Bible Commentaries
Ezekiel 35

Verses 1-15

2. Against Edom, with respect to the Mountains of Israel, in consequence of Jehovah’s Sanctification of His own Name (Ch 35–36)

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.

Ezekiel 35:3. Sept.: ... δωσω σε ἐρημον κ. ἐρημωθηση. Vulg.: … desolatum atque desertum.

Ezekiel 35:5. ... γενεσθαι σε ἐχθραν αἰωνιον κ. ἐνεκαθισας τω οἰκω ʼΙσρ. δολωἐν καιρω ἐχθιρωαν ἐν χειρι μαχαιρας ἐν καιρω�’ ἐσχατων,

Ezekiel 35:6. ... ἐι μην εἰς αἱμα ἡμαρτιες κ. αιμα σε διωξεται. Vulg: et cum sanguinem oderis—

Ezekiel 35:7. ... ἀνθρωπονς κ. κτηνη. (Anoth. read.: ומשמה, et stuporem.)

Ezekiel 35:9. Anoth. read.: תשובנה, revertentur.

Ezekiel 35:11. Sept.: ... γνωσθησομαι σοι—(Anoth. read.: באפך, as also יבקנאתך.)

Ezekiel 35:15. ... κ.παδα ἡ ʼΙδονμαια ἐξολεθρενθησεται—(Anoth. read.: כלה, totus ipse.)

EXEGETICAL REMARKS

In looking forward to the restoration of Israel, Ezekiel 34:0, 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. Hävernick 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 (Häv.) 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 Ezekiel 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 Numbers 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 Idumæa, formed a part of the nation, and the kings were of Edomite descent; just as the land of Palestine is called Idumæa, whence Christ comes, Isaiah 63:0.” The signification of Edom is here, however, mainly symbolical and not literal, as in Ezekiel 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 Lord’s judgment has already been pronounced against Edom (Ezekiel 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 Israel’s calamities must themselves become a spoil, without any prospect of recovery”.—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel, p. 381.—W. F.]

Ezekiel 35:2-9. Against Edom, i.e. his Bloodthirsty Enmity to Israel

Ezekiel 35:2.Ezekiel 6:2 (Ezekiel 25:2; Ezekiel 28:21; Ezekiel 19:2).—Genesis 36:9.—הַר שֵׂעִיד, 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 Ælanitic Gulf; the land for the people, corresponding antithetically to the prominence given to the land in the foregoing (Ezekiel 34:25 sq.).

Ezekiel 35:3.Ezekiel 34:10; Ezekiel 13:8; Ezekiel 13:20; Ezekiel 26:3, et passim.—Ezekiel 25:7; Ezekiel 25:13; Ezekiel 6:14.—Ezekiel 33:28-29.

Ezekiel 35:4. Exemplification. Thy cities and חָרְבָּה ranked together; the latter not exactly: “destruction,” but rather: “destroyed,” heaps of ruins.—Ezekiel 12:20; Ezekiel 14:15-16.

Ezekiel 35:5. Enmity for ever, as in Ezekiel 25:15, but more expressive here on account of the kinship between Edom and Israel (comp. Psalms 137:7). Infinitive construction passing over to the verb fin. The enmity is an abiding one; the next word, נָגַר (Hiphil, imperf. ap.), is an expression of that enmity. Besides, in this as well as in the expression בְנֵי־יִשְׂ׳, the people already come distinctly out from the land. אֵיד is: oppression; hence: burden, calamity, misfortune, farther and sufficiently defined by what immediately follows (comp. Ezekiel 21:30, 34 [ Ezekiel 21:25; Ezekiel 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 (Obadiah 1:13).

Ezekiel 35:6. לְדָם, is there an allusion here to אֱדֹם? a suggesting, although not an express naming of Edom? In this case could there be also an antithetic allusion to “Adam” (men) in Ezekiel 34:31, and at the same time an allusion to Genesis 25:30!? At all events, the fourfold repetition of דָם has some significance. Edom shall, as it were, become entirely blood (Ezekiel 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. Ezekiel 35:8). [Hävern.: 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 מַעַשְׂךָ instead of אֶעֶשְׂךָ: “because thy inclination is after blood, blood shall,” etc.] אִם־לֹא דָם׳ 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 דָם might include a reference to the blood-relationship of Edom and Israel (Theodoret), had not the Hebrew word for that been בָּשָׂר, it is simpler to adhere to the negation that Edom thus hated not bloodshed. [“The most peculiar part of the verse is the clause אִם־לֹא דָם שָׂנֵאתָ, 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 God’s purposes are contrary to thine, and what thou hatest He will send—blood shall pursue thee.”—Fairbairn’s Ezekiel.—W. F.]

