Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 25

Verses 1-7

CHAPTER 25.

THE period of Ezekiel’s silence toward Israel is broken for the first time by the word contained in Ezekiel 33:0; and the eight intervening chapters are filled with intimations of Divine judgment against the surrounding heathen, accompanied by delineations of their guilt. The prophetic agency of Ezekiel did not cease; it only turned into a new direction from what immediately concerned his own countrymen, to what concerned the communities and nations around. This was precisely the place for such a series of judgments respecting the worldly kingdoms coming in. The prophet has finished his work, as God’s representative, in pronouncing judgment on Israel. And now, therefore, is the time to make it manifest to all, that if the judgment begins there, it must proceed onwards and envelop the ungodly world, that if the covenant-people fall under the stroke of Divine justice, their fall, so far from being the gain of the world, is but the sure presage and forerunner of its doom. It was necessary, as matters then stood, that God should employ heathen instruments in executing his displeasure upon Jerusalem and scattering the strength and glory of her people; so that in her humiliation she could not but appear for a time in a worse condition than her enemies. But the heathen nations were not to be left with the idea that they really held a position of greater security and permanence than that which belonged to Israel; they must be taught that their doom also was written in heaven, and that the downfall of that kingdom with which God had peculiarly associated his name rung, in a manner, the knell of their perdition, as it proclaimed God’s high determination to take vengeance on sin wherever it might be found, and, consequently, to destroy the nations that were wholly devoted to its interests; worse with them still than with Israel, because they had not, like her, the saving health of Divine truth mingling with their corruption; their downfall should be complete, without the prospect of any future recovery. This essential difference between Israel and the heathen nations is frequently referred to by the prophets, and by Jeremiah in particular is very strongly expressed, when, in the midst of desolating judgments ready to alight on others, he exclaims, “But fear thou not, O Jacob, my servant, saith the Lord, for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee; but I will not make a full end of thee, but will correct thee in measure, and will not make thee utterly clean,” or desolate (for so the last clause should be rendered), Jeremiah 46:28.

It cannot be regarded as accidental that the heathen nations who came here within the range of the prophet’s vision for judgment are precisely seven; first four, who are briefly disposed of in Ezekiel 25:0, and then three, whose case is spread over the seven following chapters. Considering the use that is made generally in Scripture, and particularly in some portions of prophetical Scripture (such as Daniel, Zechariah, the Apocalypse), of the number seven as a symbol of completeness, we may not unreasonably suppose that the prophet named those seven on the present occasion with some reference to this symbolical import of the number. And in that case he must be understood to intimate that the Divine judgment would not exhaust itself on those, but would also take effect on others who were similarly situated, that in process of time the execution of God’s vengeance on sin would traverse the entire round of its domain in the world. We may the rather adopt this supposition, as in the second division we find Sidon named separately from Tyre, though properly but a part of the same maritime power; and yet on another account there was not wanting a reason for the special mention of Sidon, as we shall see when we come to the place. The rest were all such as might have been expected, and, with one grand exception, the whole, perhaps, that might have been expected in a catalogue like the present: Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines all the immediate neighbours and hereditary rivals and enemies of Israel; and, less hostilely affected, but still occupying somewhat of the same unfriendly relation, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt. What we specially miss is Babylon herself in Ezekiel’s time the great impersonation of the world’s sinfulness and power, and above all others the enemy of Israel’s pre-eminence among the nations; yet neither here nor elsewhere in this prophet’s writings is she expressly named as an object of vengeance. It is obviously impossible to account for such an omission from a desire not to exceed the number seven, for had this been all, some inferior state could easily have been sacrificed to make room for Babylon. Nor could the omission have arisen from Ezekiel’s residence in Chaldea, as if he was too near the throne of the kingdom to announce its coming downfall, a supposition which the fearless character of the prophet forbids us to make, to say nothing of the fact of Daniel’s once and again proclaiming, in the very presence of the Chaldean monarch, the certain and not very distant overthrow of his empire. The reason most probably was, that as Babylon is constantly viewed by the prophet as the rod of God’s vengeance, it stood in some sense apart from the nations of the earth, and seemed too closely connected with the present execution of God’s purposes to be fitly represented as an object of his retributive justice. The more especially may such a consideration have weighed with the prophet, as one of the prevailing tendencies of the time was to overlook the hand of God in the present elevation of Babylon to its high ascendancy, and to fret against the dominion which God for a season had given her over the nations. Her final desolation, however, in common with that of all earthly dominions, was included in the prophecy already considered (chap. Ezekiel 17:22-24), and, as we shall see, is still more distinctly embraced in some subsequent predictions. But to proceed now with the denunciations contained in this chapter.

