And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they were unfaithful against me; and I hid my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies, so that they fell all of them by the sword.
Gog's army has just fallen on the mountains of Israel, and God now tells a watching world what Israel's long defeat meant. For centuries the nations had read Israel's ruin as proof that their God was too weak to save.
This verse draws its conclusion from the judgment God has just carried out. The fall of Gog teaches the nations, and it teaches Israel too.
The Lord will use the sight of these judgments to teach the nations righteousness on earth. Israel too needs to learn, and will learn, that the One who acts in this way is Jehovah their God "from that day and forward." In that day it will be plain and undeniable that Israel went into captivity for nothing but their iniquity. That was the only reason Jehovah withdrew His favour from them and gave them up to the sword of their enemies. It is His retribution that explains their past history with all its sorrows.
Israel's long scattering looked like proof that their God could not save. The true reason lay elsewhere.
It gives a complete answer to every question raised to dishonour Jehovah's name because of Israel's wretched condition through the centuries of her scattering. It was not because He was weak, unable to save, though it might look that way to the mocking eyes of unbelief. It was because He was holy, and had to hide His face from them because of their iniquity. So He gave them into the hands of their adversaries; otherwise these could have had no power over them. This history, read in the light of Gog's judgment, will bear witness to the righteousness and holiness of Jehovah, before whom all the earth must now bow.
So the enemy's power was never their own. Israel fell only because God handed them over.
The lesson does not stop with Israel. Through this one nation the whole world learns how God governs.
The nations shall know that it was Israel's own iniquity that brought judgment on them. Jehovah had not failed — not in His power, and not in the firmness of His purposes. In short, Israel would fully know Jehovah and His government, and through this people the world would know them too. From that time on God would no longer hide His face from them. He would pour out His Spirit on His people.
Hiding the face was not a vague mood. Under the covenant with Israel it was a stated consequence, and it led straight to what the verse says next: God gave them into enemy hands.
For Jehovah to hide His face from His people under the old covenant was in full keeping with the terms of that covenant. Their disobedience would provoke His anger. The effect would be a course of discipline. Its sharpest point was that He took away the favour He had shown them, and without that favour they were defenceless prey before their enemies.
Israel's discipline was never a licence for other nations to do as they pleased with them.
The nations, too, will then learn their lesson: Jehovah will not let others meddle with Israel. He will deal with them Himself in His righteousness, so that their evil may be purged away and they may receive His lasting blessing.
This has not happened yet. God's face is still hidden today.
Clearly the time spoken of here has not yet come. When it does, God "will not hide His face any more from them," as He is doing at the present time. He will gather them "into their own land," and will leave none of them among the nations.
So the hidden face in this verse describes a state with an end. The God who withdrew because of sin promises never to withdraw again.
- Cause — one thing sent Israel into captivity: their own iniquity brought God's chastening on them.
- Not weakness — the nations read Israel's ruin as proof that their God could not save. He was holy, and had to hide His face.
- Hidden face — God withdrew the favour He had shown them. Without it, Israel lay defenceless before their enemies.
- Cleared name — the judgment on Gog clears God's government. His power never failed, and His purposes never slipped.
- Restored face — God Himself ends this condition. He gathers His people home and hides His face no more.
According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I did unto them, and I hid my face from them.
Here God explains Israel's long ruin. He explains it to the watching nations, who will at last read the exile correctly. Two questions sit inside the verse. Why did God turn His face away from His own people? And does that hiding ever end?
God judges Gog and his army, and the nations look on. Then He tells them plainly why Israel went into captivity.
In that day it will be plain and undeniable that Israel went into captivity for nothing but their iniquity. That was the only reason Jehovah withdrew His favour from them and gave them up to the sword of their enemies. His retribution is what explains their past history with all its sorrows.
For centuries Israel was scattered and beaten. That invited an obvious conclusion about the God whose name they carried. The coming judgment answers it.
It gives a final answer to every question raised to profane Jehovah's name because of Israel's wretched state through the centuries she was scattered. It was not that He was weak and unable to save, though it might look that way to the mocking eyes of unbelief. It was that He was holy, and had to hide His face from them because of their iniquity. So He gave them into the hands of their enemies. Otherwise those enemies could have had no power.
