Ezekiel 35 commentary

EZEKIEL 35 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
A Prophecy Against Edom
1 The word of the Lord came to me:
BARNES, "In Ezek. 35–36 we see the devastation of Edom, and the restoration of
Israel. Edom was included among the nations against which Ezekiel prophesied Eze_
25:12-14. But its fuller doom was reserved for this place, because Edom was one of the
surrounding nations that profited at first by Judah’s fall, and because it helps by way of
contrast to bring out in a marked way the better future designed for Israel. Edom is the
God-hating, God-opposing power, ever distinguished for its bitter hatred against Israel;
and so the ruin of Edom is the triumph of Israel in the power of God.
GILL, "Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me,.... After the prophecy
concerning the shepherds of Israel, and the goats of the flock, and of their oppressions of
the sheep and lambs, the weak of the flock; and concerning the Messiah, and the
blessings of grace promised the church in the latter day; came another concerning the
destruction of her enemies, under the name of Seir or Edom:
HENRY, "Mount Seir was mentioned as partner with Moab in one of the
threatenings we had before (Eze_25:8); but here it is convicted and condemned by itself,
and has woes of its own. The prophet must boldly set his face against Edom, and
prophesy particularly against it; for the God of Israel has said, O Mount Seir! I am
against thee. Note, Those that have God against them have the word of God against
them, and the face of his ministers, nor dare they prophesy any good to them, but evil.
The prophet must tell the Edomites that God has a controversy with them, and let them
know,
JAMISON, "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
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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.
K&D, "The Devastation of Edom
Eze_35:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze_35:2. Son of man, set
thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, Eze_35:3. And say to it, Thus
saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will deal with thee, Mount Seir, and will stretch out
my hand against thee, and make thee waste and devastation. Eze_35:4. Thy cities will
I make into ruins, and thou wilt become a waste, and shalt know that I am Jehovah.
Eze_35:5. Because thou cherishest eternal enmity, and gavest up the sons of Israel to
the sword at the time of their distress, at the time of the final transgression, Eze_35:6.
Therefore, as truly as I live, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, I will make thee blood,
and blood shall pursue thee; since thou hast not hated blood, therefore blood shall
pursue thee. Eze_35:7. I will make Mount Seir devastation and waste, and cut off
therefrom him that goeth away and him that returneth, Eze_35:8. And fill his
mountains with his slain; upon thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy low places,
those pierced with the sword shall fall. Eze_35:9. I will make thee eternal wastes, and
thy cities shall not be inhabited; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. Eze_35:10.
Because thou sayest, The two nations and the two lands they shall be mine, and we will
take possession of it, when Jehovah was there; Eze_35:11. Therefore, as truly as I live,
is the saying of the Lord Jehovah, I will do according to thy wrath and thine envy, as
thou hast done because of thy hatred, and will make myself known among them, as I
shall judge thee. Eze_35:12. And thou shalt know that I, Jehovah, have heard all thy
reproaches which thou hast uttered against the mountains of Israel, saying, “they are
laid waste, they are given to us for food.” Eze_35:13. Ye have magnified against me
with your mouth, and heaped up your sayings against me; I have heard it. Eze_35:14.
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will prepare
devastation for thee. Eze_35:15. As thou hadst thy delight in the inheritance of the
house of Israel, because it was laid waste, so will I do to thee; thou shalt become a
waste, Mount Seir and all Edom together; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.
COFFMAN, "Verse 1
PROPHECY AGAINST EDOM
It is rather surprising to have another prophecy against Edom at this particular
place in Ezekiel, especially since he had just concluded one against the same people
back in Ezekiel 25; and a number of scholars have attempted to explain this.
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Cooke noted that this prophecy, "Gives greater detail, indicating that Edom had
recently aggravated their offenses against the covenant people and their God. Also
the full accomplishment of God's purpose required the return of the captives to
Palestine; and Edom had proposed to hinder that purpose by laying claim to
Palestine itself."[1]
Dummelow observed that, "Before the land could be returned to its rightful owners,
all false claims had to be disposed of. The prophecy had already disposed of the false
claims of that conceited remnant in Judea (Ezekiel 33:23-29); and this was a logical
place to take care of the false claims of Edom."[2]
Keil pointed out that, "The prophecy does not apply to Edom alone, because Edom
here stands as a representative of the whole world of mankind in their hostility
toward God and the covenant people."[3] Edom was thus used also by Isaiah in
chapters 34,43 as a representative standing for the entire wicked world; and in our
Commentary on those chapters, it was pointed out just how appropriate this use of
Edom really was. The same is true here.
The meaning of this prophecy against Edom, therefore, is simply that no wicked
nation on earth would be allowed to interfere with God's bringing his righteous
remnant back from Babylon at the end of their punishment, and again establishing
them in their ancient homeland.
Ezekiel 35:1-3
"Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face
against mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say unto it, Thus saith the Lord
Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, O mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand
against thee, and will make thee a desolation and an astonishment."
"Set thy face against mount Seir ..." (Ezekiel 35:2). The prophecy is against the
people called Edom, the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother, who occupied the
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rugged country southeast of the Dead Sea. Here "mount Seir" stands for the people.
"This area in Graeco-Roman times was called Idumaea";[4] the stronghold of the
area was the Edomite capital of Petra, also called Sela, a rockbound fortress with
magnificent stone palaces, the ruins of which are still impressive. "I am against thee,
O mount Seir ..." (Ezekiel 35:2). The following verses suggest a fourfold indictment
against the Edomites:
(1) They had aided Babylon in their final conquest of Jerusalem. Taylor suggested
that they bartered with Nebuchadnezzar, offering their support for portions of
Judea after the conquest.[5]
(2) Edom had attempted to annex Israel's territory.
(3) Her joyful exultation over Judah's fall was a shameful expression of her attitude
toward God's people.
(4) The Edomites from the very beginning of their history had maintained a
perpetual enmity against Israel (Amos 1:11). "This enmity against Israel, in the last
analysis was also bitter and implacable enmity against God Himself."[6]
The serious nature of this quadruple indictment was pointed out by Beasley-
Murray. For example, Edom's claiming part of Judea as her own possession
contradicted the prior claim of God Himself who had preempted it for his Chosen
People. In view of God's intention of again moving the Jews into the land, "Edom's
claim was little short of blasphemy in the eyes of God and of his prophets."[7]
COKE, "Introduction
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CHAP. XXXV.
The judgment of mount Seir for their hatred of Israel.
Before Christ 587.
THE prophet goes on to shew, that the same reason, which will operate in favour of
the Jews, will not operate in favour of the heathen; especially not in favour of the
Jews' relations, the Edomites: for they shewed no mercy and therefore deserved to
receive none; and, because they had a perpetual hatred, were to be made a
perpetual desolation.
PARKER, " Mount Seir
Ezekiel 35 , Ezekiel 36
Mount Seir represents Edom; Edom represents Esau. Idumea and Edom, found in
this chapter, are one and the same, to all practical intents. Edom was the enemy of
Israel: the record of their associations is a record of hatred and blood. We have in
the third verse what may be termed the severe aspect of God. Behold the goodness
and the severity of God! We would gladly curtain off the frowning countenance, and
ignore it, and say, God is love; his mercy endureth for ever, and his face is brighter
than the shining of the sun, there is no cloud in all the lustre of his countenance. We
might talk so: we should talk ignorantly, superstitiously, falsely. We had better, as
wise men, take in the whole case; our testament will lose nothing in music and in
grandeur by retaining in it the words "the wrath of the Lamb." We would rather
not have such words, if we were to consult our sentiment, our feeling; but we are to
consult history, philosophy, the right of things, and the reality of the economy under
which we live. We are, therefore, forced to say, that God can be severe in aspect,
terrible in judgment, that his hand is weighty, and when it falls upon the nations
they are crushed like a moth.
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What a blast of fire is this? When God is against a mountain or a city or a Prayer of
Manasseh , what is the issue? These are the words:—
"I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. I will
lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate" ( Ezekiel 35:3-4).
That is what God means by being "against" a man. Here is an instance of sublime
personification. The mount stands for the nation, the people, the whole idea
Edomitish. Yet is there not something contemptuous in the personification? He
makes all the people into a mountain—a heap of mud. What else is a mountain
when viewed physically and materially? He turns the people one upon another, so to
say, and having made a great mountain of them, he addresses the mountain as
impersonal, and says, "I am against thee." The language itself is full of suggestion.
"I am": there is life; life against matter; life against materialism; the living God
against the dead mountain. He will tear it to pieces. Life can tear to pieces anything
it can lay its hands upon. A child could waste a mountain. Its little fingers could
carry it all away; give it time enough, and the mountain cannot withstand the child.
Herein, as we have often had occasion to see, man is greater than any mountain.
Measured in stature, where is the man? Far away, all but invisible; yet the man says
to the mountain, I will climb thee, I will stand on thy top and wave the banner of
victory, and will tunnel thee and drive fire and iron right through the heart of thee.
What must it be then when God is against a Prayer of Manasseh , a mountain, a
nation? He has so many resources; we cannot calculate his armoury; the weapons of
war at the disposal of God are more than the number of his chariots, and they are
set down at twenty thousand. He can blight the mind, he can baffle the memory, he
can make the feeling callous: he can so work upon the parent"s eyes that the parent
shall not know his own child when they stand face to face; he can waste wealth, he
can take the sunshine out of prosperity, he can separate chief friends. To God there
are no giants; the mightiest of the Samsons of the world is as a frail insect.
It Isaiah , therefore, one of two things: God is either for us or against us. Is not the
place and relation occupied by man to God largely determined by the man himself?
Does not God plead for friendship? does he not ask for alliance? Hath it not pleased
the Eternal to assume the attitude of a suppliant, and to say, Why will ye die? why
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will ye not live? why will ye not come unto me and have life? I wait to be gracious:
behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man open the door I will come in? God
does relieve man of responsibility. It may please man to have some crabbed and
intricate theory, some metaphysical conception of human will, that enables him to
relieve the pressure of the sense of responsibility, and to take refuge in the roofless
hut of destiny and fate, to be lost and damned: but the Lord never consents to that
reasoning. The Lord"s speech to obdurate man is always a speech involving a
challenge or involving a remonstrance and a persuasion. God never says to any
Prayer of Manasseh , Thou art fated to be damned, and therefore I will not plead
with thee. Taking the Bible as the basis of our evidence, we have God evermore
pleading with Prayer of Manasseh , as if man were of consequence to him, as if
when he lost man he lost part of himself.
Does God give no reason for his frowning? Is his anger arbitrary? Is he a God of
moods, so that we know not in what temper he will awake? It hath pleased the Lord
to give an account of himself, and to say when he is against any man why he assumes
the attitude and the policy of hostility.
"Because" [this is the reason, and the reason always covers the necessity of the case.
Peril is no bigger than sin]—"because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast
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: therefore, as I live, saith the
Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou
hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee" ( Ezekiel 35:5-6).
Here is reason, here is justice, here is the husbandman who will reap the harvest
which he sowed with his own hands. Be not deceived, God is not mocked: with what
measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again; whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap; with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged. Your case shall
be determined, as it were, by yourself; as ye have done to others, so shall it be done
unto you. Here in the original grammar there is a play upon words. It hath pleased
God in the inscrutableness of his speech to man to mock man with his own verbs
and substantives; it hath pleased God to make a caricature of man"s grammar by
sneering at him through his own syntax. "Edom" means red, the red of blood; God
says, As thou hast been Edom, so shall all others be Edom to thee, red for red, blood
for blood: "I am against thee." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
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God!
The Lord knew the argument which Edom had conducted in his own soul. The Lord
quotes our own words against us. We have whispered them in confidence; the Lord
has heard them every one, and he thunders them from the housetop: "Because thou
hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will
possess it... Therefore—" Why can we not have one hour"s conference in absolute
secrecy and exclusion from God? Why may we not whisper "murder"? What is this
in the very air that hates the secrecy of blood, and that says, I am listening, and
every drop of blood you pledge yourselves to take I shall speak of with thunder and
lightning?
Why was God so jealous lest Edom should take Judah and Israel? The reason is
given in Ezekiel 36:10 : "Whereas the Lord was there." Edom thought to take the
two nations, Judah and Israel, and do as he pleased with them. The Lord will not
have sacrilege without punishing it. You cannot take away the true Church without
having to account for it in some form; because God is in it. We should be very
careful how we touch places that have been consecrated by noble usage, by high
custom, by solemn prayer; it may be right sometimes to take them down stone by
stone or to remove them elsewhere, but we should do so with reverent thought and
with reverent hands. Edom said he would take Judah and Israel, forgetting mayhap
that "the Lord was there," and that he had to reckon with the Lord. That is what
man always forgets; that is to say, man always forgets the divine element, the
supernatural presence—the mysterious element in life that will not be measured,
that cannot be touched,—imponderable, invisible, immortal, inevitable. The rich
