The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 547

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.

20:40. In my holy mountain, in the high mountain of Israel, saith the Lord G.o.d, there shall all the house of Israel serve me; all of them I say, in the land in which they shall please me, and there will I require your firstfruits, and the chief of your t.i.thes with all your sanctifications.

In my holy mountain, etc... The foregoing verse, to make the sense complete, must be understood so as to condemn and reject that mixture of wors.h.i.+p which the Jews then followed. In this verse, G.o.d promises to the true Israelites, especially to those of the Christian church, that they shall serve him in another manner, in his holy mountain, the spiritual Sion: and shall by accepted of by him.

20:41. I will accept of you for an odour of sweetness, when I shall have brought you out from the people, and shall have gathered you out of the lands into which you are scattered, and I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations.

20:42. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have brought you into the land of Israel, into the land for which I lifted up my hand to give it to your fathers.

20:43. And there you shall remember your ways, and all your wicked doings with which you have been defiled; and you shall be displeased with yourselves in your own sight, for all your wicked deeds which you committed.

20:44. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have done well by you for my own name's sake, and not according to your evil ways, nor according to your wicked deeds, O house of Israel, saith the Lord G.o.d.

20:45. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

20:46. Son of man, set thy face against the way of the south, and drop towards the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field.

Of the south... Jerusalem lay towards the south of Babylon, (where the prohet then was,) and is here called the forest of the south field, and is threatened with utter desolation.

20:47. And say to the south forest: Hear the word of the Lord: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Behold I will kindle a fire in thee, and will burn in thee every green tree, and every dry tree: the flame of the fire shall not be quenched: and every face shall be burned in it, from the south even to the north.

20:48. And all flesh shall see, that I the Lord have kindled it, and it shall not be quenched.

20:49. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord G.o.d: they say of me: Doth not this man speak by parables?

Ezechiel Chapter 21

The destruction of Jerusalem by the sword is further described: the ruin also of the Ammonites is forshewn. And finally Babylon, the destroyer of others, shall be destroyed.

21:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

21:2. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and let thy speech flow towards the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel:

21:3. And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Behold I come against thee, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off in thee the just, and the wicked.

21:4. And forasmuch as I have cut off in thee the just and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh, from the south even to the north.

21:5. That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my sword out of its sheath not to be turned back.

21:6. And thou, son of man, mourn with the breaking of thy loins, and with bitterness sigh before them.

21:7. And when they shall say to thee: Why mournest thou? thou shalt say: For that which I hear: because it cometh, and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be made feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and water shall run down every knee: behold it cometh, and it shall be done, saith the Lord G.o.d.

21:8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

21:9. Son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Say: The sword, the sword is sharpened, and furbished.

21:10. It is sharpened to kill victims: it is furbished that it may glitter: thou removest the sceptre of my son, thou hast cut down every tree.

Thou removest the sceptre of my son... He speaks (according to St.