The verse names uncleanness and transgressions. One writer says what those sins were, in their own land and outside it, and then asks what God did with such a people.
Such was Israel's way in the land and out of it: everywhere a shame to Him who chose them as His own. There was idolatrous corruption and murderous violence in Canaan, and the profaning of His name among the nations. And what did He do, the One against whom they had sinned? He is Jehovah and does not change; that is why He did not consume them. He had pity for the name they had outraged, and He would sanctify it and be sanctified in them.
The hidden face was not the end of the story. One writer shows God keeping this discipline in His own hands, with a goal beyond it.
The nations, too, will learn their lesson then. Jehovah will not let others tamper with Israel. He will deal with them Himself in His righteousness, so that He may purge their evil away and they may receive His lasting blessing.
The hidden face belongs to one way God makes Himself known: by judgments on the earth. One writer sets that beside the way God reveals Himself now.
This is the way in which Jehovah reveals Himself. The Father reveals Himself to our souls by the gospel, by the spirit of adoption. But Jehovah makes Himself known by His judgments — by the use of His power on the earth. I say the Father reveals Himself by the gospel because the gospel is a system of pure grace... It is not "eye for eye, tooth for tooth". It is not what justice demands, or the law of paying back, or strict fairness.
That difference matters. The same writer warns us not to read a hidden face into our own standing before God.
The Spirit of prophecy speaks there of that people and their state — for example, of God hiding His face from them. We know it does not apply to us literally. He cannot hide His face from us. His face is shining on us in Christ. Does He hide His face from Christ?
The chapter closes with God promising never to hide His face again, and He ties it to the giving of His Spirit. One writer treats that promise as a test of whether this prophecy has already come true.
The Lord says that He hides His face from them no more. This by itself shows that none of this has come yet, because He still hides His face from them. The hiding of His face will end when He pours out His Spirit on them.
Restoration will not dull their memory of the sin. It will sharpen it.
Living safely in the land again will only make them feel their shame and their trespasses more deeply. Grace that restores and blesses writes any failure we are guilty of more deeply on the heart than the rod of judgment does.
- Cause — The exile had one cause, and God names it Himself: their iniquity. Not bad luck. Not His failure.
- Character — The hidden face proved God holy, not helpless. The enemies who struck Israel held only the power He handed them.
- Content — Their sin had names: idols, bloodshed, and His own name shamed among the nations. Yet He did not consume them, because He does not change.
- Contrast — God makes Himself known to the nations by judgment. He makes Himself known now by the gospel. There His face shines on believers in Christ and is never hidden.
- Close — The hiding ends when God pours out His Spirit. Then His kindness will make the restored people feel their sin more deeply than the rod ever did.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name
Gog, the invader from the north, has fallen on the mountains of Israel. Now God turns from judgment to what He plans for His people. Three things need answering: who "the whole house of Israel" takes in, why God points to His own name as the reason, and what this mercy does to a people who then bear their shame.
This promise concerns a land and a nation. One commentator states what the restoration is and what it is not.
But there is a bright future ahead for Israel. I do not speak of the gospel or the church, where there is neither Jew nor Greek. I speak of the kingdom on earth. Israel will be restored to their land, and will have the first place among the nations, in favour, peace, righteousness, and the displayed power and glory of Jehovah.
"The whole house" covers more than the Jewish people we know today. It reaches tribes that scattered long ago and left no trace.
We repeat, "the whole house of Israel," for so runs the Word of Jehovah. See Ezekiel 39:25, one of many passages we could quote here. Ten of Israel's tribes are lost to us, whatever certain cranks claim. We know representatives of only two tribes. "The Jews," we call them. But all Israel's tribes are known to God, and "He who scattered Israel will gather him" (Jeremiah 31:10).
God gives the reason in the verse itself: He is jealous for His own holy name. His honour and His people's blessing are not rivals.
God is jealous of His holy name, He acts to vindicate it, and in this His people get their full blessing. How gloriously redemption accomplishes both — His glory and our blessing.