fool said, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat,
drink, and be merry": but God said Never forget that—a monologue is but a one-
sided talk, and that one-sided talk is out or place in a universe that is governed by a
living Sovereign, an ever-present, ever-watching, ever-listening Father. Men want to
wrest things out of the hands of God; men try to invert destiny or to reverse
providence. This miracle lies beyond the reach of human power. He is foolish who
ignores election. Everything is settled and determined as to the purpose of God, but
that purpose is a purpose of love and inclusion and universal
blessing, if men will accept the overtures of condescending and gracious Heaven. We
believe in the election of nations; we believe in the call of men to do particular work;
we believe in the destiny of the race. God is Judge and Sovereign, Father and Ruler.
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The days of our years are appointed; the bounds of our habitation are fixed; the
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. God is not a God on one aspect or side of his character; he is always
God, never less than God: the Lord reigneth.
EBC, "JEHOVAH’S LAND
Ezekiel 35:1-15; Ezekiel 36:1-38
THE teaching of this important passage turns on certain ideas regarding the land of
Canaan which enter very deeply into the religion of Israel. These ideas are no doubt
familiar in a general way to all thoughtful readers of the Old Testament; but their
full import is scarcely realised until we understand that they are not peculiar to the
Bible, but form part of the stock of religious conceptions common to Israel and its
heathen neighbours. In the more advanced Semitic religions of antiquity each nation
had its own god as well as its own land, and the bond between the god and the land
was supposed to be quite as strong as that between the god and the nation. The god,
the land, and the people formed a triad of religious relationship, and so closely were
these three elements associated that the expulsion of a people from its land was held
to dissolve the bond between it and the god. Thus while in practice the land of a god
was coextensive with the territory inhabited by his worshippers, yet in theory the
relation of the god to his land is independent of his relation to the inhabitants; it was
his land whether the people in it were his worshippers or not. The peculiar
confusion of ideas that arose when the people of one god came to reside permanently
in the territory of another is well illustrated by the case of the heathen colony which
the king of Assyria planted in Samaria after the exile of the ten tribes. These settlers
brought their own gods with them; but when some of them were slain by lions, they
perceived that they were making a mistake in ignoring the rights of the god of the
land. They sent accordingly for a priest to instruct them in the religion of the god of
the land; and the result was that they "feared Jehovah and served their own." [2
Kings 17:24-41] It was expected no doubt that in course of time the foreign deities
would be acclimatised.
In the Old Testament we find many traces of the influence of this conception on the
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Hebrew religion. Canaan was the land of Jehovah [Hosea 9:3] apart altogether from
its possession by Israel, the people of Jehovah. It was Jehovah’s land before Israel
entered it, the inheritance which He had selected for His people out of all the
countries of the world, the Land of Promise, given to the patriarchs while as yet they
were but strangers and sojourners in it. Although the Israelites took possession of it
as a nation of conquerors, they did so in the consciousness that they were expelling
from Jehovah’s dwelling-place a population which had polluted it by their
abominations. From that time onwards the tenure of the soil of Palestine was
regarded as an essential factor of the national religion. The idea that Jehovah could
not be rightly worshipped outside of Hebrew territory was firmly rooted in the
minds of the people, and was accepted by the prophets as a principle involved in the
special relations that Jehovah maintained with the people of Israel. [Joshua 11:19;,
Hosea 9:3-5] Hence no threat could be more terrible in the ears of the Israelites than
that of expatriation from their native soil; for it meant nothing less than the
dissolution of the tie that subsisted between them and their God. When that threat
was actually fulfilled there was no reproach harder to bear than the taunt which
Ezekiel here puts into the mouth of the heathen: "These are Jehovah’s people-and
yet they are gone forth out of His land". [Ezekiel 36:20] They felt all that was
implied in that utterance of malicious satisfaction over the collapse of a religion and
the downfall of a deity.
There is another way in which the thought of Canaan as Jehovah’s land enters into
the religious conceptions of the Old Testament, and very markedly into those of
Ezekiel. As the God of the land Jehovah is the source of its productiveness and the
author of all the natural blessings enjoyed by its inhabitants. It is He who gives the
rain in its season or else withholds it in token of His displeasure; it is He who
multiplies or diminishes the flocks and herds which feed on its pastures, as well as
the human population sustained by its produce. This view of things was a primary
factor in the religious education of an agricultural people, as the ancient Hebrews
mainly were. They felt their dependence on God most directly in the influences of
their uncertain climate on the fertility of their land with its great possibilities of
abundant provision for man and beast, and on the other hand its extreme risk of
famine and all the hardships that follow in its train. In the changeful aspects of
nature they thus read instinctively the disposition of Jehovah towards themselves.
Fruitful seasons and golden harvests, diffusing comfort and affluence through the
community, were regarded as proofs that all was well between them and their God;
while times of barrenness and scarcity brought home to them the conviction that
Jehovah was alienated. From the allusions in the prophets to droughts and famines,
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to blastings and mildew, to the scourge of locusts, we seem to gather that, on the
whole, the later history of Israel had been marked by agricultural distress. The
impression is confirmed by a hint of Ezekiel’s in the passage now before us. The
land of Canaan had apparently acquired an unenviable reputation for barrenness.
The reproach of the heathen lay upon it as a land that "devoured men and bereaved
its population." [Ezekiel 36:13] The reference may be partly (as Smend thinks) to
the ravages of war, to which Palestine was peculiarly exposed on account of its
important strategic situation. But the "reproach of famine" [Ezekiel 36:30; Cf.
Ezekiel 34:29] was certainly one point in its ill fame among the surrounding nations,
and it is quite sufficient to explain the strong language in which they expressed their
contempt. Now this state of things was plainly inconsistent with the amicable
relations between the nation and its God. It was evidence that the land lay under the
blight of Jehovah’s displeasure, and the ground of that displeasure lay in the sin of
the people. Where the land counted for so much as an index to the mind of God, it
was a postulate of faith that in the ideal future when God and Israel were perfectly
reconciled the physical condition of Canaan should be worthy of Him whose land it
was. And we have already seen that amongst the glories of the Messianic age the
preternatural fertility of the Holy Land holds a prominent place.
This conception of Canaan as the Land of Jehovah undoubtedly has its natural
affinities with religious notions of a somewhat primitive kind. It belongs to the stage
of thought at which the power of a god is habitually regarded as subject to local
limitations, and in which accordingly a particular territory is assigned to every deity
as the sphere of his influence. It is probable that the great mass of the Hebrew
people had never risen above this idea, but continued to think of their country as
Jehovah’s land in precisely the same way as Assyria was Asshur’s land and Moab
the land of Chemosh. The monotheism of the Old Testament revelation breaks
through this system of ideas, and interprets Jehovah’s relation to the land in an
entirely different sense. It is not as the exclusive sphere of His influence that Canaan
is peculiarly associated with Jehovah’s presence, but mainly because it is the scene
of His historical manifestation of Himself, and the stage on which events were
transacted which revealed His Godhead to all the world. No prophet has a clearer
perception of the universal sweep of the divine government than Ezekiel, and yet no
prophet insists more strongly than he on the possession of the land of Canaan as an
indispensable symbol of communion between God and His people. He has met with
God in the "unclean land" of his exile, and he knows that the moral government of
the universe is not suspended by the departure of Jehovah from His earthly
sanctuary. Nevertheless he cannot think of this separation as other than temporary.
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The final reconciliation must take place on the soil of Palestine. The kingdom of God
can only be established by the return both of Israel and Jehovah to their own land;
and their joint possession of that land is the seal of the everlasting covenant of peace
that subsists between them.
We must now proceed to study the way in which these conceptions influenced the
Messianic expectations of Ezekiel at this period of his life. The passage we are to
consider consists of three sections. The thirty-fifth chapter is a prophecy of
judgment on Edom. The first fifteen verses of chapter 36 (Ezekiel 36:1-15) contain a
promise of the restoration of the land of Israel to its rightful owner. And the
remainder of that chapter presents a comprehensive view of the divine necessity for
the restoration and the power by which the redemption of the people is to be
accomplished.
I.
At the time when these prophecies were written the land of Israel was in the
possession of the Edomites. By what means they had succeeded in effecting a
lodgment in the country we do not know. It is not unlikely that Nebuchadnezzar
may have granted them this extension of their territory as a reward for their
services to his army during the last siege of Jerusalem. At all events their presence
there was an accomplished fact, and it appeals to the mind of the prophet in two
aspects. In the first place it was an outrage on the majesty of Jehovah which filled
the cup of Edom’s iniquity to the brim. In the second place it was an obstacle to the
restoration of Israel which had to be removed by the direct intervention of the
Almighty. These are the two themes which occupy the thoughts of Ezekiel, the one in
chapter 35 and the other in chapter 36. Hitherto he had spoken of the return to the
land of Canaan as a matter of course, as a thing necessary and self-evident and not
needing to be discussed in detail. But as the time draws near he is led to think more
clearly of the historical circumstances of the return, and especially of the hindrances
arising from the actual situation of affairs.
But besides this one cannot fail to be struck by the effective contrast which the two
pictures-one of the mountain land of Israel, and the other of the mountain land of
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Seir-present to the imagination. It is like a prophetic amplification of the blessing
and curse which Isaac pronounced on the progenitors of these two nations. Of the
one it is said:-
"God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth,
And abundance of corn and wine." [Genesis 27:28]
And of the other:-
"Surely far from the fatness of the earth shall thy dwelling be,
And far from the dew of heaven from above." [Genesis 27:39]
In that forecast of the destiny of the two brothers the actual characteristics of their
respective countries are tersely and accurately expressed. But now, when the history
of both nations is about to be brought to an issue, the contrast is emphasised and
perpetuated. The blessing of Jacob is confirmed and expanded into a promise of
unimagined felicity, and the equivocal blessing on Esau is changed into an
unqualified and permanent curse. Thus, when the mountains of Israel break forth
into singing, and are clothed with all the luxuriance of vegetation in which the
Oriental imagination revels, and cultivated by a happy and contented people, those
of Seir are doomed to perpetual sterility and become a horror and desolation to all
that pass by.
Confining ourselves, however, to the thirty-fifth chapter, what we have first to
notice is the sins by which the Edomites had incurred this judgment. These may be
summed up under three heads: first, their unrelenting hatred of Israel, which in the
day of Judah’s calamity had broken out in savage acts of revenge (Ezekiel 35:5);
second, their rejoicing over the misfortunes of Israel and the desolation of its land
(Ezekiel 35:15); and third, their eagerness to seize the land as soon as it was vacant
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(Ezekiel 35:10). The first and second of these have been already spoken of under the
prophecies on foreign nations; it is only the last that is of special interest in the
present connection. Of course the motive that prompted Edom was natural, and it
may be difficult to say how far real moral guilt was involved in it. The annexation of
vacant territory, as the land of Israel practically was at this time, would be regarded
according to modern ideas as not only justifiable but praiseworthy. Edom had the
excuse of seeking to better its condition by the possession of a more fertile country
than its own, and perhaps also the still stronger plea of pressure by the Arabs from
behind. But in the consciousness of an ancient people there was always another
thought present; and it is here if anywhere that the sin of Edom lies. The invasion of
Israel did not cease to be an act of aggression because there were no human
defenders to bar the way. It was still Jehovah’s land, although it was unoccupied;
and to intrude upon it was a conscious defiance of His power. The arguments by
which the Edomites justified their seizure of it were none of those which a modern
state might use in similar circumstances, but were based on the religious ideas which
were common to all the world in those days. They were aware that by the unwritten
law which then prevailed the step they meditated was sacrilege; and the spirit that
animated them was arrogant exultation over what was esteemed the humiliation of
Israel’s national deity: "The two nations and the two countries shall be mine, and I
will possess them, although Jehovah was there" (Ezekiel 35:10 : cf. Ezekiel
35:12-13). That is to say, the defeat and captivity of Israel had proved the impotence
of Jehovah to guard His land; His power is broken, and the two countries called by
His name lie open to the invasion of any people that dares to trample religious
scruples underfoot. This was the way in which the action of Edom would be
interpreted by universal consent; and the prophet is only reflecting the general sense
of the age when he charges them with this impiety. Now it is true that the Edomites
could not be expected to understand all that was involved in a defiance of the God of
Israel. To them He was only one among many national gods, and their religion did
not teach them to reverence the gods of a foreign state. But though they were not
fully conscious of the degree of guilt they incurred, they nevertheless sinned against
the light they had; and the consequences of transgression are never measured by the
sinner’s own estimate of his culpability. There was enough in the history of Israel to
have impressed the neighbouring peoples with a sense of the superiority of its
religion and the difference in character between Jehovah and all other gods. If the
Edomites had utterly failed to learn that lesson, they were themselves partly to
blame; and the spiritual insensibility and dulness of conscience which everywhere
suppressed the knowledge of Jehovah’s name is the very thing which in the view of
Ezekiel needs to be removed by signal and exemplary acts of judgment.
14

