Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 35:1
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
1. On Edom cf. Eze 25:12 seq.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In Ezek. 3536 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 Judahs 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXXV
The prophet having formerly predicted the ruin of Edom, the
same with Seir, (Eze 25:12,)
now resumes and pursues the subject at greater length,
intimating, as did also Isaiah, (Isa 21:11-12,)
that though other nations should recover their liberty after
the fall of the Babylonian monarchy, the Edomites should
continue in bondage for their very despiteful behaviour towards
the children of Israel in the day of their calamity, 1-15.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXV
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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:
saying: as follows:
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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.
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 ‘ (Eze 35:5 and Eze 35:10), and closing, like the announcement of the theme itself ( Eze 35:4), with ‘ ( ) , 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 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. 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. , 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. , 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). recalls to mind in Oba 1:13; but here it is more precisely defined by , and limited to the time of the overthrow of the Israelites, when Jerusalem was taken and destroyed by the Chaldeans. , 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 and . 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” (Hvernick). cannot be the particle employed in swearing, and dependent upon , since this particle introduces an affirmative declaration, which would be unsuitable here, inasmuch as in this connection cannot possibly signify blood-relationship. means “if not,” in which the conditional meaning of coincides with the causal, “if” being equivalent to “since.” The unusual separation of the from the verb is occasioned by the fact that is placed before the verb to avoid collision with . 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 stands for , and is not to be changed into . Considering the frequency with which 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. , as in Zec 7:14. For Eze 35:8 compare Eze 32:5-6 and Eze 31:12. The Chetib is scriptio plena for , the imperfect Kal of in the intransitive sense to be inhabited. The Keri , from , is a needless and unsuitable correction, since does not mean restitui.
In the second strophe, Eze 35:10-15, the additional reason assigned for the desolation of Edom is its longing for the possession of Israel and its land, of which it desired to take forcible possession, although it knew that they belonged to Jehovah, whereby the hatred of Edom toward Israel became contempt of Jehovah. The two peoples and the two lands are Israel and Judah with their lands, and therefore the whole of the holy people and land. is the sign of the accusative: as for the two peoples, they are mine. The suffix appended to is neuter, and is to be taken as referring generally to what has gone before. is a circumstantial clause, through which the desire of Edom is placed in the right light, and characterized as an attack upon Jehovah Himself. Jehovah was there – namely, in the land of which Edom wished to take possession. Kliefoth’s rendering, “and yet Jehovah is there,” is opposed to Hebrew usage, by changing the preterite into a present; and the objection which he offers to the only rendering that is grammatically admissible, viz., “when Jehovah was there,” to the effect “that it attributes to Ezekiel the thought that the Holy Land had once been the land and dwelling-place of God, but was so no longer,” calls in question the actual historical condition of things without the slightest reason. For Jehovah had really forsaken His dwelling-place in Canaan before the destruction of the temple, but without thereby renouncing His right to the land; since it was only for the sins of Israel that He had given up the temple, city, and land to be laid waste by the heathen. “But Edom had acted as if Israel existed among the nations without God, and Jehovah had departed from it for ever” (Hvernick); or rather as if Jehovah were a powerless and useless Deity, who had not been able to defend His people against the might of the heathen nations. The Lord will requite Edom for this, in a manner answering to its anger and envy, which had both sprung from hatred. , “I will make myself known among them (the Israelites) when I judge thee;” i.e., by the fact that He punishes Edom for its sin, He will prove to Israel that He is a God who does not suffer His people and His possession to be attacked with impunity. From this shall Edom learn that He is Jehovah, the omniscient God, who has heard the revilings of His enemies (Eze 35:12, Eze 35:13), and the almighty God, who rewards those who utter such proud sayings according to their deeds (Eze 35:14 and Eze 35:15). has retained the Kametz on account of the guttural in the first tone, in contrast with in Neh 9:18, Neh 9:26 (cf. Ewald, 69 b). – The expression “mountains of Israel,” for the land of Israel, in Eze 35:12 and Eze 36:1, is occasioned by the antithesis “mountain (mountain-range) of Seir.” The Chetib hmmhs is to be pronounced , and to be retained in spite of the Keri. The singular of the neuter gender is used with emphasis in a broken and emotional address, and is to be taken as referring ad sensum to the land. , to magnify or boast with the mouth, i.e., to utter proud sayings against God, in other words, actually to deride God (compare in Oba 1:12, which has a kindred meaning). , used here according to Aramean usage for , to multiply, or heap up. In , in Eze 35:14, is a particle of time, as it frequently is before infinitives (e.g., Jos 6:20), when all the earth rejoices, not “over thy desolation” (Hitzig), which does not yield any rational thought, but when joy is prepared for all the world, I will prepare devastation for thee. Through this antithesis is limited to the world, with the exception of Edom, i.e., to that portion of the human race which stood in a different relation to God and His people from that of Edom; in other words, which acknowledged the Lord as the true God. It follows from this, that Edom represents the world at enmity against God. In (Eze 35:15) is a particle of comparison; and the meaning of Eze 35:15 is: as thou didst rejoice over the desolation of the inheritance of the house of Israel, so will I cause others to rejoice over thy desolation. In Eze 35:15 we agree with the lxx, Vulgate, Syriac, and others, in taking as the second person, not as the third. serves to strengthen (compare Eze 11:15 and Eze 36:10).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Fall of Edom. | B. C. 587. |
1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it, 3 And say unto it, Thus 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. 4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD. 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: 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. 7 Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth. 8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword. 9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Mount Seir was mentioned as partner with Moab in one of the threatenings we had before (ch. xxv. 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,
I. What is the cause and ground of that controversy, v. 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. xxxiii.), 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. iii. 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 (Obad. 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.
II. 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, v. 3. Desolation and desolation. 1. The inhabitants shall be slain with the sword (v. 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, Ps. vii. 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 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. xxxiv. 6): The mountains and hills, the valleys and rivers, shall be filled with the slain, v. 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 (v. 4), the country made most desolate (v. 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 (v. 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.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 35
PROPHECY AGAINST MOUNT SEIR
Verses 1-15:
Verses 1, 2 call upon Ezekiel to prophecy against Mt Seir, the land of Esau, and do it without any misgiving, Deu 25:5; Gen 36:8. Mt Seir was also known as Idumea, Gen 36:9. They were bitter enemies of Israel.
Verses 3, 4 warn that the Lord will stretch out His hand against and make her very desolate. He too declared that He would make her cities to become desolated, laid waste, until they should know that He was the Lord, Jer 49:17; Amo 1:11; Oba 1:10. In their national character, Edom is to be destroyed, though a remnant of her people is to be called by the name of the Lord, Amo 9:12.
Verse 5 asserts that this judgment of Mt Seir, Edom, shall be certain because of their “perpetual hatred” as delivered from Esau against Jacob, Psa 137:7; Amo 1:11; Oba 1:11-16. This severe judgment is also to be full, because of her cruelty against Israel, in bloodshed by the sword, Jer 18:21; See also Eze 25:12; Dan 9:24.
Verse 6 affirms that the Lord would prepare the land and cities and people of Seir to be destroyed by bloodshed, “sith” meaning “seeing that,” they had not themselves hated blood but became parties to murder by it, for a long period of time, Gen 9:6. The measure Edom had poured out to others was now to be poured upon them, Psa 109:17; Mat 7:2; Mat 26:52.
Verse 7 affirms that after a bloody manner, such as Edom had practiced against Israel, He would cause those who passed out (went forth), and those who returned to the land; The highways would come to be unoccupied, because of the death that stalked the waysides, even as Edom had done toward those who passed through her land, Eze 29:11; Jdg 5:6; Oba 1:14.
Verses 8, 9 describe the judgment slaughter of the Edomites to the extent that men should lay slain, covering her mountain tops, her hills, her valleys, and dead bodies and blood should pollute her rivers. This was to be so complete that she was to exist as a perpetual, national desolation, never to rise as a nation again, so that her escaping remnant would recognize the Lord as the living God, v. 4; Eze 25:13; Jer 49:17-18; Mal 1:3-4.
Verse 10 also attributes this judgment to Edom’s boast that these two nations, Israel and Judah, would one day belong to her. But the Lord was in Israel, with His covenant people, whom none could annihilate, or put out of existence; Edom could not possess Israel’s vacated inheritance, Eze 36:5; Psa 83:4; Psa 83:12; Oba 1:12. Israel’s exile was temporary, but Edom’s was to be permanent, for the Lord was on the throne, a thing Edom ignored, Psa 48:1-3; Psa 132:13-14.
Verse 11 affirms that God will send upon Edom His anger, after the order that Edom had vented her vengeance against Israel, Mat 25:45; Act 9:1; Act 9:4-5. This is a type, of the actions and end, of all foes or enemies of God, Gal 6:7-8; Jas 2:13; Num 32:23.
Verse 12 assures Edom that she shall know that the Lord is God, and has heard her blasphemies against Him and His people of Israel and Judah, when He shall send His judgment upon her. He had heard her blasphemous boasts that she would take over the mountains of Israel which were laid bare or desolate for her to pluck. God regards things done against His people, as done against Him, Mat 24:45; Act 9:1; Act 9:4-5; 1Sa 2:3; Rev 13:6.
Verses 13, 14 continue to relate that the Lord listens and responds, to the boastings and blasphemies of the wicked, as they multiply their words of vanity, to face them in the hour of judgment, Mat 12:36-37. It is further stated that when the whole earth rejoices, in the restoration of Israel and Judah, Edom and her foes shall be made desolate, lay helpless under Divine judgment, Isa 65:13-14; Isa 65:17-19. So shall all God’s foes fall, 1Sa 2:3; Rev 13:6; Mat 5:4; Luk 6:25.
Verse 15 concludes that as Edom had rejoiced at the temporary desolation of Israel, so He would desolate Mount Seir which is Idumea, all of it, until they know that He is Lord of all, Eze 35:12; Eze 36:4-7. Right triumphs over wrong, righteousness over sin, life over death, only through the covenant of Grace and redemption and restoration of all things, through Jesus Christ, Act 3:19-21; Rom 11:6; 1Ti 2:6; Tit 3:5; Gal 4:4-5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE UTTER RUIN OF IDUMEA. (Chap. 35)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.Eze. 35:2. Mount SeirIdumea, the woody mountain region in the south of that part of Palestine which lies to the east of Jordan from the Dead Sea to the Atlantic Gulf. Seir means shaggy, alluding to its rugged hills and forests, and originally to Esau, the ancestor of Edom (Gen. 25:25; Gen. 27:11).
Eze. 35:3. I will make thee most desolateliterally desolation and desolateness. It is only in their national character of foes to Gods 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).Fausset.
Eze. 35:5. A perpetual hatredenmity for ever, an abiding enmity. Edom perpetuated the hereditary hatred derived from Esau against Jacob. By the force of the swordby the hands of the sword, the sword being personified as a devourer whose hands were the instruments of destruction. In the time their iniquity had an endits consummation. Oppression of brethren calls at once for the exercise of compassion, which is best manifested where no one is innocent. When guilt makes the end, ancient enmity should not be let loose.Lange.
Eze. 35:6. Sith thou hast not hated bloodrather the affirmative, Surely thou dost hate blood. The preservation of thy life is what thou art intent on securing. The thought of blood being shed among thee is what thou art putting far from thee as the object of aversion; but Gods purposes are contrary to thine, and what thou hatest He will sendblood shall pursue thee.Fairbairn. The effusion of blood, of thy own blood, shall cleave fast to thy footsteps. The murderer hates the blood which he sheds. If he hates the man with such an energy of hate that he attempts his life, he hates the blood in which is the mans soul.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 35:7. Cut off from it him that passeth. There is no going to and frono traffic. Hence the desolation of death. A retribution in kind, that she should be cut off herself, even as she stood in the crossway to cut off the Israelites who escaped (Oba. 1:14).
Eze. 35:10. Whereas the Lord was there. It is not said the Lord is there, but was there. For a moment He had withdrawn Himself (chap. Eze. 11:23); but that He was there secures that He will be there, since He has not yet definitely given up His inheritance. Where God is in the midst there Edom cannot possibly gain a footing, though He give over His people even for a long time to the foe.Hengstenberg.
Eze. 35:11. I will do according to thine anger. From the hating come anger and envy, expressing themselves not only in word but also in deed. Jehovah acts according to Edoms doings.Lange.
Eze. 35:13. With your mouth ye have boasted against me. Edom implied, if he did not express it, in his taunts against Israel, that God had not sufficient power to protect His people. A type of the spirit of all the foes of God and His people (1Sa. 2:3; Rev. 13:6).
Eze. 35:14. When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. The whole earth refers to Judea and the nations that submit themselves to Judeas God. When these rejoice, the foes of God and His people, represented by Edom as a nation, shall be desolate. Things shall be completely reversed: Israel, that now for a time mourns, shall then rejoice, and that for ever. Edom, that now rejoices over fallen Israel, shall then, when elsewhere all is joy, mourn, and for ever (Isa. 65:17-19; Mat. 5:4; Luk. 6:25).Fausset.
Eze. 35:15. Mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of itset in contrast to the inheritance of the house of Israel.
HOMILETICS
THE ENEMIES OF GOD
(Eze. 35:1-15.)
It sounds strange to hear again the voice of denunciation interposed in the midst of prophecies full of consolation and hope. The doom of Edom has been dealt with in chapter 25, but it is introduced once more in perfect harmony with the immediate design of the prophet, which is to show that the future triumph of Israel will be assured by the utter defeat of her bitterest enemies. Idumea, savagely gloating over the downfall of its hated rival, and eagerly taking possession of the desolated land, had an apparent superiority over Israel. The real advantage was still with the people of God. With them was deposited the seed of Divine blessing, the germ of a glorious future. In Idumea no such germ existed. There was nothing there but inveterate hostility to Jehovah, and no prospect but that of ultimate ruin. While Israel rose in Christ to the supremacy of the world, Edom vanished from the face of historytheir memorial perished, their envy and cruel hatred were for ever buried among the ruins of the nations. The Edomites represent the heathen world and all who have rebelled against and opposed the truth, and in their destruction we read the ultimate fate of the enemies of God in all ages. Observe
I. That the enemies of God are actuated by a spirit of malignant hatred. Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred (Eze. 35:5). The enmity existing between Jacob and Esau from their birth was fostered with increasing aggravation by the descendants of the latter. Immediately after the death of Isaac, Esau settled in Edom, and conquered the rocky territory in the neighbourhood of Mount Seir. From their mountain heights, overlooking the southern border of the Holy Land, the Edomites watched with undisguised envy the growing power of the favoured tribes. Their hatred became more acrid and implacable in every succeeding generation. As the father of Hannibal caused his son, when only nine years of age, to swear at the altar eternal hatred to the Romans, so the sons of Edom were pledged to maintain unceasing hostility to Israel. Time, which mollifies the fiercest passions, only intensified the ever-cherished malice of the Edomites, and they embraced every opportunity to make it manifest. The wild unreasoning hatred of the Edomites is a type of the malignant opposition of the enemies of God. This deplorable condition of mind is an evidence of the demoralising effect of sin. It is not simply a dull, sullen indifference, but an ungovernable, demoniacal passion, horribly real in its activity. Goodness is hated because it is good: God is hated because He is God.
II. That the enemies of God are infatuated with the fury of their opposition.
1. They exult over the disasters of Gods people. Thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of Israel, because it was desolate (Eze. 35:15). As Edom watched the advancement of Israel with envy, so it noted the invasion and dismemberment of the kingdom with chuckling satisfaction. When the Israelites were prostrate and groaning under the triumphant Chaldean power, Edom laughed at their misfortunes. There is a laughter that is utterly joyless, harsh, metallic, ringing with scorn and an indescribable contemptuousness. It is the laughter of inveterate hatredan inhuman guffaw. It is thus that the enemies of God exult over the temporary defeat of His people.
2. They take a savage delight in helping to make those disasters more complete. Thou hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity (Eze. 35:5). Edom, forgetful of all ties of kinship, sent troops to assist the Chaldeans in the siege of Jerusalem. More cruel than the Chaldeans, they clamoured for the total destruction of the city, and exclaimed with fiendish gesticulationsRase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof (Psa. 137:7). They eagerly took part in plundering the city, they occupied the passes and cut off the retreat of the fugitives who escaped the massacre at the storming, and openly rejoiced when the citizens were carried off into slavery, boasting loudly of their share in the terrible catastrophe (Oba. 1:11-14). They were never forgotten for their base and cruel treachery. The enemies of God not only make sport of the misfortunes of His people, but show their vindictiveness in doing all they can to intensify their sufferings.
3. They seize with avaricious haste the possessions they help to ruin. These two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it (Eze. 35:10). The Edomites not only re-entered the cities captured from them by David when he was settling the boundaries of the Hebrew empire, but they made inroads into Southern Palestine, taking possession of the towns as far as Hebron. The race of the warrior kings of Judah who had kept them in check was extinct, and the country was too feeble to resist the rapacity of the Idumeans. The enemies of God are ever eager to make gain out of the troubles they have helped to create.
4. They are ignorant of the Power they rashly defy. Whereas the Lord was there (Eze. 35:10). What a sublime stroke of the prophetic pen! The sentence breaks in like a flash of lightningthe Lord is there! The land is desolate, but not forsaken; conquered, but not surrendered. Israel has been carried away, but not Israels God. The land and the people still belong to Him. This fact is flashed out to rebuke the presumption of Edom; but Edom sees it not, heeds it not. Like all the enemies of God, in his blind infatuation he wrestles with a Power that ultimately crushes him.
III. That the enemies of God will be inevitably destroyed.
1. Their destruction will be a Divine act. I will stretch out mine hand against thee (Eze. 35:3). The Being they had insulted and defied vindicated His honour and supremacy by their righteous punishment. Josephus informs us that, soon after the destruction of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar turned his arms against Edom and the adjoining nations and defeated them with great slaughter. As in the conquest of Israel, Nebuchadnezzar was the instrument of Jehovah in working out the doom of Edom. Jeremiah (chap. 49), Ezekiel (chaps. 25, 35), and Obadiah describe in graphic language the fearful ravage of the Chaldean forces. The ordinary raids of robber tribes might be beaten off, for the Edomites had a reputation for warlike valour; but the Chaldees were irresistible, and were accustomed to do their work with desolating thoroughness. The enemies of God are helpless when His power is put forth to chastise.
2. Their destruction will be on account of their inveterate wickedness. I will do according to thine anger, envy, hatred, blasphemies, boasting (Eze. 35:11-13; Eze. 35:15). Their malignity towards God and His chosen people was hereditary, and was nourished from generation to generation. Their impregnable position among the hills increased their haughtiness; they boasted of the wisdom of their great men, and they had all the insolence of wealth, their country being situated in the route of commerce from north to south. They were continually stirring up the jealousies of the tribes, and were always as sharp thorns in the side of Israel. But their course of wickedness had an end; their sins ruined them.
3. Their destruction will be by the same weapon with which they destroyed others. Because thou hast shed blood by the force of the sword (Eze. 35:5-6). The law of retribution is ever operating with surprising exactitude and impartiality. Edom had wrought incredible horrors with the sword and been reckless in shedding human blood. By the sword shall he be punished, and be surfeited with a very carnival of slaughter and bloodshed. Joab was slain by the weapon with which he murdered Abner and Amasa years previously (1Ki. 2:28-34). Dogs lapped the blood and picked the bones of Jezebel, as they had done to Naboth, the victim of her fury, fifteen years before (2Ki. 9:36).
4. Their destruction will be complete and irrevocable. I will make thee most desolate (Eze. 35:3-4; Eze. 35:7; Eze. 35:9; Eze. 35:15). Thirty ruined towns within three days journey of the Red Sea attest the former greatness of Edom. The utter desolation that fell on the country and on the descendants of Esau is one of the most impressive facts of history. They were formerly distinguished for wisdom, now they are sunk in the grossest folly. They regard the ruins around them as the work of spirits. The tribes now wandering in Edom are savage and treacherous. Even the Arabs are afraid to enter the country, or to conduct any party within its borders. The desolation is irrecoverable, and travellers state that the whole region is a vast expanse of sand drifted up from the Red Sea (Isa. 34:6-15; Jer. 49:7-22). The enemies of God will be smitten beyond the power of recovery.
5. Their destruction will be a vindication of the character of the Being they madly oppose. Thou shalt know that I am the Lord (Eze. 35:4; Eze. 35:9; Eze. 35:11-12; Eze. 35:15).
LESSONS.
1. Active opposition to the good is the offspring of intensified hatred.
2. It is utterly futile to oppose God.
3. The Divine vengeance may be averted by timely submission and repentance.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Eze. 35:1-15. Why, in this connection, should Edom have alone been singled out for destruction? Not as if her people only were appointed to suffer vengeance at the hand of God, but because, in the bitterness of their spite and the intensity of their hatred to the cause and people of God, they stood pre-eminent among the nations, and so were fitly chosen as the representatives of the whole. The region where the greatest enmity reigned is the ideal territory where the final recompenses of judgment take place. The Edomite spirit, the carnal, unbelieving, rebellious spirit, is most surely doomed to perdition: enmity to the cause and kingdom of Christ is marked out in the councils of heaven for irretrievable ruin. They who are of it cannot overthrow the Church, but must themselves be overthrown and fall under the stroke of vengeance.Fairbairn.
Eze. 35:3. When punishments break in and are already taking their course, in this God, as it were, stretches out His hand. Now, since His hand is not shortened to help His children, so also it is not too weak to punish His enemies (Isa. 59:1).Starke.
Eze. 35:4. When godliness goes out of cities, confusion and devastation enter in. We can never sufficiently recognise that God alone is eternal.Lange.
Eze. 35:5-7. Hatred
1. One of the fruits of sin.
2. A prolific source of other evil passions.
3. Is intensified in virulence the longer it is cherished.
4. Prompts to deeds of cruelty and bloodshed.
5. Will be signally punished.
The fiercest mutual hatred had for centuries thrust apart the brother-races of Jacob and Esau. The refusal of a passage through Mount Seir to the Hebrews under Moses, in their march from Egypt nine hundred years before, had entailed the long sufferings of the wilderness life, and had never been forgotten. Under Joram, Amaziah, and Uzziah in succession, it had been virtually a Jewish province, till the reign of the weak Ahaz. The destruction of Jerusalem, however, had at last given the Edomites a chance of revenge, and they had indulged it to the uttermost.Geikie.
Eze. 35:5. Edom was of the same stock, brother to Jacob, and it was sin to envy, but greater to hate, and greatest to retain a perpetual hatred, an hereditary enmity from Esaus time, the father of the Edomites, till now: near one thousand two hundred years had the seed of Esau hated Jacobs seed for inheriting the blessing, which they as little valued as their father did before them.Pool.
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, exults over the miseries of the afflicted, and seeks opportunities to add affliction to those who are already under the rod of God.A. Clarke.
Edom is often in Scripture made the type of the most bitter and inveterate enemies of Gods people in all ages. The hatred of brothers, when they are at variance, is proverbially rancorous. Such was Esaus hatred of Jacob, though the latter averted it by soft words and conciliatory acts; and such was the inherited bitterness of Esaus descendants towards Israel.Fausset.
Where enmity leads to: it perpetuates itself by degrees in the heart; it is not afraid even to use the sword: first the malice of the tongue, and then the violence of malice. Therefore, always become reconciled at once and completely, that no roots may remain in the heart which may shoot up afterwards.The prayer of an implacable man is certain not to be heard.Lange.