Another writer traces the mercy back to God's own goodness and His promises to Abraham.
God's sovereign goodness will then bring Israel back to the land. Had He dealt with them after their sins, they must have perished. Over and over again in their long history, they have deserved the unsparing judgment of God. But their blessing rested on His promises to Abraham and on His own purposes of love. It was bound up with the honour of His Name.
The shame that follows this mercy is not public humiliation. One writer defines it:
This is not shame in the sense of outward disgrace. It is the inward sense of unworthiness that fills them when Jehovah shows His goodness on their behalf. — (J. Bloore)
That order matters — safety first, then self-knowledge. Kindness, not correction, does the deeper work:
Living safely in the land, gathered home again, will only deepen their sense of their shame and trespasses. The rod of judgment must leave a bleeding wound. But the grace that restores and blesses writes our failure on the heart more deeply than the rod ever does.
God's judgment on Gog also settles an old accusation. Israel's centuries of ruin had made God look powerless to the watching nations.
This work of judgment fully answers every question raised to profane Jehovah's name because of Israel's wretched condition through her long centuries of scattering. It was not because He was weak, unable to save, though it might look that way to the mocking eyes of unbelief. It was because He was holy, and had to hide His face from them because of their iniquity.
God hid His face from Israel for centuries. One writer notes that the Christian never lives under such hiding.
It is worth noting here, as a practical matter of great importance for souls, that God never hides His face from the Christian, if the New Testament is to be believed. The reason is this. The believer has eternal life in Christ. God has now brought him into the full value of Christ's sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit lives in him as its continual witness. So we enjoy already what will be true of Israel later, instead of standing on the testing ground of Israel's past.
- Name — the cause is God's jealousy for His own holy name. Israel's ruin had profaned that name among the nations. His glory and their blessing come together.
- Mercy — the gift reaches "the whole house of Israel." Ten of those tribes are lost to us. God knows them all and will gather them.
- Land — the place is a real kingdom on earth, with Israel first among the nations. It is not the church, where there is neither Jew nor Greek.
- Shame — the result is inward, not outward. Safety and kindness teach them their unworthiness more deeply than the rod of judgment ever did.
- Face — holiness hid His face, never weakness. From the Christian He never hides it, because the Spirit already lives within.
and they shall bear their confusion, and all their unfaithfulness in which they have acted unfaithfully against me, when they shall dwell safely in their land, and none shall make them afraid;
This verse closes the long prophecy about Gog, the last great invader of Israel. God turns from the battlefield to what comes afterwards for His people. He joins two things we would not expect to see together: a nation living in complete safety, and that same nation facing its own shame.
The verse belongs to a sequence, not a single moment. One writer traces the order across the closing chapters of Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 36–39. In this series of chapters we get, first, the moral renewing of the nation. Then comes the reviving and restoring of the people, a national resurrection. Then, once they are back in their land, their last great enemy comes up against them — the enemy who holds the territory of the Assyrian. He is destroyed in the mountains of Israel.
So this safety is not an untested calm. It comes only after the last invader falls.
The "they" of this verse reaches back to the sentence before it, where God speaks of the whole house of Israel. One writer presses on that word:
We repeat, "the whole house of Israel," for so runs the word of Jehovah. See Ezekiel 39:25, as one of many passages that could be quoted here. Ten of Israel's tribes are lost to us; we are familiar with representatives of two tribes only. "The Jews," we call them. But all Israel's tribes are known to God, and "He who scattered Israel will gather him" (Jeremiah 31:10).
The ESV reads "they shall forget their shame." Older translations read it as "after they have borne their shame," and the commentators here work from that older wording. One note explains what bearing shame means:
It is not bearing shame in the sense of outward disgrace. It is bearing the inward realization of being unworthy. Jehovah brings them into that sense of unworthiness by displaying His goodness on their behalf.
So this shame is inward. It is their own treachery against God that they feel, not the opinion of the nations.