I. The judgment of Ammon (Ezekiel 25:1-7).

Ezekiel 25:1 . And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

Ezekiel 25:2 . Son of man, set thy face toward the children of Ammon, and prophesy upon them:

Ezekiel 25:3 . And say unto the children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Jehovah; Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou sayest Aha, to my sanctuary for it is profaned; and to the land of Israel for it is desolate; and to the house of Judah for it has gone into captivity; (The כִּי in these three clauses ought plainly to be taken in the usual sense, for, assigning the cause of the joy and contempt of the Ammonites, and not when, as in our common version and many others.)

Ezekiel 25:4 . Therefore, behold, I give thee to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall pitch in thee their folds, (The common meaning of םִירָה is undoubtedly a pen or fold for flocks, and is the only suitable meaning here, where the discourse is of shepherd tribes. Palaces, the rendering of the Authorized Version, is quite unsuitable.) and make their dwellings in thee; they shall eat thy fruit, and drink thy milk.

Ezekiel 25:5 . And I turn Kabbah into a stable for camels, and the children of Ammon into couching of flocks; (“Into couching of flocks.” לְמִרְבַּץ־צֹאן to be a sort of complex phrase, made up of the noun denoting the subject, and the participle indicating the position or attitude; couching flocks, or flocks-in a couching position; couching being added to render the idea more graphic flocks for men, and not that merely, but flocks in a state of perfect repose. It makes no proper sense: children of Ammon into a couching-place of flocks; for what sort of revolution could change men into places, lairs for flocks? What the prophet means to declare is evidently that flocks were to take the place of men, or that the fertile parts of the territory were, by changes to the worse, to become pastoral.) and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

Ezekiel 25:6 . For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou hast clapped thy hand and stamped with the foot, and rejoiced with all thy disdain, with relish (literally, with soul, i.e. the most hearty delight or relish), toward the land of Israel;

Ezekiel 25:7 . Therefore, behold, I stretch out my hand upon thee, and I give thee for a prey (The Kri reading here, לָבַז instead of לְבַג , is almost universally adopted. Häv. defends the text, and would derive the word from the Sanscrit, bhagga, part or portion. This, of course, would render the meaning nearly the same, whichever word were adopted. But as לבג is nowhere else found in Hebrew, and so many codices also read לבז that it has been actually received into the text in the Complutensian Bible, we incline to prefer the latter. The ancient versions express this sense.) to the nations, and I will cut thee off from among the peoples, and will cause thee to perish from among the countries; I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah.

The feelings attributed to the Ammonites in these verses are evidently those of bitter hostility toward the covenant-people, and that mainly on religious grounds. The first element in their joy respecting the desolations of Israel was because the sanctuary of God was profaned, seeing in that, as they thought, the triumph of heathenism over the rival claims of Jehovah. At an earlier period,, most probably in the time of Jehoshaphat, we find this feeling ascribed to them in its most offensive form in Psalms 83:0, where the combined enemies of Judah, headed by Ammon and Moab (for it is said of the others merely, that “they stretched. out the hand to the children of Lot”), are represented as saying: “Let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance; let us take the houses of God for a possession.” Now, at length, this impious wish was for the present realized. The long-cherished grudge against the chosen seed is gratified; and, as persons in an ecstasy of delight at what they greatly desired, but hardly expected to see accomplished, they clapped their hands and shouted their huzzas over the prostrate and captive foe. It would appear also, from 2 Kings 24:2, that they took an active part, along with the Chaldeans, in accomplishing the destruction.

