Bible Strands
Ezekiel 20:17
Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or bring them to an end in the wilderness.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker is YHWH addressing the descendants of Israel during the wilderness wanderings, immediately after detailing their repeated rejection of divine statutes and idolatry.
The words — The verb וַתָּ֧חָס (va./Ta.chos) combined with עֵינִי (ʿênî, "my eye") literally renders "and she/it looked with compassion," while מִשּׁחֲתָם (mi./sha.cha.Ta/m) and כָּלָה (ka.Lah) denote the withheld actions of "destroying" and bringing to "complete destruction."
The thread — This pattern of withheld final judgment appears in Jeremiah 4:27 and Jeremiah 5:18, where God declares He will not make a full end of the land or the people despite their desolation, and echoes the prophetic context of Ezekiel 11:13.
Why it lands — The text records God’s deliberate choice to spare a rebellious generation from total annihilation in the wilderness. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine restraint operates independently of human merit or immediate obedience.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 11:13 Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, “Oh, Lord GOD, will You bring the remnant of Israel to a complete end?”
- Jeremiah 4:27 For this is what the LORD says: “The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.
- Jeremiah 5:18 “Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make a full end of you.
- 1 Samuel 24:10 Behold, this day you have seen with your own eyes that the LORD delivered you into my hand in the cave. I was told to kill you, but I spared you and said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.’
- Nehemiah 9:19 You in Your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud never turned away from guiding them on their path; and by the night the pillar of fire illuminated the way they should go.
- Psalms 78:37 Their hearts were disloyal to Him, and they were unfaithful to His covenant.
- Ezekiel 7:2 “O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.
- Ezekiel 8:18 Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”
- Ezekiel 9:10 But as for Me, I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. I will bring their deeds down upon their own heads.”
- Nahum 1:8 But with an overwhelming flood He will make an end of Nineveh and pursue His enemies into darkness.