Ezekiel 20:49

(Verse 35, 36, and following) And I will bring you into a desert of peoples, and there I will judge you face to face. Just as I contended with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, says the Lord. And I will subject you to my scepter, and I will bring you into the bonds of the covenant, and I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked: from their place of residence I will bring them out, and they will not enter the land of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord. Thus says the Lord: I will do for you who are in Babylon, and now serve idols, what I did for your ancestors in Egypt. I will lead you into the desert of the peoples, and there I will judge you face to face, just as I contended with them in judgment when they came out of Egypt. And after I have judged you, I will subject you to my scepter and rule, and I will make a covenant with you and bring you into your land with the bonds of love, so that bound by my love, you will never be able to depart from me. But I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked, who persist in the hardness of their hearts in evil deeds, not for possession, but for rejection. And I will indeed bring them out of the land of their dwelling, so that when they are brought out, they will not enter the land of Israel; but they will perish in various regions. And by the distinction between good and evil, you shall know that I am the Lord, who judges all things. The rest of the discourse hastens, and we briefly go through each point, in order to provide only the meaning to the readers.

(Ver. 23, 24 onwards) Again, I raised my hand against them in the wilderness, to scatter them among the nations and disperse them in the lands, because they had not performed my judgments, and had rejected my commandments, and had violated my Sabbaths, and their eyes had been after the idols (or thoughts) of their fathers. Therefore, I also gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments in which they would not live, and I defiled them in their offerings (or transgressions), as they offered (or led astray) everything that opens the womb because of their sins (for which the Septuagint translated, to destroy them and what they had overlooked): and they will know that I am the Lord. Where in the Old Testament, against their children, who fell in the wilderness, the Lord lifted up His hand to scatter them among the nations, Scripture does not say; but it is to be believed that this was done in accordance with what is reported here. Or he signifies by this, that after they entered the promised land, they were given over at various times, for many sins, to different nations and kings, and at that time the commandments of the Lord, which were good according to their nature, and the judgments by which believers could live, were made not good for them, since they were in no way able to keep the precepts of the law in captivity, and to do what the divine word commanded. He did not say, 'I gave them evil commandments,' but, 'not good commandments.' For it does not immediately follow that what is not good is evil, as the Apostle teaches, it is good for a man not to touch a woman; but because of incontinence, let each possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor (I Cor. VII). And if he does not do this, it is neither good nor evil. Therefore, God gave them, dispersed among the nations, not good commandments, that is, he allowed them to follow their own thoughts and desires, to do what is not appropriate. And he defiled them in his gifts: just as a Priest separates lepers from the people, and shows that they are defiled; while they offer to idols what they should offer to God. And they pass everything that opens the womb through the fire of Baal, that is, the firstborn; so that after they have deserted God and been handed over to the worship of idols, then they may understand that He is the Lord whom they have provoked to anger by their own fault. Symmachus interpreted this passage more explicitly, treating the future as past. Therefore, I will also give them bad precepts and judgments for which they will not live, and I will defile them because of their gifts, as they consecrate and offer everything that opens the womb, so that I may destroy them, and they will know that I am the Lord. And the meaning is this: because I have seen the sons of the fathers equaling the wickedness of their ancestors and doing the same things for which they offended God, I wanted to divide them into nations and disperse them throughout the whole world, and give them bad precepts and judgments in which they would not live, so that I may defile them with their gifts, for they consecrated everything that opens the womb to idols, and I may destroy them forever, and they will know that I am the Lord. Through which he showed that he had not given them good commandments who dwelt in the wilderness, but to those whom he wanted to scatter among the nations, and to make foreigners in the whole world, he gave them a desire for things that he did not give: so that there they would do good commandments of God, not good because of their own fault, while they exhibited to idols what God had commanded to be exhibited. This can also be said, that before the offense, they received only the Ten Commandments; but after idolatry and blasphemy, they received multiple ceremonies of the law, so that they would offer victims to God rather than to demons, and by comparison with sacrilege, what was not good in itself became lighter, and by no means evil, because it was offered to God, and yet not good, because they offended the author of good.