It is not necessary to enter minutely into the details of the judgment threatened
against Edom. We may simply note that it corresponds point for point with the
demeanour exhibited by the Edomites in the time of Israel’s final retribution. The
"perpetual hatred" is rewarded by perpetual desolation (Ezekiel 35:9); their seizure
of Jehovah’s land is punished by their annihilation in the land that was their own
(Ezekiel 35:6-8); and their malicious satisfaction over the depopulation of Palestine
recoils on their own heads when their mountain land is made desolate "to the
rejoicing of the whole earth" (Ezekiel 35:14-15). And the lesson that will be taught
to the world by the contrast between the renewed Israel and the barren mountain of
Seir will be the power and holiness of the one true God: "they shall know that I am
Jehovah."
PETT, "Introduction
Chapter 35 The Denunciation of Edom.
The question must be asked as to why the denunciation of Mount Seir (Edom) is
found in the midst of these chapters about deliverance? The answer must lie in the
fact that it is in deliberate contrast with Israel’s fate and restoration. Note how
‘Mount Seir’ (the mountain range of Edom) is in contrast with ‘the mountains of
Israel’, the mountain backbone of Israel (Ezekiel 35:3; Ezekiel 35:7; Ezekiel 35:15;
with Ezekiel 35:12; Ezekiel 36:8. Also compare Ezekiel 35:8 with Ezekiel 36:6). And
how ‘Behold I am against you, O Mount Seir’ (Ezekiel 35:3) contrasts with, ‘O
mountains of Israel, -- behold I am for you and I will turn to you’ (Ezekiel 36:8-9).
Furthermore Ezekiel 36:1-16 are directly connected with chapter 35 by the fact that
‘the word of Yahweh came to me saying’ (Ezekiel’s way of dividing the oracles)
occurs only in Ezekiel 35:1 and then in Ezekiel 36:16. The whole was seen as one
oracle.
While the blessing of Yahweh will come on His people, it will be accompanied by
judgment on others who have despised His people. And Edom as the bitterest enemy
15

of Israel were selected for the contrast, partly because they shared a similar
situation to Judah in their connection with the Jordan rift and its surrounding
mountains, and largely because their betrayal was most recently in mind. And even
more because they thought that they could take possession of Yahweh’s land which
He had given to His people. It demonstrated that it was always dangerous to meddle
with the people of God even when they also were under chastening.
The despicable behaviour of Edom during and after the invasion, in that they
turned back fleeing refugees to the swords of the Babylonians, probably to earn the
commendation of Nebuchadnezzar and so that they could possess the land, and then
later plundered the suffering land as a result, was still warm in the memory and
merited their being especially remembered in this way. It is a stark warning that
when God is blessing not all will receive the blessing. God blesses His own and
punishes their enemies. Their enemies will reap what they have sown, especially
when they have been so vindictive. For God is the God of all nations and is not to be
thwarted by any.
Verses 1-4
‘Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, set your face
against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say to it, Thus says the Lord
Yahweh, Behold I am against you, O Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand
against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment. I will lay your
cities waste and you will be desolate, and you will know that I am Yahweh.” ’
Mount Seir (Edom) had no doubt gloated over what was happening to Judah, but
now they learn that it would also happen to them. They too would suffer as Judah
had previously done at the hand of Yahweh (compare Ezekiel 33:28; Ezekiel 12:20;
Ezekiel 19:7). Their betrayal would not save them from the hand of God. There
would be total devastation.
‘Mount Seir’ refers especially to the continuation of the Jordan rift valley after it
passes the Dead Sea, the land where Petra (Sela) is to be found. It was in that
16

mountainous region that the Edomites lived and revealed their almost perpetual
enmity towards Judah and Israel.
PULPIT, "Ezekiel 35:1
Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. As no date is given, the
present oracle, extending to the close of Ezekiel 36:15, may be assumed to have been
communicated to and delivered by the prophet in immediate succession to the
foregoing, with which it has also an intimate connection. Having announced the
future restoration of Israel, as Jehovah's flock, to her own land under the leadership
of Jehovah's servant David, who should feed them like a shepherd and rule them
like a prince (Ezekiel 34:13, Ezekiel 34:23, Ezekiel 34:24), the prophet proceeds to
contemplate the existing hindrance to this return in the occupation of Palestine by
the Edomites, who had probably been allowed by the Chaldeans to take possession
of it in payment of services rendered by them against Judah in the siege of
Jerusalem—to predict the entire removal of this hindrance. (Ezekiel 36:1-15), and to
administer to Israel the comfort which, as a consequence, would ensue (Ezekiel
36:1-15).
WHEDON, " FATE OF EDOM, AND EXALTATION OF ISRAEL OVER THE
HEATHEN BECAUSE OF THE NAME OF JEHOVAH.
The most conspicuous mountain chain is here taken to represent the entire land of
Edom, just as it is so used, seemingly (1400 B.C.), in the “land of Shiri” of the Tel-el-
Amarna tablets. For Edom see notes Ezekiel 25:12-14. As the lower classes of the
Israelites who had been left in the holy land should not retain it for themselves
(Ezekiel 33:24, etc.), so these nearby and hereditary enemies (Ezekiel 35:5) who had
just assisted Nebuchadnezzar (Obadiah 1:10-15) to “give over the children of Israel
to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of
the end” (Ezekiel 35:5, R.V.), would not be able, for all their boasting (Ezekiel
35:10; Ezekiel 35:12), to capture the country even in the absence of the best portion
of the population. Judah had sinned, and her iniquity had reached its climax at the
destruction of Jerusalem, which was the end of one national era; but there was to
come a new era of national prosperity for the people of Jehovah (chap. 36, etc.),
17

