Bereave - Or, as in the margin: i. e., the land shall not prove the ruin of its inhabitants by tempting them (as of old time) to the sin of idolatry.

Therefore thou shalt devour men no more,.... Or they shall be no more destroyed in thee by pestilence, famine, sword, or other means:

neither bereave that nations any more, saith the Lord; or, "thou shalt not cause them to fall any more" (k), for so it is written, as in Ezekiel 36:15, though the marginal reading is, "thou shalt not bereave", which we follow; and both are to be received, since miscarriages often come by falls.

(k) "non impingere facies", Montanus, Vatablus; "non offendere facies", Starckius.

Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD.

36:14 Therefore - I will so bless thee, O land, that thou shalt bring forth and breed up many sons and daughters, and this reproach shall cease for ever.

bereave: or, cause to fall

14. bereave-so the Keri, or Hebrew Margin reads, to correspond to "bereave" in Eze 36:13; but "cause to fall" or "stumble," in the Hebrew text or Chetib, being the more difficult reading, is the one least likely to come from a corrector; also, it forms a good transition to the next subject, namely, the moral cause of the people's calamities, namely, their falls, or stumblings through sin. The latter ceasing, the former also cease. So the same expression follows in Eze 36:15, "Neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more."

36:1-15 Those who put contempt and reproach on God's people, will have them turned on themselves. God promises favour to his Israel. We have no reason to complain, if the more unkind men are, the more kind God is. They shall come again to their own border. It was a type of the heavenly Canaan, of which all God's children are heirs, and into which they all shall be brought together. And when God returns in mercy to a people who return to him in duty, all their grievances will be set right. The full completion of this prophecy must be in some future event.