Ezekiel 35
1Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, 3and tell it, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you. I will make you a desolation and an astonishment. 4I will lay your cities waste, and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. 5“‘“Because you have had a perpetual hostility, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end, 6therefore, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Since you have not hated blood, therefore blood will pursue you. 7Thus I will make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation. I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns. 8I will fill its mountains with its slain. The slain with the sword will fall in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses. 9I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. 10“‘“Because you have said, ‘These two nations and these two countries will be mine, and we will possess it,’ although Yahweh was there, 11therefore, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them when I judge you. 12You will know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They have been laid desolate. They have been given to us to devour.’ 13You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me. I have heard it.” 14The Lord Yahweh says: “When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. 15As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’”
Introduction
Ezekiel 35
It was promised, in the foregoing chapter, that when the time to favour Zion, yea, the set time, should come, especially the time for sending the Messiah and setting up his kingdom in the world, God would cause the enemies of his church to cease and the blessings and comforts of the church to abound. This chapter enlarges upon the former promise, concerning the destruction of the enemies of the church; the next chapter upon the latter promise, the replenishing of the church with blessings. Mount Seir (that is, Edom) is the enemy prophesied against in this chapter, but fitly put here, as in the prophecy of Obadiah, for all the enemies of the church; for, as those all walked in the way of Cain that hated Abel, so those all walked in the way of Esau who hated Jacob, but over whom Jacob, by virtue of a particular blessing, was to have dominion. Now here we have, I. The sin charged upon the Edomites, and that was their spite and malice to Israel (Eze 35:5, Eze 35:10-13). II. The ruin threatened, that should come upon them for this sin. God will be against them (Eze 35:3) and then their country shall be laid waste (Eze 35:4), depopulated, and made quite desolate (Eze 35:6-9), and left so when other nations that had been wasted should recover themselves (Eze 35:14, Eze 35:15).
Cross-references: Ezek 35:5 · Ezek 35:10 · Ezek 35:3 · Ezek 35:4 · Ezek 35:6 · Ezek 35:14 · Ezek 35:15