while those who now rejoiced in her ruin, and thought themselves more powerful
than the God of Mount Zion (Ezekiel 35:12), should be destroyed and their land left
desolate. They should be given to the sword “prepared unto” (or, “appointed to”)
blood. (Compare Ezekiel 16:38.)
Sith (Ezekiel 35:6) — That is, since. They did not hate blood, but delighted in
violence, “therefore blood shall pursue” them. Thus Mount Seir shall be made “an
astonishment and a desolation” (Ezekiel 35:7), without even a passing traveler”
(compare Ezekiel 33:28; Zechariah 7:14). [Compare Adam Clarke’s apt illustration
of the ancient queen who, having killed a bloody tyrant, cast his head into a basin of
blood, saying, “Thy thirst was blood, now drink thy fill.”] This desolation shall be
perpetual, and the “cities shall not be inhabited” (Ezekiel 35:9, R.V.), because of her
attempt to possess the good heritage of Israel and Judah, and to devour it “as a
feast” (Ezekiel 35:12, Kautzsch), thinking that the God of the land as well as the
people had been defeated or carried off into captivity (Ezekiel 35:10). Therefore
Jehovah would lay upon the Edomites the very afflictions which they thought to
impose upon Israel.
And thus saith Jehovah: “I will make myself known among them [LXX., ‘in thee’],
when [or, ‘according as’] I shall judge thee” (Ezekiel 35:11, R.V.). Compare Ezekiel
33:29, and the end of each threatening prophecy. The time was soon coming when
the new Israel and the redeemed earth should rejoice (Ezekiel 35:14, compare
Ezekiel 34:11-30, Isaiah lv, etc.), but “Mount Seir and all Edom” (R.V.) should be
desolate (Ezekiel 35:15; compare Isaiah 24; Isaiah 63:1-6). Only thus could they be
made to know the omnipotence of the one God and his tender love toward those who
trusted him. This is not, as the Polychrome Bible thinks, a picture of Jehovah as a
“non-moral” or revengeful autocrat, but it is the picture of a just Judge who inflicts
legal penalties upon guilty nations for worthy ends. The literal fulfillment of this
prophecy has often startled the modern traveler. “Idumea, once so rich in flocks, so
strong in its fortresses and rock-hewn cities, so extensive in its commercial relations,
so renowned for the architectural splendor of its palaces, is now a deserted and
desolate wilderness.… No merchant would now dare to enter its borders; its
highways are untrodden, its cities are all in ruins.” — J.L. Porter, quoted in the
Pulpit Commentary.
18

2 “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir;
prophesy against it
CLARKE, "Set thy face against Mount Seir - That is, against the Edomites. This
prophecy was probably delivered about the time of the preceding, and before the
destruction of Idumea by Nebuchadnezzar, which took place about five years after.
Calmet supposes that two destructions of Idumea are here foretold; one by
Nebuchadnezzar, and the other by the Jews after their return from their captivity.
GILL, "Son of man set thy face against Mount Seir,.... Which had its name from
Seir the Horite, who first possessed it; and was succeeded in it by Esau and his posterity,
the Edomites; see Gen_36:8, Deu_2:12, so that the country of Edom or Idumea is here
intended, and the inhabitants of it; who are put for the enemies of the church and people
of God in general, as these were the enemies of Israel and Judah; and particularly for
Rome, which, as it was spiritually called Egypt and Sodom, so it may be called Edom, as
it often is by the Jews: now the prophet is bid to turn his face towards this mountain or
country, and look sternly at it, and severely threaten it. The Targum is,
JAMISON, "Mount Seir — that is, Idumea (Gen_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; Isa_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.
K&D 2-9, "The theme of this prophecy, viz., “Edom and its cities are to become a
desert” (Eze_35:2-4), is vindicated and earnestly elaborated in two strophes,
commencing with '‫ן‬ַ‫ַע‬‫י‬ ‫וגו‬ (Eze_35:5 and Eze_35:10), and closing, like the announcement
of the theme itself (Eze_35:4), with '‫י‬ ִ‫כּ‬ ‫י‬ִ‫ֲנ‬‫א‬ (‫עוּ‬ ְ‫ָד‬‫י‬ ְ‫)ו‬ ‫ם‬ ֶ‫עתּ‬ ַ‫יד‬ ִ‫,ו‬ by a distinct statement of the
sins of Edom. - Already, in Ezekiel 25, Edom has been named among the hostile border
nations which are threatened with destruction (Eze_35:12-14). The earlier prophecy
applied to the Edomites, according to their historical relation to the people of Israel and
the kingdom of Judah. In the present word of God, on the contrary, Edom comes into
19

consideration, on the ground of its hostile attitude towards the covenant people, as the
representative of the world and of mankind in its hostility to the people and kingdom of
God, as in Isa 34 and Isa_63:1-6. This is apparent from the fact that devastation is to be
prepared for Edom, when the whole earth rejoices (Eze_35:14), which does not apply to
Edom as a small and solitary nation, and still more clearly from the circumstance that, in
the promise of salvation in Ezekiel 36, not all Edom alone (Eze_35:5), but the remnant
of the heathen nations generally (Eze_36:3-7 and Eze_36:15), are mentioned as the
enemies from whose disgrace and oppression Israel is to be delivered. For Eze_35:2,
compare Eze_13:17. ‫ר‬ ַ‫ה‬ is the name given to the mountainous district inhabited by the
Edomites, between the Dead Sea and the Elanitic Gulf (see the comm. on Gen_36:9).
The prophecy is directed against the land; but it also applies to the nation, which brings
upon itself the desolation of its land by its hostility to Israel. For Eze_35:3, compare
Eze_6:14, etc. ‫ה‬ ָ‫בּ‬ ְ‫ר‬ ָ‫,ח‬ destruction. The sin of Edom mentioned in Eze_35:5 is eternal
enmity toward Israel, which has also been imputed to the Philistines in Eze_25:15, but
which struck deeper root, in the case of Edom, in the hostile attitude of Esau toward
Jacob (Gen_25:22. and Gen_27:37), and was manifested, as Amos (Amo_1:11) has
already said, in the constant retention of its malignity toward the covenant nation, so
that Edom embraced every opportunity to effect its destruction, and according to the
charge brought against it by Ezekiel, gave up the sons of Israel to the sword when the
kingdom of Judah fell. ‫יר‬ִ‫נּ‬ ִ‫ה‬ ‫ל‬ַ‫ע‬ , lit., to pour upon ( - into) the hands of the sword, i.e., to
deliver up to the power of the sword (cf. Psa_63:11; Jer_18:21). ‫ת‬ֵ‫ע‬ ְ‫בּ‬ recalls to mind ‫ם‬ ‫י‬ ְ‫בּ‬
‫ם‬ ָ‫יד‬ ֵ‫א‬ in Oba_1:13; but here it is more precisely defined by ‫ת‬ֵ‫ע‬ ְ‫בּ‬ ‫ֲון‬ֹ‫ע‬ , and limited to the
time of the overthrow of the Israelites, when Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the
Chaldeans. ‫ת‬ֵ‫ע‬ ְ‫בּ‬ ‫ֲון‬ֹ‫ע‬ ‫ץ‬ ֵ‫,ק‬ as in Eze_21:30. On account of this display of its hostility, the
Lord will make Edom blood (Eze_35:6). This expression is probably chosen for the play
upon the words ‫ם‬ ָ‫דּ‬ and ‫ם‬ֹ‫ד‬ֱ‫א‬. Edom shall become what its name suggests. Making it
blood does not mean merely filling it with bloodshed, or reddening the soil with blood
(Hitzig); but, as in Eze_16:38, turning it as it were into blood, or causing it to vanish
therein. Blood shall pursue thee, “as blood-guiltiness invariably pursues a murderer,
cries for vengeance, and so delivers him up to punishment” (Hävernick). ‫ם‬ ִ‫א‬ ‫ֹא‬ ‫ל‬ cannot
be the particle employed in swearing, and dependent upon ‫י‬ִ‫נ‬ ָ‫י־א‬ ַ‫,ח‬ since this particle
introduces an affirmative declaration, which would be unsuitable here, inasmuch as ‫ם‬ ָ‫דּ‬
in this connection cannot possibly signify blood-relationship. ‫ם‬ ִ‫א‬ ‫ֹא‬ ‫ל‬ means “if not,” in
which the conditional meaning of ‫ם‬ ִ‫א‬ coincides with the causal, “if” being equivalent to
“since.” The unusual separation of the ‫ֹא‬‫ל‬ from the verb is occasioned by the fact that ‫ם‬ ָ‫דּ‬
is placed before the verb to avoid collision with ‫ם‬ ָ‫דּ‬ ְ‫.ו‬ To hate blood is the same as to have
a horror of bloodshed or murder. This threat is carried out still further in Eze_35:7 and
Eze_35:8. The land of Edom is to become a complete and perpetual devastation; its
inhabitants are to be exterminated by war. The form ‫ה‬ ָ‫ֲמ‬‫מ‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ stands for ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ְ‫מּ‬ ִ‫,שׁ‬ and is not
to be changed into ‫ה‬ ָ‫מּ‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫.מ‬ Considering the frequency with which ‫ה‬ ָ‫מּ‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫מ‬ occurs, the
supposition that we have here a copyist's error is by no means a probable one, and still
less probable is the perpetuation of such an error. ‫ר‬ ֵ‫ב‬ֹ‫ע‬ ‫ב‬ָ‫ָשׁ‬‫ו‬, as in Zec_7:14. For Eze_
35:8 compare Eze_32:5-6 and Eze_31:12. The Chetib ‫ָה‬‫נ‬ ְ‫ב‬ַ‫ישׁ‬ ֵ‫תּ‬ is scriptio plena for
‫ָה‬‫נ‬ ְ‫ב‬ַ‫שׁ‬ ֵ‫,תּ‬ the imperfect Kal of ‫ב‬ַ‫ָשׁ‬‫י‬ in the intransitive sense to be inhabited. The Keri
20

