17 Nevertheless mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness.
17 Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or put an end to them in the wilderness.
17 Nevertheless, my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them or make a full end of them in the wilderness.
17 But I didn't go all the way: I didn't wipe them out, didn't finish them off in the desert.
17 Nevertheless My eye spared them from destruction. I did not make an end of them in the wilderness.
17 Nevertheless, I took pity on them and held back from destroying them in the wilderness.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ezekiel 20:17
Commentary on Ezekiel 20:10-26
(Read Ezekiel 20:10-26)
The history of Israel in the wilderness is referred to in the new Testament as well as in the Old, for warning. God did great things for them. He gave them the law, and revived the ancient keeping of the sabbath day. Sabbaths are privileges; they are signs of our being his people. If we do the duty of the day, we shall find, to our comfort, it is the Lord that makes us holy, that is, truly happy, here; and prepares us to be happy, that is, perfectly holy, hereafter. The Israelites rebelled, and were left to the judgments they brought upon themselves. God sometimes makes sin to be its own punishment, yet he is not the Author of sin: there needs no more to make men miserable, than to give them up to their own evil desires and passions.