Viewed, therefore, in respect to their state of feeling, the Ammonites were, in the strictest sense, enemies of God; they were warring with the purposes of Heaven; and expressly on this account is the judgment here denounced against them, a judgment which declared that their then fertile and cultivated region should be overrun by the children of the East (the sons of Ishmael, Arabians), that their lands and cities should be pastured by flocks, and their name as a separate people become utterly extinct. The prediction began very soon to be fulfilled, for the territory of Ammon was a portion of the lands which were shortly afterwards ravaged by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 49:28, etc.; Josephus, Ant. x. 9. 1). And though the Ammonites still existed as a separate people when the Jews returned from Babylon, and gave indications of their old hostility, yet they appear to have been in an enfeebled condition. Some generations later they became subject, with other tribes in that district, to the Ptolemies of Egypt; and one of the Ptolemies (Philadelphia) found their capital Rabbah in so ruined a state that he caused it to be built anew, and called it after himself Philadelphia. The Ammonites are never afterwards heard of as a separate and independent people, and seem to have become gradually merged in the general Arab population. There is enough surely in these facts to justify the prediction of Ezekiel; and to point to the desolations of that region, as described by travellers in the present day, seems to us somewhat beside the purpose; for the region has long since ceased to be the territory of the children of Ammon, and it was simply as connected with them that any judgment was pronounced against it. The moment it became a desolation for the people then inhabiting it, and they themselves became scattered and dispersed, the word of Ezekiel was fulfilled; then God’s displeasure against their enmity had taken full effect. It mattered little what might subsequently become of the region; and if under new occupants and a settled government it should again rise into fertility and cultivation, the word uttered by Ezekiel would not in the least be affected by it.

Verses 8-11

II. The judgment of Moab (Ezekiel 25:8-11).

Ezekiel 25:8 . Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because Moab says, and Seir, Lo! like all the nations is the house of Judah;

Ezekiel 25:9 . Therefore, behold, I open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities, from his end, a glorious land, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim;

Ezekiel 25:10 . To the men of the east, over (or upon) the children of Ammon (elliptically, for: to the men of the east, who have overrun the children of Ammon, the tide of conquest being viewed as flowing onwards from the territory of Ammon to that of Moab), and I give it for a possession; in order that the children of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations;

Ezekiel 25:11 . And against Moab will I execute judgments; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

There is a certain degree of indistinctness in this sentence upon Moab, arising chiefly from the manner in which it is mixed up with Seir and Ammon. Yet we have no reason to think there is any corruption in the text. In regard to Seir, which is coupled with Moab at the beginning as joining in the congratulation that it was no better with Judah than the rest of the nations, Hitzig, in his usual smart and somewhat flippant way, declares it to be out of place, as it is also omitted in the LXX., and supposes it to have been introduced by some ignorant emendator, probably from Ezekiel 35:10. It is quite unnecessary to resort to any such supposition. Ammon, Moab, and Edom were all contiguous countries, stretching from the land of Gilead on the north, in an unbroken line, to the shores of the Red Sea, and acted very much, in concert in their hostile feelings and operations toward the covenant-people. It was not, therefore, unnatural, though it might be somewhat out of the most exact order, for the prophet to connect the two latter of these together in the expression of delight over the downfall of Judah, to show how generally the sentiment was participated in. And that Moab and Ammon should toward the close be coupled together as alike suffering under the same inundation of eastern hordes, and perishing, as it were, together this is not to be wondered at, considering that the two tribes were originally of one origin, and kept so close together that their respective territories were not separated from each other by any very definite landmarks. It was inevitable that the same destroying wave which swallowed up the one of these nations should also sweep over the other.

It would seem that the territory of Moab was, upon the whole, of a richer and more cultivated character than that of Ammon. It comprehended the district which goes by the name of the Belka, and which, even in the present times, is described by travellers as the best in all the southern parts of Syria, and on that account is the scene of many a contest among the Bedâwin. Hence it is called here by the prophet a glorious land (literally, an ornament of a land); and hence also he makes particular mention of the cities belonging to it natural indications of prosperity, and, in times of danger, important means of defence. Yet the prophet declares, these should not protect them against the coming desolation; for the Lord was going to lay open the side or border of Moab from the cities those cities belonging to him upon his end, or extremity viz. the extreme north-western border, where the cities here specially mentioned lay, considerably beyond the river Arnon (the old boundary of the kingdom in that direction), and even within the territory usually assigned to Ammon. These cities, with various others in the same region, were among those apportioned to Reuben in Joshua (chap. Joshua 13:15-21), but had again fallen into the hands of their original owners. Yet only for a time. The men of the East were to come down from Ammon, through the cities on the frontier, and were to waste the land of Moab, till it had ceased to be an independent nation, and had melted away among the hordes of the desert.

