Ezekiel 35:1-15 - Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

Bible Comments

The Land of Israel in the Future

Ezekiel 35 is an introduction to Ezekiel 36, the connexion being shown by Ezekiel 36:5. The claim of Edom to the land having been repudiated (Ezekiel 35), its reoccupation by Israel is promised (Ezekiel 36:1-15), and the reason of the restoration is explained (Ezekiel 36:16-38).

(a) The Punishment of Edom's Presumption (Ezekiel 35)

Edom has already been included by Ezekiel among the nations whose humiliation would prepare the way for the restoration of Israel (Ezekiel 25:12-14), and this new prophecy requires a special explanation, which is easily found. Before the land could be given to its true owners all false claimants had to be disposed of. The claim of the wicked survivors of Jerusalem has already been set aside (Ezekiel 33:23-29), and the claim of the surrounding heathen has to be dealt with in the same way. Edom is introduced here as their representative (Ezekiel 35:10; Ezekiel 35:12). Its former enmity and malice are recalled (Ezekiel 35:5), and the arrogance and blasphemy of its pretensions to possess the land of Israel are specially denounced. Ezekiel foretells that God will repay the Edomites in their own coin, making their land desolate, and compelling them to recognise Him as the true God.

Ezekiel 35:1-15

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 mosta 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 perpetualb 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 mostc 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.

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:

11 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, 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.

12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, 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.d

13 Thus with your mouth ye have boastede against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.

14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.

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.