Eze. 35:6. Even blood shall pursue thee. As a bloodhound. It shall, it shall; believe me, it shall.Trapp.
The track of blood behind so many celebrated figures in history, behind so many so-called great exploits.The shedding of blood a characteristic symptom of the world, a mark of the spirit that rules in the world, and of the wickedness in which it lies.Lange.
Eze. 35:7. Trade and intercourse cease where God sends His judgments. The Lord destroys nations that delight in war.Lange.
Eze. 35:9. Edoms sin was perpetual hatred, and Edoms punishment shall be perpetual desolations. Edomites would never return into friendship with the Israelites, but still hate, molest, and waste them; now, for just recompense, Edoms cities shall be wasted, and never return to their former glory.Pool.
Sin is not to become eternalised; therefore eternal punishment.Starck.
Eze. 35:10. Whereas the Lord was there. The Presence of God
1. A reality though unrecognised.
2. A comfort in the midst of desolation and suffering.
3. The hope and guarantee of deliverance and future prosperity.
4. A startling revelation to His enemies.
Eze. 35:10-11. The overthrow and exile of the Israelites from their land ought to have moved Edom to self-examination, lest there should be in herself sins found which might provoke God to inflict similar judgments. Instead of this, she regarded Israels calamity as her opportunity. These two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it. She forgot, in her wicked presumption, that the land of Israel was peculiarly the Lords possession and the Lords earthly dwelling-place; therefore, so far was Edom from being about to gain possession of Israels inheritance, that she was about to be deprived of her own, and that for ever.Fausset.
Eze. 35:11-15. The Triumph of the Wicked
1. Finds its joy in the downfall of those they hated (Eze. 35:11; Eze. 35:15).
2. Is unreal: their conquered possessions a desolation; their boasting hollow and joyless (Eze. 35:12-15).
3. Is soon changed to dejection, while all else rejoice (Eze. 35:14).
Eze. 35:12-13. The Speech of the Wicked
1. Blasphemous. All thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken (Eze. 35:12).
2. Boastful. With your mouth ye have boasted (Eze. 35:13).
3. Copious in its insolent vocabulary. Ye have multiplied your words against Me (Eze. 35:13).
4. Does not escape Divine notice. I have heard thee (Eze. 35:13).
Eze. 35:13. Worldly men think lightly of speaking vindictive and calumnious words against the people of God, and of forming projects for taking selfish advantage of their times of extremity; but God regards such words against His people as spoken against Himself. There is not a word that goeth out of our lips which God does not hear. How careful and guarded we should be in our words, especially in times when our carnal passions and tempers are excited! (Pro. 10:19).Fausset.
Eze. 35:14-15. What an entire reversal of the present order of things there will be at the second coming of Christ! The enemies of God, who so often seem now to triumph, shall then be cast down in everlasting sorrow. The people of God, Israel and the elect Church, who so often now mourn, shall then rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Edom, that rejoiced over fallen Israel, shall then mourn over her own irretrievable fall while Jerusalem shall be a rejoicing and her people a joy. Let us see that we take our portion new with the people of God in their season of trial, that so we may have our everlasting portion with them in their coming blessedness.Fausset.
Eze. 35:14. Suffering
1. Aggravated when all around is gay.
2. Has always in it a depressing element of loneliness.
3. Has special significance when we are conscious it is Divinely inflicted.
When the whole land of Israel rejoiceth; as it is sometimes hale and well with the Church when the wicked are in the suds. Judea was the world of the world, as Athens was the Epitome of Greece, the Greece of Greece.Trapp.
When the whole earth is in peace and plenty and enjoys both, thou shalt want all; and then envy at the welfare of others shall break thy heart. Envy was thy sin, and now what is the object of envythe prosperity of othersshall be thy grief.Pool.
No true grace without justice. The theocracy must accordingly pass through the fire of affliction and become purified: for the same reason, the heathenism whose iniquity is full must show that it has fallen under the Divine justice. For grace is not toleration of the bad.Havernick.
Eze. 35:15. The Edomites who thought of seizing on others lands, lost their own. They who covet all do oft lose all, yea, even the pleasure of that they possess; as a greedy dog swalloweth the whole meat that is cast him, without any pleasure, as gaping still for the next morsel.Trapp.
Thou tookest pleasure in the ruin of My people; for this thy sin I will ruin thee, and then do to thee as thou didst; I will retaliate and rejoice in thy ruin: thou helpedst to make Jerusalem desolate; I will make thee so: thou criedst to ruin them all, to destroy all the land; all thy land shall be ruined, and by these judgments I will be known to be the Lord.Pool.
This whole chapter strongly inculcates this maximDo as thou wouldst be done by, and what thou wouldst not have done to thee, do not to others. And from it we learn that every man may, in some sort, be said to make his own temporal good or evil; for as he does to others God will take care to do to him, whether it be evil or good, weal or woe. Would you not be slandered or backbitten? Then do not slander or backbite. Wouldst thou wish to live in peace? Then do not disturb the peace of others. Be merciful, and thou shalt obtain mercy.A. Clarke.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
III. REMOVAL OF NATIONAL ENEMIES 35:115
(1) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (2) Son of man, set your face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it. (3) and say unto it: Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O mount Seir, and I will stretch out My hand against you, and I will make you an utter desolation. (4) I will lay waste Your cities, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am the Lord. (5) Because you have had an ancient hatred, and you have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword, in the time of their calamity, in the time of their iniquity of the end. (6) Therefore, as I live (oracle of the Lord GOD), surely I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you; surely you hate blood, and blood shall pursue you. (7) And I will make mount Seir an utter desolation, and I will cut off from it travelers.[456] (8) And I will fill his mountains with his slain; in your hills, your valleys and your streams those slain by the sword shall fall. (9) I will make you desolations forever, and you shall not inhabit your cities; and you shall know that I am the LORD. (10) Because you have said; these two nations and these two lands shall be mine, and I will possess it; while the LORD was there. (11) Therefore, as I live (oracle of the Lord GOD), I will do according to your anger, and according to your jealousy which you have done out of your hatred against them; and I will make Myself known among them when I shall judge you. (12) And you shall know that I the LORD have heard all of your blasphemies which you have said against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are desolate; they have been given to us to devour. (13) And you have magnified yourself against Me with your mouth, and you have multiplied your words against Me; I have heard it. (14) Thus says the Lord GOD: When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you a desolation. (15) Because you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel when it was desolate so will I do to you; you shall become a desolation, O mount Seir, and all of Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
[456] Literally, he that passes through and he that returns.
COMMENTS
The first obstruction to restoration has now been dealt with, that being the problem of corrupt leadership. Now Ezekiel deals with the second obstruction to Israels golden age. All nations which oppressed Gods people must be judged and destroyed. Mt. Seir,[457] i.e., Edom, the ancient archenemy of Israel is singled out for special condemnation here (Eze. 35:1-2). However, Edom is symbolic of every nation which had oppressed Israel.[458] Only when all the enemies of the Lord are destroyed is the deliverance of Gods people complete.
[457] The original home of Edom was the mountainous country of Seir east of the Arabah. Here Mt. Seir is used of the entire territory occupied by the Edomites.
[458] In other passages Edom also figures as the symbol of all Israels enemies (E. g. Isaiah 63).
In this oracle God immediately declares Himself to be in an adversary relationship to Edom. He would stretch out His hand against Edom, i.e., smite that country. That outstretched hand would mean the undoing and ultimate desolation of Edom (Eze. 35:3). The once proud cities of Edom would be laid waste. So thorough would the calamity be that the Edomites would detect in it the operation of God (Eze. 35:4). This divine judgment is in recompense for the ancient hatred of the Edomites toward the people of God, This bitter animosity most recently had been manifested in the aid which the Edomites had rendered to the Babylonian conquerors of Jerusalem. Captured Israelites were handed over to the invaders for execution. Thus the Edomites no less than the Chaldeans participated in the time of their (Judahs) calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end, i.e., the iniquity which completed Judahs full measure of guilt and brought about their destruction (Eze. 35:5).
God had prepared Edom unto blood, i.e., Edom would die a bloody death. Twice the prophet emphasizes that blood would pursue Edom. It is as though the blood of slain Israelites was demanding retribution, and that because Edom had hated his own blood, i.e., Israel those to whom Edom had blood-ties (Eze. 35:6). Those slain in the anticipated attack would be so numerous that Mt. Seir (Edom) would be desolate. No man would survive to traverse that land (Eze. 35:7). The dead bodies would be everywhere hills, valleys, and streams (Eze. 35:8). Edom would remain desolate forever. Such as might escape to neighboring lands would gradually realize that the hand of the great God of Israel had been against them.[459]
[459] Esau, ancestor of the Edomites, was the twin brother of Jacob, the ancestor of Israel (Gen. 25:25).
Not only had Edom betrayed his brother nation in the time of calamity (Eze. 35:5), he had also claimed the right to occupy the territory once occupied by Judah and Israel. But even though the two apostate nations had been ejected from the territory which had been assigned to them, yet the Lord was still there. True, His divine and holy presence had been seen earlier in a vision to depart from the land (cf. Eze. 11:23). But He was still there in the sense that the land was His, and He alone had the right to determine who would occupy it (Eze. 35:10). Therefore Edom must be recompensed for his anger and envy toward Israel. By punishing Edom God would make Himself known among Israel, i.e., He would show Himself still to be their protector and guardian (Eze. 35:11).
The omniscient God of Israel heard, i.e., was aware of, the blasphemies spoken by the children of Edom against the mountains of Israel. They were saying that since those mountains were now desolate, i.e., uninhabited, they had been given (by God?) to Edom (Eze. 35:12). This attitude on the part of Edom constituted an affront to God because He owned the territory which Israel had formerly occupied. To plan seizure of that territory was sinful pride which lifts itself up against God. God had heard Edoms proud boasts (Eze. 35:13).
The whole earth would rejoice when Edom became desolate (Eze. 35:14). Edom gloated when Israels inheritance Gods gift to His people was destroyed. Therefore, the punishment would correspond to the transgression. Edom would be made desolate. With the destruction of Edom, the enemy of Gods people, the whole earth would realize that Yahweh is just and mighty in the defense of His honor and His people (Eze. 35:15).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
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 Eze 25:12-14. As the lower classes of the Israelites who had been left in the holy land should not retain it for themselves (Eze 33:24, etc.), so these nearby and hereditary enemies (Eze 35:5) who had just assisted Nebuchadnezzar (Oba 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” (Eze 35:5, R.V.), would not be able, for all their boasting (Eze 35:10; Eze 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.), while those who now rejoiced in her ruin, and thought themselves more powerful than the God of Mount Zion (Eze 35:12), should be destroyed and their land left desolate. They should be given to the sword “prepared unto” (or, “appointed to”) blood. (Compare Eze 16:38.)
Sith (Eze 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” (Eze 35:7), without even a passing traveler” (compare Eze 33:28; Zec 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” (Eze 35:9, R.V.), because of her attempt to possess the good heritage of Israel and Judah, and to devour it “as a feast” (Eze 35:12, Kautzsch), thinking that the God of the land as well as the people had been defeated or carried off into captivity (Eze 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” (Eze 35:11, R.V.). Compare Eze 33:29, and the end of each threatening prophecy. The time was soon coming when the new Israel and the redeemed earth should rejoice (Eze 35:14, compare Eze 34:11-30, Isaiah lv, etc.), but “Mount Seir and all Edom” (R.V.) should be desolate (Eze 35:15; compare Isaiah 24; Isa 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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘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 Eze 33:28; Eze 12:20; Eze 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 mountainous region that the Edomites lived and revealed their almost perpetual enmity towards Judah and Israel.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Judgment Upon Edom In Eze 35:1-15 God speaks words against the nation of Edom. This people seem to have stood out in their efforts to mock against Israel’s destruction. Eze 36:5 says that the nations and Edom appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey. Israel’s neighbouring countries stood the most to gain by expand their territories into the country of Israel.
Eze 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:
Eze 35:5
Eze 35:10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:
Eze 35:10
[29] Grant Jeffrey, The Next World War (Colorado Springs, Colorado: Waterbrook Press, 2006), 14.
Eze 35:10 “whereas the LORD was there” Comments – The Lord’s presence was with the nation of Israel in former times before it fell into sin and idolatry under King Solomon. His presence will return when God’s plan to restore Israel is fulfilled, as prophesied in Eze 48:35.
Eze 48:35, “It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there .”
Eze 35:15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 35:15
Comments – The region of Edom came to be known by the name “Idumea” during the time of the Greeks. But with the fall of Judah under the Romans the name Idumea disappeared from history.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Israel’s Glorification Eze 35:1 to Eze 48:35 deals with the topic of Israel’s glorification. The description of the restored land of Israel and the new Temple and its worship (36-48) reveals a building and nation more majestic and beautiful that that found during the time of Solomon. These passages reveal the glorification that God has in planned for His people Israel. This glorification is different than what He has planned for the Church. The prophecies of this passage signify the fact that God has a much greater blessing in store for His people than any earthly kingdom in the past, even greater than Israel in its golden age of King Solomon. The future glories of the heavenly kingdom will far exceed the earthly. The Book of Jubilees (4.26-27) tells us that this Mount Zion will be sanctified in the new creation for a sanctification of the earth; through it will the earth be sanctified from all (its) guilt and its uncleanness throughout the generations of the world.
From these last chapters in the book of Ezekiel we know that the full restoration of Israel involves three key events that will take place in order to make their restoration complete and everlasting. These events will involve the restoration of Israel as a nation (36-37), the battle against Gog and its allies (38-39), and the restoration of the Temple and its worship (40-46) and its land (47-48).
Here is a proposed outline:
1. Judgment upon Edom Eze 35:1-15
2. The Restoration of Israel as a Nation Eze 36:1 to Eze 37:28
3. The Battle against Gog and its Allies Eze 38:1 to Eze 39:23
4. The Restoration of the Temple and its Worship and Land Eze 40:1 to Eze 48:35
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Against the Enmity of Edom
v. 1. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, v. 2. Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir, v. 3. and say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O Mount Seir, v. 4. I will lay thy cities waste, v. 5. Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, v. 6. therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood, v. 7. Thus will I make Mount Seir most desolate, v. 8. And I will fill his mountains with his slain men, v. 9. I will make thee perpetual desolations,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Eze 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 Eze 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 (Eze 34:13, Eze 34:23, Eze 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 Jerusalemto predict the entire removal of this hindrance. (Eze 36:1-15), and to administer to Israel the comfort which, as a consequence, would ensue (Eze 36:1-15).
Eze 35:2
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 (Gen 36:9), is here put for the land of Edom, as the land in turn stands for its people (Eze 25:8). Although already the prophet has pronounced a threatening doom against Edom (Eze 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. Isa 63:1-8).
Eze 35:3
Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee (cf. Eze 5:8; Eze 13:8; and contrast Eze 36:9), and I will stretch out mine hand against thee (cf. Eze 6:14; Eze 14:9, Eze 14:13; Eze 25:7, 19; and Exo 7:5), and I will make thee most desolate; literally, a desolation and an astonishment (cf. Eze 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 (Eze 33:28, Eze 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 (Eze 25:13; Oba 1:8, Oba 1:10).
Eze 35:4
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 (Eze 6:7, Eze 6:13; Eze 7:4, Eze 7:9; Eze 11:10, Eze 11:12; Eze 13:9, Eze 13:14, Eze 13:21, Eze 13:23; Eze 14:8; Eze 15:7, et passim; cf. Exo 6:7; Exo 7:1-25 :50 17; Exo 29:46; Exo 31:13; all of which passages belong to Wellhausen’s grundschrift, which it is supposed had no existence in the time of Ezekiel).
Eze 35:5
Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred; literally, hatred of old, or eternal enmity (cf. Eze 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 (Gen 25:22, sqq.; and Gen 27:37) downwards. Inspired with unappeasable wrath (Amo 1:11), during the period of the wandering he had refused Israel, “his brother,” a passage through his territory (Num 20:14-21; Jdg 11:17), and in the days of Jehoshaphat had combined with Ammon and Moab to invade Judah (2Ch 20:10, 2Ch 20:11; cf. Psa 83:1-8). His relentless antipathy to Israel culminated, according to Ezekiel (cf. Oba 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. Eze 21:29). Ewald translates, “at the time of her extremest punishment,” taking avon in the sense of punishmenta rendering the Revisers have placed in the margin. Then, according to Obadiah (Oba 1:11-14), the 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. Psa 63:11; Jer 18:21).
Eze 35:6
I will prepare thee unto blood. This peculiar expression was probably selected because of the suggestion of the name Edom (“red”) contained in the term dam (“blood”)though Smend doubts thisand 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 instead of , “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 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. Evenbetter, therefore (Revised Version)blood shall pursue thee. A parallel to this expression is supplied by Deu 28:22, Deu 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 sownblood 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. Eze 11:8; Job 3:25).
Eze 35:7
Thus will I make Mount Seir most desolate; literally, desolation and a desolation ( ); or, as in the Revised Version, an astonishment and a desolation; changing into , 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. Eze 33:28; Zec 7:1-14 :15; Zec 9:8, Zec 9:10).
Eze 35:8
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. Eze 31:12; Eze 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”).
Eze 35:9
Thy cities shall not return, as in Eze 16:55 (Authorized Version after the Keri); or, shall not be inhabited, as in Eze 26:20; Eze 29:11; Eze 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.
Eze 35:10
Because thou hast said. The second ground of Edom’s punishment lay in this, that she had presumptuously as well as confidently exclaimed, not concerning Idumea and Judah, as Jerome conjectured, but concerning Israel and Judah when she saw them stripped of their inhabitants, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; “it” meaning either the region over which the two countries extended, or, as Schroder suggests, Jerusalem their common capital (see Eze 36:2; and comp. Psa 83:4-12). And what constituted the gravamen of Edom’s offense was that she had so spoken, whereas (or, though) the Lord was there. It is not necessary, with the LXX. and Kliefoth, to read “is there,” to guard against the supposition that Ezekiel designed to suggest that, though Jehovah had formerly been in the land, he was there no longer. But, in point of fact, Jehovah had for a time withdrawn his visible presence from the temple and the city (see Eze 10:18; Eze 11:22, Eze 11:23), though he had by no means renounced his right to the land; and Edom’s error lay in not regarding this, but in acting as if Jehovah had departed from Israel for ever (Havernick); or (better, “and”) in thinking he could appropriate to himself what really belonged to Jehovah, viz. the territory out of which Israel and Judah had been cast (Hengstenberg).
Eze 35:11-13
I will make myself known among themIsrael and Judah; not to thee (LXX; Hitzig, Ewald)when I have judged thee. Edom’s wickedness should be requited by his being made to suffer the indignities he designed to heap on Israel. In him the lextalionis should have full sway. Edom’s misconception as to Jehovah’s relation to the land and people should be corrected when Jehovah should rise up in judgment against him. Those judgments should in the first instance be a revelation to Israel and Judah, who should discern therefrom that they had not been utterly abandoned by Jehovah (Eze 35:11; cf. Eze 20:5); and in the second instance should open Edom’s eyes to perceive that Jehovah had been a silent listener to all the blasphemies she had uttered against the mountains of Israel (Eze 35:12), and had reckoned these as blasphemies uttered against himself (Eze 35:13).
Eze 35:14
When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. By “the whole earth,” Fairbairn, Haverniek, and Schroder understand “the whole land of Edom.” In this ease the sense is that, as the whole land of Edom had previously exulted with joy, so should it in the future be made completely desolate. Ewald, Hengstenberg, Keil, Kliefoth, Smend, and Plumptre, however, more correctly interpret the phrase as signifying the whole human race, with the exception of Edom. Accordingly, the thought seems to be, not that of Ewald and Smend, that Jehovah would make Edom’s devastation a sport or comedy (freudespiel) to the whole world; or that of Kliefoth and Hitzig, that God would make Edom desolate, whilst all the earth rejoiced over her downfall; but that of Keil, Plumptre, and others, that just as Jehovah was preparing for the whole earth of redeemed humanity a glorious future of joy, so certainly would Edom and all whom Edom represented be excluded from participation in that joy.
Eze 35:15
As thou didst rejoice. is here a particle of comparison; and the import of the passage is that precisely as Edom exulted over the desolation of Israel’s inheritance, so would Jehovah cause others to rejoice over the downfall and desolation of Edom. All Idumea. Instead of this Greek term, the Revised Version properly substitutes the usual word Edom. Note: That the prediction here uttered concerning Edom received literal fulfillment, the following extract relative to the present state of the country will show: “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. Its whole population is contained in some three or four miserable villages. No merchant would now dare to enter its borders; its highways are untrodden, its cities are all in ruins” (J.L. Porter, in Kitto’s ‘Cyclopaedia,’ art. “Idumea”).
HOMILETICS
Eze 35:1-4
The desolation of Mount Seir.
I. AN AFTER–THOUGHT OF JUDGMENT. This is a distressing and disappointing passage. We seemed to have done with the weary recital of successive judgments against the several heathen nations. Passing from these painful scenes, we had come to the cheerful picture of the restoration of Israel. Now that picture is rudely torn, and a description of the desolation of Mount Seir inserted in the midst of it. The darkness of this unexpected scene of judgment is the more appalling inasmuch as it is in startling contrast with the preceding and the succeeding brightness of Israel’s restoration. This looks like an after-thought of judgment. It is as though Edom, the nation typified by Mount Seir, had been forgotten until suddenly, by an unlucky chance, she came into mind, and then without delay the thread of joyous prophecy is broken and her doom is ruthlessly pronounced. At all events, the solitary and peculiar position of the prophecy against Edom gives to it a striking significance.
1. No impenitent sinners can be always overlooked. There are no exceptions to the law of retribution. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” is a principle of universal application. No single soul can by any rare good fortune ultimately escape from it.
2. God’s forbearance does not destroy his justice. He may wait long. But if the soul is finally impenitent, he will surely smite.
3. The goodness of God does not abolish his wrath against sin. Even when the mercy is most fully displayed, this wrath is also seen.
II. THE DOOM OF THOSE WHO ARE NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM. There was one reason why Edom should receive exceptional treatment. She was not only a near neighbor to Israel, she was a blood-relation. Her people were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. Though a foreign nation, her cousinly relationship with Israel was like that of America with England. She could reckon twothe two bestof the patriarchs as her ancestors. Like Israel, she was descended from Abraham and Isaac. Might not she, then, expect the blessings of the patriarchs? Esau had begged for a blessing with bitter tears, and he had received one, but not the best blessing (Gen 27:38-40). The young man whom Christ loved was “not far from the kingdom of God” (Mar 12:34). Yet for all we know, he did not enter it. The members of Christians families are favored with great religious privileges. It is much to be able to claim godly ancestors. But these advantages will not serve as substitutes for personal piety. Nay, they will make the guilt of godlessness the greater. We may be like Edom, very near to Israel, yet like Edom we may be cast aside and lost, if we have not really entered ourselves into the Divine covenant.