The verse ties the two halves together: they bear their shame when they dwell securely. One set of notes traces this back to God's concern for His own name:
God is jealous for His holy name; He acts to vindicate it, and in this His people get their full blessing. How gloriously redemption accomplishes both — His glory and our blessing. And so with Israel in that day. But their dwelling securely as regathered will only give them a deeper realization of their shame and trespasses. The grace that restores and blesses writes more deeply upon the heart the failure we may be guilty of than does the rod of judgment, which cannot help leaving a bleeding wound.
The rod leaves a wound. Grace writes deeper, on the heart.
Commentators read this promise as one for Israel on earth, not a picture of something else:
There is a bright future ahead for Israel. I do not speak of the gospel or the church, where there is neither Jew nor Greek. I speak of the kingdom on earth. Israel will be restored to their land, and will have the first place among the nations in favour, peace, righteousness, and the displayed power and glory of Jehovah.
The same writer warns that reading such promises as mere symbols costs the reader twice over:
Being taken up with our own place as Christians hinders us here as elsewhere. It hinders us from seeing God's faithfulness to Israel and the mercy He still has for them. It also hinders us from seeing the church's own special blessing. If we are to appreciate either, we must keep them distinct and see how each connects with Christ. The mystical interpretation gives its due place to neither, and so wraps everything in fog.
Israel is not the only one who learns from these events. One writer sums up the lesson for both:
Their hearts are cold and hard now. Before that day they will be turned to the Lord, and they will be teachable students in the school of Jehovah. The nations, too, will learn their lesson. Jehovah will not let others tamper with Israel. He will deal with His people Himself, in His righteousness, so that their evil may be purged away and they may receive His lasting blessing.
- Sequence. Renewal, then restoration to the land, then the last enemy destroyed — the safety of this verse comes at the end of that chain, not before it.
- Scope. The promise names the whole house of Israel; ten tribes are lost to us, but none are lost to God.
- Safety. God acts to vindicate His own holy name, and His people get their full blessing in it — safety with no one to make them afraid.
- Shame. Their shame is inward — the sense of unworthiness that God's goodness produces, not the disgrace others heap on them.
- School. Grace writes deeper than the rod: the greater the kindness, the deeper they read their own failure. That is the school of Jehovah.
when I have brought them again from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations.
Ezekiel 39:27 closes Ezekiel's prophecy about Gog, an invader whom God destroys. God turns from judging that enemy to what He will do with His own people. Two questions press. Who is this promise for? And what does it mean for God to show His holiness through a people?
One writer draws a line between this promise and what the gospel gives now.
A bright future lies ahead for Israel. I am not speaking of the gospel or the church, where there is neither Jew nor Greek. I am speaking of the kingdom on earth. Then God will bring Israel back to their land, and they will hold the first place among the nations — in favour, peace, righteousness, and the visible power and glory of Jehovah.
Verse 27 does not add a new event after Gog falls. It gathers up everything God has been doing with Israel.
In short, Israel will know Jehovah and His government fully. Through this people the world will know Him too. From that time on God would no longer hide His face from them. He would pour out His Spirit on His people. Verses 25-29 go back over God's dealings with Israel, to establish His government and to make Himself known among them.
Why would God's name need clearing? The nations had read Israel's ruin as proof that Jehovah was weak.
Jehovah had humbled Israel and struck them in judgment, using the nations as the rod of His anger. But the nations He used never stopped to think. They mocked and boasted, and they blasphemed Jehovah's name. Surely He counted for less than their own idol-gods! He could not defend or save His own people! Israel had burdened Jehovah with their sins, so the nations dishonoured His name. The very judgments His holiness had to bring on His sinful people ended in His dishonour before the nations. The crushing judgment of Gog will take that reproach away, for it will show His power over the mightiest on earth. Everything that profaned His holy name in Israel will also be purged out, and the nation will be holiness to the Lord.
So where are the scattered tribes now? One writer answers from the sweep of these gathering promises.
He gathers His people Israel from all nations. So I think the idea that the British nation is the ten tribes is foreign to Scripture. I think this phrase, "out of all nations," should clear that illusion away at once. The truth is that no one knows where they are, except God Himself. When the time comes, He will find them and bring them, in His own way.