‫ָה‬‫נ‬ ְ‫ב‬ֹ‫שׁ‬ ָ‫,תּ‬ from ‫,שׁוּב‬ is a needless and unsuitable correction, since ‫שׁוּב‬ does not mean
restitui.
COKE, "Ezekiel 35:2. Set thy face against mount Seir— That is, Edom. This
prophesy is manifestly of the same year with the foregoing; for it is posterior to the
siege of Jerusalem, and it precedes the desolation of Edom, which happened about
the fifth year after the taking of Jerusalem. I am of opinion, says Calmet, that the
prophet marks out here two disgraces of Edom, the one by Nebuchadrezzar, the
other by the Jews after their return from captivity. The latter is described here
more particularly than the former. The prophet says, that as the Idumeans had
hated their own blood, they should be persecuted by their own blood; that is, by the
Israelites, their brethren. See Ezekiel 35:6. He says afterwards, Ezekiel 35:14 that
their country should be made desolate at the time when all the land should rejoice:
which can be appropriated to no other time than that which followed the restoration
of the Jews from captivity. As to the first desolation caused by Nebuchadrezzar, it is
well and fully expressed in the third and other verses.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 35:2 Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy
against it,
Ver. 2. Set thy face.] Ezekiel 6:2.
Against Mount Seir.] Inhabited by the Edomites.
And prophesy against it.] This had been done before, [Ezekiel 25:12] but not
enough. God hath a further saying to them, and that for the comfort of his poor
people who might thus object. Peace and security from danger is promised us in the
foregoing chapter; but we have still many deadly enemies, and none worse than our
near allies and next neighbours the Edomites. Here, therefore, they are heavily
threatened with utter desolation for their malignity against Israel, and their
blasphemy against God.
21

POOLE, "Verse 2
Put thyself in a posture looking towards Mount Seir, but with a stern and menacing
countenance; the phrase you meet Ezekiel 20:46 21:2 25:2.
Mount Seir; the country for the inhabitants of it, as is usual in Scripture. This was a
mountainous country, yet fruitful. It was so called from the old lord of it, Seir the
Horite, or mountaineer from Hor, whose posterity were ousted of it by Esau’s
posterity, Deuteronomy 2:12.
Prophesy against it; foretell what sad things are coming on them.
PULPIT, "Set thy face against Mount Seir. The mountainous are in between the
Dead Sea and the Elanitic Gulf, which formed the original settlement of Esau and
his descendants (Genesis 36:9), is here put for the land of Edom, as the land in turn
stands for its people (Ezekiel 25:8). Although already the prophet has pronounced a
threatening doom against Edom (Ezekiel 25:12-14), he once more directs against, it
the judgments of Heaven, on this occasion viewing it as the representative of all
those hostile world-powers which from the first had been opposed to Israel as the
theocratic nation, and which even then, by their antagonism, hindered her return
(cf. Isaiah 63:1-8).
3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch
out my hand against you and make you a desolate
waste.
22

GILL, "And say unto it, thus saith the Lord God,.... The prophet was not upon the
spot, and could not direct his speech immediately to the Edomites; but he might send
this prophecy to their ambassadors at Babylon; or in a letter to them in their own land,
in the name of the Lord:
behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee: not the face of the prophet only, but the
face of God himself was against them; and a terrible thing it is for any to have God to be
against them, whether a nation, or a particular person. The Targum is,
"behold, I send my fury upon thee:''
and I will stretch out mine hand against thee; which was able to reach them
wherever they were: and which, being stretched out, cannot be turned back; and, where
it lights, falls heavy indeed; namely, his mighty hand of power and wrath. The Targum is,
"and I will lift up the stroke of my power upon thee;''
that is, lift up his hand and strike powerfully; the consequence of which must be as
follows:
and I will make thee most desolate; their land, cities, towns, and villages, all should
be utterly laid waste; see Rev_17:16, so it follows:
JAMISON, "most desolate — literally, “desolation and desolateness” (Jer_49:17,
etc.). 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” (Amo_9:12).
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 35:3 And say unto it, Thus saith 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.
Ver. 3. Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee.] Ecce ego ad te; have at thee.
And I will stretch out my hand against thee.] I will have my full blow at thee.
23

I will make thee most desolate.] Heb., Desolation and desolation. I will make an
utter end; desolation shall not rise up the second time; [Nahum 1:9] I will make
short work. [Romans 9:28]
POOLE, "Verse 3
Say unto it; by a prosopopoeia, or personating a discourse with them; speak of them
as if thou wert speaking to them. Against thee: see Ezekiel 28:22 34:10.
Stretch out mine hand: see Eze 6 14,25:7.
Against, or over, denoting how inevitable the stroke will be which God gives from
above.
Most desolate; wasted, forsaken, and nothing but solitariness left in time.
PULPIT, "Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee (cf. Ezekiel 5:8; Ezekiel 13:8;
and contrast Ezekiel 36:9), and I will stretch out mine hand against thee (cf. Ezekiel
6:14; Ezekiel 14:9, Ezekiel 14:13; Ezekiel 25:7, 19; and Exodus 7:5), and I will make
thee most desolate; literally, a desolation and an astonishment (cf. Ezekiel 35:7).
Against the mountains of Israel had been denounced a similar fate, which the
idolatrous remnant that lingered in the laud after the Captivity had commenced
began to experience (Ezekiel 33:28, Ezekiel 33:29). The doom, however, connected
with the day of Israel's return was to fall upon Edom, whose cities should be
emptied of their inhabitants and whose fields should be cursed with barrenness
(Ezekiel 25:13; Obadiah 1:8, Obadiah 1:10).
24

4 I will turn your towns into ruins and you will be
desolate. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
GILL, "And say unto it, thus saith the Lord God,.... The prophet was not upon the
spot, and could not direct his speech immediately to the Edomites; but he might send
this prophecy to their ambassadors at Babylon; or in a letter to them in their own land,
in the name of the Lord:
behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee: not the face of the prophet only, but the
face of God himself was against them; and a terrible thing it is for any to have God to be
against them, whether a nation, or a particular person. The Targum is,
"behold, I send my fury upon thee:''
and I will stretch out mine hand against thee; which was able to reach them
wherever they were: and which, being stretched out, cannot be turned back; and, where
it lights, falls heavy indeed; namely, his mighty hand of power and wrath. The Targum is,
"and I will lift up the stroke of my power upon thee;''
that is, lift up his hand and strike powerfully; the consequence of which must be as
follows:
and I will make thee most desolate; their land, cities, towns, and villages, all should
be utterly laid waste; see Rev_17:16, so it follows:
JAMISON, "most desolate — literally, “desolation and desolateness” (Jer_49:17,
etc.). 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” (Amo_9:12).
COFFMAN, "Verse 4
"I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate; and thou shalt know that I
am Jehovah. Because thou hast had a perpetual enmity, and hast given over the
children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time
25

of the iniquity of the end; therefore, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I will prepare
thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: since thou hast not hated blood,
therefore blood shall pursue thee."
"A perpetual enmity ..." (Ezekiel 35:5). This enmity is indeed a historical
phenomenon. It began when Esau sold his birthright for a plate of lentils and
continues until this very day in the conflict between the Arabs and the Israelites,
despite the fact of the Edomites being no longer a recognizable group. The hatred,
however, in both cases goes back to the old conflicts between Esau and Jacob, and
between Isaac and Ishmael.
This perpetual enmity is mentioned in Amos 1:11. The historical disasters that have
accompanied this vein of hatred are a pitiful example of how hatred, no matter what
the source of it, in human hearts can produce disastrous results in the persons
harboring the hatred. Christ himself has warned us, that "If we will not forgive
those who trespass against us, God will not forgive us our trespasses!" (Matthew
6:14-15; 18:35).
"In the time of her calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end ..." (Ezekiel 35:5).
Plumptre has summarized the various opinions of scholars on what this means: Keil
thought it meant the time of Judah's final transgression; Currey saw the meaning as
the time when the capture of Jerusalem put an end to her iniquity;
Hengstenberg suggested that it was the time of the iniquity that brought on her end;
and Ewald translated it, "At the time of her extremist punishment."[8]
The long hatred for Israel on the part of Edom led to their refusal of permission for
Israel to pass through their land (Numbers 20:14-21); to their invasion of Judah (2
Chronicles 20:10-11); to their aiding Nebuchadnezzar in the overthrow of Jerusalem
(Obadiah 1:1:13); and to the outrageous conduct of the Herods and their dynasty
against the purposes of God during the days of Christ and the apostles. The Herods
were Idumaeans (Edomites). See much more on this in Isaiah 34-43.
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"Since thou hast not hated blood ..." (Ezekiel 35:6, KJV). Those who are still
familiar with the KJV will no doubt wonder about the first word here. Sith is an
Old English term that means since, or seeing that.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 35:4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and
thou shalt know that I [am] the LORD.
Ver. 4. I will lay thy cities waste.] Even Teman, Dedan, Bozrah, mentioned in
Scripture; besides many others mentioned by geographers, Maresa, Rhinocorura,
Raphia, Gaza, Anthedon, &c.
And thou shalt know.] To thy small comfort.
That I am the Lord.] A Lord of lords, a God of gods, "a great God, a mighty and a
terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward." [Deuteronomy 10:17]
POOLE, " God doth what he stirs up his servants to do; it was Nebuchchadnezzar
who was appointed to do this, and who did it, as Jeremiah 27:6 28:14.
Thy cities, in the plural; there were many and strong cities in Edom, yet all should
be wasted, as Ezekiel 25:12-14, where lie in like manner is threatened.
PULPIT, "They shall know that I am Jehovah. By this expressive formula Ezekiel
intimates the moral effect which should be produced upon the nations of the earth,
whether by beholding or by experiencing the Divine judgments (Ezekiel 6:7, Ezekiel
6:13; Ezekiel 7:4, Ezekiel 7:9; Ezekiel 11:10, Ezekiel 11:12; Ezekiel 13:9, Ezekiel
13:14, Ezekiel 13:21, Ezekiel 13:23; Ezekiel 14:8; Ezekiel 15:7, et passim; cf. Exodus
6:7; Exodus 7:1-25 :50 17; Exodus 29:46; Exodus 31:13; all of which passages
belong to Wellhausen's grundschrift, which it is supposed had no existence in the
27

