Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Cast away from you--for the cause of your evil rests with yourselves; your sole way of escape is to be reconciled to God (Ephesians 4:22-23).
make you a new heart--This shows, not what men can do, but what they ought to do: what God requires of us. God alone can make us a new heart (Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26-27). The command to do what men cannot themselves do is designed to drive them (instead of laying the blame, as the Jews did, elsewhere rather than on themselves) to feel their own helplessness, and to seek God's Holy Spirit (Psalms 51:11-12). Thus the outward exhortation is, as it were, the organ or instrument which God uses for conferring grace. So we may say with AUGUSTINE, "Give what thou requirest, and (then) require what thou wilt." Our strength (which is weakness in itself) shall suffice for whatever He exacts, if only He gives the supply [CALVIN].
spirit--the understanding: as the "heart" means the will and affections. The root must be changed before the fruit can be good.
why will ye die--bring on your own selves your ruin. God's decrees are secret to us; it is enough for us that He invites all, and will reject none that seek Him.
As God is to judge them "according to their ways" (Proverbs 1:31), their only hope is to "repent"; and this is a sure hope, for God takes no delight in judging them in wrath, but graciously desires their salvation on repentance.
I will judge you--Though ye cavil, it is a sufficient answer that I, your Judge, declare it so, and will judge you according to My will; and then your cavils must end.
Repent--inward conversion (Revelation 2:5). In the Hebrew there is a play of like sounds, "Turn ye and return."
turn yourselves, etc.--the outward fruits of repentance. Not as the Margin, "turn others"; for the parallel clause (Ezekiel 18:31) is, "cast away from you all your transgressions." Perhaps, however, the omission of the object after the verb in the Hebrew implies that both are included: Turn alike yourselves and all whom you can influence.
from all . . . transgressions--not as if believers are perfect; but they sincerely aim at perfection, so as to be habitually and wilfully on terms with no sin (1 John 3:6-9):
your ruin--literally, "your snare," entangling you in ruin.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Jeremiah 27:13
Ezekiel 18:30-32
Ezekiel 36:26
Philippians 2:13
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