Ezekiel 25

Ezekiel 25:1-15

1. ALSO thou son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD. 2. Thus saith the Lord GOD, Because the enemy had said against you, Aha, “even the ancient high places” are ours in possession: 3. Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD, “Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talken, and” are an infamy of the people: 4. Therefore ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD, Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate waftes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are roared above: 5. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, “Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumes,” which have appointed my land into their possession, with the joy of all their

heart, with desperful minds to call it but for a prey. 6. Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy, and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen. 7. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, I have lifted up mine hand, surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame. 8. But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel, for they are at hand to come. 9. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and fown. 10. And I will multiply men upon you, all the bonds of Israel, even all of it, and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waftes shall be builded. 11. And I will multiply upon you man and beaft, and they shall increase and bring fruit, and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings, and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 12. Yes, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel, and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth" because them of men. 13. Thus saith the Lord GOD, Because they say unto you, “Thou land devoured up men, and halt bereaved thy nations; 14. Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither there are thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD. 15. Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shall thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shall thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord GOD.

The land of Israel was now desolate and depopulated, but God still thought upon the dalt thereof. We have,

1. His compassionate regard towards this miserable country. It was become a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen, vers. 4. Their neighbours inflicted them, and every tongue, v. 3. was ready to spread their infamy, v. 6. to spread them with their sins, and mock at their sufferings; whilst the nations around them, the residue, who had survived the judgments threatened, chap. xxv. xxvi. each seized that part of Judea which bordered upon their own country, as their prey.

2. His jealousy for his people. Because with spiteful joy their enemies exulted in their miseries, and with daring intrusion entered the inheritance of the Lord, v. 5. he hath spoken in the fire of his jealousy, vers. 5. and in his fury, vers. 6. that he will severely avenge their wrongs, and cover with shame and confusion these inveterate and malicious foes, v. 7. Note, They who make God’s people the subject of derision, will shortly be themselves supplied to everlasting shame and contempt.

3. God gives his people assurance of a happy restoration, and plenty of all good things in their own land; and the time is at hand, v. 8. The mountains shall yield abundant fruit; tho’ now uncultivated, they shall be tilled and fown; the cities that lie in ruins shall be replenished with inhabitants, v. 10. and all the houses of Israel, even all of it, not the two tribes only, but the ten tribes who went before into captivity, shall settle on their old estates, and see their flocks and herds multiplying under the divine blessing; and God will do better for them than at their beginnings; particularly with regard to the Spiritual blessings bestowed in the days of the Messiah, v. 11. Then should the mountains again become the abode of men, instead of wild beasts, which had dwelt thereby; the idolatries committed in them should cease, nor provoke God any more to because them of inhabitants, v. 12—14. and the reproach which had been laid on the mountains of Israel by the heathen, as if they had devoured all who dwelt in them, shall for ever be at an end, v. 15. Probably this prophecy looks to future times, and whatever fulfilment it received in the return of the Jews from Babylon; the perfect accomplishment of it is yet to come.

4. Moreover, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 17. Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way, and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a reproved woman. 18. Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they have shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it. 19. And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way, and according to their doings I judged them. 20. And when they entered unto the heathen whither they went, they profaned my holy

holy

holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land. 21. But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen whither they went. 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus faith the Lord GOD, I do not this for your taken. O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s lake, which ye have profaned among the heathen whither ye went. 23. And I will sanctify my great name which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, faith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you, before their eyes. 24. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

w. 16—24. The great and God propofes is the advancement of his own glory, and therefore the unwarthiness of his people is no bar to their salvation, rather the more shall the riches of his grace be magnified.

1. They had indeed forfeited all title to favour. By their sins they had dishonoured God, and defied the land: to totally corrupted were they, that every thing they touched, like a woman in her separation, became unclean, 6. 17. Murder and idolatry marked their way, and provoked God to pour out his fury upon them, 6. 18. and to scatter them for their abominations into heathen lands, 6. 19. Yet even there all their sufferings were still ineffectual; they finned yet more, and gave the adversaries of the Lord occasion to blaspheme. Their wicked lives brought a scandal on that name they professed to reverence and serve, and the very heathen treated them with irons. They are the people of the Lord: they mocked at their pretended relation to him; their conduct gave the lie to their profession; or it implied an insult on them God, as it, not withstanding all the Jewish boasts, he were unable to save them from the hand of their enemies. Nite, The sins of professors are the greatest scandal to religion, and give just occasion to the adversaries of the Lord to blaspheme; but we unto him by whom the offence cometh!