Ezekiel 20 says almost the same thing. There God gives His reason for acting, and it is not Israel's record.
"And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel." God will then accept them, and they will know Jehovah. The promises made to their fathers will be kept — not only in us who believe now and go to heaven when Christ comes, but in the children of Israel on the earth. They will truly repent then, and only because of His mercy. He acts freely, above the evil of His creatures, for His own sake. If He did not, then being a sinner would mean ruin with no remedy and no hope.
Many nations will watch this happen. What does the sight do to them?
Again, in Ezekiel 38, after foretelling the invasion and overthrow of Gog and his armies: "So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD." Passages like these could be multiplied many times over. But these alone settle it beyond question. The great moral effect of Israel's restoration on all nations will be this: Jehovah, the one true God, will become known everywhere.
- Name — The promise starts with God's concern for His own name. The nations dishonoured it while His people lay scattered and beaten.
- Gift — The gathering is mercy, not wages. God acts "for my name's sake, not according to your evil ways." That is the only reason any sinner has hope.
- Reach — He collects them from the nations and from enemy lands. No one but God knows where they are, and He will find them in His own way.
- Sight — God does the whole work in the open. Many nations watch Him clear His name in the very people whose ruin they had used to mock Him.
- Result — Jehovah becomes known everywhere. Israel holds the first place among the nations, under His visible glory on earth.
And they shall know that I [am] Jehovah their God, in that I caused them to be led into captivity among the nations, and have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.
This verse closes Ezekiel's long prophecy about Israel. One day the nation will read its own history right: God sent them into exile, God gathered them home, and this time He leaves none of them behind.
Chapters 36 to 39 move in a deliberate order, and this verse is the last step of it. One writer traces the sequence:
Ezekiel 36 — 39. In these chapters we get, first, the moral renewing of the nation. Then comes the awakening and restoration of the people — a national resurrection. Then, once they are restored and in their land, their last great enemy comes up against them. He holds the territory of the Assyrian, and he is destroyed in the mountains of Israel.
So the knowledge promised here comes after the invader has fallen.
The verse promises that they "shall know." One writer sets this off from the way Christians come to know God. He uses "Jehovah," the older English form of the name the ESV prints as "the LORD":
reason: non-ESV re-quote of the featured verse; archaic wording
The same writer explains the difference. The gospel is "a system of pure grace," and it teaches us to treat others as the Father has treated us. God's rule over the earth runs on another principle.
The verse names God as the One who caused the exile. That admission is part of what the nation will finally grasp:
reason
The scattering was not an accident of politics. It was God's own hand — and He says so in the same breath as the promise to gather.
This clause rules out a partial fulfilment. Writers point out that the return from Babylon, real as it was, fell far short of it:
Through Jeremiah He had indeed promised a return from the captivity in Babylon at the end of seventy years. We all know that this return took place. It was a precious and touching proof of God's faithfulness and mercy to the few who came back to Jerusalem and to the land of their fathers. Even so, there was no restoration of the nation as a whole to the blessings their fathers' sins had forfeited — not then, and never since. Very few did return. The bulk of the nation stayed in Babylon and in the countries where they had been scattered. The ten tribes never returned at all.
One writer points to a simple test in the passage itself:
Clearly the time spoken of here has not yet come. When it does, God "will not hide His face any more from them," as He is doing at the present time. He will gather them "to their own land," and will leave none of them among the nations.
So the hidden face marks the present time, and the gathering ends it. The return is not just a change of address. It opens into a place of honour for the nation on earth:
But there is a bright future ahead for Israel. I am not speaking of the gospel or the church, where there is neither Jew nor Greek, but of the kingdom on earth. Then Israel will be restored to their land and will hold the first place among the nations, in favour, peace, righteousness, and the openly displayed power and glory of Jehovah.
- Know. The verse turns on one word. Israel will know God — not through the gospel that reveals the Father, but by what His power does on the earth.
- Cause. They will know Him first as the One who sent them away. The exile was His retribution for their sin. That one fact explains their long history of sorrow.
