“Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity.
Before God promises to restore Israel, He makes Ezekiel look back. The prophet must say why they lost the land. The charge is not one scandal but a whole way of life. God names their "ways" and their "deeds" while they still lived at home in the land He gave them.
The charge: their conduct at home and abroad
One commentator sums up the charge in a sentence, then asks what God did about it.
William KellyThis was Israel's way, both in the land and out of it. Everywhere they were a shame to Him who chose them as His own — idolatrous corruption and murderous violence in Canaan, and the profaning of His name among the nations. So what did the One they had sinned against do? He is Jehovah and He does not change. That is why He did not consume them.
Why God chose the image of uncleanness
The verse borrows its comparison from Israel's law about ceremonial uncleanness. Under that law a woman's bleeding made her unclean for a time. One commentator explains why God called something unclean that nobody could avoid.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe whole chapter shows the terrible physical condition sin has brought man into. The discharges mentioned were therefore evidence that sin is present in man's nature, with the curse on it. They made man and woman unclean in God's sight. "Not only actions we can avoid defile us, but also workings of nature we cannot help. They defile in such a way and to such a degree that they need, just as deliberate acts of sin do, the cleansing of water and the atoning blood of a sin offering."
So the picture says more than "they behaved wrongly." It says their nature, not just their choices, needed cleansing before God.
Idols, blood, and a judgment measured to the crime
The verses that follow name what defiled the land. The judgment matched it.
Numerical Bible NotesGod asserts here against them that the judgment came because of their own condition. They have defiled the land with their idolatry. He scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. According to their ways and according to their doings He has judged them.
The same writer adds: "The condition of the land was simply a reflection of their own condition."
The land was God's own
God had warned Israel about this in the law. Their hold on the land depended on how they lived in it.
L. M. GrantIf they did not keep these laws, the land would "vomit you out." God had set the land apart as His own "holy land." That land would throw out the nations living in it, because they worshipped idols and evil spirits. It could do the same to Israel if they sank to the same level.
Damage beyond the border
Their exile put God's own reputation in front of the watching nations.
J. N. DarbyIsrael had defiled the land and profaned the name of Jehovah, and Jehovah had scattered them among the nations. Even in this His name would be profaned by their vileness. The nations would say, "These are the people of Jehovah, and they have gone out of His land." But Jehovah would step in and sanctify His great name in front of the nations. He would bring His people back from among them and cleanse them from all their filthiness.
Why the story does not end in ruin
One writer treats this chapter as a clear case of a principle in God's acting that never changes.
Edward DennettThis is an unchangeable principle of how He acts. For example, in Ezekiel, after the account of Israel's evil conduct during their captivity, we read: "And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them."
That is also the only reason the nation survived its own record.
An Outline of Sound WordsIsrael will then be restored to the land because of God's sovereign goodness. If He had dealt with them according to their sins, they would have perished. Again and again in their long history, they have deserved God's unsparing judgment. But their blessing rested on His promises to Abraham and on His own counsels of love, and it was bound up with the honour of His Name. So time and again, when He might have consumed them, He spared them, to vindicate the honour of His great and holy Name.
Summary
- Defiled — the ruin came from inside: Israel's own way and doings spoiled the land God had given them.
- Diagnosed — the image of uncleanness names their condition, not just their acts, as unfit for God.
- Dispersed — idolatry and bloodshed brought a judgment that fit the crime. God judged them by their own ways and deeds.
- Dishonoured — exile spread the damage. The nations saw a God who could not keep His own people in His own land.
- Determined — God acts for His own name's sake. Had He dealt with them by their sins, they would have perished.