Part 547 (1/2)

20:19. I am the Lord your G.o.d: walk ye in my statutes, and observe my judgments, and do them.

20:20. And sanctify my sabbaths, that they may be a sign between me and you: and that you may know that I am the Lord your G.o.d.

20:21. But their children provoked me, they walked not in my commandments, nor observed my judgments to do them: which if a man do, he shall live in them: and they violated my sabbaths: and I threatened to pour out my indignation upon them, and to accomplish my wrath in them in the desert.

20:22. But I turned away my hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it might not be violated before the nations, out of which I brought them forth in their sight.

20:23. Again I lifted up my hand upon them in the wilderness, to disperse them among the nations, and scatter them through the countries:

20:24. Because they had not done my judgments, and had cast off my statutes, and had violated my sabbaths, and their eyes had been after the idols of their fathers.

20:25. Therefore I also gave them statutes that were not good, and judgments, in which they shall not live.

Statutes that were not good, etc... Viz., the laws and ordinances of their enemies; or those imposes upon them by that cruel tyrant the devil, to whose power they were delivered up for their sins.

20:26. And I polluted them in their own gifts, when they offered all that opened the womb, for their offences: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

I polluted them, etc... That is, I gave them up to such blindness in punishment of their offences, as to pollute themselves with the blood of all their firstborn, whom they offered up to their idols in compliance with their wicked devices.

20:27. Wherefore speak to the house of Israel, O son of man, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Moreover in this also your fathers blaspheme me, when they had despised and contemned me;

20:28. And I had brought them into the land, for which I lifted up my hand to give it them: they saw every high hill, and every shady tree, and there they sacrificed their victims: and there they presented the provocation of their offerings, and there they set their sweet odours, and poured forth their libations.

20:29. And I said to them: What meaneth the high place to which you go?

and the name thereof was called High-place even to this day.

20:30. Wherefore say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Verily, you are defiled in the way of your fathers, and you commit fornication with their abominations.

20:31. And you defile yourselves with all your idols unto this day, in the offering of your gifts, when you make your children pa.s.s through the fire: and shall I answer you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord G.o.d, I will not answer you.

20:32. Neither shall the thought of your mind come to pa.s.s, by which you say: We will be as the Gentiles, and as the families of the earth, to wors.h.i.+p stocks and stones.

20:33. As I live, saith the Lord G.o.d, I will reign over you with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

20:34. And I will bring you out from the people, and I will gather you out of the countries, in which you are scattered, I will reign over you with a strong hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

20:35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of people, and there will I plead with you face to face.

The wilderness of people... That is, a desert in which there are no people.

20:36. As I pleaded against your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt; even so will I judge you, saith the Lord G.o.d.

20:37. And I will make you subject to my sceptre, and will bring you into the bands of the covenant.

20:38. And I will pick out from among you the transgressors, and the wicked, and will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

20:39. And as for you, O house of Israel: thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Walk ye every one after your idols, and serve them. But if in this also you hear me not, but defile my holy name any more with your gifts, and with your idols;

Walk ye every one, etc... It is not an allowance, much less a commandment to serve idols; but a figure of speech, by which G.o.d would have them to understand that if they would walk after their idols, they must not pretend to serve him at the same time: for that he would by no means suffer such a mixture of wors.h.i.+p.