Ezekiel 11:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus says Adonai the Lord: as I remove them to the nations and scatter them over the earth, I will serve as a minor sanctuary to them in the territories where they have entered.

The translation differences should first be pointed out. In the Hebrew text, it denotes "men of one blood" with you, which translates to goolathach, while the LXX renders it as "men of your captivity." Additionally, where it states, all those whom they addressed, the LXX uses "destroyed" instead of "all," due to ambiguities in the letters and the term chullo, which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion similarly translated as destroyed, though this does not align with the intended meaning. Thus, the Lord's message to Ezekiel was a lamentation: O Lord God, are You truly exterminating the remnant of Israel? This destruction, indeed, represents the demise of Phaltias and his slain companions; for the remnant does not refer to those recognized by the prophet as alive in Jerusalem, but to those perceived as captives in Babylon.

This conveys the following: Son of man, to your brethren and fellow tribesmen, I say to those whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem told: You have turned away from the Lord, for you are captives and have betrayed yourselves alongside Jechoniah, while the land of Israel has been designated as our eternal possession: despite having removed them from the land and scattered them among the nations, having ordered their presence in foreign lands, because they adhered to my command, I will be a minor sanctity for them in these strange and hostile territories; for many will remain steadfast against idolatry, and will recall the commandments of God, akin to Daniel and the three young men, along with others, as noted in Scripture.

From all this, we learn a vital lesson: we should not deride those who are subjected to divine judgment, nor should we cast blame on an individual who has repented from sin, or say to those who have turned away and later sought forgiveness, “You have distanced yourselves from the Lord; the land has been allotted to us as our inheritance.” For thus says the Lord: although I have set them apart temporarily from My Church and dispersed them among the nations, I will serve as a minor sanctification to them when they acknowledge their wrongdoings. Those who have strayed from their rightful path due to their sins will return through repentance to their previous place.