But the house of Israel Not a few, but the generality of the people; rebelled against me Were undutiful, disobedient, contumacious, and even openly and repeatedly rebellious; in the wilderness Where they were receiving daily and great mercies from me; where they were on their way to Canaan, and were peculiarly dependant upon me for direction in the way, protection from their enemies, and the supply of all their wants; where they most needed my care and favour, and where the preserving their lives from being destroyed by noxious creatures and by famine, in that barren, desolate, and howling desert, required and was a continued miracle. They walked not in my statutes Given them as the rule of their conduct toward me and one another. And they despised my judgments Slighted them first as of little excellence, and then refused and cast them off. They who disobey God's statutes despise them; they show by their disobedience that they have a mean opinion of them, and of him whose statutes they are. And my sabbaths they greatly polluted That is, profaned, neglecting the duties enjoined to be done on those holy days, and employing them in worldly business, in pursuing sensual gratifications, or in practising secret idolatry and other wickedness. But I wrought, &c. See on Ezekiel 20:9. Yet I lifted up my hand, &c. I solemnly swore (see Eze 20:5) they should not enter into that rest I had designed for them. So all the murmuring, disobedient, unbelieving generation was excluded, and their children were brought in. Because they despised, &c. See on Ezekiel 20:13. For their heart went after their idols They were still inclined to the idolatries which they had learned in Egypt, to which they added new idols, which they had seen in the countries through which they travelled, namely, the idols of the Midianites, Amorites, &c: see the margin. Nevertheless, mine eye spared them Though they did highly provoke me, and deserved to be all cut off, I had great patience with them, often reprieved them after sentence of condemnation was passed, and bore with their untoward manners, till a new and better disposed generation arose, to whom I could, consistently with my holiness, fulfil my promises made to their fathers.
Ezekiel 20:13-17
13 But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.
14 But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out.
15 Yet also I lifted up my hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands;
16 Because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my sabbaths: for their heart went after their idols.
17 Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.