Ezekiel 35
PATThe prophet renews his former denunciations of judgments upon the Edomites, (see xxv. 12.) as a just punishment for their insulting over the calamities of the Jews.
Ezekiel 35:2
&ET thy face against Mount Seir. See vi. 2. Mount Seir is the same with Idumea. (See Deut. ii. 5.)
Ezekiel 35:4
I will lay thy cities waste, &c. See ver. 9.
Ezekiel 35:5
Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, &e. See the note on xxv. 12. In the time that their iniquity had an end.] When their iniquity received its just doom. (See vii. 6. xxi. 25. 29.)
Ezekiel 35:6
Sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. Since thou hast loved cruelty, and took delight in shedding blood, vengeance shall pursue thee, and thou shalt fall into the hands of those that will be as eager to shed thine. The phrase, TJiou hast not hated blood, is spoken by the figure called litotes by the rhetoricians, when the words imply more than they express. (See the note on Jer. vii. 31.)
Ezekiel 35:7
And cut off from it him that passeth out, and him that returneth. No travellers shall go forward or backward in it with safety. (See xxix. 11. compare Judg. v. 6. 2 Chron. xv. 5.)
Ezekiel 35:8
And I will fill his mountains with his slain men, &e. Every part of the country shall be filled with the carcasses of those that are slain. (Compare xxxii. 4, 5.)
Ezekiel 35:9
And I will make thee pe petual desolations, &c. See xxv. 13. Jer. xlix. 17, 18. Mai. i. 3. Dr. Prideaux, Script. Hist. par. ii. p. 299. informs us, that the Nabatheans having driven the Edomites out of their ancient habitations in the time of the Babylonish captivity, they settled themselves in the southern part of Judea, where they were afterward conquered by Hyreanus, and obliged to embrace the Jewish religion, and so became at length incorporated with that nation. (See ibid. p. 307.)
Ezekiel 35:10
These two nations, and these two countries, sliall be mine. They settled themselves in part of the country, and hoped to have got possession of tho whole in time. (See the note upon the foregoing verse.) The Ammonites had the same design, as appears from Jer. xlix. 1. Wliereas the Lord was there.] They did not believe that God had placed his name there, had chosen it for a place of his peculiar residence, and would never quite relinquish his property in it. (See xlviii. 35.)
Ezekiel 35:11
And I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee. I will make my people see that I have not quite east them off, by my avenging their quarrel upon thee.
Ezekiel 35:12
And thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Sec vi. 7. Tltey are laid desolate, &c] See the note on ver. 10.
Ezekiel 35:13
Tims with your mouth ye have boasted against me. As if I were not able to make good my promises towards the Jews, or to assert my right in Judea. (See ver. 10.)
Ezekiel 35:14
When thewhole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. When 1 shall restore other countries, conquered by the king of Babylon, to their former posterity, thou shalt still lie waste and desolate. The Edomites never recovered their country, after the Nabatheans had expelled them out of it. (See Dr. Prideaux, in the place abovecited.)
Ezekiel 35:15
Thou shalt be desolate — all Idumea. .The expression is like that of Isaiah, whole Palestina, Isa. xiv. 29. i. e. all the several tribes and divisions of it.