III. THE PUNISHMENT OF HATRED. Edom was accused of “perpetual hatred” (Eze 35:5)a hatred which perhaps sprang from original jealousy, still one that had been long cherished. As love is the fulfilling of the Law, so hatred is the most effectual breaking of it. It is hatred that brings war and misery on mankind. This is constituted out of the very venom of hell. It cannot be allowed to remain unchecked. If it is not abandoned and repented of, its curses must come home to roost, and they who harbor it must suffer its doom. So long as a man cherishes hatred in his heart towards a single fellow-creature, he cannot be accepted by God (1Jn 4:20).
Eze 35:5
The end of iniquity.
I. INIQUITY MUST HAVE AN END. God will not permit it to run on forever unchecked and unpunished. The sinner has a long leash, but it is not interminable. God steps in at length and puts a stop to the awful succession of wicked deeds. Wicked cities and nations have had their end. So must it be with sinful lives.
II. THE NATURAL END OF INIQUITY IS DEATH. Sin is the great destroyer. It is a raging fire which will ultimately fade away into dull ashes by consuming all the fuel on which it feeds. The sinner is a suicide. His evil is a slow but sure poison, that eats out the very fiber of his soul. This awful fate does not come on with a sudden shock so that men can be roused by its approach. It is like a creeping paralysis, and its insidious advent is least readily recognized by the very persons in whose experience it is taking place.
III. INIQUITY MAY HAVE AN END IN REPENTANCE. There is an alternative. We are not bound to let the sin run through all its fatal course to the final silence and desolation. We must end the sin or it will end us; but the former may be done. The warnings of the fatal consequences of sin are set before us for the express purpose of urging us to cast off the deadly thing before it has completed its awful work.
IV. CHRIST HAS COME TO PUT AN END TO INIQUITY. He works in common with the fundamental moral law in regard to the ending of sin. No lawgiver could be more stern in the denunciation of sin than the gracious Savior. He gave it no quarter. From the first he declared himself its deadly enemy. He came “to destroy the works of the devil” (1Jn 3:8). There is no shadow of excuse for the notion that we can find in Christ a shelter from the rigorous requirements of morality, so that we need not be so strictly righteous if we are Christians, as we should need to be it we were not. Christ expects a higher righteousness than that of the Law. (Mat 5:20) But when we perceive that our sin is our utter undoing, we are prepared to welcome Christ as cur Savior from this chiefly.
V. IT IS WELL TO CONSIDER THE END OF INIQUITY. It has not yet arrived. All is now calm and apparently prosperous. We may say that there is time enough to consider the evil day. But the end may come before we expect it. Its slow and gradual approach leads to our failing to perceive how near it may be. Then the nearer it is the more difficult is it for us to draw back. The descent becomes more steep as it approaches the precipice; the rapids grow swifter as they near the falls; the poison more effectually pervades the system as death comes on. The longer we postpone repentance, the harder it is to repent. But apart from such thoughts of warning, sin that leads to so awful an issue should be accounted hateful in itself. Its present vile character is revealed by its end. With such fruit the plant must be odious.
Eze 35:10
A miscalculation.
Edom had taken for granted that she, in conjunction with the allied nations, no doubt, would be able to seize the territories of Israel and Judah. She had calculated her resources and matched her strength against those of her foes. But she had forgotten one essential element in the reckoningshe had failed to take any account of the presence of God. This was a fatal blunder, and it upset the whole scheme. It is very common for people to discuss their prospects with the same mistake in their minds. Worldly reasoning that ignores God is not only irreligious; it is false and foolish. Irreligious thought is bad logic.
I. A SELFISH GREED. Edom covets the fair and fruitful land of Israel. This is the common spirit of national plunder. It is the spirit of the veiled warfare of commerce. Men and nations hunger after their neighbors’ property. All selfish persons are robbers at heart, though many are restrained by prudential considerations from carrying out their evil desires. Now, the prevalence of this selfish greed gives a very ugly look to the world, and suggests the thought that the weak must be the prey of the strong. It is only when we can look above the scramble for wealth that we can discern the play of higher influences on man’s history and destiny.
II. A NARROW VIEW. Edom sees the weakness of Israel clearly enough; and she makes no mistake in estimating the strength of herself and her allies. But she confines her view to these local and earthly facts. Here is the limitation of all worldliness. Men of the world are keen and clear-headed. They see distinctly their points of advantage, and seize them quickly. But their gaze is confined to earthly things. Thus worldliness is essentially low and narrow. It has a sharp vision, but it is very short-sighted. There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in its philosophy.
III. A DIVINE FACT. “The Lord was there.” This was a fact, although Edom knew nothing of it, just as God was at Bethel before Jacob recognized his presence.
1. God is in human affairs. It is not simply asserted that God interfered from a distance. He was present. Palestine was a God-haunted land. The difference between Israel and Edom was not merely racial or geographical. It was chiefly thisthat God manifested his presence to the one people as he did not to the other.
2. God takes an active part in the world. God was not merely in Palestine as a spectator. He was present to act. Edom’s error was in not recognizing a real influence. It is like that of the naturalist who dissects a brain to discover the secret of thought, but takes no account of the mind that once inhabited the brain. God is now present actively in the world, not in Palestine especially, but
(1) in Christendom when men acknowledge him and make themselves open to his influence; and also
(2) among all men in his great providential government.
IV. A NEEDED CORRECTION. The Divine element must be introduced if the miscalculation is to be corrected. This will make a surprising difference to Edom’s reckoning. So it will in individual affairs. The oppressing Pharaoh did not reckon on God’s power to save Israel; the rich fool counted up his wealth, but forgot that his life was in God’s hand (Luk 12:16-21). Life and death are more dependent on heavenly influences than moat men suppose. We need a new order of reasoning, a fresh arithmetic that shall not fail to give a large place to the influence of God on air things.
Eze 35:13
Boasting against God.
Edom had ignored the presence of God (Eze 35:10). Now she has gone further, and boasted against God. This is a sign either of heathenish darkness that does not know God, or of willful rebellion that proudly rises up against him, or of both.
I. THE BOAST OF IGNORANCE. Men who forget God boast themselves:
1. In thought. Man looks very big when God is left out of sight. The hill is a grand sight to one who has not seen an Alp. The worship of humanity proceeds on the assumption of the non-existence of Divinity. If, indeed, there be no God, man may be the loftiest existence; in that case, he may stand on the very topmost pinnacle of being.
2. In practice. The same condition will be reflected in practical life when a man ignores the influence of God on his affairs. He feels himself the master of the situation. By science and art he can subdue nature. His powers and opportunities have given him a free hand among his fellow-men. Why, then, should he not dream great dreams and imagine himself to be a very monarch of life? The glorying of irreligion in a successful man seems to be perfectly natural, nay, inevitable.
II. THE BOAST OF OPPOSITION. Edom beasts herself against God. In heathenish ignorance she supposes herself to be stronger than the God of Israel. At all events, she sets herself up in opposition to Jehovah. It is customary for contending powers, when going to war, to keep their courage up by boasting of their own strength and. despising that of their enemy. The same is seen in man’s great warfare against God.
1. In intelligence. People act as though they supposed they could outwit God. Though they do not draw out the thought into a clear argumentwhen it would certainly break down in a great fallacythey tacitly assume that they are clever enough to elude the consequences of their sins. Other people may blunder into ruin, but they will steer their craft so deftly that, though it runs down the rapids, it will not go over the falls.
2. In will. The stubborn rebellion of man’s will asserts itself in opposition to the wise, holy, strong will of God. Men think in their strong-headed sin that they can force their way against the will of God. Because for the time being they have a free hand, they imagine that it will always be so. Now, it certainly does appear that man could assert his self-will in wildest opposition to God. The mistake is in judging of the future issue by present appearances.
III. THE FATAL BOAST. Boasting against God cannot succeed. If there be a God, he must be supreme. He may be too magnanimous to hurl his rebellious creature to sudden destruction. He may even regard the sinful boasting with compassion on account of its helpless folly. But he certainly will not let it ultimately triumph. Boasting is not victory. Boasting does not create strength. It is only “with the mouth”a mere matter of empty sound. But facts are not changed by words. All the oratory of boasting that was ever practiced will not dissolve one of the hard, stern realities of life. God is still God, though men ignore his presence and resist his will. Therefore to boast against God is fatal to the boaster. He is like one who dashes his head against a wall. He only destroys himself by his vain pretence. Our safety lies in humility, contrition, and submission to our God and Father.
Eze 35:14
Desolate in the midst of general joyfulness.
I. THERE IS TO BE A SEASON OF GENERAL JOYFULNESS. “When the whole earth rejoiceth”that is a glimpse of a wonderful future. At present the earth mourns and languishes. Tyranny oppresses nations of slaves. Penury holds multitudes in weary drudgery on the verge of starvation. War devastates fields and towns and countries. Sorrow sighs from the heart of humanity. But this shall not continue forever.
1. There will be joy in a glorious future. The Bible is full of hope. Its golden age always lies before us, not behind us.
2. This joy will be attained through the gospel of Christ. The angels sang for joy at his birth on earth. Gladness comes to the heart in which he is revealed afresh. When the old earth is subject to the rule of Christ, and the sin that is its curse is blotted out, a new Divine joy must take possession of men.
3. This joy will be for the whole earth. At first, only a remnant is to be saved (Rom 9:27). But this remnant does not represent the whole harvest of Divine salvation. It is but the firstfruits. The gospel is for the wide world. All the nations are to enter into the heritage of the future. Christ “shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isa 53:11). No scanty salvage from the huge wreck of humanity could satisfy the great soul of Jesus.
II. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR ANY ONE TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THIS GENERAL JOYFULNESS. Edom is to be shut out when the whole earth rejoices.
1. The joy of the whole earth is the joy of its several inhabitants. The sheet of sunshine that lies broadly over meadow and hillside is woven out of innumerable rays of light. The flood of music that fills the valley with melody consists in a succession of distinct notes. The blaze of color that flashes on us in the summer garden comes from the several hues of separate flowers. The general joy is the joy of many hearts. Each must share it individually if all are to display it collectively.
2. The individual participation in the general joy depends on an individual condition of receptiveness. It is supremely the joy of reconciliation. Now, Christ died to make atonement for the whole world. Yet each soul has to be separately reconciled to God. And when the old rebellion of man against God is virtually quelled, if but a single soul held out, that soul must be excluded from the joy which comes in with the great peace.
III. IT IS UNSPEAKABLY DREADFUL TO BE DESOLATE AMIDST GENERAL JOYFULNESS.
1. The perception of contrast is intensely distressing. The one heavy heart is in painful contrast to the many light hearts. Sorrowful people shun merry gatherings, shrinking from them as people with pained eyes shrink from bright lights. It is an acute grief to the desolate soul to be alone in a joyous festivity when all others are of one mind. For a lost soul to be placed in the midst of the blessedness of heaven would be far worse than the torments of hell.
2. The discovery of needless failure is especially grievous. The rejoicing is practically universal. Why, then, should one poor soul be excluded? Nearly all are in when the door is shut, but one miserable creature is left out in the darkness. If salvation were only intended for a few, the many might learn to acquiesce in their dismal lot. But when a man sees that it is intended for the whole world, and yet by his own folly he is excluded, he must torture himself with bitter regrets.
Eze 35:15
Rejoicing over the ruin of others.
I. THE UGLY FACT. Edom had rejoiced over the ruin of Israel. One would say that such a joy must be impossible. Regarding the world from the high ground of ideal speculation, one would suppose that sympathy for the suffering must spring forth as a natural instinct, or that, if the feelings were callous and selfishness hardened the heart, still there would be no room for joy under such circumstances. But the facts of history and observation show that Edom’s joy was no monstrous, impossible experience. People do rejoice in the sufferings of others:
1. In national life. The downfall of rival nations is accepted by their more fortunate neighbors with delight.
2. In amusement. The old, fierce delights of the amphitheatre, which delicate ladies shared with bloodthirsty warriors, were just the joys of cruelty, pleasures got directly out of the sufferings of fellow-creatures. The Emperor Domitian is said to have taken a keen interest in watching the contortions of agony on the face of a dying gladiator. A similar spirit lurks in the present-day popular taste for amusements that involve great risk of life. A Christian spirit should discourage such amusements as feeding on cruelty.
3. In private life. Some People seem to take a spiteful pleasure in the disgrace and ruin of their neighbors. Is not this pleasure at the root of much idle gossip and fascinating scandal?
II. ITS EVIL CAUSES. How comes it that the misery of one man can cause pleasure to his brother, when by the influence of sympathy it should produce an opposite effect? The causes of this gross perversion of the appetite for pleasure are various.
1. Revenge. Israel had been an old enemy of Edom. The commonest pleasure of cruelty is m seeing a foe humiliated. There may be natural elements in this feeling:
(1) a reaction from the tension of fear; and
(2) a satisfaction of the desire for self-protection.
Still, the joy is evil and hateful, for it exceeds self-regarding considerations, and it excludes pity; it denies the duty of loving our enemies.
2. Envy. Edom had formerly envied the prosperity of Israel. She afterwards rejoiced in her rival’s downfall. This, again, is a sort of reaction from the pain of envy. It is the more powerful if the successful rival has shown scorn for her less fortunate neighbor. Now, the scorn is reversed.
3. A sense of contrast. Sitting at ease, the spectator compares his comforts with the agonies before him, and as all feeling arises from contrasted states, the sharpness of this contrast heightens the relish of a man’s present comfort. This is brutally selfish.
4. Malignity. There does seem to be a direct pleasure in seeing others suffer. This is the glee of devils. It may be shared by diabolical men.
III. ITS FATAL EFFECTS. Edom is to be punished and made desolate. God will certainly punish cruelty as a great sin, because it is the direct opposite of man’s first duty, which is to love all beings. The evil joy will work mischief in the heart of the man who cherishes it. It is a venom that will rankle in the breast that engenders it We need love and sympathy for our own soul’s health. The pleasures of cruelty cut a man off from the bonds of fellowship, even with these who are not themselves its victims, because they destroy the elements on which the spirit of brotherhood lives. Thus a cruel person is inwardly lonely. Selfishness makes the heart desolate. The exclusion of love is the exclusion of the greatest joy of human fellowship. In seeking his own pleasure the man who admits evil passions of revenge or spite into his breast darkens his life with the gloom of spiritual solitude. On the other hand, the deepest joy is found in sacrificing one’s self in order to save one’s brother.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Eze 35:5, Eze 35:6
Lex talionis.
Ezekiel returns to his prophecy regarding the inhabitants of Mount Seir. These neighbors of the Israelites were animated by hostility to God’s people which was of a peculiarly bitter character. The prophet’s mind was deeply affected and sorely pained by the language and the actions of these enemies of Israel. This probably accounts for his reverting to his inspired threats of adversity and even destruction about to overtake these bitter and blasphemous foes of Israel and of Israel’s God.
I. THE CHARGE BROUGHT AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF MOUNT SEIR.
1. The offense. They were guilty of violence against Israel and inexcusable bloodshed. A predatory and warlike race, they had turned their arms against their neighbors, instead of allowing them to dwell in security.
2. The motive. This was malice, malignity. A perpetual, unappeasable enmity actuated those of Mount Seir in their repeated incursions into the territory of the Israelites, and the desolation of the land and the destruction of life laid to their charge. Other more excusable motives accounted for the hostilities waged by other peoples; against Mount Seir the charge is brought of acting upon the meanest and basest of motives.
3. The opportunity. This was the time of Israel’s calamity and weakness. They took advantage of the circumstances of their neighbors, and attacked them at a conjuncture when they were powerless to defend themselves.
II. THE RETRIBUTION WITH WHICH THE PEOPLE OF MOUNT SEIR WERE THREATENED.
1. The Author of this retribution was none other than the Lord God himself. He ruleth among the nations; “let not the rebellious exalt themselves.” His justice is unquestionable and his power is irresistible. “He is terrible in his doings towards the children of men.”
2. The nature of it. It is foretold that the cities shall be laid waste, and that the land shall be desolate, that the blood of the inhabitants of Mount Seir shall be shed. “I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee”
3. The law of it. Observe that the judgment and penalty here foretold is not simply retributive; it is of the nature of retaliation. The lex talionis prescribed “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” etc. The punishment matched the offense. Such a correspondence is noticeable between Seir’s treatment of Israel and Jehovah’s treatment of Seir. They had shed blood, and in recompense their blood should be shed. This is not to be regarded as private, personal revenge, which is forbidden to man, and could never be practiced by a holy God. It is a public measure, a judicial act, a proceeding warranted by justice, and intended to produce a deep and wholesome impression upon all who should witness it. It certainly marks the heinousness of sin in the view of the righteous Ruler, and it exemplifies the inevitable and universal action of the retributive government of the God of nations.T.
Eze 35:11-15
The Lord’s identification of himself with Israel.
A careless reader might possibly consider that a passage like this exemplifies prophetic partiality; that Ezekiel, because himself a Jew by birth and by sentiment, was disposed to represent the Supreme as upon his side and against his countrymen’s enemies; that the view given of the Eternal is of a Ruler whose government is distinguished by favoritism. But further consideration will show that this is not the case. The cause of Israel was the cause of monotheism in religion, of spirituality in worship, and of purity and righteousness in morals. It is true that the Hebrew people did not actually, as a matter of fact, attain the standard which as a nation they adopted; and for this reason their leaders and thinkers were at this very time enduring the purifying humiliation of the Captivity. But the highest interest and the fairest prospects of mankind were bound up with the preservation of Israel as God’s witness concerning himself to the world, and as God’s preparation for the advent of the Messiah.
I. THE INIQUITOUS CONDUCT OF SEIR. They were guilty:
1. Of anger and enmity against Israel.
2. Of evil speech, of blasphemy, against Israel.
3. Of rejoicing over the sorrows, calamities, and desolations of Israel.
II. THE LORD‘S IDENTIFICATION OF HIMSELF WITH ISRAEL IN THE WRONG THEY SUSTAINED AT THE HAND OF SEIR. The fact is that Israel was his people, and he, Jehovah, was Israel’s God. This is said with the recollection that Israel had transgressed his Law, rebelled against his authority, despised the privileges he had bestowed; with the recollection that their God had chastened them sorely, and at this very time was causing them to pass through the furnace of affliction. All this does not interfere with our belief of the close identification between the Lord and the sons of Jacob. It was not for their goodness, but for his purposes, that they were chosen. They were a consecrated nation, i.e. a nation set apart to fulfill a deliberate intention of the most high and holy God. Therefore, in a special manner, the Lord took the part of Israel, resented the wrongs done to them, the indignities put upon them, and the blasphemies uttered concerning them. Therefore the Lord avenged them of their adversaries. Other nations might be destroyed, but it did not consist with God’s purposes that Israel should perish. He was against those who were against his people.
III. THE LORD‘S AVENGING OF ISRAEL‘S WRONGS AS DONE TO HIMSELF.
1. He heard with displeasure all the evil words uttered against those whom he had set apart for himself.
2. He judged with a righteous and severe judgment all who injured his servants.
3. For Mount Seir, as a flagrant offender, was reserved an especial punishment: “When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.” Let it be observed that this was a reversal of what had formerly taken place; for when Israel was desolated, Mount Seir had rejoiced.T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Eze 35:1-15
Special punishment of special sin.
Very painful must it be to an intelligent spirit to be the executor of Jehovah’s vengeance upon transgressors: the pain is only one remove the less to announce the coming doom. Yet, as we gain broader and clearer views of God’s administration, we discover that the suffering of a few brings advantage to the many. The splendor and the rare excellence of God’s righteousness are thereby clearly revealed. And gradually we perceive that pain and pleasure are matters vastly inferior to right and wrong. The well-being of heaven is suspended upon just government in the universe. Right must be done, though the stars should fall and the material fabric become a wreck.
I. AN AGGRAVATED NATIONAL OFFENSE.
1. It sprang out of an ancient hatred. The then-existent inhabitants of Israel had done the Edomites no wrong. It was simply an ember of an old fire the Edomites had fanned and kept alive generation after generation. Their duty clearly was to forgive and to forget. Centuries before, the blood-stained hatchet ought to have been buried. Heedlessly the Edomites were doing their own nature a cruel wrong. They were strangling their noblest qualities,
2. Hatred, nursed, soon develops into murder. “They had shed the blood of the children of Israel.” Murder may stain the character of a state as much as it stains the character of an individual; and every war, unjustly provoked, is only murder. The lives of a myriad innocent men will be required at some tyrants’ hands. And this murderous outrage was an act of basest cowardice. They had plunged the sword into Israel’s breast when Israel was prostrate and wounded by other foes. It was as black deed as ever had been done under the eye of the sun.
3. Added to this was an attempted spoliation of Israel‘s territory. “Because thou hast said, These two nations shall be mine.” Edom had hoped to blot Israel’s name completely out of history, and to embrace the sacred territory in the empire of Edom. Their hatred had hatched a purpose to murder and bury a nationa nation that had been and might again be a blessing to the globe. And the guilt was equally as great as if the vile purpose had succeeded. To the eye of our righteous God there is often a vast volume of crime secreted in a single purpose, in a hidden motive. The quintessence of sin may be found there.
II. CRIME AGAINST A NATION IS SIN AGAINST GOD.
1. God has identified himself with men. This was conspicuous in a marked degree in the case of Israel. Yet this identification with Israel’s true welfare is typical of God’s fatherly interest in all trustful souls. More or less, God identifies himself with humanity; and no wrong to humanity shall go unpunished. He will champion the interests of the oppressed everywhere.
2. God carefully notes every act of injustice. “I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel.” Every whisper of man is heard by God. Such acute hearing staggers our understanding. Yet “he that formed the ear, shall he not hear?” The secrets of imperial councils are all seen and heard by Jehovah. Ultimately, and in the best time, he bathes all wicked designs.
3. Human folly in ignoring God‘s presence. “Whereas the Lord was there.” In every age worldly men concoct their plans as if no God ruled over the affairs of men. Ambitious rulers parcel out a neighbor’s territory, totally unmindful that God is in possession. “The earth is the Lord’s,” and his eye is never absent from his property. The weakest child of man may always summon God to his sidehis Helper and Friend.
III. EQUITABLE RETRIBUTION.
1. Divine activity. “I will stretch out mine hand.” Hath God, then, a human hand? The language is an accommodation to the understanding of man. God has an adaptation of power more than equivalent to the dexterous strength of the human hand. His almighty hand can reach to the very extremities of the universe. As by a breath of the lips he can create, so by a breath can he desolate cities.
2. Exact retribution. “Sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.” No human judge has ever been able to mete out such exact penalties as God does. A combination of perfect qualities is needed, and this perfect combination no one possesses save Jehovah. It is always a real alleviation if the victim can feel that he has not deserved so much severity; and it is the very core of anguish to realize that the suffering is absolutely just. Conscience itself becomes the executioner of God.
3. The penalty will be set in the light of contrast. “When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.” It is a slight mitigation of suffering when others share it with us. It aggravates our suffering if all around us are bright with joy. The rich man of the parable felt his torment the keener because Lazarus was seen in the repose of blessedness. Isolation in misery is an additional element of woe.
4. The desolation was to be final. No prospect, not the most distant, could be entertained of relief. The stroke was to be, not disciplinary, but utterly penal. It was to be a perpetual desolation. The race was to suffer extirpation from the district.
5. The edict was confirmed by an oath. “As I live, saith the Lord God,” this shall be done. This form of speech by God is a further accommodation to men. As an affirmation makes a deeper impression upon the minds of men when accompanied by an oath, by a solemn appeal to the presence of God, so God condescends to speak to men in such manner as shall most powerfully affect them. From God the simplest form of words is enough. “He is not a man, that he should lie.” A word from him creates or destroys. But he speaks by way of oath, in order to arrest our thoughts and to convince our judgment.