2. God will glorify his great name and the riches of his grace in their deliverance. They had no reason to expect any thing from him but wrath to the untermoll, their preparations were so aggravated; but then the heathen would blaspheme the more: therefore, not for their sake, but for his own glory, he will interpose, and gather them from among the nations, and bring them to their own land. Nite, Where sin hath abounded, God is most exalted in mercy, causing his grace much more to abound.

3. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. 26. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the flony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you, and ‘cauie you to walk in my statures, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29. I will also save you from all your uncleanhemes, and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 30. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathens. 31. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight, for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32. Not for your lakes do I this, faith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. 33. Thus faith the Lord GOD, In the day that I shall have cleaned you from all your iniquities, I will also cauie you to dwell in the cities, and the waltas shall be banished. 34. And the desolate land I shall be killed, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that patted by. 35. And they shall say, This land that was desolate, is become like the garden of Eden; and the waltas, and desolate, and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. 36. Then the heathen that are left round about you, shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. 37. Thus faith the Lord GOD, I will yet for this be “en-Vox. II.

quired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. 38. As if the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem to her solemn truth: so shall the waltic cities be filled with flocks of men, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

6. 25—38. Whatever accomplishment this prophecy had in the return of the Jewish people from captivity, when they were for ever cured of all inclination to idolatry, it seems to have a more especial regard to ga怪 loom. We have here.

7. Many great and precious promises given to God’s people. (1.) God will cleanse them from all their sins, 6. 25. by the blood of sprinkling removing their guilt, and by the efficacy of his grace delivering them from the power of their iniquities. (2.) He will give them a new heart, 6. 26. a heart changed by his divine energy from its former state of corruption, hardness, and unbelief; another spirit shall influence and guide them; the fiery heart, indelible and obdurate, shall be taken away, and in its stand a heart of flesh shall be given them, tender, and susceptible of every gracious imposition. (3.) Having made new their hearts, he will make great paths for their feet, and enable them to walk therein, 6. 27. He will not only clearly point out the path of duty, but engage and continue them to walk in it, and work in them to will and to do of his good pleasure. (4.) He will take them into covenant with himself: Ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. He engages to make them such as he would have them be, to work all for them and in them, and is himself the all-sufficient portion of his people. (5.) He will give them plenty of all such good things as they need; particularly, what the Jews counted the greatest earthly blessing, they shall return to their own land; have abundance of men and trust; shall know no more famine as before; nor be reproached by the heathen, as forced to lock their bread from other countries; when, to the wonder and forepiece of the surrounding nations, the land of Judea, lately to desolate, shall be filled, and become like the garden of Eden for fruitfulness; and the cities in mind shall be banished, and is plentiful with inhabitants. So soon can God’s blessing make a barren land fruitful, as his circle makes the fruitfulest land barren.

Some interpreter suppose all their promises are yet to receive their accomplishment in the recovery of the Jews from their present state of dispersion in the latter day.

2. The effect of God’s rich grace extended to them would be their unstigmed repentance. Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and hath yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities, and for your abominations. Nothing brings the soul to true humiliation, and such a sense of the hallmark and ingratitude of sin, as a view of God’s pardoning love: then we begin to loath ourselves; sin appears the abominable thing God hates, and therefore we hate it too: every remembrance of the palt covers us with genuine shame; and though God hath forgiven us, we can never forgive ourselves, for having ever offended a God so gracious.

3. God intends his own glory in what he doth for them, they being utterly unwitting the least regard; yet, though it is a matter of pure grace, he expects they shall seek it in the way of prayer, and be confounded for their former evil ways, 6. 31. 33. and he will give the answer of mercy, increasing them as a flock, the flock of Jerusalem in her gloom fights, immensely numbers of sheep being driven on these occasions to Jerusalem for sacrifice, and vast multitudes of worshippers assembled in the courts of the Lord’s house; and so numerous and populous should their desolate land and cities become; since he hath spoken it, the accomplishment is sure. Nite, (1.) Salvation is entirely of grace; our righteousness and deliers are utterly excluded, for indeed we have none, and God alone must be exalted in mercy. (2.) God’s promise do not supercede, but encourage our prayers. They who restrain prayer before God, sin against their own mercies. (3.) What God hath spoken is as good as done: not one jot or tittle of his word shall ever fail.

Ezekiel 25:8-17

Judgment begins at the hands of God, but it does not end there. Sentence has already been passed upon Judah, here the neighbour-

ing nations are threatened. 1. The Ammonites, vers. 1-7. 2. The Munitions, vers. 8-11. 3. The Edomites, vers. 13-14. 4. The Philistines, vers. 15-17. That which is said to the charge of each of them is their barbarous and inflicted carriage towards God’s Israel; for men shall triumph at God’s people with impunity.

Before Chath. 19th.