Ezekiel 35:7. שִׁמֲמָה instead of שִׁמְּמָה, the same as שְׁמָמָה. The land is made so because the people fill it only as slain (Ezekiel 35:8). There is no going to and fro, no traffic, Ezekiel 33:28. [Sept. according to Ezekiel 25:13.]

Ezekiel 35:8. Ezekiel 32:5 sq., 31:12. Hence the desolation of death.

Ezekiel 35:9. שִׁמ׳ עוֹלָם, a rejoinder to עוֹלָם אֵיבַת, ver 5. Instead of תֵּישַׁבְנָה, from יָשַׁב (Keil), to be read with י quiescent, the Qeri has תָשֹׁבְנָה, from שוּב, “not to return” to its original condition. Hengst.: “thy cities shall not sit,” but lie prostrate (Ezekiel 26:20).

Ezekiel 35:10-15. Against Edom, his Covetousness towards Israel

Ezekiel 35:10. יַעַך, parallel to Ezekiel 35:5. The other side of Edom’s guilt in respect to Israel. With significant allusion to their separation, Israel and Judah are called שְׁנֵי הַנּוֹיִם. In speaking thus, Edom considered them as heathen nations, and not the people of Jehovah; or this is the prophet’s representation. Hence שְׁתֵּי הָאֲרָצוֹת can mean nothing else than the land of Israel and the land of Judah, not Idumæa and the land of Judah (Jerome). Grotius sees here a reference to the Assyrian and also the Babylonian captivity. וִירַשְׁנוּהָ, neuter (Keil): the one land as well as the other (Rosenm.); Hitzig: referring to the plur. fem. If we understand the clause וַיהוָֹה שָׁם׳ of Jehovah’s 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. Ezekiel 9:3; Ezekiel 11:23. But certainly the divine presence in the temple was only the sensible symbol of Jehovah’s governing agency among His people generally; hence, finally, the disregarding of Israel’s 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, Ezekiel 8:12 (Ezekiel 9:9), in excuse for heathen superstition, the heathen unbelief of Edom repeats here with respect to Israel’s eternal destiny, which rests on the ground of Jehovah’s covenant revelation. It was practical atheism in both cases,—childish neglect of God in Israel, but active hostility to Him in Edom. Edom’s 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 Ezekiel 35:12 שָׁם has been also interpreted as referring to Idumæa.]

Ezekiel 35:11. לָכֵך׳, as in Ezekiel 35:6. From the hating (infinitive) come anger and envy, expressing themselves not only in word (Ezekiel 35:10), but also in deed (עָשִׂיתָה). Jehovah acts according to Edom’s doings.—The making known בָּם, not, as Hengst., among “the children of Israel,” which is too remote (Ezekiel 35:5), but among the two נּוֹיִם (Ezekiel 35:10), just as תהְיֶינָה there refers to the two lands coveted by Edom. The making known among Israel shall happen as well as the judgment on Edom—comp. Ezekiel 28:25 (Ezekiel 26:20); not, however, as if both had like proportion (Hengst.), but because the making known is effected by the judgment. כַּאְשֶׁר, as Him who, etc.

Ezekiel 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 Ezekiel 35:11, there is now a return to the sayings (Ezekiel 35:10). He has heard all. The mountains of Israel, preparing for Ezekiel 36:1, come forth in antithesis to the mountain range of Seir. Qeri שָׁמֵמוּ, simplifying, but needlessly, for the abrupt and significant שָׁמֵמָה (Ezekiel 35:15), 3 perf. fem. sing., may refer to the land or be understood of what is meant; or we may with Rosenm. read: שְׁמָמָה, “a waste,” Ezekiel 33:28. The following plural brings in the people.—Ezekiel 34:5; Ezekiel 34:8; Ezekiel 34:10.

