Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 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.
15. The clause “as thou didst do unto thee” is wanting in LXX.
As Edom had been active in the destruction of Judah, their own desolation must follow. The author of the Lamentations has a presentiment that the next great act of divine judgment will be on Edom (Lam 4:22; cf. Isaiah 34, Isa 63:1-6). The great empires which brought destruction upon Jerusalem were acting under commission from Jehovah and the work was according to his will. But in the first place there is a difference between the work itself and the spirit in which it is done. Jehu received commendation for his act in cutting off the seed of Ahab, but later his house was extirpated for the guilt of this same “blood of Jezreel” (Hos 1:4). The Assyrian was entrusted with a commission against the ungodly nation; but he meant not so, it was in his heart to cut off nations not a few (Isa 10:7), and the decree that he should be broken upon the mountains of Israel went out against him (Isa 14:25). Nebuchadnezzar was the “servant” of the Lord, but because Babylon laid her yoke heavily on the aged of the people, not considering the issue of such things, bereavement and widowhood shall come upon her in one day (Isa 47:6-8). Here the prophet reprobates both the actions and the spirit of Edom, and threatens that Jehovah will recompense it into their bosom. In ancient modes of thought the people and their god were one. The people were but the reflection of the god, they were the people of Chemosh or Milcom or Jehovah. All wars were religious wars, wars against a god who animated and gave strength to his people (Exo 12:12). Edom’s despite was to some extent in the strict sense directed against Jehovah. In truth they knew Jehovah only as the God of Israel, but it was he whom they knew, though they might not have such knowledge of him as Ezek. had attained to. But it is possible to be guilty of great sins against God, even though they are done unwittingly and without full knowledge of that which he is.
And in the second place, Edom received no commission from Jehovah against his people. Their place in history and among the nations of the earth gave them no significance in relation to Israel, or in Jehovah’s providence embracing all the world. The contact of Israel with the nations exercising universal empire over the earth, if it did not suggest conceptions of Jehovah’s universal power and dominion to the prophets, at least gave them occasion for expressing to the people and to all time such conceptions; and this period of Israel’s history lent a breadth and elevation to prophecy to which in political conditions such as existed in earlier times it could never have attained. The transportation of colonies of Israelites also into the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, besides purifying the religion of the people from its dependence on ritual observance and making it more inward among those who continued to adhere to it, leavened the populations of these heathen nations with truer conceptions of Deity and religion. The writers of this age often refer to the strangers joining themselves to the covenant of the Lord (Isa 14:1-2; Isa 56:1-8), and no doubt the same influence was exerted by Israel, if not to the same extent, in Babylon and the countries of the East, as we are familiar with in later times in Rome and the empire of the West. In such respects Edom had no importance, and hardly entered into the larger designs of Jehovah with respect to his people and mankind.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 15. So will I do unto thee] Others shall rejoice in thy downfall as thou hast rejoiced at their downfall.
This whole chapter strongly inculcates this maxim: Do 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 wo. Would you not be slandered or backbitten? Then do not slander nor backbite. Wouldst thou wish to live in peace? Then do not disturb the peace of others. Be merciful, and thou shalt obtain mercy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou didst rejoice; 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. (Oba 1:12;Oba 1:15).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate,…. So Edom rejoiced at the destruction of Jerusalem, Ob 1:12, and so the followers of the man of sin will rejoice at the slaying of the witnesses, Re 11:10, which is resented by the Lord, and therefore adds,
so will I do unto thee; make thee desolate, as is explained in the next clause:
thou shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it; not that mount only, but all the land of Edom, called Idumea; the destruction shall be general, as it was, and irretrievable; and so not Rome only, but all the antichristian states, will be destroyed, when God comes forth in his wrath against them:
and they shall know that I am the Lord; the Lord God omniscient and omnipotent; who, having foretold all this, shall accomplish it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(15) Because it was desolate.This is spoken of Israel; yet Israel was to preserve a remnant who should return to their land, and ultimately become the centre of the new covenant. So the desolation of Edom, though ultimately perpetual as far as its nationality is concerned, is not inconsistent with the fact foretold by Amos (Amo. 9:12), that a remnant even of Edom should at last be received into the Church.
All Idumea.It is better to keep the uniform name of Edom. Idumea is essentially the same country but is a more modern name, and when it came into use the boundaries had somewhat changed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
READER! what an awful thing to be of the Esau race! By nature, and by practice, a race of evil-doers: children that are full of hatred and bitterness against the Lord and his Christ. And not only born under the condemnation of a broken law, but their very nature indisposed to all desires after Christ and his righteousness. How truly solemn and affecting is the exhortation the Apostle delivers to the Church, of watching against this root of bitterness springing up in the soul. Lest (saith the Apostle) there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Despising Christ; he soon advanced to this point to get rid of him! Lord! blessed forever be thy name, in keeping thy redeemed, thine Israel, from the Esau’s of every generation!
Blessed Lord Jesus! how sweetly doth this scripture set forth, as in all other places, thy watchful and tender regard over thy Israel. Dost thou indeed, dear Lord, take their cause as thine own, and declare thy determinate purpose to punish all that offend thee, in offending them? Oh! then, enable all thine exercised family to keep a constant eye to thee, whilst thou art looking after them, and defending them. May everyone of thine household, O Lord, feel a growing and increasing confidence in thee, and the assurance of thy favor and protection; and be continually crying out with the Prophet of old, rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall I shall rise: when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Ver. 15. As thou didst rejoice. ] As thou wast sick of the devil’s disease, rejoicing at other men’s harms; so, by a strange turn of things, others shall rejoice at thy just destruction, and revel in thy ruins: and at the last day especially, when thou shalt be awarded thy portion with the devil and his angels. 2Th 1:6-8
Thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir.
And all Idumea, even all of it.
a Lib. xii. cap. 11.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the house of Israel. See note on Ea. Eze 16:31.
Idumea = Edom,
they shall know. See note on Eze 6:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
didst: Eze 36:2-5, Psa 137:7, Pro 17:5, Lam 4:21, Oba 1:12, Oba 1:15
shalt: Eze 35:3, Eze 35:4
Idumea: Eze 36:5, Isa 34:5, Isa 34:6, Mar 3:8
and they: Eze 35:4, Eze 35:9, Eze 39:6, Eze 39:7
Reciprocal: Isa 14:29 – Rejoice Jer 40:11 – all the Jews Jer 48:27 – was not Jer 49:17 – Edom Eze 6:7 – and ye Eze 23:32 – thou shalt be Eze 25:6 – rejoiced Eze 25:11 – and they Eze 36:7 – the heathen Eze 37:6 – ye shall Oba 1:10 – and Mic 7:8 – Rejoice Hab 1:15 – therefore
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 35:15. This verse repeats the thoughts of the preceding one. It should not be regarded in the sense of “returning evil for evil or as an act of retaliation, but as a just punishment of Edom for his wicked attitude toward Gods people. Seir and Idumea are names that applied to the land occupied by the Edomites, the second word being another form of Edom.