1 Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, 3 and tell it, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment. 4 I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. 5 Because you have had a perpetual enmity, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end; 6 therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you: since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue you. 7 Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns. 8 I will fill its mountains with its slain: in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses shall they fall who are slain with the sword. 9 I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. 10 Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Yahweh was there: 11 therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I shall judge you. 12 You shall know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they have been given us to devour. 13 You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard it. 14 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. 15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do to you: you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
The prophet having formerly predicted the ruin of Edom, the same with Seir, (Ezekiel 25:12), now resumes and pursues the subject at greater length, intimating, as did also Isaiah, (Isaiah 21:11, Isaiah 21:12), that though other nations should recover their liberty after the fall of the Babylonian monarchy, the Edomites should continue in bondage for their very despiteful behavior towards the children of Israel in the day of their calamity, Ezekiel 35:1-15.
INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 35
This chapter is a prophecy of the destruction of Edom, which is threatened, Ezekiel 35:1, the cause of it, their hatred and slaughter of the Israelites, Ezekiel 35:5, their claim of the lands of Israel and Judah for possession, Ezekiel 35:10, their blasphemies against the people of God, and the Lord himself, Ezekiel 35:12, the aggravation of their ruin, which was irretrievable; that when it was well with others, it should go ill with them; by way of just retaliation, Ezekiel 35:14.
A prophecy against Edom.
Devastation of Edom, and Restoration of the Land of Israel - Ezekiel 35:1-36:15
The two sections, Ezekiel 35:1-15 and Ezekiel 36:1-15, form a connected prophecy. This is apparent not only from their formal arrangement, both of them being placed together under the introductory formula, "And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying," but also from their contents, the promise in relation to the mountains of Israel being so opposed to the threat against the mountains of Seir (Ezekiel 35:1-15) as to form the obverse and completion of the latter; whilst allusion is evidently made to it in the form of expression employed (compare Ezekiel 36:4, Ezekiel 36:6, with Ezekiel 35:8; and Ezekiel 36:5 with Ezekiel 35:15). The contents are the following: The mountains of Seir shall be laid waste (Ezekiel 35:1-4), because Edom cherishes eternal enmity and bloody hatred towards Israel (Ezekiel 35:5-9), and because it has coveted the land of Israel and blasphemed Jehovah (Ezekiel 35:10-15). On the other hand, the mountain-land of Israel, which the heathen have despised on account of its devastation, and have appropriated to themselves as booty (Ezekiel 36:1-7), shall be inhabited by Israel again, and shall be cultivated and no longer bear the disgrace of the heathen (Ezekiel 35:8-15). This closing thought (Ezekiel 35:15) points back to Ezekiel 34:29, and shows that our prophecy is intended as a further expansion of that conclusion; and at the same time, that in the devastation of Edom the overthrow of the heathen world as a whole, with its enmity against God, is predicted, and in the restoration of the land of Israel the re-erection of the fallen kingdom of God.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.