Ezekiel 25
ButlerIn that day shall thy mouth be opened. That is, when some one who shall have escaped from Jerusalem, having arrived among the captives, shall inform them of the destruction of the city, the Temple, the royal family and the people at large; till then he might suppress his tears and lamentations. And we find from chap. 33: 21 that one did actually escape from the city, and informed the prophet and his brethren in captivity that the city was smitten. Thus he was not only a prophet to foretell such things, but he was also a sign or portent, shadowing them out by circumstances in his own person and family; and thus the prediction, agreeing so perfectly with the event, proved that the previous information was from the Lord. A. C.
Ezekiel was a sign to the house of Israel in various instances, and described by sensible representations the miseries which God was about to bring upon that people. That his predictions were fully accomplished we learn from the conclusion of the books of Kings and Chronicles; from the 39th and 52d chapters of Jeremiah; and most particularly from the
Lamentations of that prophet, who was an eye witness of the desolations of his country and the captivity of his people. Anon.
At this point, the first part of Ezekiel’s prophecies ends and the second begins. He closes a long series of messages, varied in their forms and modes of revealing truth, but scarcely varying at all in their grand theme and purpose—viz., to set before the exiles the enormity of their national sin, the great wickedness and the deep corruption of Judah and Jerusalem; the certainty that the Lord would abandon His Temple, city and people there to destruction, and the terribleness of that doom. The manifest purpose of God in these revelations to the exiles was to convince them of His justice in those judgments; to give them a full sense of those sins, and to lead them to personal and sincere repentance and radical reformation, until they should themselves be ashamed and confounded, and never open their mouth any more for shame for their own sins and those of their people and land. So a remnant are to be reclaimed and made the nucleus in future years for replanting the land of promise, and for restoring both their political and religious institutions. H. C.
25: 1, 2 AND the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the children of Ammon, and prophesy against them: and say unto the children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord God; thus saith the Lord God: Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity: therefore behold, I will deliver thee to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in thee, and make their dwellings in thee; they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk. And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the children of Ammon a couching place for flocks: and ye shall know that I am the LORD. For thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the despite of thy soul against the land of Israel; therefore behold, I have stretched out mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the nations; and I will cut thee off from the peoples, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. 8 Thus saith the Lord God: Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the nations; therefore behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baalmeon, and Kiriathaim, unto the children of the east, to go against the children of Ammon, and I will give them for a possession, that the children of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations: and I will execute judgements upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the LORD. 12 Thus saith the Lord God: Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them; therefore thus saith the Lord God, I will stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it: and I will make it desolate from Teman; even unto Dedan shall they fall by
14 the sword. And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury: and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God.
15. Thus saith the Lord God: Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken
16 vengeance with despite of soul to destroy it with perpetual enmity; therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off
17 the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.
It was a distinct part of scriptural prophecy to address heathen nations. This was variously done by the several prophets according to the varieties of time and place. Some, as Obadiah (to Edom) and Nahum (to Nineveh), addressed one such nation and no others. More commonly the prophecies to the chosen people and to the heathen were intermixed, as by Amos and Joel. In Isaiah (13-19) and Jeremiah (46-51) and Ezekiel, one section is specially devoted to a collection of such prophecies. Besides the special message to the nation addressed, every such prediction had the general purpose of exhibiting the conflict ever waging between the servants of God and the powers of the world, and of declaring the Divine decrees as to the issue of this conflict. This general purport is that which concerns us. Tyre and Egypt are overthrown, but there is still a warfare between good and evil, between God and Satan, and in the old prophecies against heathen nations we are to read of the struggle in which the Church of Christ has still to wrestle against her foes (Eph. 6: 12), but will surely prevail.
