), where this subject is largely considered...
For I have poured out my Spirit - That is, I will pour out my Spirit; see the notes on Eze 36:25-29 (note), where this subject is largely considered. This Spirit is to enlighten, quicken, purify, and cleanse their hearts; so that, being completely changed, they shall become God’ s people, and be a praise in the earth. Now, they are a proverb of reproach; then, they shall be eminently distinguished.
Defender -> Eze 39:29
Defender: Eze 39:29 - -- This long-promised regeneration of the nation of Israel by the Holy Spirit will take place only when the nation accepts Jesus as her Messiah, repentin...
This long-promised regeneration of the nation of Israel by the Holy Spirit will take place only when the nation accepts Jesus as her Messiah, repenting and mourning over their twenty-century rejection of Him (Zec 12:10; Zec 13:1). This will follow the defeat of Gog (Ezekiel 38:18-39:8), then seven years of belief by Israel in the God of creation while still rejecting Christ (Eze 39:9-16), finally by the great Armageddon slaughter of "the princes of the earth" (Eze 39:17-24) and the full return and salvation of Israel when Christ descends to the earth in triumph (Eze 39:25-29; Zec 14:4, Zec 14:9; Rom 11:26, Rom 11:27; Mat 24:27-31; Rev 19:11-21)."
TSK -> Eze 39:29
TSK: Eze 39:29 - -- hide : Eze 39:23-25, Eze 37:26, Eze 37:27; Isa 45:17, Isa 54:8-10
for : Eze 36:25-27; Isa 32:15, Isa 44:3-5, Isa 59:20,Isa 59:21; Joe 2:28; Zec 12:10;...
hide : Eze 39:23-25, Eze 37:26, Eze 37:27; Isa 45:17, Isa 54:8-10
for : Eze 36:25-27; Isa 32:15, Isa 44:3-5, Isa 59:20,Isa 59:21; Joe 2:28; Zec 12:10; Act 2:17; Act 2:18, Act 2:33; 1Jo 3:24

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes -> Eze 39:17-29
Barnes: Eze 39:17-29 - -- The purposes of the past dispensation shall be made clear to God’ s people themselves and to the pagan. His judgments were the consequence of t...
The purposes of the past dispensation shall be made clear to God’ s people themselves and to the pagan. His judgments were the consequence of their sins; and these sins once abandoned, the favor of their God will return in yet more abundance.
Compare Act 2:17. Peter distinctly appropriates these prophecies (marginal references) to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and the inauguration of the Church of Christ by that miraculous event. This was the beginning of the fulfillment. They shall find their consummation when time shall be no more.
Poole -> Eze 39:29
Poole: Eze 39:29 - -- Neither will I hide my face: see Eze 39:23 . I will not turn from them in displeasure.
From them from the whole house of Israel. This is no assuran...
Neither will I hide my face: see Eze 39:23 . I will not turn from them in displeasure.
From them from the whole house of Israel. This is no assurance to any pretender of great interest in God, who yet lives in sin.
Poured out in abundant measures of wisdom and holiness, my Spirit; which is a Spirit of sanctification to make them holy, and a Spirit of strength to confirm them in holiness, and of adoption to sweeten obedience to them; they shall not, they will not depart from me, according to the promises, Eze 11:19,20 36:25-27 37:23-28 Jer 31:31 , &c.; Jer 32:37-40 . It was sin that caused God to hide his face, and now grace shall be given to keep them out of sin, and to engage them to constant obedience, that God may rejoice over them to do them good in this their latter end.
Gill -> Eze 39:29
Gill: Eze 39:29 - -- Neither will I hide my face any more from them,.... The Jews, upon their future conversion, will always have the worship of God among them, and his pr...
Neither will I hide my face any more from them,.... The Jews, upon their future conversion, will always have the worship of God among them, and his presence with them; he will always take notice of them; they will ever be under his protection and care; he will never remove his Shechinah from them any more, as the Targum: a further proof that this refers to future times; for, after their return from Babylon, God did hide his face, and remove his presence from them, and left them to ruin and destruction by the Romans:
for I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God; this refers not to the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, but to one that is yet to come, when the Jews will be converted in the latter day; after which God will no more depart from them, nor shall they depart from him; see Zec 12:10.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Eze 39:1-29
TSK Synopsis: Eze 39:1-29 - --1 God's judgment upon Gog.8 Israel's victory.11 Gog's burial in Hamon-gog.17 The feast of the fowls.21 Israel having been plagued for their sins,25 sh...
MHCC -> Eze 39:23-29
MHCC: Eze 39:23-29 - --When the Lord shall have mercy on the whole house of Israel, by converting them to Christianity, and when they shall have borne the shame of being cas...
Matthew Henry -> Eze 39:23-29
Matthew Henry: Eze 39:23-29 - -- This is the conclusion of the whole matter going before, and has reference not only to the predictions concerning Gog and Magog, but to all the prop...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Eze 39:21-29
Keil-Delitzsch: Eze 39:21-29 - --
The Result of this Judgment, and the Concluding Promise
Eze 39:21. T hen will I display my glory among the nations, and all nations shall see my ju...
Constable: Eze 33:1--48:35 - --IV. Future blessings for Israel chs. 33--48
"This last major division of the book focuses on the restoration of ...

Constable: Eze 33:21--40:1 - --B. Restoration to the Promised Land 33:21-39:29
"The concept of the land is particularly significant to ...

Constable: Eze 38:1--39:29 - --6. Future invasion of the Promised Land chs. 38-39
This is the sixth and last message that Ezeki...
