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Ezekiel 20:6

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

To bring them forth of the land of Egypt - When they had been long in a very disgraceful and oppressive bondage.

A land that I had espied for them - God represents himself as having gone over different countries in order to find a comfortable residence for these people, whom he considered as his children.

Flowing with milk and honey - These were the characteristics of a happy and fruitful country, producing without intense labor all the necessaries and comforts of life. Of the happiest state and happiest place, a fine poet gives the following description: -

Ver erat aeternum, placidique tepentibus auris

Mulcebant Zephyri natos sine semine flores.

Mox etiam fruges tellus inarata ferebat:

Nec renovatus ager gravidis canebat aristis.

Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant:

Flavaque de viridi stillabant ilice mella.

Ovid's Metam. lib. i., 107.

On flowers unsown soft Zephyr spreads his wing,

And time itself was one eternal spring;

Ensuing years the yellow harvest crowned,

The bearded blade sprang from the untilled ground,

And laden unrenewed the fields were found.

Floods were with milk, and floods with nectar filled,

And honey from the sweating oaks distilled.

In the flourishing state of Judea every mountain was cultivated as well as the valleys. Among the very rocks the vines grew luxuriantly.

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible
Verses 5-9

The children of Israel in Egypt were warned to abstain from the idolatry of the pagan. This purpose they lost sight of, yet God spared them and brought them into another state of probation.

Ezekiel 20:5

Lifted up mine hand - i. e., sware, because the hand was lifted up in adjuration.

Ezekiel 20:8

Idols of Egypt - These incidental notices show the children of Israel in Egypt to have been addicted to idolatry. Compare Joshua 24:14.

Ezekiel 20:9

I wrought for my name‘s sake - Lest it should appear to the Egyptians that Yahweh was a God who would, but could not, save.

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
Those hearts are wretchedly hardened which ask God leave to go on in sin, and that even when suffering for it; see ver. 32. God is justly angry with those who are resolved to go on still in their trespasses. Cause the people to know the evil deeds of their fathers, that they may see how righteous it was with God to cut them off.