The series of prophecies, with one exception to be noticed in its place, contained in these chapters, was delivered at the time of the fall of Jerusalem, some shortly before and some shortly after the capture of the city. They were collected together to illustrate their original purpose of warning the nations not to exult in their neighbor’s fall. In the times of Jerusalem’s greatness, the surrounding nations had been her vassals, and when, from time to time, they became independent, they were no doubt regarded by the Jews simply as successful rebels. It is probable that Josiah, in the days of his prosperity, reasserted his right of dominion over Edom and Moab, and that this circumstance increased their pleasure to see the proud city degraded, even though they had often combined with her against a common and greater enemy. The prophet is now commissioned to warn these nations that judgment is coming upon them too, so that they shall be like Jerusalem in her ruin, unlike her in being without hope of recovery. Seven nations are addressed, which have had most intercourse with the children of Israel—on their eastern borders Moab and Ammon, to the south Edom, on the southwest Philistia, northward Tyre, the merchant city, and the more ancient Sidon (all these encroaching more or less on that which had once been David’s and Solomon’s kingdom—the full possession granted to Israel, but maintained only for a short time), and lastly Egypt, alternately the scourge and the false stay of the chosen people. Kliefoth lays stress on the number seven, symbolical of completeness. Seven nations, seven prophecies against Egypt the chief of the seven, denote the completeness of the overthrow of the heathen power, the antagonist of the kingdom of God. It is remarkable that while other prophets hold out to these heathen nations some prospect of future mercy (e.g., Isa. 16: 14; Jer. 49: 6, 11), Ezekiel speaks of complete ruin; the closing burden, they shall know that I am the Lord, predicting not so much that they will recognize and turn to Jehovah, as that they will find out by experience His power and judgments (verse 14, they shall know My vengeance). Ezekiel prophesied at the time of Jerusalem’s overthrow, and so was contemplating national ruin. In the case of Jerusalem there would be national restoration, but in the case of the heathens no such recovery. The national ruin was irretrievable; the remnant to whom the other prophets hold out hopes of mercy were to find it as individuals to be gathered into God’s Church, not as nations to be again set up. Ezekiel does not, like other prophets, prophesy against Babylon. Schrader supposes that the seer abstained from prudential reasons from prophesying against the Chaldeans, among whom he dwelt, but there is little ground for having recourse to such an explanation. The Jews were ready enough to see in Babylon an enemy of God, but it was Ezekiel’s mission to show that for the moment Babylon was on the side of Jehovah, the righteous instrument of the Divine wrath, doing God’s work in punishing His foes. These seven nations are all mentioned by Jeremiah (25: 15 foll.) as bidden to drink of the cup of the fury of the Lord; for five of them (Egypt and Philistia being excepted) Jeremiah was to make bonds and yokes (Jer. 27:3). B. C.
Chap. 25. Exterminating judgments are announced against Ammon (verses 1-7); against Moab (verses 8-11); against Edom (verses 12-14); and against Philistia (verses 15-17)—uniformly for the same national sin—viz., proud exultation over the fall of Judah and Jerusalem, and reproach cast on the name of Israel’s God by reason of their fall. Obadiah, nearly at the same time, wrote in the same strain against Edom; Ezek. 35 expands this prophecy against Edom. Jeremiah prophesied against the same four neighboring powers, yet with a somewhat broader view of their national sins and especially of their pride—viz., against Ammon (chap. 49:1-6); Moab (chap. 48); Edom (chap. 49:7-22); and Philistia (chap. 47). So also Isaiah and some of the minor prophets. The scope of these prophecies is designedly consolatory to the true people of God, assuring them that He still remembered Zion with tender affection, regarded her true interests as His own; and therefore would avenge her upon her proud and scornful foes. In this point of light, these prophecies hold an important place among the messages sent of God by Ezekiel to the exiled Jews in Chaldea. Their city in ruins, their nationality prostrate, and themselves in exile and under circumstances of the deepest national discouragement, they needed precisely such assurances of the Lord’s tender mercy and of His identity of interest and sympathy with their people as still bearing His name and yet to bear it before all the nations of the earth. All the more did they need such words from Ezekiel, because thus far his messages had spoken of little else than national sin, judgments, and ruin. From this point their subject and tone change. Henceforward, with scarce an exception, his messages are encouraging and consolatory to true hearts. H. C.