Of the precise manner and period of the accomplishment of this prophecy we have no record. We know that the country was overrun by the arms of Nebuchadnezzar, and must consequently have become impaired in strength. But it was chiefly by the encroachments of the men of the East, the wandering Bedâwin, the great enemies of civilised and settled life, that the desolation was to be produced. And so completely had this been done, that long before the time of Christ all traces had ceased of Moab’s separate existence as a people; and for many an age their country has worn the bare and ruined aspect which are the unfailing characteristics of an Arabian ascendancy.

Verses 12-14

III. The judgment of Edom (Ezekiel 25:12-14).

Ezekiel 25:12 . Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because of the doing of Edom in wreaking revenge on the house of Judah, and they have made themselves very guilty, and have dealt revengefully against them;

Ezekiel 25:13 . Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I also stretch out my hand upon Edom, and I cut off from it man and beast; and I will make it desolate from Teman (in the south) to Dedan (in the west); (The accents are manifestly wrong here, as the to Dedan is required after from Teman to complete the sense. Our translators, by following them, have confused the meaning of the passage.) they shall fall by the sword.

Ezekiel 25:14 . And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to my anger, and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Here, as in the prophets generally, the specific sin charged against Edom is not that simply of hatred or opposition to the covenant-people, but of deep, brooding, implacable vengeance. It was the hereditary spirit of wickedness which descended from their father Esau, who could not forgive his brother Jacob for getting precedence in regard to the blessing, but nursed for many a year his deadly purpose of revenge. It yielded at last to the unexpected and extraordinary kindness of Jacob, accompanied by the blessing of him with whom Jacob wrestled to the dawning of the day; and the two brothers appear to have spent their latter days in peace and amity. When Israel, however, grew to be a great people under God’s fostering care in Egypt, and marched, with his mighty power on their side, to take possession of the land of Canaan, the old spirit revived in the posterity of Esau. They could not bear to see the younger branch rising to the pre-eminence in rank and glory, which they thought belonged of right to themselves. And thenceforth every opportunity was seized to wreak their vengeance on the children of Israel for the most part only to draw down a deeper humiliation upon themselves, and never more than with a partial and temporary triumph till the great period of the Babylonian conquest, when, with the fall of Jerusalem, they supposed that their object was for ever gained. So intense then was their spirit of malignity, that they are represented as not merely taking part with the Babylonians in the last catastrophe, but even as hounding on these ruthless conquerors to consummate the work of destruction, and watching along the byways to cut off the poor fugitives who fled from the presence of the enemy to seek an asylum in other lands, (Comp. especially Psalms 137:0; Amos 1:11; Obadiah 1:11)

Neither the vengeful spite of Edom, however, nor the might of the Babylonian conqueror, could defeat the purposes of God; and according to the Divine word, it proved that though Israel was sore broken and depressed by these calamities, he was not destroyed. Edom’s malicious joy was but of short continuance; for he had the mortification of seeing his old enemy return to occupy the former habitation, and from comparatively small beginnings rise again to the position of a formidable power. The children of Edom had meanwhile been moving northwards (having been themselves gradually dispossessed in the south by the Nabathseans), and occupied the territory of Judah as far as Hebron. But this greater proximity to the seed of Israel, and partial encroachment on their possessions, only paved the way for their utter extinction as a nation; for after many hostile encounters between the two races, the Edomites were finally subdued by John Hyrcanus, who compelled them to be circumcised, that they might be incorporated with the Jewish people. The amalgamation of course could only take place gradually; but the circumstance of the Herodian family, who were of Idumean origin, reigning as Jews over the entire region occupied by the two races, is abundant proof that it had been substantially effected about the commencement of the Christian era. From that time they ceased to be known as a distinct people, and shared partly in the fortunes of the Jews and partly in those of the neighbouring Arab population.

