CHAPTER 35

(587 B.C.)

PROPHECY AGAINST MOUNT SEIR (EDOM): JUDGMENT

¹Moreover the Word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

²Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it (this Prophecy concerns Edom; therefore, it leaves the glorious future and returns to the destitute present. One of the great reasons for Gods Anger against Edom is this countrys hatred of Israel, which was not only regarded as personal, but was also expressive of mans enmity against the People of God in every age),

³And say unto it, Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against you, and I will stretch out My Hand against you, and I will make you most desolate. (To have one nation pitted against another nation is one thing, but to have God pitted against a nation is something else altogether!)

⁴I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate, and you shall know that I am the LORD. (Ezekiel formerly prophesied against Edom [25:12-14], but that Prophecy was several years before the fall of Jerusalem. This Prophecy is after the fall of the city and concerns itself with Edoms disposition at that time, along with their previous sins against Gods People.)

⁵Because you have had a perpetual hatred, and have shed the blood of the Children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end (Edom had been Israels hereditary foe from the days of Esau and Jacob [Gen. 25:22; 27:37]; however, that which brought all of this to a head was that Edom rejoiced at the fall of Jerusalem, and they actually helped the Babylonians to kill Israelites. When they did that, they crossed the line!):

⁶Therefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD, I will prepare you unto blood, and blood shall pursue you: since you have not hated blood, even blood shall pursue you. (In that Edom did not hate or detest the shedding of the blood of the people of Judah and Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit emphasizes the fact that blood would be their destiny their blood.)

⁷Thus will I make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him who passes out and him who returns. (The Lord decides here the controversy between Edom and Israel. To the one He adjudges perpetual desolation; to the other, ever-enduring prosperity. This is the last message to Esau, so to speak!)

⁸And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in your hills, and in your valleys, and in all your rivers, shall they fall who are slain with the sword. (Some may take exception to the terminology given here. However, no one would fault a surgeon for removing a malignancy. Likewise, no one should fault the Lord for doing the same!)

⁹I will make you perpetual desolations, and your cities shall not return: and you shall know that I am the LORD. (The use of the phrase, You shall know that I am the LORD, means that Edom would note, to her sorrow, Jehovahs Power to punish.)

¹⁰Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there (the words, two nations, refer to Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom, and Judah, the Southern Kingdom. Edom coveted this Land. She would have done much better to have coveted any land in the world except this Land. The Palestinians and the Arabs should read this Passage, as well!):

¹¹Therefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD, I will even do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have used out of your hatred against them; and I will make Myself known among them, when I have judged you. (When I have judged you, sums up the Verse. The suffering which people desire for others sometimes falls upon themselves. Far from Edom securing Israel, she would ultimately be deprived of her own land, and would in fact perish forever as a nation.)

¹²And you shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all your blasphemies which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume. (To persecute those who are Gods is to persecute God. Likewise, to slander one of Gods is to slander God.)

¹³Thus with your mouth you have boasted against Me, and have multiplied your words against Me: I have heard them. (These Passages should be a solemn lesson to all! Bitter words against Gods People are accounted by God as spoken against Himself. The phrase is emphatic, I have heard them.)

¹⁴Thus sa ys the Lord GOD; When the whole Earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. (The idea is: when the sons of the Kingdom enter into joy, their haters shall descend into the gloom.)

¹⁵As you did rejoice at the inheritance of the House of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto you: you shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD. (You shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, sums up the Verse. Thats exactly what happened!)