Ezekiel 35:5
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Because you harbored an ancient hatred and delivered the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their disaster at the final stage of their punishment,
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
It was promised, in the foregoing chapter, that when the time to favour Zion, yea, the set time, should come, especially the time for sending the Messiah and setting up his kingdom in the world, God would cause the enemies of his church to cease and the blessings and comforts of the church to abound. This chapter enlarges upon the former promise, concerning the destruction of the enemies of the church; the next chapter upon the latter promise, the replenishing of the church with blessings. Mount Seir (that is, Edom) is the enemy prophesied against in this chapter, but fitly put here, as in the prophecy of Obadiah, for all the enemies of the church; for, as those all walked in the way of Cain that hated Abel, so those all walked in the way of Esau who hated Jacob, but over whom Jacob, by virtue of a particular blessing, was to have dominion. Now here we have, I. The sin charged upon the Edomites, and that was their spite and malice to Israel (Eze 35:5, Eze 35:10-13). II. The ruin threatened, that should come upon them for this sin. God will be against them (Eze 35:3) and then their country shall be laid waste (Eze 35:4), depopulated, and made quite desolate (Eze 35:6-9), and left so when other nations that had been wasted should recover themselves (Eze 35:14, Eze 35:15).
Open source ↗35:5-10 The eternal [or ancient] hatred of Edom for Israel went all the way back to their respective ancestors, Esau and Jacob (see Gen 25:19-34; 27:1-46; Num 20:14-21; 24:18; 2 Sam 8:13-14; 1 Kgs 11:14). Because of that enmity, the Edomites took advantage of the Babylonian destruction to butcher the Israelites when they were helpless. They wanted to wipe out the descendants of Jacob and seize the lands of Israel and Judah. The bloodbath they delighted to inflict on Israel would return on their own heads, as their people would be slaughtered by the sword. Their everlasting hatred would be punished: Their land would become desolate forever. This prophecy was fulfilled when the Edomites were displaced by a coalition of Arab tribes sometime during the 400s BC.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Edom, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and stifled all compassion; his anger raged continually, and his fury flamed incessantly.
while they offer false visions for you and lying divinations about you— to be placed on the necks of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment.
This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Edom acted vengefully against the house of Judah, and in so doing incurred grievous guilt,
And you, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, the day has come for your final punishment.’
This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because the Philistines acted in vengeance, taking vengeance with malice of soul to destroy Judah with ancient hostility,
Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
Then you will know that I, the LORD, have heard every contemptuous word you uttered against the mountains of Israel when you said, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to devour!’