Bible Strands
Ezekiel 20:35
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, where I will enter into judgment with you face to face.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord addresses the exiled house of Israel immediately after promising to gather them from scattered lands. The declaration functions as the pivotal transition between Israel's restoration and their subsequent legal reckoning.
The words — מִדְבַּר (midbar) literally denotes the wilderness or desert region, and נִשְׁפַּטְתִּי (nishpathti) means I will judge or execute judgment. These terms specify the location and the judicial nature of the coming divine encounter.
The thread — The structural pattern of gathering followed by judgment reappears in Ezekiel 17:20, where God brings a target to Babylon for judgment. The immediate context of Ezekiel 20:36 explicitly ties this wilderness judgment to the prior confrontation in the land of Egypt.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader acknowledge that divine restoration is not a blanket pardon but a controlled legal process. It requires accepting that God's presence in a desolate setting serves to establish factual accountability rather than to offer immediate comfort.
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
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
Cross-references
- Hosea 2:14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly.
- Jeremiah 2:35 you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
- Ezekiel 17:20 I will spread My net over him and catch him in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment upon him there for the treason he committed against Me.
- Ezekiel 19:13 Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.
- Ezekiel 20:36 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, declares the Lord GOD.
- Revelation 12:14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle to fly from the presence of the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.
- Jeremiah 2:9 Therefore, I will contend with you again, declares the LORD, and I will bring a case against your children’s children.
- Jeremiah 25:31 The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth because the LORD brings a charge against the nations. He brings judgment on all mankind and puts the wicked to the sword,’” declares the LORD.
- Ezekiel 38:8 After a long time you will be summoned. In the latter years you will enter a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and all now dwell securely.
- Ezekiel 38:22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed. I will pour out torrents of rain, hailstones, fire, and sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.