In this external subjection of Edom to the power and dominion of Israel, there was a certain measure of fulfilment given to the word: “I lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people;” a word which clearly pointed to the original promise, “The older shall serve the younger,” and virtually declared that still God’s purpose should stand Israel is the divinely constituted governor of Edom. But it is only in a certain limited and imperfect measure that we see in such external victories and forced compliances the fulfilment of this and similar predictions. These were but the shadow and symbol of what should be accomplished, when in Israel the characteristic of the “my people” came to be fully realized when they rose, in Christ and the New Testament Church, to be the head of all authority and power and dominion in the world. Viewed in respect to that elevated position, all Edomite rivalry and spite, all carnal opposition and counter-dominion, is doomed to give way, for, in Christ, Israel is governor among the nations; all must serve him, and the nation which does not serve him must perish. So that there is what may be called a twofold revenge. There is first the noble revenge, of which Jacob’s victory over Esau, by means of prayer and personal kindness, was the type the revenge that melts enmity into love, and overcomes evil with good; or, according to the process described by Obadiah, “deliverance arising first on Mount Zion,” and then “saviours coming up there to judge the mount of Esau,” making Esau’s offspring partakers in Jacob’s blessing, whereby both alike became members of that kingdom which is the Lord’s (Obadiah 1:17, Obadiah 1:21). But in so far as this blessed result fails, in so far as Edom still retains the old hatred, and refuses to bow the neck to the yoke of Jesus, then there inevitably comes the vengeance of deserved and final destruction a vengeance executed no longer in human passion or for selfish aggrandizement, but, as here expressed, in full accordance with the Lord’s mind and purpose, “according to his anger and fury.”

This mode of understanding the prophecy satisfies to the full all its requirements, for on both sides it brings the matter into connection with the perfect adjustments of God’s kingdom in Christ; but we are at a loss to see how it can otherwise meet with any adequate fulfilment. For since it speaks of the Edomites as a people, and these have long since ceased to be a people, the work of complete and perfect retribution it announces must either have taken effect in the manner now described, or it never can be accomplished. The people being gone, no changes upon the land they once occupied can satisfy the conditions of the prophecy.

Verses 15-17

IV. The judgment of the Philistines (Ezekiel 25:15-17).

Ezekiel 25:15 . Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because of the doing of the Philistines in vengeance, and they have taken vengeance with disdain, with a mind to destroy (literally, with the soul, for destruction), an everlasting enmity;

Ezekiel 25:16 . Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I stretch out my hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethim, (There is a paronomasia here in the original, which is preserved in the Vulgate: interficiam interfectores, I will slay the slayers the Philistines being perhaps so designated from their warlike and cruel disposition. But Cherethim is also used as a proper name, the same probably with Cretans the Philistines being supposed to be of Cretan extraction. (Comp. Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 9:7; Deuteronomy 2:23; Vitringa on Isaiah 14:28.)) and destroy the remnant of the sea-coast.

Ezekiel 25:17 . And I will execute upon them great vengeance, with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I lay my vengeance upon them.

Little requires to be said on this part of the prediction. The Philistines were the immediate neighbours of the people of Judah, on the opposite side to that occupied by Ammon and Moab. Their hereditary enmity to the covenant-people is sufficiently known. In the later times of the Hebrew commonwealth, they appear to have been in a very reduced condition, and to be quite unable to cope with Judah even in its comparatively enfeebled state. They were discomfited by Uzziah, and had their chief towns dismantled (2 Chronicles 26:6). They were still further humbled and subdued in the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:8). From that time we hear nothing more of them in the historical books of Scripture; but as they still retained their enmity to the cause and people of God, they were made the subject of severe denunciations in the prophets; not, however, without some prospects being intermingled of coming good, and even of an interest in the peculiar blessings of the covenant (comp. especially Zechariah 9:7). As the country lay on the direct route from Egypt to Chaldea, it suffered exceedingly in the wars that were carried on between these rival kingdoms, and was the scene of some bloody conflicts. The wandering Arabs also gradually spread themselves over the district, and produced the usual results. Even at the Christian era it no longer appears as the residence of a separate and independent people; so that the vengeance threatened might even then be said to have reached its completion. Gaza alone, from its favourable position, has been able to retain something of its ancient importance, yet merely as a place of comparative wealth and commerce, and was for centuries the seat of a Christian bishop. In every way, both in respect to the evil and the good, the word of the Lord has taken full effect; and while Israel has risen aloft by being the root out of which has come the world’s Deliverer and heaven-appointed King, the Philistines have become the heirs only of trouble and desolation, excepting in so far as they yielded themselves to the sway of the King of Zion, and partook, as spiritual Israelites, of the blessings of the kingdom.