The Pulpit Commentary — Ezekiel — Volume 2 — Section 219

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XXXV. xiv. 9, 13; xxv. 7, 18; and Exod. vii 5), and I will make thea most desolate; lite- Ver. 1.-lll[oreover the word of the Lord rally, a desolation and an astonishment (cf. came Ullto me, ■ayillg. As no date is given, ver. 7). AgainBt the mountains of Israel the present oracle, extending to the close had been denounced a similar fo.te, which of eh. xxxvi. 15, may be assumed to have the idolatrous remnant that lingered in the been commnnicated to and delivered by land a~er the Co.ptivity had commenced the prophet. in im;n~te successi~n ~ the began to experience (oh. xxxiii. 28, 29). foregoing, Wlth which 1t has also an mtllllate The doom, however, connected with the connection. Having announced the future day of Israel's return was to foll npon restoration of Israel, as J ehovah's :tlook, to Edom, whose cities should be emptied of her own land under the leadership of their inhabitants and whose fields should Jebovah's servant David, who should feed be cursed with barreoneSB (eh. xxv. 13; them like a shepherd e.nd rule them like a Obnd. 8, 10). prince (eh. xuiv. 13, 23, 2-1), the prophet Ver. 4.-They lhall know that I am proceeds to contemplate the existing hin- .1ehovah. By this expressive formnlo. drance to this retum in the oocnpation of Ezekiel intimates the moral effect whio~ Palestine by the Edomites, who had pro- should be produced upon the nations of the bably been allowed by the Obaldeans to earth, whether by beholding or by experi- take possenion of it in payment of services encing the Divine jntlgments (oh. vi. 7, 13; r~ndered by them against Judah in the vii. 4, 0; xi. 10, 12; xiii. 9, B, 21, 23; xiv. siege of Jerusalem-to predict the entire 8 ; xv. 7, et pa8sim; cf. Exod. vi. 7 ; vii. 5, removo.l of this hindrance (vers. 1-15), and 17;-xxix. 46; u:ri. 13; all of whioh pas- to administer to Israel the comfort which, sages belong to Wellhnueen'e grund,chrift, as a consequence, would ensue (oh. x.x.xvi. whioh it is supposed had no existence in 1-15). the time of Ezekiel). Ver. 2.-Set thy faoe againllt Mount Seir. Ver. 5.-Becauae thou hast had a per- The monnlainous region between the Dee.d petual hatred; literally, hatred of old, or Sea and the Elanitio Gnlf, which formed eternal enmity (of. eh. xxv. 15). '!'hie wns the originnl setUement of Esau and bis ihe first of the two specific grounds upon descendants (Gon. :u.xvi. 9), is hen, pnt for which Edom should feel the stroke of the llLild of Edom, o.s the land in turn Divine vengeance. Edom hlld been Israel's sto.nds for its people ( eh. xxv. 8). Although hereditary foe from the days of Esau and already the prophet bes pronounced a Jacob (Gen. xxv. 22, sqq.; aml xxvii. 37) threatening doom against Edom ( oh. xxv. downwards. Inspired with unnppensable 12-14), he once more directs u.go.inHt it wrath (Amos i. 11), during the period of the judgments of Heaven, on this occasion tbo wo.ndcring he had refused Israel, " his viewing it as the representative of all those brother," a pnssage through his territory hostile world-powers which from the first (Numb. xx. 14-21; Judg. xi. 17), and in had been opposed to Israel as the theooro.tio the days of Jehoshaphat had combined with nation, and which even then, by their Ammon and Moab to invatle Judah (2 autu.gonism, hindered her return (of. Isa.. Chron. xx. 10, 11; cf. Ps. lxxxiii. 1-8). Wii. 1-8). His relentless antipo.tby to Israel culmi- Ver. 8.-Behold, 0 Mount Seir, I am nated, according to Ezekiel (of. Obad. 13), a.gain.et thee (of. oh. v. 8; xiii. 8; and con- in the lRBt days of Jerusalem, in the time trnst oh. xuvi. 9), and I will atretoh ont of her calamity, when Nebuchadnezzar's IJ:line hand againat thee (cf. oh. vi. 14; armies encompassed her wal~ in the timo EZEKIEL-U. Q  THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. [ea. xxxv.1-lG.