6. Conviction of God‘s jurisdiction often comes too late. Men ignore God’s presence and God’s interference in human affairs, until events force upon them the fact that they are fighting, not simply against their fellows, nor contending against adverse circumstance, but are verily fighting against God. At length, out of the chaos of atheistic thoughts there looms the form and features of the living God. But the knowledge comes too late. They know God as their overpowering Foe, whereas they might have known him as a gracious Friend.D.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Eze 35:1-9, Eze 35:14, Eze 35:15
Features to be found in penalty.
When God is obliged to be “against” a man or a people, as he was against Edom (Eze 35:2), he (it) may look for these three things in the retribution which impends
I. AN INFLICTION ANSWERING IN CHARACTER TO THE SIN. “Because thou hast given over to the power of the sword therefore I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee” (Eze 35:5, Eze 35:6). Our Lord also himself tells us that “they who take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Violence shown to others commonly brings down violence on its own head. Craft and cunning lead men to great wariness, and even to a corresponding wiliness, in their dealing with the man who endeavors to undermine and to deceive. The man who is much engaged in digging pits for others is very likely to fall into one himself. Miserliness of spirit and behavior always leads to a real impoverishment of soul, and often to an imaginary poverty of circumstance which, though imaginary, is real enough to the man s own mind. There is no one whom the penurious man deprives of so much good and joy as himself. Penalty always answers to wrong-doing in its character. They who sin in the flesh suffer in the flesh, and they who sin in the spirit suffer in the spirit. The man who sins against his family will suffer domestic trouble; he that does not respect himself wrongs himself grievously, if not fatally.
II. AS INFLICTION ANSWERING IN MEASURE TO THE SIN. The severity of Edom’s punishment was to answer to the greatness of her crime.
1. Lasting enmity was to be visited with lasting desolation (see Eze 35:5, Eze 35:9).
2. Because they had “hated blood,” i.e. had shown such determined malice and cruel hatred towards their own relatives (Theodoret, Jerome, Michaelis), therefore “blood should pursue them;” violence should not only overtake and slay, but should pursue them, should continue to smite them.
3. “According to the joy of the whole land [of Edom], God would make it a desolation” (Eze 35:14; Fairbairn); as it did rejoice in Israel’s fall, in like measure would it be the object of derision and of triumph “in the dark hour coming on.” As its joy, so its desolation; the height of the one would measure the depth of the other. We cannot always prove that penalty answers in measure to the extent of the wrong that has been wrought; but we can very often see that it does, and we are quite sure that it does so when we cannot recognize the fact. The truth that much sorrow is not penalty at all but discipline and preparation for higher work and a larger life, and the further and deeper truth that a very large and most important part of penalty is found in inward experience and especially in spiritual deterioration, will explain many apparent exceptions to this rule. Fuller knowledge and profounder wisdom will bring their sufficient revelations in good time; meanwhile we may be perfectly assured of the fact that the further we wander from God, from truth, from righteousness, from love, the deeper is the brand that enters into our soul, and the sadder is the destiny we are weaving for ourselves.
III. THE CONSTANTLY RECURRING ELEMENT OF DESOLATION. As the word “desolate,” or “desolation,” is the prevailing note of this prophecy, and indeed of many others also, so may it be said that loss, diminution, destitution, ruin, is the constantly recurring evil which sin is working in the Soul and in the life of men. They who forsake the God of their fathers and who seek their heritage not in his holy service but in material successes or in the lower affections and delights, will surely find that they are bereaving themselves of all that is best; that they are denuding their life of its highest worth, that they are going down, step by stepsometimes it is by very steep steps, tooto the condition which may be well described in the prophet’s words as “a desolation and an astonishment” (Eze 35:3).C.
Eze 35:10-13
The supreme mistake.
The two striking and significant sentences in this passage are in the tenth and thirteenth verses: “And Jehovah was there” (Eze 35:10); “I have heard” (Eze 35:13). They bring out
I. EDOM‘S GREAT MISCALCULATION. No doubt Edom had its princes, its statesmen, its warriors, of whom it was proud, on whose sagacity and prowess it was leaning. But however astute her ministers may have been, they made one great and fatal mistakethey left out of the account one factor, the presence of which made all the difference to the issue. Under their false guidance Edom thought itself more than a match for Israel, which, with its pastoral and agricultural pursuits, was less warlike than itself. And Edom said to itself, “These two nations shall be mine, and we will inherit it” (Eze 35:10). “And Jehovah was there,” interjects the prophet, with burning indignation. Edom, forsooth, going to appropriate Israel, and swallow it up as a dainty morsel, as if it had only to stretch out its hand and take it “And Jehovah was there”that One in whose presence all Edom, with all its civil and military power, was but the dust of the balance, was nothing and less than nothing and vanity; that Holy One who held Edom responsible for its enmity and its cruelty; that Mighty One at the breath of whose mouth all its proud soldiery would go down as saplings before the storm! What senseless infatuation! what infinite presumption! to remember and to covet Israel’s well-watered meadows and well-cultivated fields, and to forget that “Jehovah was there! to resolve to go up and possess its pleasant places, and occupy its strong cities, and plant its flag on Mount Zion without taking into the account that “Jehovah was there!” Edom was entertaining proud, ambitious schemes, and it was making “scornful speeches against the mountains of Israel, saying, A desolation, to us they are given for fire,” and was thus “magnifying itself against” the Lord. But what depth of meaning, and what vigor of action, and what certainty of doom lies in those simple words of Jehovah, “I have heard!” Those disdainful words of theirs have entered the Divine ear, and they will move that mighty hand to its work of righteousness and judgment.
II. OUR OWN SUPREME MISTAKE. We never commit so great and so ruinous an error as when we leave out of our account the presence and the handiwork of God. We are never so utterly and so perilously in the wrong as when we lay our plans and make our speeches, forgetful that God is near us, overruling all we do, and hearing every word we speak. We make this supreme mistake:
1. When we think we can sin without his banning. If we lay our schemes to injure our brethren, or if we design to enrich or indulge ourselves in any forbidden way, without smarting for our sin, we shall find, sooner or later, that “Jehovah is there,” with his penalty in his hand.
2. When we think we can succeed without his blessing. To succeed without the favoring presence of God and the co-operation of his gracious power is as hopelessly impossible as it is to sin without encountering his Divine displeasure and rebuke. If we prosper in our toil, if we find joy and gladness in our life, it will be only because “Jehovah is there;” because he makes our land to yield its increase, because he fills our soul with the blessedness that abides.
3. When we think we can be wise without his teaching. Neither workman in the field of nature nor student in the realm of truth can leave out of his account the presence and the aid of the Divine. There is nothing sadder than the sight of men seeking and straining after the wisdom that they want for life and for death and for eternity, trying to find their way by the light of the sparks of their own intelligence; this will they have of God”that they will lie down in sorrow” (Isa 1:10, Isa 1:11). But blessed are they who take into their account the fact that “Jehovah is there,” that God is speaking to us in his Word, by that Son who was and is the Eternal Word of God; for they who are wise in his wisdom shall enter the kingdom of truth, the kingdom of God, and they shall rise up in everlasting life and joy.C.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
2. Against Edom, with respect to the Mountains of Israel, in consequence of Jehovahs Sanctification of His own Name (Ch 3536)
1 Ch. 35 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 2Son of man, set thy face towards [against] the Mount [the mountain range of] Seir, and prophesy concerning 3[against] it; And say to it, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am against thee, Mount Seir, and I stretch out My hand over thee, and I 4make thee a waste and a desolation. Thy cities will I make ruins, and thou shalt be a waste, and dost know that I am Jehovah. 5Because thou hast enmity for ever, and deliveredst the children of Israel into the hands of the sword, in the time of their calamity, in the time of the guilt of the end; 6Therefore, as I live,sentence of the Lord Jehovah,blood will I make thee, and blood shall pursue thee; where thou hatedst not blood, there shall blood 7pursue thee. And I make Mount Seir a desolation and a waste, and I cut off 8from it him that passes over, and him that returns. And I fill his mountains with his slain; thy hills, and thy valleys, and all thy ravines, the slain with 9the sword shall fall in them. I will give thee up to perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not be inhabited, and ye know that I am Jehovah 10Because thou saidst, The two nations (haggoiim) and the two lands, mine 11shall they be, and we possess it (Jerusalem?), and Jehovah was there: Therefore, as I live,sentence of the Lord Jehovah,so do I according to thy anger and according to thy envy, which thou out of thy hatred hast shown towards them; and I make Myself known among them as Him who shall 12judge thee. And thou knowest that I Jehovah have heard all thy scornful speeches which thou utteredst against the mountains of Israel, saying, Lay 13waste, to us they are given for food. And ye magnified yourselves against Me with your mouth, and heaped up your words against Me; I have heard 14Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, as [when] the whole land [the whole earth] rejoices, 15I will make thee a desolation. According to thy rejoicing for the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was made desolate, so will I do to thee; a desolation shalt thou be, Mount Seir, and all Edom, the whole of it, and they know that I am Jehovah.
Eze 35:3. Sept.: … . . Vulg.: desolatum atque desertum.
Eze 35:5. … . . ,
Eze 35:6. … . . Vulg: et cum sanguinem oderis
Eze 35:7. … . . (Anoth. read.: , et stuporem.)
Eze 35:9. Anoth. read.: , revertentur.
Eze 35:11. Sept.: … (Anoth. read.: , as also .)
Eze 35:15. … . (Anoth. read.: , totus ipse.)
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
In looking forward to the restoration of Israel, Ezekiel 34, the false shepherds chiefly furnished the connection; in what follows regarding Israel as a nation, Edom and its hatred form the connecting link. Comp. also what is said in p. 245, and Doct. Reflection 5, p. 246. Hvernick aptly points out the glaring contrast to the preceding. The light of Israel is set in relief by the shadow of Edom (Hengst.). After the marvellous blessings of the theocracy, comes the curse which overtakes Edom. Now since, as regards the blessings, the true Israel in Christ, that is, redeemed humanity, has ultimately to be looked to, so the curse here is attached not so much to the heathen world (Hv.) as to the heathenish, that is, the Antichristian world. Hengstenberg thinks that the reference is not to the heathen world at large, but only to the small neighbouring nations, which stand in a similar relation as Edom, and resemble it in intensity of hatred! Yet, as he says, Edom appears here as a radically corrupt people, that is to have no share in the Messianic salvation. Our prophecy has nothing to do with Eze 34:29 (against Keil). Cocceius maintains that, as the dismissal of the shepherds formed the subject in ch.34, so the subject here is the dissolution, by the coming of Christ, as foretold in Num 24:18-19, of the Jewish nation, represented here by Edom and Seir. The Jewish nation is called Seir per synecdochen partis, because Edom was included in the Jewish community; the Iduma, formed a part of the nation, and the kings were of Edomite descent; just as the land of Palestine is called Iduma, whence Christ comes, Isaiah 63. The signification of Edom is here, however, mainly symbolical and not literal, as in Eze 25:12 sq. Hengstenberg makes the prophecy there against Edom to be resumed here on the report given by the fugitive of the injustice committed at the destruction of Jerusalem, etc. (??).
[Superficial readers will be disposed to ask, what has Edom to do here? The Lords judgment has already been pronounced against Edom (Eze 25:12-14), among the enemies of the covenant-people; and this fresh denunciation against it is inserted among predictions which, both before and after, have immediate respect to the covenant-people themselves. It is, however, in its proper place; and brings out another element in the prosperity which the Lord promises to His Church and people. It gives body and prominence to the thought expressed in 35:28 of the preceding chapter, that they should no more be a prey to the heathen. So far from it, the prophet now declares that the worst and bitterest of all the heathen shall be utterly destroyed and made desolate; and that those who were then rejoicing over Israels calamities must themselves become a spoil, without any prospect of recovery.Fairbairns Ezekiel, p. 381.W. F.]
Eze 35:2-9. Against Edom, i.e. his Bloodthirsty Enmity to Israel
Eze 35:2. Eze 6:2 (Eze 25:2; Eze 28:21; Eze 19:2).Gen 36:9. , the woody mountain region in the south of that part of Palestine which lies to the east of Jordan, from the Dead Sea to the lanitic Gulf; the land for the people, corresponding antithetically to the prominence given to the land in the foregoing (Eze 34:25 sq.).
Eze 35:3. Eze 34:10; Eze 13:8; Eze 13:20; Eze 26:3, et passim.Eze 25:7; Eze 25:13; Eze 6:14.Eze 33:28-29.
Eze 35:4. Exemplification. Thy cities and ranked together; the latter not exactly: destruction, but rather: destroyed, heaps of ruins.Eze 12:20; Eze 14:15-16.
Eze 35:5. Enmity for ever, as in Eze 25:15, but more expressive here on account of the kinship between Edom and Israel (comp. Psa 137:7). Infinitive construction passing over to the verb fin. The enmity is an abiding one; the next word, (Hiphil, imperf. ap.), is an expression of that enmity. Besides, in this as well as in the expression , the people already come distinctly out from the land. is: oppression; hence: burden, calamity, misfortune, farther and sufficiently defined by what immediately follows (comp. Ezekiel 21:30, 34 [ Eze 21:25; Eze 21:29]). Oppression of brethren calls at once for the exercise of compassion, which is best manifested where no one is innocent; when guilt makes the end, ancient enmity should not be let loose (Oba 1:13).
Eze 35:6. , is there an allusion here to ? a suggesting, although not an express naming of Edom? In this case could there be also an antithetic allusion to Adam (men) in Eze 34:31, and at the same time an allusion to Gen 25:30!? At all events, the fourfold repetition of has some significance. Edom shall, as it were, become entirely blood (Eze 16:38), and still farther, blood shall follow him, which might mean that he will leave behind him a track of blood, or, the effusion of blood will follow him; so that by this phrase, which is again repeated at the end of the verse, the words: blood will I make thee, are explained to mean: the effusion of blood, namely, of thy own blood, shall cleave fast to thy footsteps (comp. Eze 35:8). [Hvern.: I will make the event authenticate thy name, and blood-guiltiness shall pursue thee everywhere as a murderer, to cry for vengeance and to give thee up to punishment. Ewald, who reads instead of : because thy inclination is after blood, blood shall, etc.] scarcely implies an oath; affirmative, as Hengst.: forsooth thou hast hated blood, inasmuch as the murderer hates the blood which he sheds, in which is the hated life of the murdered man; and although the significant play upon the word might include a reference to the blood-relationship of Edom and Israel (Theodoret), had not the Hebrew word for that been , it is simpler to adhere to the negation that Edom thus hated not bloodshed. [The most peculiar part of the verse is the clause , which not only our version, but also nearly all commentators, render: since thou hast not hated blood. But no examples can be produced to justify such a rendering, and the remark of Hitzig, that as the words stand, they must be regarded as an affirmative protestation, is quite correct. Taking blood in the usual sense, I do not see why, in a passage so strongly epigrammatic and alliteral as this, the hatred of it might not be affirmed of Edom; for the grand point on which the desires of the Edomites were centred was life, life in themselves, as opposed to the bloody extermination they sought for Israel; the shedding of their blood was what they would on no account think of. I take the meaning to be, therefore: The preservation of thy life is what thou art intent on securing; the thought of blood being shed among thee is what thou art putting far from thee as an object of aversion; but Gods purposes are contrary to thine, and what thou hatest He will sendblood shall pursue thee.Fairbairns Ezekiel.W. F.]
Eze 35:7. instead of , the same as . The land is made so because the people fill it only as slain (Eze 35:8). There is no going to and fro, no traffic, Eze 33:28. [Sept. according to Eze 25:13.]
Eze 35:8. Eze 32:5 sq., 31:12. Hence the desolation of death.
Eze 35:9. , a rejoinder to , ver 5. Instead of , from (Keil), to be read with quiescent, the Qeri has , from , not to return to its original condition. Hengst.: thy cities shall not sit, but lie prostrate (Eze 26:20).
Eze 35:10-15. Against Edom, his Covetousness towards Israel
Eze 35:10. , parallel to Eze 35:5. The other side of Edoms guilt in respect to Israel. With significant allusion to their separation, Israel and Judah are called . In speaking thus, Edom considered them as heathen nations, and not the people of Jehovah; or this is the prophets representation. Hence can mean nothing else than the land of Israel and the land of Judah, not Iduma and the land of Judah (Jerome). Grotius sees here a reference to the Assyrian and also the Babylonian captivity. , neuter (Keil): the one land as well as the other (Rosenm.); Hitzig: referring to the plur. fem. If we understand the clause of Jehovahs presence in the temple, then for believers ideally, as it also in reality was in the kingdom of Israel, it comes into consideration for both kingdoms, and we may, with other expositors, make the suffix refer to Jerusalem. On this comp. Eze 9:3; Eze 11:23. But certainly the divine presence in the temple was only the sensible symbol of Jehovahs governing agency among His people generally; hence, finally, the disregarding of Israels divine election, the ignoring of this, was the mistake in the reckoning which Edom made. Better thus than to say that Edom insulted Jehovah by coveting His possession (Hitzig); or (as Keil): as if Jehovah were a feeble and unreal God, unable to protect His people; but that which had been said in Israel, Eze 8:12 (Eze 9:9), in excuse for heathen superstition, the heathen unbelief of Edom repeats here with respect to Israels eternal destiny, which rests on the ground of Jehovahs covenant revelation. It was practical atheism in both cases,childish neglect of God in Israel, but active hostility to Him in Edom. Edoms reckoning took sin into account, calling to remembrance the injury done by Jacob, the father of Israel, to Esau, their ancestor; but took no account of grace, and never thought that Jehovah should come into consideration. [From Eze 35:12 has been also interpreted as referring to Iduma.]
Eze 35:11. , as in Eze 35:6. From the hating (infinitive) come anger and envy, expressing themselves not only in word (Eze 35:10), but also in deed (). Jehovah acts according to Edoms doings.The making known , not, as Hengst., among the children of Israel, which is too remote (Eze 35:5), but among the two (Eze 35:10), just as there refers to the two lands coveted by Edom. The making known among Israel shall happen as well as the judgment on Edomcomp. Eze 28:25 (Eze 26:20); not, however, as if both had like proportion (Hengst.), but because the making known is effected by the judgment. , as Him who, etc.
Eze 35:12. Thus Edom shall know by experience that Jehovah does not leave unpunished such a saying as Edom has said. After speaking of doings in Eze 35:11, there is now a return to the sayings (Eze 35:10). He has heard all. The mountains of Israel, preparing for Eze 36:1, come forth in antithesis to the mountain range of Seir. Qeri , simplifying, but needlessly, for the abrupt and significant (Eze 35:15), 3 perf. fem. sing., may refer to the land or be understood of what is meant; or we may with Rosenm. read: , a waste, Eze 33:28. The following plural brings in the people.Eze 34:5; Eze 34:8; Eze 34:10.
Eze 35:13. Thus their sayings were not only insults to Israel ( ), land and people, but at the same time boastings with their mouth heaped up against Jehovah (), who was there (Eze 35:10), wherewith they already, as it were, took joyful possession of the land. They exulted over Jehovah with haughty words and much speaking. But now
Eze 35:14He who hitherto has heard all these boastings speaks and acts ().According as the one happens, so shall the other happen to thee. [Ewald: I will make thee a sport (a comedy) to the whole earth, etc. Hitzig: While all the world rejoices even over thy desolation (?).] However natural it is at to think of the whole earth, such a thought is very foreign to the connection. Hvernick, on the other hand, insists on the necessary harmony with the following verse, according to which the interpretation must be: as all Edom exulted, so also should all Edom be subjected to punishment. The curious explanation, to take here as an adverb of time (so also Hitzig), and in Eze 35:15 as a word of comparison, readily suggests itself. But better (Kimchi), the one illustrates the other; hence expressly in Eze 35:15, as also the infinitive here points to Eze 35:15. To rejoice and desolation must correspond to one another, while the latter, however, must be the punishment. For and instead of joy of the whole land, desolation now. The at the end of the verse already intimates what land is meant. There is not a word said in the whole chapter of the earth; it is always land as opposed to land, the mountain range of Seir to the mountains of Israel (Eze 35:12). Hengst. best shows what the whole earth introduces into the clear text: The glorious salvation which comes to Zion is a subject of rejoicing for the whole earth, because it gives testimony to the glory of God, who can only bless His people, so that in them all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, Deu 32:43 sq.; Isa 42:10 sq.; Psa 97:1; Psa 48:3; Lam 2:15. [Klief.: But when all that bears the name of Edom shall, through the judgment of God, be subjected to devastation, then the whole earth shall rejoice, as Edom rejoiced when Jerusalem fell. Where is such an extravagant idea even hinted at in the text? Eze 36:2; Eze 36:5 speaks only of Edoms exultation. Hence Keil thus applies : When joy shall be prepared for all the world (all mankind!), then shall, etc.]
Eze 35:15. That the rejoicing of Edom, which is to be requited to him, had respect to the inheritance, etc., that is, the land given to the family of Israel as distinguished from Esau-Edom (Genesis 27; Gen 28:4), is now brought in at the close; and as thereby in Eze 35:14 is explained, so the motive for is given by . In accordance with this, repeats (Eze 35:14), and consequently is not to be interpreted, with Hitzig: so will I make others rejoice over thy desolation. , which forms the complement to , is the second, not the third person. The following feminine suffix indicates the land, so that with the meaning also of (Eze 35:14) is quite clear. Mount Seir, and all Edom, the whole of it, is set in contrast to the inheritance of the house of Israel.
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS
1. As the ideas by which the national life of Israel was upheld express themselves in a great variety and fulness of forms of worship, as to places, times, materials, and persons, so also in the course of the divine history of Israel, individuals and whole tribes and nations became symbolized into spiritual, and also unspiritual, very expressive types of character, which may serve as studies for the minister of the gospel.
2. The symbolical or typical signification of Esau-Edom, while treated more historically in Ezekiel 25. (p. 246), comes out with perfect clearness when we take also Hebrews 12 into consideration. Whether he is called (Heb 12:16) in the literal sense, with reference to Gen 26:34 sq., or in a figurative and spiritual sense, so that the expression is synonymous with , at all events the picture given of Edom in Ezekiel corresponds to the latter sense of the word. To Edom, Judah and Israel (divide et impera in his thoughts) are merely nations and lands. Anything higher, as that Jehovah was there, enters not into his thoughts. It is the ordinary profane kind of a materialism, which takes its stand on natural rights, and does not want to know of grace and election, and so repays Jacobs sin with abiding enmity, and actually carries out as Edom (Eze 35:5) what Esau only threatened (Gen 27:41); as, on the other hand, the carnal appetite ( ) is still exhibited in Eze 35:12 of our chapter ().
3. In this sense the elder son Esau forms the Sadducean parallel to the Pharisaic elder son, Luk 15:25 sq.
4. There is also in Ezekiel an , namely, rejection which is complete desolation. As Esau receives not the blessing which he wished to inherit, so the inheritance of the house of Israel does not fall to Edom to devour, however often and widely he opened his mouth to snatch it (Eze 35:13). The anger and jealousy of Edom are as vain (Eze 35:11) as the tears of Esau (Heb 12:17). Instead of , Edom exhibits perpetual enmity and his hatred.
