Ezekiel 20:40-42 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For in my holy mountain, &c. The holy hill of Zion, holy through God's appointing it for the place of his temple. The mountain of the height of Israel See Ezekiel 17:23; Micah 4:1. Though mount Zion was not one of the highest mountains of Israel, yet God manifesting his presence there in his temple, it was more honoured than any of their other mountains. Lowth, and several other commentators, think the Christian Church is here meant, and termed God's holy mountain in allusion to the temple at Jerusalem, built upon mount Moriah, a part of mount Zion; (see notes on Ezekiel 17:23, and Isaiah 2:2;) and that the prophet here foretels the conversion of the Jews to Christianity, and their union with the converted Gentiles in the church of God. At the same time, however, they suppose that, upon their conversion and return to their own country, certain privileges shall belong to the earthly Jerusalem, as the metropolis of that nation. There shall all the house of Israel, all of them, serve me That is, all the house of Israel that are restored, shall serve me in Jerusalem. There shall be no more any such separation as when the ten tribes forsook the worship of God at Jerusalem. There will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, &c. Requiring signifies the same with accepting, by a metonymy of the cause for the effect; just as seeking is sometimes used for finding: see Isaiah 65:1. In the same sense, God is said not to require such instances of worship as he takes no delight in, Isaiah 1:11. Offerings signify in general every thing devoted to God's service. Those who suppose that the prophet is here foretelling the conversion of the Jews to Christianity, consider him as “expressing the Christian worship by those religions oblations which were proper to his own time; as the other prophets frequently describe the state of the Christian Church, by representations taken from the Jewish temple and service.” See Lowth. I will accept you with your sweet savour This is mentioned in opposition to the sweet savour of their offerings to idols. The words may be rendered, I will be pleased with you, as with a sweet savour; or, as with the savour of an offering of atonement. When I bring you out Or, as it may be better rendered, When I have brought you out from the people; that is, either, 1st, When I have brought you back out of captivity to your own land; or, 2d, When I have converted you to Christ, and united you to the Christian Church. And I will be sanctified in you before the heathen I shall procure honour to my name by the wonderful works, whether of justice or mercy, which I will show toward you; and the nations shall consider me as a great and holy God, when they shall observe my deliverance of you, and your obedience to me. And ye shall know that I am the Lord Or, Jehovah; that is, He who causeth that TO BE which he hath said SHALL BE, and who fulfilleth his promises. When I shall bring you into the country, &c. Into the land which I sware to give to your fathers and their posterity: see Ezekiel 20:5.