For [thy] violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
Ver. 10. For thy violence against thy brother Jacob] For thine open violence. Hence tachmas, the vulture, who liveth by rapine, Leviticus 11:14. Thine iniquity, rapine, injury done by force and in public view, set upon the "top of a rock," that all might behold it, Ezekiel 24:7 .
Against thy brother] Thine own mother's son, Psalms 50:20. This is no small aggravation of thy sin, that is in germanum Iacob, thy nearest allies. Edom had other sins not a few; but this was the chief, and is therefore here and elsewhere chiefly alleged as the cause of their utter ruin, Eze 25:1-17 Eze 35:1-15 Amos 1:1,15 Malachi 1:1,14. Nothing is more hateful to God than unnaturalness. "A brother is born for adversity," Proverbs 17:17; his birth binds him to it: and he must first offer violence to himself that is unkind to his distressed brother; he must tear the dictates of nature out of his own heart. And however at other times brethren may jar and jangle, yet at a strait, and in a stress good nature (if there be any remains of it) will work; and good blood will not belie itself. Israel was charged for this cause not to abhor an Edomite, because he was his brother, Deuteronomy 23:7; and yet the Edomites used them as discourteously in their passage to Canaan as the Moabites and Ammonites did, Numbers 20:20,21; they were also their perpetual enemies, and of a devilish, vindictive spirit toward them to the very last; hence their ensuing doom.
Shame shall cover thee] For thy violence covering thee as a garment, and for thy pride compassing thee as a chain, Psalms 73:6. The face of such as are ashamed is wont to be covered with blushing, the blood flushing to the outward parts to relieve them, and, as it were, to hide their shame. Hence the Hebrews say, that those that blush for shame "are covered with shame," Micah 7:10 Psalms 69:9; Psalms 35:26; Psa 109:29 Job 18:20. Those that "shame the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge," Psalms 14:6, shall themselves be covered with confusion here, and be raised up at the last day "to shame and everlasting contempt," Daniel 12:2 .
And thou shalt be cut off for ever]
“ Aeternuum, ex ima decisus stirpe, peribis. ”
Isaiah prophesieth the same irreparable ruin to Edom, Isaiah 34:10, and so doth Ezekiel, Ezekiel 35:9. That which Jeremiah speaketh of seventy years' continuance only of their serving the king of Babel, Jeremiah 25:11, is not meant of an end of their captivity, but of the Babylonish monarchy.