5. Israel has now, on the contrary, eaten up Edom, incorporated it into itself by circumcision. Thus the two who were separated, finally come together. But the contest, which began even in their mothers, womb, continues to the end. Jacob-Israel subdued the elder brother, but in this way the family of the Iduman Herod obtained the Jewish sovereignty, and the persecution of the true Israel (Mat 2:13 sq.) was carried out to the full by the Edomite spirit of murder which took possession of the people (Mat 27:25). Because the Herodians favoured and imported Roman heathenism, the circus, wild-beast fights, etc., the conceptions of Edom and Rome run into each other in the later Jewish writers.
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze 35:1 sq. After the blessing upon His people, and their revival and prosperity, comes now the contrast, namely, the curse upon the ungodly, and their desolation and miserable end.For who else are the Idumans but Esau, who always persecutes Israel (Gal 4:20)? That raises up our hope when we are tried in the present. For if Christ is our Redeemer, He has redeemed us completely, and we have not to fear the ungodly. If suffering is a means to conduct us to the height of salvation, then the temporal prosperity of the wicked only increases the cause of their destruction; and one day there comes a change of affairs, when we experience the goodness of God, and they His deserved wrath (Heim-Hoffmann).He who has God against him has also Gods word against him (Richt.).The word of the Lord is a veritable treasury, out of which continually come forth things new and old. It leads into the past and the future, and would gladly have all applied to the present (Berl. Bib.).
Eze 35:3 sq. The hand of God is the solemn mark of interrogation over every earthly height to which we look up, whether things or persons.When punishments break in and are already taking their course, in this God as it were stretches out His hand. Now, since His hand is not shortened to help His children, so also it is not too weak to punish His enemies, Isa 59:1 (Starke).Desolateness is the lot of the wicked, for the world passes away with all its pleasure for man; but this comes in all its force only to him who was at home there, and set his confidence thereon.
Eze 35:4. When godliness goes out of cities, confusion and devastation enter in (Starck).We can never sufficiently recognise that God alone is the Eternal.
Eze 35:5. Where enmity leads to: it perpetuates itself by degrees in the heart, it is not afraid even to use the sword; first the malice of the tongue, and then the violence of malice.Therefore always become reconciled at once and completely, that no roots may remain in the heart which may shoot up afterwards.The prayer of an implacable man is certain not to be heard.Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.Woe unto you who are glad at evil to your neighbour and rejoice over his misfortune, Mat 5:25 (Tb. Bib.). God makes finally an end of sin even when the sinner will not cease, and thus many a one has been hurried away by death in the midst of a course of sin. Hence all are not godly who cease to sin. When one has no longer the power, then he must cease, when otherwise he would be still very willing. In old age, in sickness, in imprisonment, in poverty, much must be dispensed with because hands and feet are bound, when in other circumstances there would be no want of will; in the will, however, above all consists the sin (Berl. Bib.).
Eze 35:6. Gods judgment for blood over Edom an instructive example, a disclosure for warning.Blood a peculiar sap.The Lord an avenger of blood.The track of blood behind so many celebrated figures in history, behind so many socalled great exploits.The shedding of blood a characteristic symptom of the world, a mark of the spirit that rules in the world, and of the wickedness in which it lies.
Eze 35:7 sq. Trade and intercourse cease where God sends His judgments.The Lord destroys nations that delight in war (Tb. Bib.).
Eze 35:9. Sin is not to become eternalized, therefore eternal punishment (Starck).Gods aim is the acknowledgment in all things of His sole and supreme dominion (Starke).Where sinners have dwelt, there punishment finally bears sway; not only Edom, but also Juda serves as a visible example of this.
Eze 35:10. Bear always in mind that God still is there!Every sin against man is always at the same time sinning against God; unbelief, practical blasphemy.Bloodthirstiness and covetousness two satanic sisters.Disdain of others a non-recognition of God, who has bestowed something on every one.The worlds delight in blood, and also its contempt of believers, a proof how little the world knows what still holds together the earth under their feet.The meek, however, shall, according to Matthew , 5, inherit the land.Most men speak and act as if God could neither hear nor see (Starck).
Eze 35:11 sq. Wrath and jealousy, when proceeding from hatred, do not escape the divine judgment.God beholds Himself in His people.The revelation of God to His own is also at last the judgment over the world.The omniscient and omnipresent, the incorruptible eye-and ear-witness.Thirst for fresh territory an Edomitish characteristic.The hatred against the sacred things of humanity now become the fashion.
Eze 35:14 sq. Only the children of God shall inherit, although it doth not yet appear what we shall be, etc.The acceptable year of Jehovah is inseparably and necessarily connected with a day of vengeance of our God, Isa 61:2. No true grace without justice. The theocracy must, accordingly, pass through the fire of affliction and become purified (Ezekiel 34.); for the same reason the heathenism whose iniquity is full must show that it has fallen under the divine justice. For grace is not toleration of the bad (Hvernick).
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Prophet is here commissioned by the Lord to pronounce judgment, on Mount Seir, for Edom’s hatred of Israel.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
We have here the Lord’s awful sentence, upon Mount Seir, that is Esau’s heritage; and the reason is assigned, namely, his hatred to Israel. Some have thought, and no doubt upon good grounds, that what is here denounced against the descendants of Esau, in the cause of it, may be supposed to refer to all the enemies of Israel. Esau being put at the head of all the seed of Israel’s haters, with whom, in consequence of the covenant blessings in Jacob, the deadly indignation began. Reader! do not fail to connect with this view, the explanation which Christ hath given of the whose cause of the world’s hatred. Joh 15:17-20 . There can be no agreement between the seed of the woman, and the seed of the serpent. See Gal 4:28-29 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 35:5-6
See Dickens’s description of France, in the first chapter of The Tale of Two Cities: ‘Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution. But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently.’
For me there was but one sin, and that was cruelty, because I hated it; though Nature, for some inscrutable purpose of her own, almost teaches it as a virtue. All sins that did not include cruelty were merely sins against health or taste or common-sense or public expediency.
George du Maurier in Peter Ibbetson.
References. XXXV. 10. Spurgeon Sermons, vol. ix No. 536. XXXVI. 9. Ibid. vol. lii. No. 3001.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Mount Seir
Eze 35
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.
What a blast of fire is this? When God is against a mountain or a city or a man, 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” ( Eze 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 man, 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 is, 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 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 man, 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 man, 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” ( Eze 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 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 Eze 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. 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.
What miracles of consolation there are! When God says “I am for you,” what does he mean? Will he give us an account of his favour as he has given us an account of his opposition? We have that account in Ezekiel 36 :
“I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded.” [Will he do anything more?] “And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit.” [Aught more?] “And I will settle you after your old estates.” [Aught more?] “And will do better unto you than at your beginnings….” [He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.”] “Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men” ( Eze 36:9-12 ).
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. That blessing is to be physical: “Ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit.” God does not fear to associate his name with our daily food. Why should we eat bread unblest by our own thanksgiving and prayer? 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 are 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. Blessed are they whose bread and whose water are blessed, whose bed is an altar, whose home is a church. 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 never ashamed to associate himself with social economy, social purity, social progress. Not only physical and social, but municipal “And the cities shall 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 a 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. Here is the area within which this divine consolation is to operate; it is physical, it is social, it is municipal: at every point God touches us with his rising light.
The Lord never concludes simply within the letter. At the last he 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. When does God move backwards? When does God give less and less to the children that love him and obey him? Whenever did the Lord cry, It is enough; further blessing you cannot have? Take all the types and illustrations supplied in Biblical history, and we shall ever find that the supply on the part of God never failed. Bring forth vessels now, said the prophet, and fill them: and they came to the last but two, the last but one, the very last of all, and when it was full, then the oil ceased, plenty of oil for the vessels, none for the floor; plenty for use, none for waste. It is our vessels that give out, it is not the oil of the divine love that is exhausted. I will do better better better. It is the refrain of the divine song of divine government We never touch the horizon; as we approach, it recedes: so we never touch the fulness of the divine blessing. Answered prayer is only another promise that the next prayer shall have a larger answer if itself represent a larger capacity and a larger love.
Then let us grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us be 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. In one sense the Cross is the culmination of love; in another sense it is the genesis of God’s affection. The Lord cannot be exhausted. His providence is ascending, expanding, deepening. This is the way of the Lord. Oh that we had hearkened unto his commandments and kept his law! then had our peace flowed like a river, and our righteousness had been as the waves of the sea.
We have not begun to know what God does for us; we have been too prone to yield ourselves to the seducer and the tempter when he told us that the age of miracles was past. That tempter waits to persuade us that all the great epochs of history are closed: the miracles are closed, inspiration is closed, communion with God in a very endearing sense of presence is closed. Why, then, it were better to have lived in the days of the prophets than in the days of the apostles, and better to have lived in the days of the apostles than to live under the full dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Is God’s a narrowing policy, a self-withdrawing, self-depleting economy? or does it move out in the other way, enlarging, expanding, heightening, advancing? Let those testify who have lived with God. We do not here at this particular juncture of the argument want the critic’s opinion; he ought not to have any opinion about such subjects, he is a dog in the sanctuary: when we come to these great heights and these close applications and inquiries we want the testimony of experience. When, therefore, we ask the question, Does God enclose himself in ever-narrowing paths, or does he pursue his gracious way in ever-expanding courses of graciousness and kindness? we await not the evidence of the critic, but the experience of the man who daily lives with God.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XVIII
PROPHECIES OF THE RESTORATION
Ezekiel 33-39
The subject of this chapter is Ezekiel’s prophecies of the restoration of Israel. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 30-33) gave a similar group of prophecies, and in the book of Isaiah (40-66) we find this same theme: The restoration of Israel and its future glory. Here Ezekiel discusses the same theme.
We saw in the last chapter that Ezekiel had, in a prophetic way, disposed of the foreign nations, the enemies of Israel, having predicted the entire overthrow of all those who had been the means of Israel’s downfall with the exception of Babylon. He gave no direct prophecy of the downfall of Babylon, only an indirect one prophesying her rule over Egypt for about forty years, which implied that he believed that Babylon would fall at the end of that period. Thus it may be seen that these chapters on the restoration of Israel are in their logical place in his prophecies. He had predicted the fall of Jerusalem, the capital, and the scattering of the people among all the nations. Then he predicted the fall of all the nations that were her enemies, and having finished with them, the way was made clear for his predictions regarding the future of Israel. He devotes these seven chapters to the blessed age, the messianic age, which follows the return of Israel from her exile in these foreign lands.
The great function of the prophet is here set forth. He is to be a watchman (Eze 33:1-20 ). The figure, of course, is an Oriental one. It was the custom in those lands to build a watchtower on the border of their territories, or at the approaches to their cities, or near their great centers, and appoint a man to stand upon the watchtower and when he saw an army coming he was to blow his trumpet and warn the people. There were many throughout Israel and all Oriental lands. The prophet transfers the figure to spiritual functions as regards the people of Israel.
The duty and responsibility of the watchman are set forth in Eze 33:1-6 , which are easy to comprehend and which need not be commented upon except that the watchman has the responsibility for the lives of those over whom he watches. If he sees the foe coming and warns, his duty is done. If he sees the foe coming and does not warn and any of the inhabitants lose their lives, their blood shall be required at his hands because he had failed in his duty. He shall suffer as a result of that failure.
This duty and responsibility were impressed upon Ezekiel thus: The Lord speaks unto Ezekiel and says, “So thou, son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. …. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shall surely die, and thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he turn not from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.”
A glance at the situation will explain this more clearly. Ezekiel in Eze 18 , prophesied and brought before the people that great doctrine of individual responsibility and liberty. He exploded the old theory that a man is the slave of his environment and must necessarily suffer for the sins of his fathers. It is not necessary that he should perish because of the sins of his fathers. Ezekiel brought before them the great doctrine that Jehovah does not will the death of any man; that Jehovah has given to all men the privilege and possibility of repenting and if they repent and turn, the penalties of their past sins or their father’s sins are forever abrogated and they are free from them. The doctrine of individualism is there set before us, and this chapter is an application of that principle.
Ezekiel now realizes that, since his nation is destroyed, their capital in ruins, the center of religious worship is gone, that his duty is to speak to individuals; that now it is with individual Israelites. His duty is to warn them of their own sins and the dangers that are consequent upon their sins. He is not to speak to the nation in the mass any more, but he is to deal with individuals and put each individual upon his own personal responsibility and relationship to God. He can thereby prepare the people to return to the land and begin anew the nation God has purposed they should become.
The condition of the minds of the people is that of despondency, making the prophet’s appeal of no effect. Eze 33:10-20 , especially in Eze 33:10 , we have the condition of their minds set forth: “Thus ye speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?” This indicates at once that the people were in a state of despair. They had no hope; they believed that their doom was inevitable; that it was useless for them to think of enjoying fellowship with God and life any more. To counteract that complaint and that condition of mind, Ezekiel brings before them four great principles which are found in the remainder of this section, and I will embody the substance of these verses in these four statements:
1. That Jehovah desires that men shall live.
2. That man is not irrevocably bound by the past, but may repent.
3. That men are to come to God individually and thus come into the new Israel.
4. That men are judged more by what they are than by what they have been.
Let us now discuss the theme, occasion, and date of the prophecy of Ezekiel in Eze 33:21-33 . On hearing of the fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel announces the conditions of return. These conditions are moral and religious. In Eze 33:21 we have the date of this prophecy: the twelfth year, that is one year after the fall of Jerusalem, tenth month and fifth day of the month, almost eighteen months after the fall. He says, “One that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.” Some find a chronological difficulty here. Some of the ancient versions say it was in the eleventh year and tenth month, which means that Ezekiel heard of the fall of Jerusalem six months after that event occurred. According to this account of Ezekiel it was a year and six months. It seems to them almost incredible that it would require eighteen months for the news of that great event to reach the prophet and much more likely, he received the news at the end of six months, that being ample time for the caravans to reach Babylon and the news to spread. But it is better to take it as it stands, allowing for probable delays on the part of this messenger in getting to Babylon.
Now, after he received news that the city was smitten, he had a word to say to the people that remained in Palestine; that remnant spoken of in Jeremiah (40-44), Ezekiel addresses in Eze 33:23-29 . Note verse Eze 33:24 : “Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance,” which seems to refer to the miserable remnant that was left at Mizpah, Bethlehem, and various other places. They say, “Abraham was one, only one, and he inherited the land, but we are many and the land is given us for an inheritance.” Their idea is that since to Israel was given this land, and they were the nucleus of Israel, and since Abraham being only one, developed into such a large nation, they who are many have as many more chances of developing into a great nation, and therefore they remain in Palestine believing that they will become a great nation and possess the land for all the future. The people who said that were still practicing their idolatry. Ezekiel says, “Thus saith the Lord God: As I live, surely they that are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured; and they that are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.”
In Eze 33:30-33 , we have the effect of Ezekiel’s prophecies upon the people with whom he dwelt, there by the river Chebar in Babylon. Here is a passage of great comfort to a preacher sometimes. Ezekiel has now become popular and he is drawing fine congregations; the people are flocking to hear him, and they say, verse Eze 33:30 : “And as for thee, son of man, the children of thy people talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord.” And he goes on to say how they came and heard the words but did them not, for with their mouth they show much love but their heart goeth after their gain. They have a great many good things to say to their preacher but their hearts go after their gain. “And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear thy words, but they do them not.” “Fine sermon, very lovely song, prayed splendidly,” they say but they never think of heeding what the preacher says.
The evil shepherds are described (Eze 34:1-10 ). They feed themselves, not the flock. Jeremiah had something to say regarding those evil shepherds. Ezekiel has a strong denunciation of them in these ten verses. These shepherds feed themselves and care for themselves, but care nothing for the sheep, and the sheep wander through the forests and the deserts and upon every high hill and are scattered among all the nations of the earth and there are none that seek after them to bring them back. As a result the shepherds are denounced verse Eze 34:10 : “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.”
But Jehovah takes care of his sheep after disposing of the evil shepherds. Jehovah will undertake the care of the flock in the restoration period (Eze 34:11-19 ). Notice particularly verse Eze 34:11 : “Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.” Latter part of verse Eze 34:12 : “So I will seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” Verse Eze 34:15 : “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.” Jehovah says that he will be the shepherd. He makes no reference here to a messianic Saviour, the Christ, or King that is to come. He himself is going to do it. And then in Eze 34:17-22 , Jehovah says that he is going to separate and distinguish between different parts of the flock.
Verse Eze 34:17 : “I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the he-goats.” He is going to see that the leaders among the people of Israel are not like cattle that go down to the stream and drink and muddy the water, thus making it unfit for the others to drink. Jehovah is going to distinguish between them and see that they are in their proper places. Then from Eze 34:23-31 it says that Jehovah will raise up David as Shepherd and there shall be great prosperity. He said before, “I will be the Shepherd,” but now he says, “I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.” This is messianic and refers to the work of Christ. In the latter part of Eze 34:26 , he describes the prosperity that shall come: “There shall be showers of blessing.” Here is where the words of the song, “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing,” came from. The prophet continues the magnificent description of the prosperity of the country and how all shall flourish under the rule and care of this great Shepherd, David, not David himself in person, but a member of his dynasty and of his family, who is Christ, our Lord.
There is a prophecy against Edom in Eze 35 . The substance of this chapter is this: Mount Seir, or Edom, had sinned against Judah and Jerusalem at the time of her calamity (Eze 35:5 ). He charges Edom with two sins: (1) “Thou hast had a perpetual enmity”; (2) “Thou hast given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity.” When Edom, or Mount Seir, found Israel down, they trampled on her as hard as they could. Eze 35:10 mentions a third sin, and that is (3) “Thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries (northern and southern Israel) shall be mine, and we will possess it.” The point is this: When Israel was deported to Babylon and the country left desolate, the Edomites came from the south and took possession of all the land of Judah they possibly could and began to inhabit and make it their possession. Because of that the prophet’s denunciation is buried against them, prophesying the downfall of their capital and their country. It was necessary for the prophet to do this. They were encroaching upon Israel, and they must be driven forth from the land to make way for Israel.
Then there is a prophecy concerning the land of Israel in Eze 36:1-15 . This is the counterpart, or the other side, of the prophecy (6) where he denounced the mountains of Israel because they were the high places of worship and predicted their desolation and overthrow. In the future age, the mountains of Israel shall be delivered out of the hand of the enemies, and they shall become abundantly fruitful. Notice, especially, verse Eze 36:8 : “But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come,” i.e., “Ye shall till and sow and I will multiply men upon you; all the house of Israel, and the cities shall be inhabited and the waste places shall be builded.” Then he says, “And I will multiply upon you man and beast,” carrying forward his glowing description of the prosperity and fruitfulness of the land.
In Eze 36:16-23 the prophet says that Jehovah will do this thing for his name’s sake and in honor of his own holy name: “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name which ye have profaned among the nations whither ye went.”
In Eze 36:24-38 , we have the restoration and regeneration of Israel. Here we come to the New Testament ground, in the gospel dispensation. This is Ezekiel’s deepest, sweetest, and best prophecy. This passage calls to mind a notable challenge of Alexander Campbell, substantially in these words: “The whole world is challenged to produce even one passage in any part of God’s Word, from Genesis to Revelation, proving that God ever commanded prophet, priest, preacher, or layman to sprinkle or pour water just water pure water, on man, beast, or thing as a moral ceremonial or religious rite.” In response to the challenge the one passage cited was this scripture, Eze 36:25 . Of course it was easy for Mr. Campbell to show the irrelevancy of this passage. It does not meet the requirements of the challenge because:
(1) It is not a command of God to any man to do any sprinkling whatever, but an express declaration of some kind of sprinkling that God himself will do.
(2) The clean water of the text was not even in its type just water, but was a compound called the water of purification whose recipe is found in Num 19:1-10 . This was a liquid compound of ashes and water. A red heifer was burned. Into the burning was cast cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet cloth. The ashes of this burning were gathered up and mingled with water and this mixture was called the water of cleansing, or of purification.
(3) The typical efficacy of this mixture was in the ashes of the red things burned: the red heifer, the red cedar wood, red hyssop, and scarlet cloth; red signified blood. The antitype is the blood of Christ, Heb 9:13-14 : “For if the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
(4) The whole passage in Eze 36:21-38 refers to those last gospel days when the Jews, long disobedient, blinded, and scattered, will be gathered and saved, as set forth by Paul (Rom 11:25-36 ). This salvation will be of grace (Eze 36:22 ). It will be by regeneration (Eze 36:25-26 ). This regeneration will produce a spirit of obedience (Eze 36:27 ). This regeneration consists of at least two parts, cleansing and renewal. The cleansing (Eze 36:25 ) is effected by the application of Christ’s blood typified by the water of purification, the antitype of which is the blood of Christ (Heb 9:13-14 ; 1Jn 1:7 ). The renewal (Eze 36:26 ) is the change of man’s nature. Both of these ideas appear in Joh 3:5 : “Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” This is one birth. It is the Spirit birth. The water signifies cleansing; the Spirit, renewal. The same ideas appear in Tit 3:5 : “The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In none of these passages is there the slightest reference to baptism.
Now let us consider the vision of dry bones (Eze 37:1-14 ) and its interpretation. What are these dry bones? Is this a literal resurrection from the dead, or is this a conversion, a spiritual resurrection? It is not either. Eze 37:11 gives the clue to the interpretation. These bones are the house of Israel. What makes them so dry? “Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.” They have no hope whatever as to the resurrection, or renewal of their national existence. They were saying, “We are scattered among all the nations. Our city and our capital is gone and there is no hope for our nation and our people any more.” Nationally or religiously, they were as dry bones which had no hope of a resurrection. Now there is no distinct reference to any resurrection of the body, nor of any spiritual regeneration. It is national.
The prophet was required to preach to them. He preached and the bones began to come together and he kept on preaching and flesh came upon them, and by and by they stood up. The whole house of Israel raised to a new national life and existence! Then he kept on preaching and the result was as we see in verse Eze 37:14 : “I will put my spirit within you and ye shall live and I shall place you in your own land and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.” That was fulfilled to some extent in the return of the 50,000 after the decree of Cyrus, but it was never completely fulfilled. An army of about 50,000 whose spirit Jehovah stirred up, returned at first, and that stirring up was the result of the preaching of Ezekiel and Jeremiah and the study of the latter part of the book of Isaiah. The figure of the resurrection is used in Eze 37:12 , thus: “I will open your graves and cause you to come out of your graves,” but the graves are national graves, not literal. This is referred to by Paul (Rom 11:15 ) as a resurrection and contemplates the final gathering of the Jews before the millennium.
The union of Judah and Israel is symbolized in Eze 37:15-28 : “Take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim.” These two sticks he joined together. This is a symbolic action similar to many other actions of Ezekiel which we have already considered. The meaning of it is this: “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions; and I will put them with it, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in my hand.” Jeremiah prophesied the same thing; so did Isaiah in substance; so did Hosea; so did Amos, Micah, and Zephaniah.
It was the belief of all the prophets that when Israel returned from exile it would be one nation, a united nation. Ezekiel goes on, “I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” In Eze 37:24 the king is called “David my servant,” that is, one of his descendants; a member of his dynasty shall be king over them and they shall have one shepherd. Then he says, “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them.” Verse Eze 37:27 : “My tabernacle also shall be with them; and they shall be my people,” all of which has its fulfilment in the millennial age. This reminds us of Rev 21:3 .
