Ezekiel 20:31 | |
31. For when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, you pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day: and shall I be inquired of by you, e house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you. | 31. Et offerendo dona vestra,1 et trajiciendo filios vestros per ignem vos polluimini in omnibus idolis vestris usque hodie: et ego inquirar a vobis, domus Israel? Vivo ego dicit Dominator Iehovah, si inquirar a vobis. |
He follows up the same sentiment, that it was a monstrous sin that they so perniciously remained fixed in the perverse imitation of their fathers: for they had been drawn off from their lusts by God's numerous chastisements, and then they pretended to be afterwards disposed to obedience: God therefore here says, why, then, by offering your gifts, do you make your sons pass through the fire, and pollute yourselves with all your idols even to this day? For this question concerns what is quite incredible and worthy of the greatest surprise, since there was no way of reconciling the sufferings of the Israelites in exile with their remaining obstinate in their wickedness. But the Prophet here again deprives them of that vain pretense with which they covered themselves in offering their gifts: he concedes to them what was true, yet, at the same time, he objects, that they passed their sons through the fire, and were polluted in all their idols. He adds, at length, shall I be inquired of by you? I have elsewhere explained that clause, which is now for the third time repeated. Many take it in a different sense, that God will not deign to answer them any more: but, in my opinion, he simply reproaches their perfidy, because, when they approached the Prophet, they wished to blind his eyes. Shall I, says he, be inquired of you? For
PRAYER
Grant, Almighty God, since you do not cease thy daily exhortations to repentance, but indulge us, and bear with us, while you correct us by thy word and thy chastisements, that we may not remain obstinate, but may learn to submit ourselves to thee: Grant, I pray thee, that we may not offer ourselves as thy disciples with feigned repentance, but be so sincerely and cordially devoted to thee, that we may desire nothing else than to progress more and more in the knowledge of thy heavenly doctrine, till at length we enjoy that full light which we hope for through our Lord Jesus Christ. -- Amen.
Lecture Sixty-Fourth.
1 "By tendering your oblations." -- Calvin.