Ezekiel 20:30-32 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Say unto the house of Israel To the elders now sitting before thee, and through them to the rest of their brethren; Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers After all that God hath said to and against you by a succession of prophets, and done against you by a series of judgments, yet will you take no warning? Will you still be as wicked as your fathers were, and commit the same abominations that they committed? Some prefer rendering the words, Are ye not polluted, and do ye not commit whoredom, &c.? Do ye not walk in your fathers' sins and idolatries, notwithstanding all the warnings I have given you, and the severe instances of my displeasure against their practices, which ought to have terrified you from following their bad example? For when ye offer your gifts, &c., ye pollute yourselves You render yourselves filthy and abominable in my sight. And shall I be inquired of by you Are you fit to come and ask counsel of me, whom you have so shamefully and so obstinately forsaken and reproached? I will not be inquired of by you I will answer you as little as you regard me. And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all Shall be quite frustrated. God, to convince them, here tells them what was in their thoughts, and what they had purposed. We find by the Scripture history, that the Jews had all along a fond desire of worshipping the gods of their neighbours, and could not bear that imputation of singularity, which their peculiar way of worship exposed them to. They thought also by this means to live more quietly among the heathen whither they were led captive. God tells them here that he would prevent this purpose of theirs from taking effect. And we find, from the very time of their return from the Babylonish captivity, they have been very cautious of committing idolatry, and scrupulous of making the least approaches to it. Lowth.