An account of the invasion of Gog and Magog is found in Ezekiel 38-39. This is the picture of the last and final struggle of all the nations with God. We find that John refers to the same struggle in Rev 20:7-9 : “When the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them.” Ezekiel says, Eze 38:2 : “Son of man, set thy face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,” nations lying probably away to the north of Israel on the borders of the Caspian and Black Seas representing the great barbarian hordes that infested central Asia and northern Armenia on the very outskirts of the then known world. “I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed and in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords.”
What does this mean? Ezekiel is picturing the millennial age, the messianic age, and away in the future after the glorious age has been in progress, for how long we cannot tell, he sees this vision of the final struggle. Israel has been enjoying the blessedness of that age for centuries and the nations around her have been destroyed. The nations lying far off on the outskirts of the world now rouse themselves for a final onslaught on God’s kingdom. “And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.” Thus the people are unprotected; they are living in the messianic age when all is peace and harmony. “I will go to them that are at rest.” What for? “To take the spoil and to take the prey.” This is the final conflict of the barbarian nations of the world with their vast hosts, against the messianic kingdom.
What is to be the result? We find in Eze 38:17-23 , Ezekiel says the prophets have for a long time been prophesying of this very thing, though we do not have any distinct reference to the prophecy. As Gog, with his hosts, encompasses the whole land of Israel and surrounds the city, then Ezekiel says in the latter part of Eze 38:18 , “My wrath shall come up into my nostrils . . . I will rain upon him, and upon his hordes, and upon the many peoples that are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” That is to be the end of Gog and his innumerable hordes.
Then we have this statement, Eze 39:4 : “Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy hordes and the peoples that are with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.” And in Eze 39:9 , he says, “And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years.” Eze 39:12 says that the people of Israel are going to bury all those that fall and they are to be seven months burying the dead, and are to have a rule that when any person finds a bone he is to set up a mark by it until the body has been buried outside in the valley. Then we have the feast of all the birds of the air and the beasts of the field upon the slain. The chapter closes with a description of Israel’s restoration (Eze 39:28-29 ). The best commentary on the destruction of Gog is found in that short passage, in Rev 20 , where John pictures Satan as raising an insurrection among all the nations of the world at the close of the millennium. Ezekiel pictures it as taking place a long while after the restoration and the blessed messianic age. (See the author’s discussion of this subject in his book on Revelation.)
QUESTIONS
1. What is the theme of this section and where do we find the same subject discussed in Jeremiah and Isaiah?
2. Show the logical order of these prophecies.
3. What is the great function of the prophet and how is it here set forth?
4. What is the duty and responsibility of the watchman?
5. How was this duty and responsibility impressed upon Ezekiel?
6. What is the condition of the minds of the people and how does the prophet meet it?
7. What is the theme, occasion, and date of the prophecy of Ezekiel in Eze 33:21-33 , and what is the chronological difficulty here and its solution?
8. Whom does the prophet address in Eze 33:23-29 , what the occasion of this address and what the prophet’s message to them?
9. What is the effect of Ezekiel’s preaching on the people in exile (Eze 33:30-33 )?
10. How are the evil shepherds described in Eze 34:1-10 , what the prophet’s denunciation of them and how does Jehovah take care of his sheep?
11. What is the prophecy against Edom in Eze 35 and why?
12. What is the prophecy concerning the land of Israel in Eze 36:1-15 ?
13. What is the motive of Jehovah in doing all this (Eze 38:16-23 )?
14. Expound Eze 36:24-38 , showing the controversy about it, and its true interpretation in the light of the New Testament.
15. What the vision of dry bones (Eze 37:1-14 ) and what its interpretation?
16. How is the union of Judah and Israel symbolized and what the glorious picture that follows (Eze 37:15-28 )?
17. Give an account of the invasion of Gog and Magog and the result (Ezekiel 38-39). Discuss fully.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Eze 35:1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ver. 1. Moreover the word of the Lord. ] Eze 18:1 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ezekiel Chapter 35
In chapter 35 the prophet had threatened Seir and the sons of Edom who inhabited that land of natural fastnesses, so jealous of the favour shown by Jehovah to His people. Here he resumes the theme yet more fully.
“And 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, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and 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, and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah. 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. l-5)
The denunciation is all the more solemn as standing out in contrast with the immediately preceding promise of goodness and mercy to Israel. It was this very blessing by divine grace to the chosen people which from the beginning had raised the ever growing rancour of their kinsmen who looked sullenly on their predicted blessedness from their own heights of proud self-confidence. Soon were they to prove what it is to have Jehovah against one, yea, His hand stretched out to render desolate and waste. And so the issue declared; for the word and the hand of Jehovah were shortly after manifest in the desolation of their cities and themselves. Yet I may add, for the warning of any careless soul who may glance over these pages, that awful as it was thus to know that He who had so spoken and wrought is Jehovah, displayed in the chastening of Israel and the judgment of the heathen, incomparably more so must be His dealing with every soul in Christendom who trifles with the name and word of the Lord now.
God notices the feelings of the heart, and distinguishes too in judgment as everywhere else. There were many haughty enemies of Israel; and which of them was not disposed to injure the people of Jehovah’s choice? But He fixes His eyes on “the old enmity” of Edom, and the relentlessness which was even more cruel than its wont in the day of their calamity, “at the time of the iniquity of the end.” Not an atom of generosity was there; natural feeling had turned to gall and wormwood. He who had been so basely dishonoured by His people was chastening them in measure: who and what were the Edomites to avail themselves of it to crush without measure and destroy without mercy? “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, even blood shall pursue thee. Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth. And I will fill his mountain 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. I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.” (Ver. 6-9) The emphasis is very strong, not only blood flowing and pursuing the blood-thirsty Edomites, but themselves made perpetual desolations, their mountains and valleys filled with their slain, and their cities not to be restored: so should they know Him to be Jehovah.
Again, God heeds what men say as well as their feelings; as said the Lord still more comprehensively and profoundly and solemnly in Mat 12 “Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Jehovah was there: therefore, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee. And thou shalt know that I am Jehovah, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.” (Ver. 10-13)
Is there no immediate lesson now from these declarations? Is there no analogy in Christendom? I believe there is, and one little considered or conceived among those who are bitterly jealous of what is really according to the word and Spirit of God at this day. They too forget that God is of a truth in His saints, and that their gathering to the Lord’s name in dependence on the Holy Ghost’s presence and action is the way in which to show our faith, and walk faithfully in this respect. Yet it would be hard to say what is so hated and dreaded by worldly christians, yea, even where they are real if indifferent or opposed to the truth of God’s assembly. This is not surprising in the clergy of all sorts, who naturally dislike what condemns their own position and existence as wholly unscriptural. It applies to all who support and defend a state of things which scripture proves unjustifiable. A bad conscience rouses the evil of the natural heart; and no words are too bitter, no insinuations too vile, against those who are at this moment cleaving to the revealed will of the Lord for the church. Let them know that the Lord will act according to the anger and envy Babylon feels against such as stand faithful. The proud anti-church is judged when the marriage of the bride, the Lamb’s wife, is come. What is said against the church and its privileges truly understood and acted on is no light sin in God’s eyes: as with Israel of old, so now what is said contemptuously against His people, cleaving in their weakness to His grace and word, He regards as said against Himself: “I have heard.”
The chapter concludes with this sentence on the foe: “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am Jehovah.” (Vers. 14, 15) Never was a falser judgment, though all was false, than that Jehovah will not yet restore and bless Israel, not for any deserts of theirs, but in His own mercy through the once rejected Messiah, who will as surely desolate the enemies of Israel as He will make good all that He promised to their fathers. But neither one nor other dealing is the gospel, which contrariwise is now gathering in indiscriminate grace from Jews and Gentiles for heavenly glory with Him who is not Saviour only but head of the church on high. We know Him not after the flesh, nor by any judgments that He executes on Edom nor even by His mercy to Israel, but as dead, risen, and glorified in heaven according to the purposes of God once hidden but now revealed in Him and His body.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 35:1-9
1Moreover, the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it
3and say to it, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,
Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir,
And I will stretch out My hand against you
And make you a desolation and a waste.
4I will lay waste your cities
And you will become a desolation.
Then you will know that I am the LORD.
5Because you have had everlasting enmity and have delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, at the time of the punishment of the end, 6therefore as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you. 7I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation and I will cut off from it the one who passes through and returns. 8I will fill its mountains with its slain; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines those slain by the sword will fall. 9I will make you an everlasting desolation and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
Eze 35:2 set your face against See note at Eze 1:3.
Mount Seir This refers to the nation of Edom (cf. Eze 25:12-14; Eze 32:29; Eze 36:5). I am surprised that another judgment against Edom is included (cf. Eze 25:12-14). Edom must have a symbolic connotation. She (1) mocks and attacks God’s people, Eze 35:5; Eze 35:11, cf. Psa 137:7; Isa 63:1-6; Oba 1:8-19; (2) is prideful (cf. Eze 35:10-11) here; and (3) had arrogant thoughts against YHWH and His people, Eze 35:12-13 (Edom had everlasting enmity, Eze 35:5). Moderns must admit that we do not know the reasons and procedures for the editing and compilation of OT books. It is possible that Edom stands for all anti-God human societies (NIDOTTE, vol. 1, p. 957).
The concept of mountain may be the key to this text. The high plateau of Edom, of which they were so proud, will not save them. As judgment came to the mountains of Israel (i.e., chapter 6), so too, now to the mountains of Edom (cf. Eze 35:8; Eze 35:15). As judgment comes to arrogant Edom, blessing will return to the repentant covenant people (i.e., the mountains of Israel, cf. Eze 35:12).
Eze 35:3 Lord GOD This is literally Adon YHWH. See Special Topic: NAMES FOR DEITY .
I will stretch out My hand against you This is an anthropomorphic idiom of God’s ability to act effectively (cf. Eze 25:7; Eze 25:13; Jer 51:25). See Special Topic: Hand and Special Topic: God Described As Human (anthropomorphism) .
a desolation and a waste These two parallel terms (cf. Eze 35:7) sound alike (i.e., BDB 1031 and BDB 1031) and have the same consonants as Shammah, a grandson of Edom (BDB 1031, cf. Gen 36:13; Gen 36:17; 1Ch 1:37). Possible meanings are
1. desolation, , cf. Eze 35:4; Eze 35:7; Eze 35:9; Eze 35:14-15
2. waste, , cf. Eze 35:7; Eze 6:14; Eze 33:28-29
3. a grandson of Edom,
Eze 35:5 at the time of their calamity, at the time of the punishment of the end Notice that these two phrases are parallel. The first obviously refers to the invasion of Judah by Babylon. The second must refer to the same time, which shows the end (BDB 893) and must be interpreted in context. Interpreters must be careful of not assigning one meaning to a word or phrase and then using it in every place the word appears. Context determines meaning, not one is systematic eschatology!
Eze 35:6 as I live This is an oath based on the name of YHWH, the ever-living, only-living, I Am (cf. Exo 3:14). This is a recurrent idiom in Ezekiel (cf. Eze 5:11; Eze 14:16; Eze 14:18; Eze 14:20; Eze 16:48; Eze 17:16; Eze 17:19; Eze 18:3; Eze 20:3; Eze 20:31; Eze 33:11; Eze 34:8; Eze 35:6; Eze 35:11). See Special Topic at Eze 2:4.
blood The term (BDB 196) can refer to one’s life force and if it is spilt, to one’s death. It is used four times in this verse.
1. I will give you over to bloodshed
2. bloodshed will pursue you
3. you have not hated bloodshed (i.e., murder)
4. therefore bloodshed will pursue you (repeated)
We reap what we sow (cf. Eze 35:11; Eze 35:15).
Just a textual note, the LXX changes #3 to you are guilty of blood, which is followed by RSV, NEB, REB, NJB, but this demands a change of several consonants. The MT makes sense.
Eze 35:7 Mount Seir is an idiom for all the inhabitants of Edom.
Eze 35:9 Edom’s destruction will be permanent (cf. Mal 1:2-4, esp. Eze 35:4; Jer 49:13). Edom’s permanent destruction was because of her everlasting enmity (Eze 35:5; and Obadiah)!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 35
Now in chapter 35 he makes a prophecy against Mount Seir. Mount Seir was the area inhabited by the Edomites. And the Edomites were descendents of Esau, the twin brother of Jacob. But the Edomites, you remember how Esau when Jacob stole the father’s birthright by disguising himself as his brother Esau and went in and took the venison into his father, took the goat meat that his mother had prepared to taste like venison and took it in and fed his dad and got the blessing. And when Esau came in with the venison and said, “Here, Dad, eat and bless me,” he said, “Oh, what is going on? I’ve already given the blessing.” And Esau said, “Oh, I’m going to kill that brother of mine. Ooohhh.” And he vowed, really, to kill Jacob. And there was bad blood between them. And Jacob, of course, fled for his life and spent seventeen years with his uncle for fear of his brother Esau.
This antagonism continued down through the years. So you remember when the children of Israel were coming out of Egypt, coming through the wilderness, they desired to pass through the land of Edom to make a more direct route to the land that God had promised, but the Edomites came out with their army and refused to allow them to enter into the land.
Now the Edomites dwelt in the area of south from Moab and in that area where their capital was the rock city of Petra. And that was as one time one of the centers of commerce from the east. And it was, of course, a fabulously beautiful city carved out of the rock. This rock city of Petra was the capital of Edom. And it was never really a powerful nation, but they were constantly… they were related to the Jews, but yet there was this great antagonism so that every time it would seem that someone would attack Judah from the north, the Edomites would take advantage of it and attack them from the south. Whenever their troops were occupied elsewhere they would take advantage and they would attack. And they were a constant thorn, because they had to constantly keep a garrison down in the south to protect them from these Edomites who really looked for every opportunity to attack. Now when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed, the Edomites also came in to get what loot they could. And, of course, they rejoiced greatly over the fall and destruction of Jerusalem. And because of this, God pronounces a judgment to come against the Edomites.
Now, the last of the Edomites was Herod that is recorded in history. Herod who was from Idumea, he was an Edomite. And since that time, they have been lost historically. The area has become very desolate. You go down to the area of Petra now and you’ll find it’s just an extremely desolate area, pretty much uninhabited.
So, in the light of that, this prophecy against Mount Seir or the area of Edom is quite interesting.
The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set your face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it, And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee ( Eze 35:1-3 ),
Now, God’s not against the mountains. But, of course, in saying that, he’s against the people that inhabit that mountain. You know, God wouldn’t say, “Oh, San Gorgonio, I am against you.” God has nothing against the mountains themselves. But if the inhabitants, now, if God said, “Oh, San Francisco, I am against you.” He wouldn’t be talking about San Francisco, but those people that live in San Francisco who have turned their backs upon God and are living such an unsavory kind of an existence.
So I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you desolate. I will lay thy cities waste, and you shall be desolate, and you shall know that I am the LORD ( Eze 35:3-4 ).
Mount Seir is one of the most desolate places today.
Because you have had a perpetual hatred, and you have shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamities ( Eze 35:5 ),
And that’s always when they would strike, when they were in trouble.
and at 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: since thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth. And I will fill his mountains with the slain men: by the hills, and by the valleys, and all of thy rivers, and they shall fall that are slain with the sword. And I will make thee a perpetual desolation, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD ( Eze 35:5-9 ).
The land has remained perpetually desolate.
Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there: Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I even will do according to your anger, and according to your envy, which you have used out of the hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee. And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all of your blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given to us to consume. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and you’ve multiplied your words against me: and I heard them. Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoices, I will make thee desolate ( Eze 35:10-14 ).
And the time when the whole earth is rejoicing that will remain a desolate area.
As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all of Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD ( Eze 35:15 ).
So the prophecy against Mount Seir.
Now as we move into the next lesson, it is a prophecy concerning the mountains of Israel, and you’ll find a vivid contrast as you get into chapter 36 between Mount Seir, which is to be desolate perpetually, and the prophecies that are made concerning the mountains of Israel, which were desolate for so many centuries. And the exciting thing when you go over to Israel today is to see Eze 36:1-38 fulfilled before your very eyes. These prophecies that God made concerning the mountains of Israel, you see the fulfillment of those prophecies when you’re over there.
Chapter 37 God deals with the re-gathering of the nation of Israel back into the land. Chapter 38 the invasion by the allied forces of Russia when Israel has become a nation again. Chapter 39 the destruction of those invading forces.
So you’ve got some fascinating reading as the prophecies that we get into now, chapter 36, you can go over and see much of it already fulfilled. As with chapter 37. Chapter 38 is down the road-not very far, but down the road just a little bit. Waiting, really, to happen most any time. So, getting into some exciting areas. Next week ought to be a real blast.
May the Lord bless and guide your life this week. When those decisions have to be made, may the Lord give you a very strong impression to lead you into His path of righteousness. And may you experience God’s power working in your life in a very special way. May the love of Christ just fill your heart and overflow, that lives around you might be touched because of what the Lord has done for you. May you be His witnesses, a testimony to others by the love of Christ that shines forth from you. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Eze 35:1-3
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.
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.
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 (Eze 33:23-29); and this was a logical place to take care of the false claims of Edom.
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. 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.
Eze 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 …” (Eze 35:2). The prophecy is against the people called Edom, the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother, who occupied the rugged country southeast of the Dead Sea. Here “mount Seir” stands for the people.
“This area in Graeco-Roman times was called Idumaea”; 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 …” (Eze 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.
(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 (Amo 1:11). “This enmity against Israel, in the last analysis was also bitter and implacable enmity against God Himself.
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.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The prophet next described the new order by contrasting Mount Seir with the mountains of Israel. Jehovah announced Himself as against Mount Seir, and as stretching out His hand in order to make it a desolation and an astonishment. The sin of Mount Seir had been perpetual and persistent enmity to the children of Israel, and that even in the time of their calamity. Therefore its judgment would be perpetual desolation. Mount Seir had lusted to possess the lands of Israel and Judah. And because of their envy judgment would fall on them and they would be dispossessed of their own lands, and be made desolate.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Chapter Thirty-five
The Doom Of Edom
Under divine direction Ezekiel now turns to deliver a message against Mount Seir and the land of Edom. Mount Seir is definitely identified with Edom in Gen 32:3. It was the inheritance of those who were descended from Esau (Gen 36:8). As the Edomites were so closely related to Israel, God forbade His people to lift up the sword against them (Deu 23:7) when they were on their way from Kadesh-Barnea to the east side of the Jordan. They were commanded definitely not to fight with the children of Esau but to ask permission to pass through their territory on the main highway. This permission the Edomites refused, and so the Israelites were obliged to take a much longer route compassing the land of Edom in order to obtain their goal. But while the Israelites sought carefully to obey the command of God in regard to their brethren, the Edomites, the latter manifested from the beginning a very different spirit toward their brethren. They not only joined at times with Israels enemies in seeking to wreak havoc upon them, but even if they stood by and took no part in the border conflicts that prevailed so frequently, they nevertheless rejoiced in every setback that Israel had and gloried in the victories of their enemies. All this was under the eye of God, and stirred His heart to indignation: therefore, the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, and Ezekiel pronounced Gods judgment upon Edom and the entire land of Idumea, as it was later known.
We turn then to consider the present chapter which pronounces judgment on this haughty and idolatrous people.
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 I will make thee a desolation and an astonishment. 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 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. 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-vers. 1-9.
Jehovah was against Mount Seir, the land which He had given to Esau, because of the attitude that its people had taken toward Israel. Therefore, He was about to stretch out His hand against the land and make it a desolation and an astonishment. The cities were to be laid waste and to become utterly desolate-a prophecy that has been literally fulfilled. As we have noticed, Edom had been a perpetual enemy against the children of Israel; not only had they themselves taken up the sword against their blood-brothers, but also they had joined with others in seeking to prevent their escape when attacked by cruel foes. In retributive judgment, the mountains, hills, and valleys of the land of Edom were to be filled with its slain by the sword. Their cities, of which Petra and Teman were the chief, were to be made desolate perpetually, and left uninhabited in order that Jehovah might be manifested as the One whose word cannot be turned aside. Students of history know how exactly this prophecy has been fulfilled.
For some centuries after Ezekiel uttered these words Edom continued as a subject country, dominated first by Babylon, then by Medo-Persia, and later, in 126 B. C, it was conquered by John Hycranus of the Maccabee family. He forced the Idumeans, who remained alive, to become Jews. When Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, and the Jews were scattered throughout the world, the remnant of Edom absolutely disappeared. It is impossible to find a person whose Edomite ancestry can be identified today; but their cities remain, as predicted by Obadiah (ver. 18), and Jeremiah (49:13). One may walk through the streets of these desolate Edomite cities, particularly Petra, and enter into the houses where the frescoes on the walls are as brilliant as if painted yesterday, but there are no inhabitants. Gods word has been fulfilled to the letter. By and by when the Lord Jesus returns to reign as King and Israel will be restored to Himself, their land will include that of Edom, but the Edomites themselves will never again appear in history.
Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall he mine, and we will possess it; whereas Jehovah was there: therefore, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I will do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast showed out of thy hatred against them; and I will make Myself known among them, when I shall judge thee. And thou Shalt know that I, Jehovah, have heard all thy revilings which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to devour. And ye have magnified yourselves against Me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against Me: I have heard it. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. As thou didst rejoice over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt he desolate, O mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am Jehovah-vers. 10-15.
It is evident that as Edom saw the plight into which Israel had fallen they considered it their opportunity to attempt to conquer the land of Palestine, and thus unite the two nations; and in a certain sense, this is exactly what occurred temporarily, although as we have seen it was Israel who conquered Edom, but it was an Edomite who reigned over the two nations. Because of this spirit of envy and hatred, Jehovah would make Himself known to Edom. They had gone far from Him and fallen into the vilest kind of idolatry. He would judge them for their wickedness and visit their sin upon them; thus they should know that Jehovah had spoken, and that He had heard all their revilings against the mountains of Israel. Edom rejoiced to see Israel made a desolation, and declared that they had been given to them to devour. They had magnified themselves against the Lord in thus speaking against the Jews. His ear had heard their boastings, and His heart was stirred on behalf of His people. He declared that when at last the whole earth should be made to rejoice: that is, when the kingdom of God should be set up in power, Edom would remain desolate. As they rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel when it became desolate, so God will visit their iniquities upon them, and there should be another desolation-a desolation from which they should never recover.
There is surely a serious lesson for all who are guilty of what is commonly called anti-Semitism, as we contemplate this solemn prophecy. In spite of all their sins and mistakes the people of Israel are beloved for the fathers sake, and God takes note of every hand lifted in opposition to them and of every voice that is raised in ridicule or contumely against the people whom He called out to be His peculiar treasure. Their failures do not warrant our joining with any people in helping to make conditions worse for them. Rather should we seek to do what we can to alleviate their grief and help to bring them to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise we may depend upon it that He who judged Edom because of its attitude toward Israel, will not overlook similar conduct on the part of Gentiles today, even though they be professing Christians.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
CHAPTERS 35-36
Judgment Announced and Israels Final Restoration Promised
1. The message against Mount Seir and Idumea (Eze 35:1-15)
2. The message of comfort to Israel (Eze 36:1-38)
Eze 35:1-15. This is another judgment message, which is closely related to the coming restoration of Israel. When the Lord is merciful to His people and bestows upon them the promised blessings, He will also deal with their enemies in judgment. Edom was the most bitter enemy of Israel, their blood-relation. The judgment threatened here was executed upon Edom; but it has a prophetic meaning of the judgment which is in store for the enemies of Gods people when the times of the Gentiles end and God arises in behalf of His suffering and persecuted people.
