John Gill Commentary Ezekiel 20:13

"But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they rejected mine ordinances, which if a man keep, he shall live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to consume them." — Ezekiel 20:13 (ASV)

But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness, &c.] Where they were wholly at the mercy of God, entirely dependent upon him; and miracles were wrought every day for the sustaining and preservation of them from famine, wild beasts, and enemies; yet they rebelled against the Lord; provoked him bitterly by their manifold transgressions, their ingratitude, unbelief, and idolatry; and this not a few of them only, but the whole body of the people, the house of Israel, the whole family, and that for the space of forty years, (Psalms 95:9Psalms 95:10);

they walked not in my statutes; did not make them the rule of their walk and conversation, and steer the course of their lives and actions by them, as they ought to have done:

and they despised my judgments; as not worthy their notice and regard, as useless and unprofitable; nay, had an aversion to them, and a loathing of them, as the word ^F8 signifies; such is the corrupt and wicked heart of man; it is enmity against God and his law, and all that is good:

which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them; (See Gill on Ezekiel 20:11);

and my sabbaths they greatly polluted; or "profaned", or "[made them] common" ^F9; that is, with other days; by going out for manna on them; by gathering sticks upon them; by doing their own work, speaking their own words, and seeking their own pleasure, and worshipping false deities:

then I said, I would pour out, my fury upon them in the wilderness to consume them; that they should not enter into the land of Canaan; as the generation that came out of Egypt were consumed in the wilderness, excepting two; as the Lord threatened, (Numbers 14:35) .

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FOOTNOTES:

• F8: (woam) "abjeoerunt", Pagninus; "reprobaverunt", Montanus.
• F9: (wllx) "prophanarunt", Vatablus, Piscator, Cocceius.