- Gather. The same hand that scattered brings back. The verse sets both acts side by side and signs them with the same name.
- None. "None remaining" is the measure of the promise. The return from Babylon brought back only a few of Judah, and none of the ten tribes — so this word still waits.
- Result. The gathering ends in a settled place. Israel stands in its own land, first among the nations, with God's face no longer hidden.
And I will not hide my face any more from them, for I shall have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Ezekiel 39 ends the account of Gog's invasion and defeat with a promise that reaches past the battlefield to the heart of the nation. It raises three questions: why God hid His face at all, when the promised outpouring of His Spirit comes, and how it differs from what believers have now.
God turned His face away, but not because He was helpless. Writers point to His holiness as the reason behind Israel's long scattering.
The work of judgment gives a full answer to every question raised to insult Jehovah's name because of Israel's miserable state through the centuries she was scattered. It was not because He was weak, unable to save, though it might look that way to the mocking eyes of unbelief. It was because He was holy, and had to hide His face from them because of their iniquity. So He handed them over to their enemies. Without that, those enemies could have had no power over them. ... none shall be left out of blessing, nor shall God's face be hidden from them any more. The Sun of Righteousness has risen, and in its unbroken shining they shall always rejoice.
The wording itself dates the promise. One writer takes God's pledge never to hide His face again as proof that this day has not come.
The last verse contains an important statement. The Lord says that He hides His face no more from them. This alone shows that it has not happened yet, for He still hides His face from them. The hiding of His face from them will be over when His Spirit is poured on them. ... There comes then a time when the house of Israel, the literal descendants of Abraham, will receive an outpouring of the Spirit of God. ... On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came to form the body of Christ. But this outpouring, which belongs to Israel, has a different meaning.
One writer sets two promises side by side. God puts His Spirit inside each person, and He pours it out on the nation as a whole. This verse adds that their trial ends for good.
God will put His Spirit within them one by one (Ezek. 36:27), and pour it out on them as a whole people (Isa. 44:3). That will be when their time of trial ends, and with it the ruin of the land brought on by their sins (Isa. 32:15) — and neither will ever return (Ezek. 39:29). This blessing will not stop with Israel, for God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh, as Joel plainly foretells.
The outpouring promised here is real. But it will not do what the Spirit does now.
The Spirit will surely be poured out on Israel when the new age begins. But there will then be no baptising of the saints into one body. ... in the millennium the Jewish saints will hold a nearer and more honoured place than the Gentiles on the earth. That is the opposite of the church now, where such differences do not exist: the cross has ended them for heaven.
What is coming will be wider than anything the Old Testament knew, and still less than what believers have now.
The believer's present blessing will not be true of millennial days. The Spirit's presence and work will then follow the order the Old Testament makes known. Yet it will be in greater fullness, and with effects far wider than in the days of old.
Israel still waits for a face that is no longer hidden. One writer says Christians have that already, and on the same ground the verse names — the Spirit.
Here is a practical point of great weight for souls. If the New Testament is to be believed, God never hides His face from the Christian. The reason is this: the believer has eternal life in Christ. He is now brought into the full value of Christ's sacrifice, and has the Holy Spirit living in him as the constant witness of it. So we have now, in advance, what will be true of Israel later on. We no longer stand on the testing ground of Israel's past.
The chapter's judgment and its closing promise belong together. God's hard dealings with the nation prepare it for the Spirit.
Read Ezekiel 39:21-29 carefully. There the prophet brings out the great moral lesson of all these ways of God as He governs Israel. By these means He breaks down all their rebellion and self-will. Then He pours out His Spirit on them, and so makes them a blessing to all the world, fulfilling His promise to Abraham.
- Cause. God hid His face because He is holy and Israel had sinned — never because He was unable to save.
- Gift. The outpoured Spirit is what ends the hiding of His face.
- Reach. Poured on the whole house of Israel, it goes wider than anything of old — yet it does not baptise them into one body.
- Result. God breaks their rebellion, pours out His Spirit, and makes them a blessing to the whole world.
- Now. Christians already hold what Israel waits for: a face never hidden, with the Spirit living in them as the constant witness.