time of Ezekiel).
5 “‘Because you harbored an ancient hostility and
delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the
time of their calamity, the time their punishment
reached its climax,
BARNES, "Shed blood - Omit “blood:” better as in the margin, i. e., and hast given
up the children of Israel to the sword; thou hast scattered the children of Israel in
confusion like stones poured down a mountain-side Mic_1:6.
That their iniquity had an end - Or, “of the iniquity of the end,” i. e., the time
when by the capture of the city the iniquity of Israel came to an end Eze_21:29.
CLARKE, "A perpetual hatred - The Edomites were the descendants of Esau; the
Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. Both these were brothers; and between them there
was contention even in the womb, and they lived generally in a state of enmity. Their
descendants kept up the ancient feud: but the Edomites were implacable; they had not
only a rooted but perpetual enmity to the Israelites, harassing and distressing them by
all possible means; and they seized the opportunity, when the Israelites were most
harassed by other enemies, to make inroads upon them, and cut them off wherever they
found them.
To afflict the afflicted is cruel. This is scarcely of man, bad as he is. He must be
possessed by the malignant spirit of the devil, when he wounds the wounded, insults
over the miseries of the afflicted, and seeks opportunities to add affliction to those who
are already under the rod of God.
GILL, "Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred,.... There was an old grudge
and enmity subsisting in the posterity of Esau against the posterity of Jacob, because the
latter supplanted the former, and got the birthright and blessing from him; and which
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was discovered in all ages, and at all opportunities, and on all occasions which offered;
and such has been the hatred of the church of Rome against the true professors and
followers of Christ, as their bloody persecution of them in all ages have shown:
and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in
the time of their calamity: when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans, the
Edomites not only rejoiced at it, and took part of the spoil, but stood in the crossways,
and slew those that made their escape; or drove them back upon the sword of the enemy;
or delivered them into their hands; which was barbarous and inhuman usage of their
neighbours and brethren; see Oba_1:10. The Targum is,
"and thou didst deliver the children of Israel into the hands of those that slay with the
sword, in the time of their destruction:''
in the time that their iniquity had an end; when either the measure of that was
full; or when they received for it full correction and chastisement; at the consummation
of that.
HENRY, "What is the cause and ground of that controversy, Eze_35:5. God espouses
his people's cause, and will plead it, takes what is done against them as done against
himself, and will reckon for it; and it is upon their account that God now contends with
the Edomites. 1. Because of the enmity they had against the people of God, that was
rooted in the heart. “Thou hast had a perpetual hatred to them, to the very name of an
Israelite.” The Edomites kept up an hereditary malice against Israel, the same that Esau
bore to Jacob, because he got the birth-right and the blessing. Esau had been reconciled
to Jacob, had embraced and kissed him (Gen. 33), and we do not find that ever he
quarrelled with him again. But the posterity of Esau would never be reconciled to the
seed of Jacob, but hated them with a perpetual hatred. Note, Children will be more apt
to imitate the vices than the virtues of their parents, and to tread in the steps of their sin
than in the steps of their repentance. Parents should therefore be careful not to set their
children any bad example, for though, through the grace of God, they may return, and
prevent the mischief of what they have done amiss to themselves, they may not be able
to obviate the bad influence of it upon their children. It is strange how deeply rooted
national antipathies sometimes are, and how long they last; but it is not to be wondered
at that profane Edomites hate pious Israelites, since the old enmity that was put between
the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen_3:15) will continue to the end.
Marvel not if the world hate you. 2. Because of the injuries they had done to the people
of God. They shed their blood by the force of the sword, in the time of their calamity;
they did not attack them as fair and open enemies, but laid wait for them, to cut off those
of them that had escaped (Oba_1:14), or they drove them back upon the sword of the
pursuers, by which they fell. It was cowardly, as well as barbarous, to take advantage of
their distress; and for neighbours, with whom they had lived peaceably, to smite them
secretly when strangers openly invaded them. It was in the time that their iniquity had
an end, when the measure of it was full and destruction came. Note, Even those that
suffer justly, and for their sins, are yet to be pitied and not trampled upon. If the father
corrects one child, he expects the rest should tremble at it, not triumph in it.
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JAMISON, "perpetual hatred — (Psa_137:7; Amo_1:11; Oba_1:10-16). Edom
perpetuated the hereditary hatred derived from Esau against Jacob.
shed the blood of, etc. — The literal translation is better. “Thou hast poured out the
children of Israel”; namely, like water. So Psa_22:14; Psa_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, Eze_21:29). Edom consummated his guilt when he exulted over Jerusalem’s
downfall, and helped the foe to destroy it (Psa_137:7; Oba_1:11).
COKE, "Ezekiel 35:5. In the time that their iniquity had an end— That is, either at
the time when God exercised against them the last chastisement of their iniquity: or
at the time of their extreme affliction, when the anger of God was most inflamed
against them. It is the greatest of all cruelties to insult the afflicted, and to add new
sorrows to the unhappy. See Calmet.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 35:5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast 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:
Ver. 5. Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred.] A hereditary deadly feud against
Israel. Heb., An enemy of ages, yea, of many ages continuance; such as is, as we use
to say of Runner, the older the stronger.
And hast shed the blood of the children of Israel.] Ut diffluant; hast let out their life
blood: all malice is bloody.
In time of their calamity.] Watching the worst time to do them the most mischief.
In the time that their iniquity had an end.] When I had in a manner done with them,
yet thou hadst not done with them; but didst stir up Nebuzaradan to burn the city
and temple with fire. This was to help forward the affliction. [Zechariah 1:15] {See
Trapp on "Zechariah 1:15"}
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POOLE, " A perpetual hatred: Edom was of the same stock, brother to Jacob, and
it was sin to disgust or envy, but greater to hate, and greatest to retain a perpetual
hatred, an hereditary enmity from Esau’s time, the father of the Edomites, till now:
near one thousand two hundred years had the seed of Esau hated Jacob’s seed for
inheriting the blessing, which yet I have some cause to think they as little valued as
their father did before them.
Hast shed the blood, by sudden incursions sometimes, by a formed war at other
times, and by taking side with those who warred upon him at all times; thus the
sword of Edom was ever drawn or ready against Jacob’s seed.
By the force of the sword; with fierceness, cruelty, and burning hatred, as appears,
Obadiah 1:11-14, which see.
Their calamity; deepest calamity; when all was lost, and their city taken, and none
to pity or help, then did Edom cruelly execute his hatred, Psalms 137:7.
In the time that their iniquity had an end; when their iniquity was charged and
punished on them, which brought them to final ruin. See Ezekiel 21:25.
PETT, "Verse 5
“Because you had a perpetual enmity, and have poured out the children of Israel to
the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the final iniquity
(iniquity of the end).”
This is the reason for their condemnation, their perpetual enmity towards the
people of God, vividly again revealed in recent days. In mind therefore is their
perpetual enmity and betrayal. It is clear continually that Edom did have a
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perpetual enmity against Israel and Judah. See Genesis 25:22-34; Genesis 27:1-41;
Genesis 36:1; Numbers 20:14-21; Numbers 24:15-19; 1 Samuel 14:47; 2 Samuel
8:13-14; 1 Kings 11:14-22; 2 Kings 8:21; 2 Kings 14:7; 2 Chronicles 20:1-23; 2
Chronicles 28:17; Psalms 137:7; Isaiah 1:11-16; Isaiah 34:1-17; Jeremiah 49:7-22;
Lamentations 4:21-22; Daniel 11:41; Amos 1:11-12; Obadiah 1:10-14; Malachi
1:2-5). They were constant enemies.
But especially in mind are their cold, cynical acts when Judah desperately needed
help. Ammon received refugees, Egypt received refugees, but Edom did not. They
turned them back at the frontiers. This is probably what is in mind in their ‘pouring
out of the children of Israel to the power of the sword’. It may, however, refer to
their subsequent invasion of the land (see Ezekiel 35:10).
‘In the time of their calamity, in the time of the final iniquity.’ This almost certainly
refers to the fall of Jerusalem, and the subsequent events that followed when Israel
perpetrated their final iniquity.
PULPIT, "Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred; literally, hatred of old, or
eternal enmity (cf. Ezekiel 25:15). This was the first of the two specific grounds
upon which Eden should feel the stroke of Divine vengeance. Edom had been
Israel's hereditary foe from the days of Esau and Jacob (Genesis 25:22, sqq.; and
Genesis 27:37) downwards. Inspired with unappeasable wrath (Amos 1:11), during
the period of the wandering he had refused Israel, "his brother," a passage through
his territory (Numbers 20:14-21; 11:17), and in the days of Jehoshaphat had
combined with Ammon and Moab to invade Judah (2 Chronicles 20:10, 2
Chronicles 20:11; cf. Psalms 83:1-8). His relentless antipathy to Israel culminated,
according to Ezekiel (cf. Obadiah 1:13), in the last days of Jerusalem, in the time of
her calamity, when Nebuchadnezzar's armies encompassed her walls, in the time
that her iniquity had an end; or, in the time of the iniquity of the end (Revised
Version); meaning, according to Keil, "the time of Judah's final transgression;" or,
according to Dr. Currey, in the 'Speaker's Commentary,' the time when the capture
of the city put an end to her iniquity; but, with more probability, according to
Hengstenberg, Plumptre, and others, the time of that iniquity which brought on her
end (comp. Ezekiel 21:29). Ewald translates, "at the time of her extremest
punishment," taking avon in the sense of punishment—a rendering the Revisers
have placed in the margin. Then, according to Obadiah (Obadiah 1:11-14), the
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Edomites had not only stood coolly by, but malevolently exulted when they beheld
Jerusalem besieged by the Babylonian warriors; and not only joined with the
foreign invaders in the sacking of the city, but occupied its gates and guarded the
roads leading into the country, so as to prevent the escape of any of the wretched
inhabitants, and even hewed down with the sword such fugitives as they were not
able to save alive and deliver up to captivity. To this Ezekiel refers when he accuses
Edom of having shed the blood of the children of Israel by the fores of the sword;
literally, of having poured the children of Israel upon the hands of the sword; i.e. of
having delivered them up to the sword (cf. Psalms 63:11; Jeremiah 18:21).
6 therefore as surely as I live, declares the
Sovereign Lord, I will give you over to bloodshed
and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate
bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.
CLARKE, "Blood shall pursue thee - Thou lovest blood, and thou shalt have
blood. It is said that Cyrus and two hundred thousand men were slain in an ambush by
Thomyris, queen of the Scythians, and that she cut ok his head, and threw it into a vessel
filled with blood, with this severe sarcasm: -
Satia te sanguine quem sitisti, Cyre.
“O Cyrus, now satisfy thyself with blood.”
Hence, the figure: -
“Sarcasmus, with this biting taunt doth kill:
Cyrus, thy thirst was blood, now drink thy fill.”
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GILL, "Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God,.... The form of an oath; the Lord
swears by himself, because he could swear by no greater; and which he never does but in
matters of importance, and for the confirmation of them, as the following is:
I will prepare thee unto blood; prepare them for war, which will issue in slaughter
and blood, such as the battle at Armageddon, Rev_16:14, or, "I will make thee blood"
(w); nothing else but blood; a mere "Aceldama", a field of blood; turn thee into blood, as
the sea, rivers, and fountains will be, at the pouring out the second and third vials, Rev_
16:3,
and blood shall pursue thee; the guilt and vengeance of blood; or the avengers of the
blood of the saints; the angels that shall pour out the vials of wrath on Rome; the ten
kings that shall hate the whore. So the Targum;
"they that slay with the sword shall pursue thee;''
or the shedders of blood, as Ben Melech:
saith thou hast not hated blood; Jarchi reads it; "hast hated blood": which he
interprets of the blood of the sacrifices; as others, mentioned by him, of the blood of
circumcision; and others, of his brother, who was his flesh and blood, and hated by him;
but it is a figurative phrase, by which less is expressed than is intended. The sense is,
thou hast loved blood; thou hast delighted in shedding blood; hast thirsted after it, and
drank plentifully of it, and even been drunk with it, as the whore of Rome is said to be,
Rev_17:5,
even blood shall pursue thee; this is repeated for the confirmation of it; and this
was measure for measure; a just retaliation; having shed blood, it was but right that
blood should pursue, and be given, Rev_16:5.
HENRY 6-9, "What should be the effect and issue of that controversy. If God stretch
out his hand against the country of Edom, he will make it most desolate, Eze_35:3.
Desolation and desolation. 1. The inhabitants shall be slain with the sword (Eze_35:6): I
will prepare thee unto blood. Edom shall be gradually weakened, and so be the more
easily conquered, and the enemy shall gather strength the more effectually to subdue it.
Thus preparation is in the making a great while before for this destruction. Thou hast
not hated blood; it implies, “Thou hast delighted in it and thirsted after it.” Those that
do not keep up a rooted hatred of sin, when a temptation to it is very strong, will be in
danger of yielding to it. Some read it, “Unless thou hatest blood” (that is, “unless thou
dost repent, and put off this bloody disposition) blood shall pursue thee.” And then it is
an intimation that the judgment may yet be prevented by a thorough reformation. If he
turn not, he will whet his sword, Psa_7:12. But, if he turn, he will lay it by. Blood shall
pursue thee, the guilt of the blood which thou hast shed or the judgment of blood; thy
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blood-thirsty enemies shall pursue thee, which way soever thou seekest to make thy
escape. A great and general slaughter shall be made of the Idumeans, such as had been
foretold (Isa_34:6): The mountains and hills, the valleys and rivers, shall be filled with
the slain, Eze_35:8. The pursuers shall overtake those that flee and shall give no quarter,
but put them all to the sword. Note, When God comes to make inquisition for blood
those that have shed the blood of his Israel shall have blood given them to drink, for they
are worthy. Satia te sanguine quem sitisti - Glut thyself with blood, after which thou
hast thirsted. 2. The country shall be laid waste. The cities shall be destroyed (Eze_
35:4), the country made most desolate (Eze_35:7); for God will cut off from both him
that passes out and him that returns; and when the inhabitants are cut off that should