The four nations most closely connected with one another by geographical position and by consequent intercourse are grouped together in this chapter, each being addressed in a few brief sentences concluding with the same refrain: Ye shall know that I am the Lord. The time of the delivery of this joint prophecy, though not defined by Ezekiel, is made clear by the terms of the prophecy, and by the date of the following chapter. The sanctuary has been profaned, the house of Judah has gone into captivity. For although it is true that these words might have been spoken by prophetic anticipation, there is no need to assume this. In chap. 24 we were told that the siege was begun. The date of chap. 26 is that of its close. We may therefore suppose that this prophecy was delivered immediately after the capture of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, and so is later, in point of time, than some of the prophecies that follow it.
1-7. The Ammonites were inveterate foes of the descendants of Abraham. They had joined Eglon, had oppressed Israel in the time of Jephthah, had fought against Saul, David, Jehoshaphat and Jotham. They had joined the Moabites in Nebuchadnezzar’s army when he besieged Jerusalem in the reign of Jehoiakim (2 K. 24:2). In the time of Uzziah Amos reproves their cruelty (Amos 1:1, 13); in the time of Josiah, Zephaniah predicts their punishment for boasting against Judah (Zeph. 2:8, 9). Their exultation was against the sanctuary of the Lord, and should therefore the more certainly be punished. Prophecies against Ammon: Amos 1:13-15; Isa. 11:14; Jer. 49:1-6; Zeph. 2:8-11. B. C.
The sin for which Ammon is doomed is here made very definite—exulting triumph over God’s polluted Temple, desolate land, and captive people. There the record stands, equally in prophecy and in their history, witnessing that the Lord Almighty will let no people, however powerful or however proud, contemn His name with impunity. “The men of the East”—God’s executioners of vengeance upon Ammon—were the Chaldeans, raised up in His providence for judgment, not on Judah and Jerusalem alone, but on those contiguous nations which had long been deeply sunk in the same forms of debasing idolatry, and had now filled up the cup of their national sin by malign hostility against Israel and scornful exultation over her fall. They would seize the whole country of Ammon and make her proud capital a stable for camels—significant of an utter overthrow of her nationality. H. C.
5. The doom, once denounced, was surely though not immediately executed. Indeed, we do not know exactly when it was executed. We only know that it has been done; for, as the prophets foretold of this city, so at this day it lies. Meanwhile, however, it enjoyed a new lease of prosperity and wealth under the name of Philadelphia, which it derived from Ptolemy Philadelphia, who, when the country was annexed to the Egyptian crown, restored or greatly improved the city, and called it by his own name. These foreign names have rarely, however, been permanent in that country; for, while the new name would be employed by foreigners, and in all State matters, and on coins, the old name remains in use among the great body of the people, and sometimes survives in the ruins long after the foreign name has been forgotten. So, at the ruins of this city, the name of Philadelphia is altogether forgotten, while the original name of Rabbath-Ammon exists in the shape of Amman. The very site of the place was unknown until discovered about the beginning of this century by a German traveller called Seetzen. It was visited about twelve years after by Burckhardt, an accomplished Swiss traveller in the service of an English society, and who gave a very full and satisfactory description of the place. Other travellers have since been there—as Captains Irby and Mangles, Mr. Buckingham, M. Laborde, Lord Lindsay, Lord Claud Hamilton, and others; but this district lies so remote that the ancient sites are much less frequented by travellers than those on the nearer side of the Jordan.
