Ezekiel 35

Ezekiel 35:1-9

This chapter contains a prophesy of the destruction of Edom. 1. Their sin was malice to Israel, ver. 5, 10, 13. 2. Their ruin is threatened for it: God will be against them, ver. 3. Their country shall be laid waft, ver. 4, depopulated, and made quite desolate, ver. 6—9, and left in, when other nations that had been wafted should recover themselves, ver. 14, 15.

1. MOREOVER, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2. Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, ‘and prophesy against it, 3. And say unto it, Thus faith the Lord GOD, Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee ‘most desolate. 4. I will lay thy cities waft, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt ‘know that I am the LORD. 5. Because thou hast had a ‘perpetual hatred, and ‘half a shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword, in the time of their calamity,’ in the time that their iniquity had an end: 6. Therefore, as I live, faith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: ‘fith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. 7. Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out, and him that returneth. 8. And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers shall they fall that are slain with the sword. 9.’ I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return, and ‘ye shall know that I am the LORD.

Mount Seir had before been arraigned and condemned: a second time, to shew the certainty and immaniality of God’s council, the prophet must repeat the charge and the judgment passed upon her. Since God was against her, he must set his face against her too.

1. The provocation given by the Edomites was, their enmity and ill behaviour towards God’s Israel. The hatred of Esau against Jacob had been transmitted as a deadly feud to his posterity; and now they had an opportunity to wreak their revenge upon the Jews, they failed not to improve it, and shed the blood of those who fled in the sky of their calamity, unable to resist, when the measure of their iniquity was full, and their ruin compleated, v. 8. Nite, (1.) The quarrels of parents frequently descend to their children, and even national antipathies are often deeply rooted; but the most perpetual hatred is that which ever did and ever will subside between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. (2.) It is safe and cruel to take advantage of the distress of others, to oppress them, and add to their affliction.

2. The punishment denounced is the utter desolation of their country, v. 3. Since they had so lavishly shed blood, God will give them blood to drink, v. 6. The mountains shall be filled with the slain, and the sword devour without mercy, v. 8, so that on which ever side they turned, death met them. Thus should the country be made perpetual desolations, and never more be restored to its former prosperity: and in these judgments God will make himself known to them, as the stronger of his people’s wrongs; and sooner or later shall the revenge of the malicious be thus with fearful vengeance repack.

3. Because thou hast said, Thetis two nations, and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it, whereas the LORD was there: 11. Therefore, as I live, faith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them: and I

4. Moh. Te deven. 2. Moh. Magnified. 3. Sam. ii. 4. Chad. 15.

will make myself known amongst them, when I have judged thee. 12. And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemes which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume. 13. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them. 14. Thus saith the Lord GOD, When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. 15. “As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, to will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumes, even all of it, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 35:10-15

We have here farther instances of the wickedness of the Edomites.

1. In their blasphemes both against God and his people. Thus half said, Theje two nations and countries shall be men; they thought of fearing the land of Judah and Israel for their own; whereas, on though, the Lord was then; which shewed their profanency and impiety, as if, notwithstanding his presence and protection, they could and would possess it. They concluded, because the land was desolate, that God had utterly abandoned his people, v. 12. but it was far otherwise; for every boast and infancy would uttered against them, the Lord regarded as a reproach cast upon himself, v. 13.

2. They rejoiced to see the desolation of Israel, v. 15. their envy and hatred were thus gratified, and with a malicious pleasure they inflicted over them.

3. God remarked their wicked words: he heard, and will avenge them; he will retaliate upon them all the anger, envy, and hatred they shewed to his people, and make them desolate as those over whom they rejoiced. Yes, when other nations shall see their miseries removed, Edom’s desolation shall remain; or, as the words, v. 14. may be rendered, The whole earth shall rejoice in the desolation which I shall make for thee, pleased to behold their fall. And herein God will also glorify himself, and make his justice, power, and regard to his people, known in their enemies destruction, v. 11. Note, (1.) Not an idle word escapes the divine cognizance; much less the hard speeches which profane and ungodly sinners utter against the Lord. (2.) They who maliciously rejoice in the death of others, by whom they hope to gain, may expect that others will express the same malicious pleasure over them, when the day of their fall arrives. (3.) God will order all the dispositions of his providence and grace in such a way, as to demonstrate his care and love for his own people.