keep the cities in repair they will decay and go into ruins, and when those are cut off that
should till the land that will soon be over-run with briers and thorns and become a
wilderness. Note, Those that help forward the desolations of Israel may expect to be
themselves made desolate. And that which completes the judgment is that Edom shall be
made perpetual desolations (Eze_35:9) and the cities shall never return to their former
state, nor the inhabitants of them come back from their captivity and dispersion. Note,
Those that have a perpetual enmity to God and his people, as the carnal mind has, can
expect no other than to be made a perpetual desolation. Implacable malice will justly be
punished with irreparable ruin.
JAMISON, "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 (Psa_109:17; Mat_7:2; Mat_26:52).
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 35:6 Therefore, [as] I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee
unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood
shall pursue thee.
Ver. 6. I will prepare thee unto blood.] Thou shalt have blood thy bellyful, which
thou hast so greedily sought and sucked. Satiabis te sanguine quem sitiisti, cuiusque
insatiabilis semper fuisti, as the Scythian queen said to Cyrus’s head.
Even blood shall pursue thee.] As a bloodhound. It shall, it shall, believe me it shall.
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POOLE, "Verse 6
As I live: God is true and constant to his threats against hardened sinners, and will
be so as sure as he lives.
Prepare thee unto blood; I will dispose all things for war against thee, for a bloody
war, in which thy blood shall be shed.
Blood, thy guilt and my just revenges of innocent blood, shall pursue thee, never
leave till thou die for it.
Hast not hated blood; hast loved, rather than hated, bloodshed; therefore vengeance
for it follows thee.
PETT, "Verse 6
“Therefore as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you for blood, and blood
will pursue you. Since you have not hated blood, therefore blood will pursue you.”
Edom have not hated the shedding of blood, but have delivered God’s people to
death. Therefore God will prepare blood for them, that is will arrange for their
slaughter, just as they arranged for the slaughter of God’s people. And this is
guaranteed by the fact that God, the God whom they have opposed, is the living
God. Notice the fourfold mention of blood. The word for blood is related to that for
Edom (mentioned in Ezekiel 35:15), so this may be a deliberate play on words. But
Edom were kin to Israel, and were therefore blood guilty.
PULPIT, "I will prepare thee unto blood. This peculiar expression was probably
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selected because of the suggestion of the name Edom ("red") contained in the term
dam ("blood")—though Smend doubts this—and designed to intimate that Edom's
name would eventually be verified in Edom's fate. And blood shall pursue thee. "As
blood-guiltiness invariably pursues a murderer, cries for vengeance, and delivers
him up to punishment" (Havernick), so should blood follow in the steps of Edom.
The translation of Ewald, who reads ְ‫שׂ‬ַ‫ע‬ ַ‫מ‬ instead of ְ‫שׂ‬ֶ‫ע‬ ֶ‫,א‬ "And because thy
inclination is after blood, therefore blood shall pursue thee," is hardly an
improvement, and is besides unnecessary. Sith thou hast not hated blood. So render
Ewald, Keil, Kliefoth, Havernick, Schroder, Plumptre, and the Revised Version,
meaning that Edom had loved bloodshed. Kimchi, Hitzig, Hengstenberg, Smend,
and Fairbairn regard ‫ֹא‬‫ל‬‫ם־‬ ִ‫א‬ as a particle of strong affirmation, equivalent to
"forsooth," "verily," and understand the prophet to say that 'Edom had hated
blood. As to the precise import of this rendering, diversity of sentiment prevails.
Some, with Theodoret, explain "blood" as an allusion to the blood-relationship of
Esau and Jacob, Edom and Israel, and hold the charge to be that Edom had hated
his "brother" Israel. Others, with Hengstenberg, take the blood Edom hated to be
the blood he had shed. Hitzig and Fairbairn suppose the sense to be that Edom
hated the idea of his own blood being shed. Even—better, therefore (Revised
Version)—blood shall pursue thee. A parallel to this expression is supplied by
Deuteronomy 28:22, Deuteronomy 28:45. According to the first or commonly
accepted exposition of the preceding clause, the sense is that Edom would ultimately
fall beneath the great law of retribution, and reap as she had sown—blood for
blood; according to the second, the allusion is to the fact that what Edom now most
dreaded, the shedding of his own blood, would be that which should ultimately
overtake him (cf. Ezekiel 11:8; Job 3:25).
7 I will make Mount Seir a desolate waste and cut
off from it all who come and go.
GILL, "Thus will I make Mount Seir most desolate,.... By shedding the blood of
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the inhabitants of it; and as Rome will be, when it will be utterly burnt with fire, as that
city will, and the flesh of the whore also, and made desolate; and when all the vials shall
be poured out on the antichristian states under her jurisdiction, Rev_16:1,
and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth: every traveller
that passeth to and fro; it shall no more be frequented by merchants; nor will there be
any merchandise any more in it, Rev_18:11.
JAMISON, "cut off ... him that passeth — that is, every passer to and fro; “the
highways shall be unoccupied” (Eze_29:11; Jdg_5:6).
COFFMAN, "Verse 7
"Thus will I make mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off
from it him that passeth through and him that returneth. And I will fill its
mountains with its slain: in thy hills and in thy valleys and in all thy watercourses
shall they fall that are slain with the sword. I will make thee a perpetual desolation,
and thy cities shall not be inhabited; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah."
"Him that passeth through and him that returneth ..." (Ezekiel 35:7). This is an old
expression equivalent to "all that go to and fro," "all comers and goers," "all the
buyers and the sellers." "It means `everybody without exception.'"[9]
The total desolation of Edom has come to pass in the most startling manner. The
National Geographic Magazine a few years ago ran an article with many graphic
pictures of the desolated capital of ancient Seir, Petra. It still seems incredible that a
city with such a fortress could ever have fallen; but there it stands in the blistering
desert sun, its ancient red walls of solid stone exhibiting its magnificent architecture,
beautiful palaces, and many other signs of ancient prosperity in a breath-taking
silence that reminds one of the petrified forest of Arizona. It brings a mist to the
eyes and a catch in the throat just to see it. What an awful thing it is for God to
"stretch forth his hand" against a city, or a people.
"A perpetual desolation ..." (Ezekiel 35:9). "This is a much harsher fate even than
that which was inflicted upon Ammon and Egypt, who at least had a prospect of
restoration held out to them (Jeremiah 49:6; and Ezekiel 29:14)."[10] Note that this
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threat of perpetual desolation is repeated here from Ezekiel 35:5.
However, the eternal justice of God is seen in this perpetual desolation of Edom.
Who murdered the innocents of Bethlehem in his frenzied efforts to kill the Lord
Jesus Christ? Answer: It was the savage Idumaean (Edomite) Herod the Great.
Who murdered John the Baptist, the great forerunner of Christ, the Herald of the
Gospel Age? Answer: It was another Herod, an Edomite, who presented John's
head on a platter to please a dancing girl.
Who mocked the Son of God in one of those six crooked trials preceding his
crucifixion? Answer: It was another Herod, of course.
Who murdered the apostle James? Answer: A Herod (Edomite).
Who imprisoned the apostle Peter and condemned him to death as soon as the
Passover ended? Answer: It was Herod Agrippa (another Edomite, of course).
Who murdered the sixteen men who kept the prison on that night when an angel
released the apostle Peter, on the false charge that these guards had released Peter?
It was that same Herod the Edomite.
Who fully decided to exterminate all of the apostles of the Church of God, and as a
preparatory move had himself installed as a god down at Caesarea (Acts 12)? It was
that same son of the devil, the Edomite Herod Agrippa. This Edomite was so wicked
that God did not even allow him to live a normal life; but cut him down in the very
act of his announcement that he was god!
Yes indeed that evil people deserved the retribution with which Almighty God
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rewarded them.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 35:7 Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from
it him that passeth out and him that returneth.
Ver. 7. Most desolate.] See Ezekiel 35:3. Iterum repetit, ne excidisse videatur. I am
in good earnest.
POOLE, "All travellers that go to or from Edom’s country, or his cities; or possibly
it may intimate the close sieges with which his cities should be so begirt, that none
should attempt to go out or go in, but it should cost them their life: so Jericho close
besieged, none went in or out, Joshua 6:1.
PETT, "Verses 7-9
“Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation, and I will cut off
from it the one who passes through and the one who returns. And I will fill his
mountains with his slain. In your hills and in your valleys and in all your
watercourses they will fall who are slain with the sword. I will make you into
perpetual desolations, and your cities will not be inhabited, and you will know that I
am Yahweh.”
This is a clear contrast to what has happened to Israel. Compare Ezekiel 36:4. The
hills and the valleys and the watercourses of Israel had been desolated. They had
been made a desolate waste and their cities had been forsaken. They had become a
prey and a derision. And Edom had taken advantage of it. Now they will suffer
similarly themselves. Thus will they know Who Israel’s God is.
‘And I will cut off from it the one who passes through and the one who returns.’ A
Hebraism to signify everyone without exception.
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‘I will make you into perpetual desolations.’ Compare Isaiah 34:5-15. It is the final
sentence from which there is no recovery.
PULPIT, "Thus will I make Mount Seir most desolate; literally, desolation and a
desolation ( ‫ה‬ ָ‫מ‬ ָ‫מ‬ ְ‫וּשׁ‬ ‫ה‬ ָ‫ֲמּ‬‫מ‬ ְ‫;)שׁ‬ or, as in the Revised Version, an astonishment and a
desolation; changing ‫ה‬ ַ‫ֲמ‬‫מ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ into ‫ה‬ ָ‫מּ‬ ַ‫שׁ‬ ְ‫,מ‬ for which, however, there is no sufficient
warrant. And I will out off … him that passeth out (or, through) and him that
returneth. No more should traders or travelers pass through the land of Edom or go
to and return from it (cf. Ezekiel 33:28; Zechariah 14-7:1 :15; Zechariah 9:8,
Zechariah 9:10).
8 I will fill your mountains with the slain; those
killed by the sword will fall on your hills and in
your valleys and in all your ravines.
GILL, "And I will fill his mountains with his slain men,.... Not only Mount Seir,
but all the rest of the mountains, in Idumea; where they shall flee for refuge, and the
enemy shall pursue them, and slay them; and where their carcasses will fall in such
numbers, as to cover the mountains with them; compare with this Rev_19:18,
in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are
slain with the sword: expressive of the greatness and universality of the slaughter,
that it should be a general one everywhere; hence rivers and fountains are said to
become blood, through the number of the slain, Rev_16:3.
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 35:8 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.
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Ver. 8. And I will fill his mountains.] Oh the woe of war! The Greek word (a) for it
signifies much blood.
POOLE, "His mountains; there they will fortify, or thither they will flee, and there
the enemy shall take and slay his men every where, as it follows in the words;
slaughter shall be made of his men, pursued by the eager Chaldean, but more by the
vengeance of God. So this phrase Ezekiel 30:11, but explained Ezekiel 32:5.'
PULPIT, "And I will fill his mountains with his slain; literally, pierced through;
hence mortally wounded. Then Edom's desolation would result from an
exterminating war, which should fill its hills, valleys, and rivers, or rather, water-
courses, with slaughtered men (cf. Ezekiel 31:12; Ezekiel 32:5). The physical
features of Edom here specified by the prophet have often been attested by
travelers. "Idumea embraces a section of a broad mountain range, extending in
breadth from the valley of the Arabah to the desert plateau of Arabia. The ravines
which intersect these sandstone mountains are very remarkable. Take them as a
whole, there is nothing like them in the world, especially those near Petra. The deep
valleys and the little terraces along the mountain-sides, and the broad downs upon
their summits, are covered with rich soil, in which trees, shrubs, and flowers grow
luxuriantly" (Porter, in Kitto's 'Cyclopaedia,' art. "Idumea").
BI 8-15, "But ye . . . shall shoot forth your branches.
The Divine benison
When does God give short measure? When did He give otherwise than pressed down,
heaped up, running over? This is the consolation of heaven; this is the measure of the
Divine benison.
1. That blessing is to be physical: “Ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your
fruit.” God is not ashamed to have His name connected with the daily loaf and with
the daily goblet of water. When we go to the harvest field we should think we ace
going to church; when we go to the well of springing water we should think we are
going to a fountain rising in heaven. Your harvests are God’s; your fields are the
green ways leading up to His sanctuary.
2. Not only physical, but social: “I will multiply men upon you . . . and the wastes
shall be builded.” God would have all the earth inhabited. He would build men into
organisations and brotherhoods; He would establish fraternities of souls. The Lord is
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never ashamed to associate Himself with social economy, social purity, social
progress.
3. Not only physical and social, but municipal: “And the cities shaft be inhabited.”
Cities have not a good history; cities had a bad founder. The foundations of cities
were laid by a murderer. But it hath pleased God to accept many human doings, and
to purify them and ennoble them and turn them to purposes sanctified and most
beneficial. The Lord never set king over anybody with His own real consent. He gave
the people the desire of their hearts, and plagued them every day since they got the
answer. So He accepts the city, and He will do what He can with the municipalities,
to inhabit them, and direct them, and purify them.
4. The Lord never concludes simply within the letter. At, the last the invariably says
something that opens up a distant and ever-receding because ever-enlarging horizon.
He says in this instance, “I will do better unto you than at your beginnings.” He is
able, let us say again with rising thankfulness, to do exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think. The Church constantly exclaims, Thou hast kept the good wine
until now! We never can get in advance of God. When we have reaped our most
abundant harvest He says, This is only an earnest of the harvest you shall one day
possess; I will do more for you and better unto you than at your beginnings.
5. Then let us grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us he
no longer thoughtless; let us no longer limit the Holy One of Israel, saying, The Lord
hath made an end of His revelation, the Lord hath no more grace to give, no more
love to show; He has given us the Cross. Paul says, If He has freely given us the
Cross,—it is not an end, it is a beginning,—with the Cross He will also freely give us
all things. The Lord cannot be exhausted. His providence is ascending, expanding,
deepening. (J. Parker, D. D.)
9 I will make you desolate forever; your towns
will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I
am the Lord.
CLARKE, "Perpetual desolations - Thou shalt have perpetual desolation for thy
perpetual hatred.
GILL, "I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not
43