1. THE word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2. Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, and prophecy against them; 3. And say unto the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord GOD, Thus saith the Lord GOD, 4. Because thou saidt, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was produced, and against the land of Israel, when it was desolate, and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity; 4. Behold therefore, I will deliver thee to the men of the east for a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee, and make their dwellings in thee: they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk. 5. And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching-place for flocks: and ye shall know that I am the LORD. 6. For thus saith the Lord GOD, Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despise against the land of Israel: 7. Behold therefore, I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen, and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

2. 1-7. The Ammonites, the implacable enemies of the Jewish people, are left to be reckoned with. The Lord Jehovah, the God of Israel, declares their provocations, and denounces their doom.

3. Their crime was, the malicious pleasure they took in seeing God’s Israel ruined. They beheld with delight the profanations of the Sanctuary, and exalted in the desolations and captivity of the people; expressing the ransom and desolate of their hearts by their outward gestures, clapping their hands, leaping, and shouting for those miseries, which the Lord humanity would have taught them to pity. Note, (1.) The enmity of the natural heart against God’s people is sure to express itself on their falls or misfortunes. (2.) God observes and will severely visit the malice and ransom shewn by the enemies of his Israel.

4. Their punishment for this insolent carriage will be their utter destruction. The men of the east, the Chaldeans, or the Arabians, who were in Nebuchadnezzar’s army, and afterwards possessed the country; they shall seize their land for a possession, set up their palaces therein, and dwell there, foisting on their spoil, their fruits, and their milk, v. 4. Rabbah, the metropolis, shall be turned into a glade for minds, and the country feed the flocks of their conquerors, v. 5. God’s stretched-out arm shall make an end of them, cut them off from being any longer a people, and cause them to perish from the earth, v. 6. and in this terrible destruction make his own great name known as the avenger of his people’s wrongs.

5. ¶ Thus saith the Lord GOD, ¶ Because that Moab and Son do say, Behold the house of Judah; ¶ like unto all the heathen: 9. 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-jehminoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim, 10. Unto the men of the east; with the Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations. 11. And I will execute judgments 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: 13. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beall from it, and I will make it desolate from Teman, and they of Dedam shall fall by the sword. 14. 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 love, 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 vengeance with a despicful heart, to destroy it; for the old hatred, 16. There-

6. Therefore thus faith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Chertelions, and destroy the remnant of the sea-coast. 17. 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.

Three other guilty nations are called to God’s bar, and hear their doom. Their crimes and their punishments are nearly familiar.

1. The Monbites.

(1.) Their crime was, delight in the sins and sufferings of God’s people. They say, Behold the house of Judah is like unto all the hunters; perfect apostates from their God, and wholly given to idolatry, and, as the consequence thereof, fallen into the hands of the Babylonians; and no distinction fulfilling between them and others, of which they used to boast. Note, (1.) Apostates from God’s worship give the adversaries great occasion to blaspheme. (2.) Though the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, yet God knows how to put a vast difference between them.

(2.) The punishment of Moab would be to become a prey to the same invaders as had destroyed the country of Ammon: their detracts ruined; their country laid open; and their capital cities, their glory, demolished. Thus should they fall as the Ammonians their neighbours, whose name would be lost among the nations; and by these judgments God executes, his power, his wrath, and the truth of his threatnings would be known unto them.

2. The Edomites.

(1.) They not only, as their neighbours of Moab and Ammon, beheld and rejoiced in the fall of Judea; but they remembered the old grudge between Jacob and Esau, their subjection by David, and their chastisement by Amarada, and now embraced the favourable moment to execute their cruel revenge upon the poor afflicted people; at which God is highly and justly opposed, v. 12. Note, Whatever provocations we have received, it is highly criminal to entertain malice, or revenge ourselves: this is God’s prerogative; I forgave it mine.

(2.) God will punish them severely: from north to south the ravages of the Chaldeans shall spread, and man and head be cut off by the out-thretched arm of the Lord; and when afterwards they returned from their captivity, and began to recover themselves, by the hand of his people Israel God will lay vengeance upon them; which was fulfilled under the Maccabees, 1 Mos. v. 3. and Hircanus, as Josephus relates, subdued and made them tributaries. Thus will the Lord pour out his anger and fury upon them, and make them know by what they feel, against what a God of omnipotence and justice they have offended.

3. The Philistines. Their sin and punishment is nearly similar. With a despotful heart they seized this opportunity of taking vengeance for the old grudge they bore them: but they shall suffer for it; God’s arm not vengeance shall espouse his people’s quarrel; their mighty men shall perish, their maritime cities be destroyed, and with furious rebukes they shall be made to know, that Israel’s God is above all gods, and be made to confess his righteous judgments.