Ezekiel 35:13. Thus their sayings were not only insults to Israel (עַל־הָרֵי יִשׂ׳), land and people, but at the same time boastings with their mouth heaped up against Jehovah (עָלַי), who was there (Ezekiel 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

Ezekiel 35:14—He who hitherto has heard all these boastings speaks and acts (אֱעֶשֶׂה׳).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 כָּל־הָאָרֶץ to think of the “whole earth,” such a thought is very foreign to the connection. Hävernick, 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 כְּ here as an adverb of time (so also Hitzig), and in Ezekiel 35:15 as a word of comparison, readily suggests itself. But better (Kimchi), the one כְּ illustrates the other; hence כֵּן expressly in Ezekiel 35:15, as also the infinitive שְׂמֹחַ here points to שִׂמְחָתְךָ Ezekiel 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 לָּךְ 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 (Ezekiel 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, Deuteronomy 32:43 sq.; Isaiah 42:10 sq.; Psalms 97:1; Psalms 48:3; Lamentations 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? Ezekiel 36:2; Ezekiel 36:5 speaks only of Edom’s exultation. Hence Keil thus applies כִּשְׂמֹחַ: “When joy shall be prepared for all the world (all mankind!), then shall,” etc.]

Ezekiel 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 27:0; Genesis 28:4), is now brought in at the close; and as thereby כִּשְׂמֹחַ in Ezekiel 35:14 is explained, so the motive for שְׂמָמָה is given by עַל אֲשֶׁר־שָׁמֵמָה. In accordance with this, כֵּן אֶעֱשֶׂה־לָּךְ׳ repeats אֶעֱשֶׂה־לָּךְ שְׂמָמָה (Ezekiel 35:14), and consequently is not to be interpreted, with Hitzig: so will I make others rejoice over thy desolation. שְׁמָמָה תִחְיֶה, which forms the complement to כֵּן אֶעֱ׳, is the second, not the third person. The following feminine suffix indicates the land, so that with כָּל־אֱדוֹם כֻּלָּהּ the meaning also of כָּל־הָאָרֶץ (Ezekiel 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 25:0. (p. 246), comes out with perfect clearness when we take also Hebrews 12:0 into consideration. Whether he is called (Hebrews 12:16) πόρνος in the literal sense, with reference to Genesis 26:34 sq., or in a figurative and spiritual sense, so that the expression is synonymous with βέβηλος, 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 Jacob’s sin with abiding enmity, and actually carries out as Edom (Ezekiel 35:5) what Esau only threatened (Genesis 27:41); as, on the other hand, the carnal appetite (βρώσεως μιᾶς) is still exhibited in Ezekiel 35:12 of our chapter (לְאָכְלָה).

3. In this sense the elder son Esau forms the Sadducean parallel to the Pharisaic elder son, Luke 15:25 sq.

4. There is also in Ezekiel an ἀπεδοκιμάσθη, 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 (Ezekiel 35:13). The anger and jealousy of Edom are as vain (Ezekiel 35:11) as the tears of Esau (Hebrews 12:17). Instead of μετανοια, 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 mother’s, womb, continues to the end. Jacob-Israel subdued the elder brother, but in this way the family of the Idumæan Herod obtained the Jewish sovereignty, and the persecution of the true Israel (Matthew 2:13 sq.) was carried out to the full by the Edomite spirit of murder which took possession of the people (Matthew 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

Ezekiel 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 Idumæans but Esau, who always persecutes Israel (Galatians 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 God’s 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.).

Ezekiel 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, Isaiah 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.

Ezekiel 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.

Ezekiel 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, Matthew 5:25” (Tüb. 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.).

Ezekiel 35:6. God’s 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.

Ezekiel 35:7 sq. Trade and intercourse cease where God sends His judgments.—“The Lord destroys nations that delight in war” (Tüb. Bib.).

Ezekiel 35:9. “Sin is not to become eternalized, therefore eternal punishment” (Starck).—“God’s 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 Judæa serves as a visible example of this.

Ezekiel 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 world’s 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).

Ezekiel 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.

Ezekiel 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, Isaiah 61:2. No true grace without justice. The theocracy must, accordingly, pass through the fire of affliction and become purified (Ezekiel 34:0.); 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” (Hävernick).