The ruins lie in a valley about twenty-two miles east of the Jordan, through which flows a stream of very clear water, full of fish. The remains are very extensive; but there are few of important buildings except an amphitheatre, which is of great size, and is said to be the most perfect in Syria. There is also an ancient castle, and some vestiges of Roman buildings and Christian churches. Altogether, there is sufficient to evince the former importance of the city, suggesting to the mind a melancholy contrast with the desolation in which it now lies. The Arabs, who come up periodically into these parts, like to harbor in such forsaken sites for the sake of the shelter they can find among the ruins for themselves and their flocks, with the additional inducement that water of good quality is usually found in such localities. This is an old custom, and the prophets frequently allude to it as one of the incidents marking the desolation of cities bordering on Arabia. The stream of fine water at Amman doubtless forms an additional attraction to the parties of Arabs who resort to this site of ruins. Kitto.
Southeast of Es Salt are the extensive ruins of Amman, situated on either side of a small stream, which has its source in the old town and flows through it. Amman is the Rabbah or Rabbath-Ammon of the Bible, but it afterward received the name of Philadelphia from Ptolemy Philadelphus. The ruins are among the most remarkable in Palestine, and include an immense theatre partly excavated in the rock, a mausoleum, odeum, temples, a church, a citadel, and other public buildings, but they date from the Roman period, and no traces have yet been discovered of the presence of the Israelites. The whole place is now desolate, and only visited by wandering Bedouin with their flocks, recalling the prophecy of Ezekiel, “I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching-place for flocks” (25:5). Rabbah is the only city of the Ammonites mentioned in the Bible, and its chief interest is derived from the long siege which it sustained during the reign of David; at the end, apparently, of about two years the lower town was taken by Joab; but the citadel remained, and the honor of its capture was reserved for David himself. The importance attached to the operations against Rabbah is attested by the unusual fact of the presence of the ark with the army, and the length of the siege shows that it must have been a place of very great strength. During the period between the Old and New Testaments the town became of great importance, and, as we gather from Josephus, was the scene of several contests. To the southwest of Amman (Rabbath-Ammon) is Hesban (Heshbon), the royal city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, standing on a hill which rises above the general level of the plateau. The existing ruins are of little interest, but there are numerous cisterns and a large reservoir, which may call to mind the passage in the Song of Solomon, “Thine eyes are like the fish-pools in Heshbon.” Wilson.
8. Prophecies against Moab (Num. 24:17; Isa. 11:14; 15; 16; Jer. 48; Amos 2:1-3; Zeph. 2:8-11. Moab lay south of Ammon. Akin to Ammon, this people shared Ammon’s implacable hostility to the children of Israel.
And Seir. Seir was close to Moab, and therefore mentioned together, as in De. 2:29. Jerome tells us that the LXX omitted the word Seir, feeling probably that the mention of Edom was here out of place. But Edom is identified with Mount Seir in chap. 35, and it is therefore more probable that Seir is here coupled with Moab because, being near neighbors closely leagued together, they expressed a common exultation at Jerusalem’s fall.
10. With the Ammonites. In addition to the Ammonites. (See verse 4.) The Bedouins were not to be conquerors, but the land, having been laid waste by Chaldean armies, was to remain unoccupied except by nomadic hordes. Ammon and Moab, of common origin, whose lands had so often been interchanged, shall now share a common ruin. To the men of the East shall Moab with Ammon be given, that Ammon may
be remembered no more, and judgment be executed on Moab.
1-7. As the Egyptians had often proved false friends, so the Philistines had always been sworn enemies to the Israel of God and the more dangerous and vexatious for their being such near neighbors to them. They were considerably humbled in David’s time, but, it seems, they had got head again, and were a considerable people till Nebuchadnezzar cut them off with their neighbors, which is the event here foretold. The date of this prophecy is observable; it was before Pharaoh smote Gaza; when this blow was given to Gaza by the king of Egypt is not certain, whether in his expedition against Carchemish, or in his return thence, after he had slain Josiah, or when he afterward came with design to relieve Jerusalem; but this is mentioned here to show that this word of the Lord came to Jeremiah against the Philistines when they were in their full strength and lustre, themselves and their cities in good condition. H.