Then, in Eze 35:14-15, we hear of the time of rejoicing which will come for His people when their enemies are judged Deu 32:43.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Eze 21:1, Eze 22:1, Eze 34:1, 2Pe 1:21
Reciprocal: Gen 25:23 – the elder Isa 21:11 – me out Jer 12:14 – I will Jer 25:21 – Edom Jer 49:7 – Edom Eze 25:8 – Seir Eze 25:12 – Because Eze 28:26 – when I Eze 32:29 – Edom Eze 36:5 – against all Joe 3:19 – Edom Amo 1:11 – Edom
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 35:1-2. For some time the prrphet has been writing against the wicked men in the nation of the Jews, especially the leaders among them. Now a chapter is given to Edom or Seir and certain condemnations will be uttered against that nation because of its hatred for Gods people. Set thy face against means for Ezekiel Lo turn his attention against the nation that had disrespected Gods people.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Section 2 (Eze 35:1-15).
The enemy answered.
We have now a prophecy of a wholly different character; it is a natural corollary of what we have had before us. Israel are now the people of God. But “was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” It is God’s own challenge to Israel in Malachi: “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the Lord. Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever. And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel” (Mal 1:2-5). This is the question which comes up here, Esau was Jacob’s brother. Were they so unlike each other after all? Was he not Jacob “the supplanter?” -the man with the hand upon the heel of his brother; the man always intent upon his own gain and little careful as to his means of acquirement; the man who believed in himself and who, if he cannot fully trust God, must act for himself? whose motto, “God helps those who help themselves” has had wide circulation. It is but the picture of a fallen being, and Jacob was such, we know. Are any of us different? We may take comfort then that God can yet say: “I loved Jacob!” Nay, that He can call Himself “The God of Jacob,” which is but another way of saying, The God of grace. Jacob has another name, as we know, but that is what he is by the work of God, by that only. This “worm” Jacob can only by divine fashioning become a threshing instrument which shall “thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and make the hills as chaff “. (Isa 41:15). Upon these two names, Jacob and Israel, God dwells in contrast all through their history. It is the history essentially of every soul that has learnt what divine grace is; as Esau’s, on the other hand, is the history of a soul that has never learnt grace, and whose misery is this, not only that he has never learnt it, but resists it.
This lesson, which God is holding up before us all, Esau might have learnt, but did not. God has sworn that He has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, and Ezekiel has borne witness to this. But He has but one way of acceptance and blessing, and not another; and he that will not learn this must be without the blessing, akin as he may be naturally, as indeed he is, to his brother that has obtained it. But thus there arises the perpetual grudge and enmity that the Edomite has against the Israelite, and it is an enmity which is really to God, to God’s thoughts and ways. Thus we need not wonder if it come into special consideration here, just when Israel comes into his blessing, which is also the time when Edom is finally cast out.
The prophet is instructed to set his face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it, and say: “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am against thee, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and will make thee a desolation astonishment.” Mount Seir is Edom’s possession, a “rough,” or “rugged place,” as the word means. Esau has chosen for himself; therefore he has not chosen well. Does ever any one choose well who chooses for himself? When Abram stood with Lot in the land which God had told him was to be his by divine gift, the man of faith could say in the liberality which comes from faith, “Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right: or if thou depart to the left hand, then I will go to the right,” but Lot was of another mind: “Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah -even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other” (Gen 13:9-11). Alas, they were separated by more than locality, and we know the after-history of Lot’s fatal choice. In a sense, God was before him also. This plain of Jordan was it not like the Garden of God? All this that spoke so alluringly to his heart, was it not of God, and good? Why should he not enjoy what God had made so manifestly for enjoyment? Alas, how is it that we can forget how sin has disordered everything, even to the very eyes that look upon things now? And Lot chose, as we know, what did not become to him a Mount Seir only because God had mercy towards him -only that God forbade it to be that to him! Lot was to be driven out, as he was driven out, and that was God’s mercy to him; but Edom, the profane person, had chosen in deliberate profaneness, and Mount Seir accordingly was his.
Alas, when God has to give according to one’s own desire merely, and not according to what would be for His heart a gift! Mount Seir was Esau’s choice; yet it could not, after all, remain his. The things that we choose naturally are things which cannot abide because we would have them do so; for there is a judgment of God which may follow, though we see it not, of which we may be warned and yet have no eyes to see. And Edom was to know that God is Jehovah, the true and unchanging God in what He threatens, as in what He promises. Yet the portion of Jacob invited Edom too. But the kind of craving he had for it only stirred in his heart as enmity against its possessor; and thus Edom is the typical enemy of Israel through all his history. That is the point here: “Because thou hast had 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 of the iniquity of the end; therefore, as I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I will appoint thee to blood, and blood shall pursue thee. Since thou hast not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue thee.” We have already had this in brief in a former prophecy, but God returns to dwell upon it for the lesson that is in it, a lesson that we may all well ponder. He that will nurse enmity in his soul shall be himself pursued by the enmity that he nurses, and when this is enmity to God and to His grace, however he may disguise it, it will necessarily be judged as such, and the end is sure. Edom is the ancient infidel as to God. He sees Israel’s land, but he does not see Jehovah’s presence in it. Thus he thinks to possess himself of that in which he finds Jehovah as his adversary, and the bitter fruit of his unbelief is made good to him as what he has indeed chosen, little as he knew the character of his choice. Was there not plenty in Israel to provoke righteous wrath against them? Yes, and God had to show this as against their misdeeds.
But the enemy’s wrath is not righteous; it is of another character. It is against Jehovah at bottom, as all unbelief is; and this is what comes out in result here. The question is not between Edom and Israel, but between Edom and God. If they said of the mountains of Israel that they were desolate, was it not true? But they did not discern the difference between chastening and rejection: therefore they said, “They are given us to devour.” But if Israel can for the time cast themselves out of the very land that is their own, Edom can never enjoy it: “Ye have magnified yourselves against Me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against Me. I have heard it. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee a desolation. As thou didst rejoice over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee. Thou shalt be a desolation, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, the whole of it; and they shall know” -what a wail there is once more in this, “they shall know -that I am Jehovah.”
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Eze 35:1-6. Moreover, the word of the Lord, &c. The prophet goes on to show, that the same reason which would operate in favour of the Jews, would not operate in favour of the heathen; especially not in favour of the Jews relations, the Edomites: for they showed no mercy, and therefore deserved to receive none; and, because they had perpetual hatred, they were to be made a perpetual desolation. Obs. on Books. Set thy face against mount Seir Mount Seir is the same with Idumea: see Deu 2:5. I will lay thy cities waste, &c. To the same effect Jeremiah prophesied against them, Jer 49:7, &c., where see the notes. Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, &c. See note on Eze 25:12. 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. Therefore I will prepare thee unto blood I will expose thee to great slaughter. Since thou hast not hated blood, &c. Since thou hast loved cruelty, and taken delight in shedding blood, vengeance and slaughter shall pursue thee, and thou shalt fall into the hands of those that will be as eager to shed thine.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 35:2. Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir; that is, Idumea. Gen 36:9. The Nabatheans having driven the Edomites out of their ancient habitation during the Babylonian captivity, they settled themselves in the south of Judea, where they were afterwards conquered by Hyrcanus, obliged to embrace judaism, and were incorporated with the jews. Prideaux. Thus Esaus remnant, being circumcised, became joint heirs of Christ with the seed of Jacob.
Eze 35:14. When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. Cyrus restored many nations, besides the jews, but Edom remained desolate, or was inhabited by strangers. Thus the Lord prepared blood for Esaus race, and blood pursued them. Thus also the Lord loved Jacob, and hated Esau, because Esau hated not blood, as in the sixth verse. Thus the elder literally served the younger in his posterity, when his mountains were laid waste for the dragons of the wilderness, by successive invasions. It is allowed that God does more for one man and for one nation, than for another; and that he preferred Jacob to Esau by his sovereign pleasure; but what impartial man can view Esaus diminished race, now circumcised and incorporated with the jews by Hyrcanus, who was both highpriest and prince, and coolly affirm that God has predestinated any man to eternal death? See Reflections on Jeremiah 49.
Eze 36:8-12. But ye, oh mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches. Agriculture revived under the government of Zerubbabel, and the mountains once more became verdant; yet this was only a faint figure of the real glory which shall follow in the days of the Messiah. Rabbi Abarbanel understands the prophecy in this sense, as appears in Eze 34:31.
Eze 36:23. I will sanctify my great name (JEHOVAH) which ye have profaned. This relates chiefly to worship; and it is apparent that since the Babylonish captivity, the Hebrew nation have neither bowed the knee nor raised the hand to idols.
The heathen shall know that I am the Lord. On this subject Origen says, The miserable jews acknowledge that this is a prophecy of the presence of Christ; but of whose person they are stupidly ignorant, though they see his words accomplished. When, before his advent, did the land of Britain agree in the worship of one God? When did the land of Mauritania, (literally the land of the blacks) when did the whole globe at once agree in this?
Whereas now, on account of the churchs spread to the uttermost boundaries of the world, the whole earth rejoices to invoke the God of Israel. Origen, hom. 4. apud Ezekiel.
Eze 36:24-28. I will take you from among the heathenand will bring you into your own land. This was done under the auspices of Cyrus, and with a strong and mighty hand. Yet as Abarbanel notices, the promises respecting peace still remain to be fulfilled.
On these verses, I heard good Mr. Simeon of Cambridge preach in behalf of the jews. He observed that christians have generally cut off the head and feet of the passage, and taken only the trunk: they have overlooked the gathering of the jews to their own land in the latter day. But with all due deference it may be observed, that though it is highly probable that the jews will be gathered to Jerusalem, and in considerable numbers, and that they will have a temple and sacrifices; yet we cannot assent that the earthly Zion, devoid of navigation, shall ever become the mother-city of the world. We cannot give up St. Paul, that the true Zion is the spiritual and heavenly Jerusalem, built above the mountains, and with living stones. Isaiah 2, 28, 60-66. Micah 4.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you. Ceremonial uncleannesses under the law, for which the altar provided no sacrifice, and are therefore called dead works, were removed by the burning of a heifer without the camp, and mixing its ashes with running water, which was sprinkled upon the unclean, to take away their ceremonial defilement. Numbers 19. Heb 9:13-14. In like manner the Lord will take away the moral pollution of his people in the latter day, by sprinkling clean water upon them, and opening a fountain to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. See on Jeremiah 31.
Eze 36:37. I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel. These blessings, the subjects of daily prayer, may be comprised under three heads. The land of their fathers given back, the presence of Jehovah as their God, and salvation from all the impurities of their dispersion. In that day Christ will have but one fold of jews and gentiles, the original promises being given to all the families, the tribes and nations of the earth.
REFLECTIONS.
Here we see a radiant sun rising on Israel with refulgent beams. The promises, like clouds of refreshing rain, scatter their blessings on every age. They were, in one form or other, continually repeated, and in all the glowing powers of oriental language. But however justified the prophets might be in the use of hyperbole and metaphor, they could not lie, and write what was absolutely false: yet this would obviously be the case with their unqualified promises of peace and prosperity to the country, and of the conversion of the gentile world, if their predictions were restricted to the weak but rising times of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. And if the waste places were rebuilt, why then, whole Palestina, dost thou lie very much in ruins to this day? Consequently the gracious cloud of covenant blessings only scattered its drops on jewish ages, and gave showers to the primitive church, reserving its fulness or the residue of the Spirit for the mountain of holiness in the glory of the latter day.
Temporal mercies we see are promised to the mountains of Israel, after having lain waste for seventy years, from the first captivity. God promises them a flourishing culture, an encreased population, the rebuilding of their ruins and wastes, and innumerable flocks to adorn their fields. Yea, smiling health should accompany their toils, for the land should devour men no more.
Spiritual blessings should also be comprised in their temporal ones, just as the kernel is enclosed in the shell. God would cleanse them from all the impurities they had contracted among the heathen by idols, by marriages, and by customs, as he had cleansed their fathers at Horeb. He would give them a new or regenerate heart; he would give them a new spirit, a renewed mind and will. He would cause them to walk in his statutes, and to keep his judgments. This purification Nehemiah and others effectuated in a small degree.
Hence christian holiness, and all the blessings of the new covenant are here principally implied, St. Paul has illustrated the correspondent prophecy in Jer 31:33, in accordance with this sentiment. Heb 8:9-10. The jews all looked for the bringing in of a better hope. They had a laver in which they washed; but David says, I will wash mine hands in innocency. They had the blood of sprinkling; but a better fountain was expected to be opened for sin and for uncleanness. They had circumcision, but true circumcision is that of the heart. They had the law written on tables of stone; but the Messiah, who says, thy law is within me, here promises to write it on the heart.
When the church is thus sanctified, God promises the fulness of exterior blessings: Eze 36:29. I will call for the corn. This land which was desolate, shall become as the garden of Eden. In the millennium the fertility of the earth shall correspond with the immensity of its population, with the righteousness of the people, and with all the spiritual glory with which the earth shall be filled. See the general reflections at the end of Isaiah.
For all these blessings, whether of sanctification or of millennial glory, God will be enquired of in prayer; for the duty and the promise are everywhere connected in the sacred writings. And it is very remarkable, that when St. Paul mentions holiness of heart at large, it is generally with the most fervent supplications for its attainment. Thus for the Ephesians he bowed his knee, that they might be rooted and grounded in love, and be filled with all the fulness of God. Likewise, for the Thessalonians, he prayed that the very God of peace would sanctify them wholly. This is still the only way for men to attain purity of heart, and the mind of Christ. Let us henceforth ask them with a fervour becoming their worth, and suitable to our wants; and let us pray the Lord to hasten his kingdom, that his way may be known upon earth, and his saving health among all nations.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ezekiel 35 f. The Occupation of the Land.Indispensable to the restoration of Israel is the possession of CanaanIsraels land and Yahwehs land (Eze 35:10).
Ezekiel 35 f. The Destruction of Edom.The land had at the time been threatened, if not actually overrun, by the Edomites (Eze 35:2; Mount Seir=Edom), between whom and Israel there had been from time immemorial a persistent hereditary feud (Eze 35:5; cf. Gen 27:40). Possibly the land, including the old northern and southern kingdoms (Eze 35:10), had been given (Eze 35:12) by Nebuchadrezzar in return for the support Edom had rendered to the Babylonians at the siege of Jerusalem (Psa 137:7). The restoration of Israel must, therefore, be guaranteed by the destruction of Edom (cf. Eze 25:12-14). But this destruction is morally justified on three grounds: (a) by Edoms cruel and ineradicable antipathy to Israel (Eze 35:5); (b) by her occupation of Israels soil and her implicit challenge of Yahweh (Eze 35:10); (c) by her blasphemous pride. Her penalty is, therefore, to be desolation, utter and irrevocable; and by her extinction the way is cleared for Israel.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
3. Preparation of the Promised Land 35:1-36:15
"Each of the next four speeches elaborates an aspect of the peace covenant. Eze 35:1 to Eze 36:15 describes how the foreign plundering nations would be removed and judged in preparation for Israel’s return to her own land. The message in Eze 36:16 to Eze 37:14 provides a beautiful and descriptive account of God’s restoration of Israel to her land. Eze 37:15-28 stresses the full reunion of the nation and the fulfillment of her covenants when this peace covenant is established. Finally, Ezekiel 38-39 develops the concept of Israel’s permanent and complete security in the Lord, for he would thwart the final attempt by a foreign power (Gog) to possess Israel’s land and to plunder God’s people." [Note: Ibid., p. 914.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord directed Ezekiel to prophesy about Mount Seir (Edom, Gen 32:3; Gen 36:8), to "set your face against" it. The first use of the expression "set your face against" in this book occurs in a prophecy against the mountains of Israel (Eze 6:2). Why did God refer to Edom as "Mount Seir" when in the oracle against Edom in Eze 25:12-14 He simply called it "Edom?" Apparently He did so to highlight the contrasts between the mountains of Edom and the mountains of Israel, which He contrasted in chapter 35 and Eze 36:1-15 (cf. Eze 36:1). [Note: Zimmerli, Ezekiel 2, pp. 232-34; Block, The Book . . . 48, p. 310. See Allen, Ezekiel 20-48, pp. 170-71, for many other connecting links between these two contrasting parts of this prophecy. See also Cooper, pp. 306-8.] Two oracles against Edom in one book also double the certainty of fulfillment (cf. Gen 41:32).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
JEHOVAHS LAND
Eze 35:1-15; Eze 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.” {2Ki 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 Hebrew religion. Canaan was the land of Jehovah {Hos 9:3} apart altogether from its possession by Israel, the people of Jehovah. It was Jehovahs 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 Jehovahs 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. {Jos 11:19; Hos 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 Jehovahs people-and yet they are gone forth out of His land”. {Eze 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 Jehovahs 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, 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 Ezekiels 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.” {Eze 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” {Eze 36:30; Cf. Eze 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 Jehovahs 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 Jehovahs land in precisely the same way as Assyria was Asshurs land and Moab the land of Chemosh. The monotheism of the Old Testament revelation breaks through this system of ideas, and interprets Jehovahs 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 Jehovahs 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. 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 (Eze 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 Edoms 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 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.” {Gen 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.” {Gen 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 Judahs calamity had broken out in savage acts of revenge (Eze 35:5); second, their rejoicing over the misfortunes of Israel and the desolation of its land (Eze 35:15); and third, their eagerness to seize the land as soon as it was vacant (Eze 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 Jehovahs 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 Israels national deity: “The two nations and the two countries shall be mine, and I will possess them, although Jehovah was there” (Eze 35:10 : cf. Eze 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 sinners 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 Jehovahs name is the very thing which in the view of Ezekiel needs to be removed by signal and exemplary acts of judgment.
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 Israels final retribution. The “perpetual hatred” is rewarded by perpetual desolation (Eze 35:9); their seizure of Jehovahs land is punished by their annihilation in the land that was their own (Eze 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” (Eze 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.”
II.
The prophets mind is still occupied with the sin of Edom as he turns in the thirty-sixth chapter to depict the future of the land of Israel. The opening verses of the chapter (Eze 36:1-7) betray an intensity of patriotic feeling not often expressed by Ezekiel. The utterance of the single idea which he wishes to express seems to be impeded by the multitude of reflections that throng upon him as he apostrophises “the mountains and the hills, the watercourses and the valleys, the desolate ruins and deserted cities” of his native country (Eze 36:4). The land is conceived as conscious of the shame and reproach that rest upon it; and all the elements that might be supposed to make up the consciousness of the land-its naked desolation. the tread of alien feet, the ravages of war, and the derisive talk of the surrounding heathen (Edom being specially in view)-present themselves to the mind of the prophet before he can utter the message with which he is charged: “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; Behold, I speak in My jealousy and My anger, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen: therefore I lift up My hand, Surely the nations that are round about you-even they shall bear their shame” (Eze 36:6-7).
The jealousy of Jehovah is here His holy resentment against indignities done to Himself, and this attribute of the divine nature is now enlisted on the side of Israel because of the despite which the heathen had heaped on His land. But it is noteworthy that it is through the land and not the people that this feeling is first called into operation. Israel is still sinful and alienated from God; but the honour of Jehovah is bound up with the land not less than with the nation, and it is in reference to it that the necessity of vindicating His holy name first becomes apparent. There is what we might almost venture to call a divine patriotism, which is stirred into activity by the desolate condition of the land where the worship of the true God should be celebrated. On this feature of Jehovahs character Ezekiel builds the assurance of his peoples redemption. The idea expressed by the verses is simply the certainty that Canaan shall be recovered from the heathen dominion for the purposes of the kingdom of God.
The following verses (Eze 36:8-15) speak of the positive aspects of the approaching deliverance. Continuing his apostrophe to the mountains of Israel, the prophet describes the transformation which is to pass over them in view of the return of the exiled nation, which is now on the eve of accomplishment (Eze 36:8). It might almost seem as if the return of the inhabitants were here treated as a mere incident of the rehabilitation of the land. That of course is only an appearance caused by the peculiar standpoint assumed throughout these chapters. Ezekiel was not one who could look on complacently
“Where wealth accumulates and men decay”;
nor was he indifferent to the social welfare of his people. On the contrary we have seen from chapter 34 that he regards that as a supreme interest in the future kingdom of God. And even in this passage he does not make the interests of humanity subservient to those of nature. His leading idea is a reunion of land and people under happier auspices than had obtained of old. Formerly the land, in mysterious sympathy with the mind of Jehovah, had seemed to be animated by a hostile disposition towards its inhabitants. The reluctant and niggardly subsistence that had been wrung from the soil justified the evil report which the spies had brought up of it at the first as a “land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof.” {Num 13:32} Its inhospitable character was known among the heathen, so that it bore the reproach of being a land that “devoured men and bereaved its nation.” But in the glorious future all this will be changed in harmony with Jehovahs altered relations with His people. In the language of a later prophet, {Isa 42:4} the land shall be “married” to Jehovah, and endowed with exuberant fertility. Yielding its fruits freely and generously, it will wipe off the reproach of the heathen; its cities shall be inhabited, its ruins rebuilt, and man and beast multiplied on its surface, so that its last state shall be better than its first (Eze 36:11). And those who till it and enjoy the benefits of its wonderful transformation shall be none other than the house of Israel, for whose sins it had borne the reproach of barrenness in the past (Eze 36:12-15).
III.
The next passage (Eze 36:16-38) deals more with the renewal of the nation than with that of the land; and thus forms a link of connection between the main theme of this chapter and that of chapter 37. It contains the clearest and most comprehensive statement of the process of redemption to be found in the whole book, exhibiting as it does in logical order all the elements which enter into the divine scheme of salvation. The fact that it is inserted just at this point affords a fresh illustration of the importance attached by the prophet to the religious associations which gathered round the Holy Land. The land indeed is still the pivot on which his thoughts turn; he starts from it in his short review of Gods past judgments on His people, and finally returns to it in summing up the world-wide effects of His gracious dealings with them in the immediate future. Although the connection of ideas is singularly clear, the passage throws so much light on the deepest theological conceptions of Ezekiel that it will be well to recapitulate the principal steps of the argument.
We need not linger on the cause of the rejection of Israel, for here the prophet only repeats the main lesson which we have found so often enforced in the first part of his book. Israel went into exile because its manner of life as a nation had been abhorrent to Jehovah, and it had defiled the land which was Jehovahs house. As in chapter 22 and elsewhere, bloodshed and idols are the chief emblems of the peoples sinful condition; these constitute a real physical defilement of the land, which must be punished by the eviction of its inhabitants: “So I poured out My wrath upon them [on account of the blood which they had shed upon the land, and the idols wherewith they had polluted it]: and I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries.”