(Verse 45 onwards) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face toward the south, and drop your word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field. And say to the forest of the south: Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. And all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it: it shall not be quenched. And I said, 'Ah, Lord GOD! They say of me, 'Does he not speak in parables?' LXX: And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 'Son of man, set thy face towards Teman, and prophesy against the forest of the south field; and say to the forest of the south field: 'Hear the word of the LORD, thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree.' The kindled flame will not be extinguished, and it will burn in it all faces from the south to the north: and all flesh will know that I, the Lord, have kindled it: it will not be extinguished. And I said: By no means, O Lord, O Lord: they say to me: Is not this a parable? What does it mean to put or harden your face, we have explained more fully above. For the hardening of the face is necessary, and the hardness of the forehead, so that the Prophets may speak fearlessly what is commanded, especially when sad things are announced to the whole multitude of the people. But our translation expresses what they have said, that Nageb should be understood in Hebrew as the leader of the southern land or region, not Sare, as the LXX thought, which signifies the word leader and prince, but it is written Sade, which properly signifies land and region, and because of the similarity of the letters Daleth and Res, the error prevailed. But divine speech speaks in the metaphor of a leap against Jerusalem, which is the dwelling place of beasts and fierce men: that is, it sets it on fire, and all its trees are burned up. It does not call these trees, which were in need of fruit, but rather prepares them as if for a fire. And first it burns the green wood in it, secondly, that which we read in this same Prophet: 'And begin with my holy ones'; and afterwards the dry wood, which could not have any life in itself: namely, the holy ones and sinners together, so that some escape the evils of captivity through death, and others be handed over to eternal torments. And it also signifies this: from the South to the North, from Jerusalem to Babylon, so that every journey of those proceeding into captivity, falling by sword, famine, and pestilence, is completed. For those who are in Babylon, Jerusalem is situated to the South; just as, on the contrary, the pot in Jeremiah which signifies Jerusalem is set on fire from the face of the North, that is, Babylon. And beautifully in the beginning: a drop, he says, to the South; so that not the whole wrath of God appears to be poured out, but a certain drop and part. But if a drop of such cruelty exists, what is to be valued in all the rains? So that all flesh, which is to see the salvation of God, may know through the burning and flame of the forests, which is extinguished by no one's help, that He Himself is the Lord. Understanding this, the Prophet responded, ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, or as the Seventy translated, by no means, O Lord, O Lord. And he adds: And they say to me: Does this man not speak in parables? And what is this parable called? And the meaning is: Speak more plainly, we do not understand what you are saying in the parable: reveal to us the meaning in clear language. The names Theman, Nageb, and Darom can be understood tropologically as Egypt: for we often read in Daniel that the South stands for Egypt (Dan. 11), and Egypt refers to the limitations of this world. Therefore, Ezekiel prophesies the future evils that will come to the world, which he calls a desert without fruit-bearing trees, but a dwelling place for wild animals. Of which it is said in the 28th psalm: The voice of the Lord perfecting the deer, and he will reveal the hidden places of the forests (Verse 9). These are the forests and woodlands that devoured more from the army of Absalom in battle than the sword killed (2 Samuel 18). And the first green tree is set on fire in the woods, and then it becomes dry, those who live in evil and those who are dead to righteousness. And what is said: And every face will be burned from the South to the North, this means: From those who seemed to be fervent in spirit to those who, with the increase of iniquity and the cooling of charity of many, have lost their former zeal; so that all flesh may see the flame of the Lord not extinguished. And the prophet prays that what the Lord has threatened may not come to pass, that is, that the forest may not be set on fire and all the trees may not be destroyed, so that either they may still have a place for repentance or the necessity of announcing sad news may not be imposed on them, especially since the people do not understand those things and, because of the obscurity of the words, are more likely to be driven to madness.

(Verse 27, 29 onwards) Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and tell them: Thus says the Lord God: Moreover, your fathers have blasphemed against me and have treated me with contempt, even as they spurned me. And I brought them into the land that I had lifted my hand to give them ((Vulgate adds: that land)): they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices and presented there the irritation of their offerings, and they placed there the fragrance of their sweetness, and they poured out their ((Vulgate is silent on this)) libations there. And I said to them, 'What is the high place to which you are going?' And its name was called the High Place until this day. Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: As for your fathers, they have provoked Me to anger by their iniquities, by the fact that they have fallen away from Me. So I brought them into the land that I had lifted My hand in an oath to give them.' They saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices. They also presented there the provocation of their gifts, and they set there their pleasing aroma, and they poured out there their drink offerings. And I said to them: What is abbana, because you enter there? And they called its name abbana until this day. I wanted, he said, to scatter them in the wilderness, and to give them not good precepts, so that they would sacrifice to idols what they should have offered to me, and consecrate all their first-fruits to them by fire, so that I might kill them and destroy them. But when he says, I wanted, he shows that he did not do what he wanted. And that which follows: 'And they shall know that I am the Lord,' is not found in the Septuagint. For it did not seem fitting to them to know after their destruction that he himself is the Lord. But you, son of man, speak again to them, that is, to the elders of the house of Israel, who have come to inquire of you: Your fathers, from whom you have descended, have also blasphemed against me and held me in contempt; after I brought them into the land which I had given them to possess, they turned against me to provoke me. For when they saw every high hill and leafy tree, they would sacrifice on the mountains and in the groves and thickets, and offer victims to the idols, and pour out libations. And when I saw this, I said to them: What is this, Bama? for it is called high: or why do you enter into such a place which you have chosen for yourselves in all the hills, so that even today these places are called Bamoth, and the ancient error retains its original name? Regarding Bama, which we translate as excelsum, there is an error in the Septuagint edition, where it is written as ἀββανὰ, which does not resonate in the Hebrew language. Bama can mean 'in which' if the two syllables are divided into two words, but in the present context, that sense does not fit. However, wherever it is written in the Books of Kings and Chronicles: 'The people still sacrificed and offered incense on the high places,' Bama in the singular and Bamoth in the plural mean 'high places.'