“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.
When God promised the poor captives a glorious return, in due time, to their own land, it was a great discouragement to their hopes that they were unworthy, utterly unworthy, of such a favour; therefore, to remove that discouragement, God here shows them that he would do it for them purely for his own name's sake, that he might be glorified in them and by...
Commenting on Ezekiel 36:16-24
Therefore say unto the house of Israel,.... This is an order to the prophet, the son of man, Eze 36:17, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel; what he hereafter promises to do for them, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual; which he did, not on account of any deserts or worthiness in them...
not . . . for your sakes--that is, not for any merit in you; for, on the contrary, on your part, there is everything to call down continued severity (compare Deu 9:5-6). The sole and sure ground of hope was God's regard to "His own name," as the God of covenant grace (Psa 106:45), which He must vindicate from the dishonor brought on it by the Jews, before the heathen.