Thus the Exile was necessary for the vindication of Jehovahs holiness as reflected in the sanctity of His land. But the effect of the dispersion on other nations was such as to compromise the honour of Israels God in another direction. Knowing Jehovah only as a tribal god, the heathen naturally concluded that He had been too feeble to protect His land from invasion and His people from captivity. They could not penetrate to the moral reasons which rendered the chastisement inevitable; they only saw that these were Jehovahs people, and yet they were gone forth out of His land (Eze 36:20), and drew the natural inference. The impression thus produced by the presence of Israelites amongst the heathen was derogatory to the majesty of Jehovah, and obscured the knowledge of the true principles of His government which was destined to extend to all the earth. This is all that seems to be meant by the expression “profaned My holy name.” It is not implied that the exiles scandalised the heathen by their vicious lives, and so brought disgrace on “that glorious name by which they were called,” {Jam 2:7} although that idea is implied in Eze 12:16. The profanation spoken of here was caused directly not by the sin but by the calamities of Israel. Yet it was their sins which brought down judgment upon them, and so indirectly gave occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. There were probably already some of Ezekiels compatriots who realised the bitterness of the thought that their fate was the means of bringing discredit on their God. Their experience would be similar to that of the lonely exile who composed the forty-second psalm:-
“As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me;
While they say daily unto me,
Where is thy God?”. {Psa 42:10}
Now in this fact the prophet recognises an absolute ground of confidence in Israels restoration. Jehovah cannot endure that His name should thus be held up to derision before the eyes of mankind. To allow this would be to frustrate the end of His government of the world, which is to manifest His Godhead in such a way that all men shall be brought to acknowledge it.
Although He is known as yet only as the national God of a particular people, He must be disclosed to the world as all that the inspired teachers of Israel know Him to be-the one Being worthy of the homage of the human heart. There must be some way by which His name can be sanctified before the heathen, some means of reconciling the partial revelation of His holiness in Israels dispersion with the complete manifestation of His power to the world at large. And this reconciliation can only be effected through the redemption of Israel. God cannot disown His ancient people, for that would be to stultify the whole past revelation of His character and leave the name by which He had made Himself known to contempt. That is divinely impossible; and therefore Jehovah must carry through His purpose by sanctifying Himself in the salvation of Israel. The outward token of salvation will be their restoration to their own land (Eze 36:24); but the inward reality of it will be a change in the national character which will make their dwelling in the land consistent with the revelation of Jehovahs holiness already given by their banishment from it.
At this point accordingly (Eze 36:25) Ezekiel passes to speak of the spiritual process of regeneration by which Israel is to be transformed into a true people of God. This is a necessary part of the sanctification of the divine name before the world. The new life of the people will reveal the character of the God whom they serve, and the change will explain the calamities that had befallen them in the past. The world will thus see “that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity,” {Eze 39:23} and will understand the holiness which the true God requires in His worshippers. But for the present the prophets thoughts are concentrated on the operations of the divine grace by which the renewal is effected. His analysis of the process of conversion is profoundly instructive, and anticipates to a remarkable degree the teaching of the Old Testament. We shall content ourselves at present with merely enumerating the different parts of the process. The first step is the removal of the impurities contracted by past transgressions. This is represented under the figure of sprinkling with clean water, suggested by the ablutions or lustrations which are so common a feature of the Levitical ritual (Eze 36:25). The truth symbolised is the forgiveness of sins, the act of grace which takes away the effect of moral uncleanness as a barrier to fellowship with God. The second point is what is properly called regeneration, the giving of a new heart and spirit (Eze 36:26). The stony heart of the old nation, whose obduracy had dismayed so many prophets, making them feel that they had spent their labour for nought and in vain, shall be taken away, and instead of it they shall receive a heart of flesh, sensitive to spiritual influences and responsive to the divine will. And to this is added in the third place the promise of the Spirit of God to be in them as the ruling principle of a new life of obedience to the law of God (Eze 36:27). The law, both moral and ceremonial, is the expression of Jehovahs holy nature, and both the will and the power to keep it perfectly must proceed from the indwelling of His Holy Spirit in the people, It is thus Jehovah Himself who “saves” the people “out of all their uncleanness” (Eze 36:29), caused by the depravity and infirmity of their natural hearts. When these conditions are realised the harmony between Jehovah and Israel will be completely restored: He will be their God, and they shall be His people. They shall dwell forever in the land promised to their fathers; and the blessing of God resting on land and people will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that they receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations (Eze 36:28-30).
Having thus described the process of salvation as from first to last the work of Jehovah, the prophet proceeds to consider the impression which it will produce first on Israel and then on the surrounding nations (Eze 36:31-36). On Israel the effect of the goodness of God will be to lead them to repentance. Remembering what their past history has been. and contrasting it with the blessedness they now enjoy, they shall be filled with shame and self-contempt, loathing themselves for their iniquities and their abominations. It is not meant that all feelings of joy and gratitude will be swallowed up in the consciousness of unworthiness; but this is the feeling that will be called forth by the memory of their past transgressions. Their horror of sin will be such that they cannot think of what they have been without the deepest compunction and self-abasement. And this sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, reacting on their consciousness of themselves, will be the best moral guarantee against their relapse into the uncleanness from which they have been delivered.
To the heathen, on the other hand, the state of Israel will be a convincing demonstration of the power and godhead of Jehovah.. Men will say, “Yonder land, which was desolate, has become like the garden of Eden; and the cities that were ruined and waste and destroyed are fenced and inhabited” (Eze 36:35). They will know that it is Jehovahs doing, and it will be marvellous in their eyes.
The last two verses seem to be an appendix. They deal with a special feature of the restoration, about which the minds of the exiles may have been exercised in thinking of the possibility of their deliverance. Where was the population of the new Israel to come from? The population of Judah must have been terribly reduced by the disastrous wars that had desolated the country since the time of Hezekiah. How was it possible, with a few thousands in exile, and a miserable remnant left in the land, to build up a strong and prosperous nation? This thought of theirs is met by the announcement of a great increase of the inhabitants of the land. Jehovah is ready to meet the questionings of human anxiety on this point: He will “let Himself be inquired of” for this. The remembrance of the sacrificial flocks that used to throng the streets leading to the Temple at the time of the great festivals supplies Ezekiel with an image of the teeming population that shall be in all the cities of Canaan when this prophecy is fulfilled.
Such is in outline the scheme of redemption which Ezekiel presents to the minds of his readers. We shall reserve a fuller consideration of its more important doctrines for a separate chapter. One general application of its teaching, however, may be pointed out before leaving the subject. We see that for Ezekiel the mysteries and perplexities of the divine government find their solution in the idea of redemption. He is aware of the false impression necessarily produced on the heathen mind by Gods dealings with His people, as long as the process is incomplete. On account of Israels sin the revelation of God in providence is gradual and fragmentary, and seems even for a time to defeat its own end. The omnipotence of God was obscured by the very act of vindicating His holiness; and what was in itself a great step towards the complete revelation of His character came on the world in the first instance as an evidence of His impotence. But the prophet, looking beyond this to the final effect of Gods work upon the world, sees that Jehovah can be truly known only in the manifestation of His redeeming grace. All the enigmas and contradictions that arise from imperfect comprehension of His purpose find their answer in this truth, that God will yet redeem Israel from its iniquities. God is His own interpreter, and when His work of salvation is finished the result will be a conclusive demonstration of that lofty conception of God to which the prophet had attained.
Now this argument of Ezekiels illustrates a principle of wide application. Many objections that are advanced against the theistic view of the universe seem to proceed on the assumption that the actual state of the world adequately represents the mind of its Creator. The heathen of Ezekiels day have their modern representatives amongst dispassionate critics of Providence like J. S. Mill, who prove to their own satisfaction that the world cannot be the work of a being answering to the Christian idea of God. Do what you will, they say, to minimise the Evils of existence, there is still an amount of undeniable pain and misery in the world which is fatal to your doctrine of an all-powerful and perfectly good Creator. Omnipotence could, and benevolence would find a remedy; the Author of the universe, therefore, cannot possess both. God, in short, if there be a God, may be benevolent, or He may be omnipotent; but if benevolent He is not omnipotent, and if omnipotent He cannot be benevolent. How very convincing this is-from the standpoint of the neutral, non-Christian observer! And how poor a defence is sometimes made by the optimism which tries to make out that most evils are blessings in disguise, and the rest not worth minding! The Christian religion rises superior to such criticism mainly in virtue of its living faith in redemption. It does not explain away evil, nor does it profess to account for its origin. It speaks of the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain together even until now. But it also describes the creation as waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. It teaches us to discover in history the unfolding of a purpose of redemption the end of which will be the deliverance of mankind from the dominion of sin and their eternal blessedness in the kingdom of our God and His Christ. What Ezekiel foresaw in the form of a national restoration will be accomplished in a world-wide salvation, in a new heavens and a new earth, where there shall be no more curse. But meanwhile to judge of God from what is, apart from what is yet to be revealed, is to repeat the mistake of those who judge Jehovah to be an effete tribal deity because He had suffered His people to go forth out of their land. Those who have been brought into sympathy with the divine purpose, and have experienced the power of the Spirit of God in subduing the evil of their own hearts, can hold with unwavering confidence the hope of a universal victory of good over evil; and in the light of that hope the mysteries that surround the moral government of God cease to disturb their faith in the eternal Love which labours patiently and unceasingly for the redemption of man.
THE CONVERSION OF ISRAEL
IN one of our earlier chapters (Chapter 5 above) we had occasion to notice some theological principles which appear to have guided the prophets thinking from the beginning. It was evident even then that these principles pointed towards a definite theory of the conversion of Israel and the process by which it was to be effected. In subsequent prophecies we have seen how constantly Ezekiels thoughts revert to this theme, as now one aspect of it and then another is disclosed to him. We have also glanced at one passage. {Eze 36:16-38} which seemed to be a connected statement of the divine procedure as bearing on the restoration of Israel. But we have now reached a stage in the exposition where all this lies behind us. In the chapters that remain to be considered the regeneration of the people is assumed to have taken place; their religion and their morality are regarded as established on a stable and permanent basis, and all that has to be done is to describe the institutions by which the benefits of salvation may be conserved and handed down from age to age of the Messianic dispensation. The present is therefore a fitting opportunity for an attempt to describe Ezekiels doctrine of conversion as a whole. It is all the more desirable that the attempt should be made because the national salvation is the central interest of the whole book; and if we can understand the prophets teaching on this subject, we shall have the key to his whole system of theology.
1. The first point to be noticed, and the one most characteristic of Ezekiel, is the divine motive for the redemption of Israel-Jehovahs regard for His own name. This thought finds expression in many parts of the book, but nowhere more clearly than in the twenty-second verse of the thirty-sixth chapter: “Not for your sakes do I act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.” {Eze 36:22} Similarly in the thirty-second verse: “Not for your sakes do I act, saith the Lord Jehovah, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.” {Eze 36:32} There is an apparent harshness in these declarations which makes it easy to present them in a repellent light. They have been taken to mean that Jehovah is absolutely indifferent to the weal or woe of the people except in so far as it reflects on His own credit with the world: that He accepts the relationship between Him and Israel, but does so in the spirit of a selfish parent who exerts himself to save his child from disgrace merely in order to prevent his own name from being dragged in the mire. It would be difficult to explain how such a Being should be at all concerned about what men think of Him. If Jehovah has no interest in Israel, it is hard to see why He should be sensitive to the opinion of the rest of mankind. That is an idea of God which no man can seriously hold. and we may be certain that it is a perversion of Ezekiels meaning. Everything depends on how much is included in the “name” of Jehovah. If it denotes mere arbitrary power, delighting in its own exercise and the awe which it excites, then we might conceive of the divine action as ruled by a boundless egotism, to which all human interests are alike indifferent. But that is not the conception of God which Ezekiel has. He is a moral Being, one who has compassion on other things besides His own name, {Eze 36:21} one who has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his way and live. {Eze 18:23; Eze 33:11} But when this aspect of His character is included in the name of God, we see that regard for His name cannot mean mere regard for His own interests, as if these were opposed to the interests of His creatures; but means the desire to be known as He is, as a God of mercy and righteousness as well as of infinite power.
The name of God is that by which He is known amongst men. It is more than His honour or reputation, although that is included in it according to Hebrew idiom; it is the expression of His character or His personality. To act for His names sake therefore, is to act so that His true character may be more fully revealed, and so that mens thoughts of Him may more truly correspond to that which in Himself He is. There is plainly nothing in this inconsistent with the deepest interest in mens spiritual well-being. Jehovah is the God of salvation, and desires to reveal Himself as such; and whether we say that He saves men in order that He may be known as a Saviour, or that He makes Himself known in order to save them, does not make any real difference. Revelation and redemption are one thing. And when Ezekiel says that regard for His own name is the supreme motive of Jehovahs action, he does not teach that Jehovah is uninfluenced by care for man; if the question had been put to him, he would have said that care for man is one of the attributes included in the Name which Jehovah is concerned to reveal.
The real meaning of Ezekiels doctrine will perhaps be best understood from its negative statement. What is meant to be excluded by the expression “not for your sakes”? It might no doubt mean, “not because I care at all for you”; but that we have seen to be inconsistent with other aspects of Ezekiels teaching about the divine character. All that it necessarily implies is “not for any good that I find in you.” It is a protest against the idea of Pharisaic self-righteousness that a man may have a legal claim upon God through his own merits. It is true that that was not a prevalent notion amongst the people in the time of Ezekiel. But their state of mind was one in which such a thought might easily arise. They were convinced of having been entirely in the wrong in their conceptions of the relation between them and Jehovah. The pagan notion that the people is indispensable to the god on account of a physical bond between them had broken down in the recent experience of Israel, and with it had vanished every natural ground for the hope of salvation. In such circumstances the promise of deliverance would naturally raise the thought that there must after all be something in Israel that was pleasing to Jehovah, and that the prophets denunciations of their past sins were overdone. In order to guard against that error Ezekiel explicitly asserts, what was involved in the whole of his teaching, that the mercy of God was not called forth by any good in Israel, but that nevertheless there are immutable reasons in the divine nature on which the certainty of Israels redemption may be built.
The truth here taught is therefore, in theological language, the sovereignty of the divine grace. Ezekiels statement of it is liable to all the distortions and misrepresentations to which that doctrine has been subjected at the hands both of its friends and its enemies; but when fairly treated it is no more objectionable than any other expression of the same truth to be found in Scripture. In Ezekiels case it was the result of a penetrating analysis of the moral condition of his people which led him to see that there was nothing in them to suggest the possibility of their being restored. It is only when he falls back on the thought of what God is, on the divine necessity of vindicating His holiness in the salvation of His people, that his faith in Israels future finds a sure point of support. And so in general a profound sense of human sinfulness will always throw the mind back on the idea of God as the one immovable ground of confidence in the ultimate redemption of the individual and the world. When the doctrine is pressed to the conclusion that God saves men in spite of themselves, and merely to display His power over them, it becomes false and pernicious, and indeed self-contradictory. But so long as we hold fast to the truth that God is love, and that the glory of God is the manifestation of His love, the doctrine of the divine sovereignty only expresses the unchangeableness of that love and its final victory over the sin of the world.
2. The intellectual side of the conversion of Israel is the acceptance of that idea of God which to the prophet is summed up in the name of Jehovah. This is expressed in the standing formula which denotes the effect of all Gods dealings with men, “They shall know that I am Jehovah.” We need not, however, repeat what has been already said as to the meaning of these words. Nor shall we dwell on the effect of the national judgment as a means towards producing a right impression of Jehovahs nature. It is possible that as time went on Ezekiel came to see that chastisement alone would not effect the moral change in the exiles which was necessary to bring them into sympathy with the divine purposes. In the early prophecy of chapter 6 the knowledge of Jehovah and the self-condemnation which accompanies it are spoken of as the direct result of His judgment on sin, {Eze 6:8-10} and this undoubtedly was one element in the conversion of the people to right thoughts about God. But in all other passages this feeling of self-loathing is not the beginning but the end of conversion; it is caused by the experience of pardon and redemption following upon punishment. {Eze 16:61-63; Eze 20:43-44; Eze 36:31; Eze 20:32} There is also another aspect of judgment which may be mentioned in passing for the sake of completeness. It is that which is expounded in the end of the twentieth chapter. There the judgment which still stands between the exiles and the return to their own land is represented as a sifting process, in which those who have undergone a spiritual change are finally separated from those who perish in their impenitence. This idea does not occur in the prophecies subsequent to the fall of Jerusalem, and it may be doubtful how it fits into the scheme of redemption there unfolded. The prophet here regards conversion as a process wholly carried through by the operation of Jehovah on the mind of the people; and what we have next to consider is the steps by which this great end is accomplished. They are these two-forgiveness and regeneration.
3. The forgiveness of sins is denoted in the thirty-sixth chapter, as we have already seen, by the symbol of sprinkling with clean water. But it must not be supposed that this isolated figure is the only form in which the doctrine appears in Ezekiels exposition of the process of salvation. On the contrary forgiveness is the fundamental assumption of the whole argument, and is present in every promise of future blessedness to the people. For the Old Testament idea of forgiveness is extremely simple, resting as it does on the analogy of forgiveness in human life. The spiritual fact which constitutes the essence of forgiveness is the change in Jehovahs disposition towards His people which is manifested by the renewal of those indispensable conditions of national well-being which in His anger He had taken away. The restoration of Israel to its own land is thus not simply a token of forgiveness, but the act of forgiveness itself, and the only form in which the fact could be realised in the experience of the nation. In this sense the whole of Ezekiels predictions of the Messianic deliverance and the glories that follow it are one continuous promise of forgiveness, setting forth the truth that Jehovahs love to His people persists in spite of their sin, and works victoriously for their redemption and restoration to the full enjoyment of His favour. There is perhaps one point in which we discover a difference between Ezekiels conception and that of his predecessors. According to the common prophetic doctrine penitence, including amendment, is the moral effect of Jehovahs chastisement, and is the necessary condition of pardon. We have seen that there is some doubt whether Ezekiel regarded repentance as the result of judgment, and the same doubt exists as to whether in the order of salvation repentance is a preliminary or a consequence of forgiveness. The truth is that the prophet appears to combine both conceptions. In urging individuals to prepare for the coming of the kingdom of God he makes repentance a necessary condition of entering it; but in describing the whole process of salvation as the work of God he makes contrition for sin the result of reflection on the goodness of Jehovah already experienced in the peaceful occupation of the land of Canaan.
4. The idea of regeneration is very prominent in Ezekiels teaching. The need for a radical change in the national character was impressed on him by the spectacle which he witnessed daily of evil tendencies and practices persisted in, in spite of the clearest demonstration that they were hateful to Jehovah and had been the cause of the nations calamities. And he does not ascribe this state of things merely to the influence of tradition and public opinion and evil example, but traces it to its source in the hardness and corruption of the individual nature. It was evident that no mere change of intellectual conviction would avail to alter the currents of life among the exiles; the heart must be renewed, out of which are the issues both of personal and national life. Hence the promise of regeneration is expressed as a taking away of the stony, unimpressible heart that was in them, and putting within them a heart of flesh, a new heart and a new spirit. In exhorting individuals to repentance Ezekiel calls on them to make themselves a new heart and a new spirit, {Eze 18:31} meaning that their repentance must be genuine, extending, to the inner motives and springs of action, and not be confined to outward signs of mourning. But in other connections the new heart and spirit are represented as a gift, the result of the operation of the divine grace. {Eze 11:19; Eze 36:26-27}
Closely connected with this, perhaps only the same truth in another form, is the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit of God. {Eze 36:27; Eze 37:14} The general expectation of a new supernatural power infused into the national life in the latter days is common in the prophets. It appears in Hosea under the beautiful image of the dew, {Hos 14:5} and in Isaiah it is expressed in the consciousness that the desolation of the land must continue “until spirit be poured upon us from on high.” But {Isa 32:15} no earlier prophet presents the idea of the Spirit as a principle of regeneration with the precision and clearness which the doctrine assumes in the hands of Ezekiel. What in Hosea and Isaiah may be only a divine influence, quickening and developing the flagging spiritual energies of the people, is here revealed as a creative power, the source of a new life, and the beginning of all that possesses moral or spiritual worth in the people of God.
5. It only remains for us now to note the twofold effect of these operations of Jehovahs grace in the religious and moral condition of the nation. There will be produced, in the first place, a new readiness and power of obedience to the divine commandments. {Eze 11:20; Eze 36:27} Like the apostle, they will not only “consent unto the law that it is good”; {Rom 7:10} but in virtue of the new “Spirit of life” given to them, they will be in a real sense “free from the law,” {Rom 8:2} because the inward impulse of their own regenerate nature will lead them to fulfil it perfectly. The inefficiency of law as a mere external authority, acting on men by hope of reward and fear of punishment, was perceived both by Jeremiah and Ezekiel almost as clearly as by Paul, although this conviction on the part of the prophets was based on observation of national depravity rather than on their personal experience. It led Jeremiah to the conception of a new covenant under which Jehovah will write His law on mens hearts; {Jer 31:33} and Ezekiel expresses the same truth in the promise of a new Spirit inclining the people to walk in Jehovahs statutes and to keep His judgments.
The second inward result of salvation is shame and self-loathing on account of past transgressions. {Eze 6:9; Eze 16:63; Eze 20:43; Eze 36:31-32} It seems strange that the prophet should dwell so much on this as a mark of Israels saved condition. His strong protest against the doctrine of inherited guilt in the eighteenth chapter would have led us to expect that the members of the new Israel would not be conscious of any responsibility for the sins of the old. But here, as in other instances, the conception of the personified nation proves itself a better vehicle of religious truth from the Old Testament standpoint than the religious relations of the individual. The continuity of the national consciousness sustains that profound sense of unworthiness which is an essential element of true reconciliation to God, although each individual Israelite in the kingdom of God knows that he is not accountable for the iniquity of his fathers.
This outline of the prophets conception of salvation illustrates the truth of the remark that Ezekiel is the first dogmatic theologian. In so far as it is the business of a theologian to exhibit the logical connection of the ideas which express mans relation to God, Ezekiel more than any other prophet may claim the title. Truths which are the presuppositions of all prophecy are to him objects of conscious reflection, and emerge from his hands in the shape of clearly formulated doctrines. There is probably no single element of his teaching which may not be traced in the writings of his predecessors, but there is none which has not gained from him a more distinct intellectual expression. And what is specially remarkable is the manner in which the doctrines are bound together in the unity of a system. In grounding the necessity of redemption in the divine nature, Ezekiel may be said to foreshadow the theology which is often called Calvinistic or Augustinian, but which might more truly be called Pauline. Although the final remedy for the sin of the world had not yet been revealed, the scheme of redemption disclosed to Ezekiel agrees with much of the teaching of the New Testament regarding the effects of the work of Christ on the individual. Speaking of the passage Eze 36:16-38 Dr. Davidson writes as follows:-
“Probably no passage in the Old Testament of the same extent offers so complete a parallel to New Testament doctrine, particularly to that of St. Paul. It is doubtful if the apostle quotes Ezekiel anywhere, but his line of thought entirely coincides with his. The same conceptions and in the same order belonging to both, -forgiveness (Eze 36:25); regeneration, a new heart and spirit (Eze 36:26); the Spirit of God as the ruling power in the new life (Eze 36:27); the issue of this, the keeping of the requirements of Gods law; {Eze 36:27; Rom 8:4} the effect of being under grace in softening the human heart and leading to obedience (Eze 36:31; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 7:1-25); and the organic connection of Israels history with Jehovahs revelation of Himself to the nations.” {Eze 36:33-36; Rom 11:1-36}