and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.
- KJV And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
- BSB And I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, where I will enter into judgment with you face to face.
- NKJV And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face.
- NLT I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, and there I will judge you face to face.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will bring them into a wilderness of the peoples to judge them face to face. He will deal personally and directly with His people in a place of testing.
Overview
Just as the first exodus passed through wilderness testing, so this new gathering involves a season of refining judgment. The 'face to face' encounter signals an intensely personal reckoning with the holy God. This sifting purpose shows that God's restoration includes purification, separating the rebellious from the faithful remnant.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Hos 2:14“Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
- Jer 2:35“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
- Rev 12:14Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, so that she might be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
- Ezek 20:36Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezek 19:13Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.
- Ezek 17:20I will spread my net on him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will enter into judgment with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against me.
- Ezek 38:22With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and sulfur.
- Mic 4:10Be in pain, and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now you will go out of the city, and will dwell in the field, and will come even to Babylon. There you will be rescued. There Yahweh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
- Ezek 38:8After many days you shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, on the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought out of the peoples, and they shall dwell securely, all of them.
- Jer 2:9“Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says Yahweh, “and I will contend with your children’s children.
- Mic 7:13–15Yet the land will be desolate because of those who dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
- Hos 4:1Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
- Jer 25:31A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with the nations; he will enter into judgment with all flesh: as for the wicked, he will give them to the sword,”’ says Yahweh.”
- Mic 6:1–2Listen now to what Yahweh says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 20:35 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.