1. The historical allusion, “Before Pharaoh smote Gaza,” has been explained by critics variously. Among these various opinions, none seems to me more probable than that of Rosenmüller, who thinks it was Pharaoh-necho, and that the time was before his battle with Josiah at Meggido (2 K. 23:29), and perhaps when on his way from Egypt to the Euphrates. At this time the Chaldean power had not yet risen to formidable proportions. Carchemish fell into the hands of this same Necho soon afterward, and no human sagacity could foresee that the Chaldeans from the north country would ever overpower and desolate the cities of the Philistines. Their danger seemed to lie in the opposite direction—i.e., from Egypt on the south. These circumstances suggest a pertinent reason for this note as to the point of time before which the prophecy was revealed.
2,3. A flood of waters, coming down with the power of a deluge, is a common and pertinent figure for an invading and conquering army. Here it refers to the Chaldeans. So terrible will be the tramp of his cavalry and the thunder of his chariots, that, under the general consternation, fathers in their flight will not look back after their children, being consciously too feeble to afford them any protection or help. H. C.
4. To cut off from Tyrus and Zidon. The siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar, which lasted thirteen years, was an action famous in the history of that age. (See Ezek. 27, 28.) Zidon partook of the same fate as Tyre, both in prosperity and in adversity. (See Isa. 23 : 2, 4.) And her destruction is joined with that of Tyre by Ezekiel (chap. 28). W. Lowth.
The remnant of the country of Caphtor. The Caphtorim, as well as the Philistim, are said to have been descended from Mizraim, the father of the Egyptians. (See Gen. 10 : 14.) They expelled the Avim from that part of Philistia which is contiguous to Gaza, and fixed themselves there (De. 2 : 23) ; on which account the country was afterward called " the country of Caphtor." " The remnant of the country of Caphtor" is therefore to be understood of the few that remained out of a great number that formerly dwelt in that part of Philistia. Blayney.
5. Gaza is one of the oldest cities known to history. It appears (Gen. 10 : 19) as one of the border cities of the Canaanites ; it is standing to-day with more population than Jerusalem. It has a record in New Testament history (Acts 8 : 26) ; it figured conspicuously during the crusades ; and since the days of Abraham has never ceased to be a city of very considerable strength and importance. Ashkelon, the most western among the great cities of the Philistines, close on the sea-coast, is spoken of as suffering severely, " being cut off." Little of it remains to this day, though its site is known with reasonable certainty. It has long since " been cut off" as to any political power or importance.
6,7. This bold apostrophe to the sword of the Lord is exquisitely beautiful. The prophet sees in the future a series of fearful devastations coming on those doomed cities of the Philistines ; his poetic genius conceives of the Lord’s instrument as itself living, conscious and responsible, and he cries out, " O thou sword of the Lord, why not desist from that work of slaughter ? How long ere thou wilt rest ? Betake thyself to thy scabbard, rest, and be still." Then the spirit of prophecy shuts off the possibility of this, and the prophet gives us his outlook into the future in these expressive words, " How can it rest, seeing the Lord hath given it a commission against Ashkelon and the cities along the seashore ? It must execute the will of God !" The poetic beauty and indeed the moral power of these verses have rarely been surpassed by any of the old Hebrew prophets. H. C.
At first the answer of the prophet appears little other than a repetition of the Philistines’ thought ; but it is far more. This is not blind fate, but judgment strictly meted out and determined. It declares, in effect, that the wicked cannot be suffered to remain on the earth. They must be subjects of continual and exterminating judgment. There is no escape so long as they remain impenitent and at a distance from Him. Is it contradictory, then, for Zechariah to prophesy the conversion of the Philistines ? The rightful end of judgment is mercy. The sinner is driven into the arms of the Divine love. Our helplessness prepares for the reception of His salvation. M.