15 You will become a waste, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.
For my sword in heaven is full of wrath: see, it is coming down on Edom, in punishment on the people of my curse. The sword of the Lord is full of blood, it is fat with the best of the meat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the best parts of the sheep: for the Lord has a feast in Bozrah, and much cattle will be put to death in the land of Edom.
Have joy and be glad, O daughter of Edom, living in the land of Uz: the cup will be given to you in your turn, and you will be overcome with wine and your shame will be seen.
And say to it, This is what the Lord has said: See, I am against you, O Mount Seir, and my hand will be stretched out against you, and I will make you a waste and a cause for wonder. I will make your towns unpeopled and you will be a waste; and you will be certain that I am the Lord.
O Lord, keep in mind against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem; how they said, Let it be uncovered, uncovered even to its base.
Do not see with pleasure your brother's evil day, the day of his fate, and do not be glad over the children of Judah on the day of their destruction, or make wide your mouth on the day of trouble.
Whoever makes sport of the poor puts shame on his Maker; and he who is glad because of trouble will not go free from punishment.
Because you are glad, because you are lifted up with pride, you wasters of my heritage, because you are playing like a young cow put out to grass, and you make a noise like strong horses;
This is what the Lord has said: Because your hater has said against you, Aha! and, The old waste places are our heritage, we have taken them: For this cause be a prophet, and say, This is what the Lord has said: Because, even because they have been glad over you and put you to shame on every side, because you have become a heritage for the rest of the nations, and you are taken up on the lips of talkers and in the evil talk of the people: For this reason, you mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, to the unpeopled wastes and to the towns where no one is living, from which the goods have been taken and which have been put to shame by the rest of the nations who are round about: For this cause the Lord has said: Truly, in the heat of my bitter feeling I have said things against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who have taken my land as a heritage for themselves with the joy of all their heart, and with bitter envy of soul have made attacks on it:
And I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who are living in the sea-lands without fear: and they will be certain that I am the Lord. And I will make clear my holy name among my people Israel; I will no longer let my holy name be made unclean: and the nations will be certain that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Ezekiel 35
Commentary on Ezekiel 35 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 35
Eze 35:1-15. Judgment on Edom.
Another feature of Israel's prosperity; those who exulted over Israel's humiliation, shall themselves be a "prey." Already stated in Eze 25:12-14; properly repeated here in full detail, as a commentary on Eze 34:28. The Israelites "shall be no more a prey"; but Edom, the type of their most bitter foes, shall be destroyed irrecoverably.
2. Mount Seir—that is, Idumea (Ge 36:9). Singled out as badly pre-eminent in its bitterness against God's people, to represent all their enemies everywhere and in all ages. So in Isa 34:5; 63:1-4, Edom, the region of the greatest enmity towards God's people, is the ideal scene of the final judgments of all God's foes. "Seir" means "shaggy," alluding to its rugged hills and forests.
3. most desolate—literally, "desolation and desolateness" (Jer 49:17, &c.). It is only in their national character of foes to God's people, that the Edomites are to be utterly destroyed. A remnant of Edom, as of the other heathen, is to be "called by the name of God" (Am 9:12).
5. perpetual hatred—(Ps 137:7; Am 1:11; Ob 10-16). Edom perpetuated the hereditary hatred derived from Esau against Jacob.
shed the blood of, &c.—The literal translation is better. "Thou hast poured out the children of Israel"; namely, like water. So Ps 22:14; 63:10, Margin; Jer 18:21. Compare 2Sa 14:14.
by the force of the sword—literally, "by" or "upon the hands of the sword"; the sword being personified as a devourer whose "hands" were the instruments of destruction.
in the time that their iniquity had an end—that is, had its consummation (Eze 21:25, 29). Edom consummated his guilt when he exulted over Jerusalem's downfall, and helped the foe to destroy it (Ps 137:7; Ob 11).
6. I will prepare thee unto blood—I will expose thee to slaughter.
sith—old English for "seeing that" or "since."
thou hast not hated blood—The Hebrew order is, "thou hast hated not—blood"; that is, thou couldst not bear to live without bloodshed [Grotius]. There is a play on similar sounds in the Hebrew; Edom resembling dam, the Hebrew for "blood"; as "Edom" means "red," the transition to "blood" is easy. Edom, akin to blood in name, so also in nature and acts; "blood therefore shall pursue thee." The measure which Edom meted to others should be meted to himself (Ps 109:17; Mt 7:2; 26:52).
7. cut off … him that passeth—that is, every passer to and fro; "the highways shall be unoccupied" (Eze 29:11; Jud 5:6).
9. shall not return—to their former state (Eze 16:55); shall not be restored. The Hebrew text (Chetib) reads, "shall not be inhabited" (compare Eze 26:20; Mal 1:3, 4).
10. So far from being allowed to enter on Israel's vacated inheritance, as Edom hoped (Eze 36:5; Ps 83:4, 12; Ob 13), it shall be that he shall be deprived of his own; and whereas Israel's humiliation was temporary, Edom's shall be perpetual.
Lord was there—(Eze 48:35; Ps 48:1, 3; 132:13, 14). Jehovah claimed Judea as His own, even when the Chaldeans had overthrown the state; they could not remove Him, as they did the idols of heathen lands. The broken sentences express the excited feelings of the prophet at Edom's wicked presumption. The transition from the "two nations and two countries" to "it" marks that the two are regarded as one whole. The last clause, "and Jehovah was there," bursts in, like a flash of lightning, reproving the wicked presumption of Edom's thought.
11. according to thine anger—(Jas 2:13). As thou in anger and envy hast injured them, so I will injure thee.
I will make myself known among them—namely, the Israelites. I will manifest My favor to them, after I have punished thee.
12, 13. blasphemies … against … Israel … against me—God regards what is done against His people as done against Himself (Mt 25:45; Ac 9:2, 4, 5). Edom implied, if he did not express it, in his taunts against Israel, that God had not sufficient power to protect His people. A type of the spirit of all the foes of God and His people (1Sa 2:3; Re 13:6).
14. (Isa 65:13, 14). "The whole earth" refers to Judea and the nations that submit themselves to Judea's God; when these rejoice, the foes of God and His people, represented by Edom as a nation, shall be desolate. Things shall be completely reversed; Israel, that now for a time mourns, shall then rejoice and for ever. Edom, that now rejoices over fallen Israel, shall then, when elsewhere all is joy, mourn, and for ever (Isa 65:17-19; Mt 5:4; Lu 6:25). Havernick loses this striking antithesis by translating, "According to the joy of the whole land (of Edom), so I will make thee desolate"; which would make Eze 35:15 a mere repetition of this.
15. (Ob 12, 15).