return,.... To their former dignity and glory; should not be built and inhabited again,
but lie waste for ever: this agrees with what is prophesied of Edom, Mal_1:4 and will be
true of Rome or Babylon when destroyed; it will never rise more, but be like a millstone
in the midst of the sea, Rev_18:21,
and ye shall know that I am the Lord; See Gill on Eze_35:4.
JAMISON, "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, Mal_1:4).
TRAPP, "Ezekiel 35:9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall
not return: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.
Ver. 9. I will make thee perpetual desolations.] For thy perpetual hatred. [Ezekiel
35:5]
And thy cities.] See Ezekiel 35:4.
POOLE, "Edom’s sin was perpetual hatred, and Edom’s punishment shall be
perpetual desolations. Edomites would never return into friendship with the
Israelites, but still hate, and molest, and waste them; now for just recompence
Edom’s cities shall be wasted, and never return to their former glory.
PULPIT, "Thy cities shall not return, as in Ezekiel 16:55 (Authorized Version after
the Keri); or, shall not be inhabited, as in Ezekiel 26:20; Ezekiel 29:11; Ezekiel
36:33 (LXX. and Revised Version, both of which follow the Chethib).
Hengstenberg's translation, "Thy cities shall not sit," but lie prostrate, is not
extremely happy.
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10 “‘Because you have said, “These two nations
and countries will be ours and we will take
possession of them,” even though I the Lord was
there,
BARNES, "These two nations - Israel and Judah.
CLARKE, "These two nations - Israel and Judah. The Idumeans thought of
conquering and possessing both; and they would have succeeded, but only the Lord was
there; and this spoiled their projects, and blasted their hopes.
GILL, "Because thou hast said, these two nations and these two countries
shall be mine, and we will possess it,.... Meaning either Idumea he was now
possessed of, and Israel he hoped to be, upon the people of it being carried captive; or
rather the two nations of Israel and Judah, and their countries; which he pleased himself
with would fall into his hands, as next heir to them; the posterity of his brother being
dispossessed of them. This may denote the claim that Rome makes upon each of the
Protestant nations and countries; and which she will think all her own, and that she is in
the possession of them, upon the slaying of the witnesses; and when she will say, "I sit a
queen, and am no widow", Rev_18:7.
Whereas the Lord was there; and heard their words, as Kimchi; and knew their
thoughts, as Jarchi; so the Targum,
"and before the Lord the thoughts of the heart were manifest.''
The land of Judea was Immanuel's land; and as the Lord had been in it, and granted his
gracious presence in the tabernacle and temple, so he still continued his powerful
presence in it, to protect and keep it for his people; who should return to it after their
captivity, and inhabit it until the Messiah came, who was to be born in it. Or it may be
rendered, "though the Lord was" or "dwelt there" (x); denoting the great impiety and
daring wickedness of the Edomites, to think and talk of possessing a country that was
the Lord's, and where he was: and this holds good of the true reformed churches of
Christ; the Lord is there, and therefore, though they may be brought very low, and
antichrist may triumph over them, and imagine he has got them under his power again,
where they shall continue; yet on a sudden his destruction will come, and their
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Ezekiel 35 commentary