I Will Bring You Into the Wilderness of the Peoples
30 “Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Do you pollute yourselves in the way of your fathers? Do you play the prostitute after their abominations? 31 When you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, do you pollute yourselves with all your idols to this day? Should I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will not be inquired of by you! 32 “‘“That which comes into your mind will not be at all, in that you say, ‘We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.’ 33 As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you. 34 I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out. 35 I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. 36 Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” says the Lord Yahweh. 37 “I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. 38 I will purge out from among you the rebels and those who disobey me. I will bring them out of the land where they live, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am Yahweh.” 39 “‘As for you, house of Israel, the Lord Yahweh says: “Go, everyone serve his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not listen to me; but you shall no more profane my holy name with your gifts and with your idols. 40 For in my holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel,” says the Lord Yahweh, “there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your offerings and the first fruits of your offerings, with all your holy things. 41 I will accept you as a pleasant aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries in which you have been scattered. I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations. 42 You will know that I am Yahweh when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I swore to give to your fathers. 43 There you will remember your ways, and all your deeds in which you have polluted yourselves. Then you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed. 44 You will know that I am Yahweh, when I have dealt with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, you house of Israel,” says the Lord Yahweh.’” 45 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 46 “Son of man, set your face toward the south, and preach toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the field in the south. 47 Tell the forest of the south, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word: The Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will devour every green tree in you, and every dry tree. The burning flame will not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north will be burned by it. 48 All flesh will see that I, Yahweh, have kindled it. It will not be quenched.”’” 49 Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! They say of me, ‘Isn’t he a speaker of parables?’”
The exiles wanted to become an ordinary nation like the rest, and are told the one thing they cannot do is stop belonging to God.
What the people are thinking is quoted, and it is not defiance. It is exhaustion: We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone. Being God's people had brought them a destroyed capital and a foreign address. The proposal is to resign — to stop being a peculiar people and take up the ordinary religion of the region.
The reply refuses the resignation in the strongest terms available: That which comes into your mind will not be at all... surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you. The exodus formula is used, and it says that the relationship is not theirs to end. They cannot dissolve it by assimilating, any more than they could keep it by ritual. That is a hard word and a merciful one. The chapter does not pretend it is only the second.
What follows is a second exodus described with the pattern of the first, including the part nobody wants. God will gather them out of the countries and bring them into the wilderness of the peoples. There he will enter into judgment with them face to face, just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt. The wilderness in Israel's memory was not only the road home. It was where a whole generation was sifted. The passage says plainly that the sifting is part of the plan again.
The image for it is a shepherd's. I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. A shepherd counting his flock made them file under his staff one at a time. That is a picture of individual reckoning rather than a mass reprieve. And the result is stated without softening. The rebels are purged out, brought out of the land where they live and not brought into the land of Israel. A restoration that includes a sorting is the only kind this book ever promises.
settled What this mark means