Ezekiel 25

Eze 25:1-17.

APPROPRIATELY IN THE

INTERVAL OF

SILENCE AS TO THE

JEWS IN THE

EIGHT

CHAPTERS,

(TWENTY-FIFTH THROUGH

THIRTY-SECOND)

EZEKIEL

DENOUNCES

JUDGMENTS ON THE

HEATHEN

WORLD

KINGDOMS.

If Israel was not spared, much less the heathen utterly corrupt, and

having no mixture of truth, such as Israel in its worst state possessed

(1Pe 4:17, 18).

Their ruin was to be utter: Israel's but temporary

(Jer 46:28).

The nations denounced are seven, the perfect number; implying

that God's judgments would visit, not merely these, but the whole

round of the heathen foes of God. Babylon is excepted, because she

is now for the present viewed as the rod of God's retributive justice,

a view too much then lost sight of by those who fretted against her

universal supremacy.

3.

(Jer 49:1).

when . . . profaned; . . . when . . .

desolate; . . . when . . . captivity--rather,

"for . . . for . . . for": the cause of the

insolent exultation of Ammon over Jerusalem. They triumphed especially

over the fall of the "sanctuary," as the triumph of heathenism over the

rival claims of Jehovah. In Jehoshaphat's time, when the eighty-third

Psalm was written

(Ps 83:4, 7, 8, 12,

"Ammon . . . holpen the children of Lot," who were,

therefore, the leaders of the unholy conspiracy, "Let us take to

ourselves the houses of God in possession"), we see the same

profane spirit. Now at last their wicked wish seems accomplished in the

fall of Jerusalem. Ammon, descended from Lot, held the region east of

Jordan, separated from the Amorites on the north by the river Jabbok,

and from Moab on the south by the Arnon. They were auxiliaries to

Babylon in the destruction of Jerusalem

(2Ki 24:2).

4. men of . . . east--literally, "children of the East," the nomad

tribes of Arabia-Deserta, east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea.

palaces--their nomadic encampments or folds, surrounded with mud

walls, are so called in irony. Where thy "palaces" once stood, there

shall their very different "palaces" stand. Fulfilled after the ravaging

of their region by Nebuchadnezzar, shortly after the destruction of

Jerusalem (compare

Eze 21:22;

Jer 49:1-28).

5. Rabbah--meaning "the Great," Ammon's metropolis. Under the Ptolemies

it was rebuilt under the name Philadelphia; the ruins are called Amman now, but there is no dwelling inhabited.

Ammonites--that is, the Ammonite region is to be a

"couching place for flocks," namely of the Arabs. The "camels," being

the chief beast of burden of the Chaldeans, are put first, as their

invasion was to prepare the Ammonite land for the Arab "flocks."

Instead of busy men, there shall be "still and couching flocks."

6, 7. "Because thou hast clapped thine hands," exulting over

the downfall of Jerusalem, "I also will stretch out Mine hand upon

thee" (to which

Eze 21:17

also may refer, "I will smite Mine hands together").

hands . . . feet . . . heart--with the whole inward feeling, and with

every outward indication. Stamping with the foot means

dancing for joy.

7. a spoil--so the Hebrew Margin, or Keri, for the text or

Chetib, "meat" (so

Eze 26:5; 34:28).

Their goods were to be a "spoil to the foe"; their state

was to be "cut off," so as to be no more a "people"; and they were as

individuals, for the most part, to be "destroyed."

8. Moab, Seir, and Ammon were contiguous countries, stretching in one

line from Gilead on the north to the Red Sea. They therefore naturally

acted in concert, and in joint hostility to Judea.

Judah is like . . . all . . . heathen--The Jews fare no better than

others: it is of no use to them to serve Jehovah, who, they say, is the

only true God.

9, 10. open . . . from the cities--I will open up the side, or

border of Moab (metaphor from a man whose side is open to blows),

from the (direction of) the cities on his northwest border

beyond the Arnon, once assigned to Reuben

(Jos 13:15-21),

but now in the hands of their original owners; and the "men of the

east," the wandering Bedouin hordes, shall enter through these cities

into Moab and waste it. Moab accordingly was so wasted by them, that

long before the time of Christ it had melted away among the hordes of

the desert. For "cities," GROTIUS translates the

Hebrew as proper names, the Ar and Aroer, on the

Arnon. Hence the Hebrew for "cities," "Ar" is repeated twice

(Nu 21:28;

De 2:36;

Isa 15:1).

glory of the country--The region of Moab was richer than that of Ammon;

it answers to the modern Belka, the richest district in South Syria, and

the scene in consequence of many a contest among the Bedouins. Hence it

is called here a "glorious land" (literally, "a glory," or "ornament of

a land") [FAIRBAIRN]. Rather, "the glory of the country" is in

apposition with "cities" which immediately precedes, and the names of

which presently follow.

Beth-jeshimoth--meaning "the city of desolations"; perhaps so named

from some siege it sustained; it was towards the west.

Baal-meon--called also "Beth-meon"

(Jer 48:23),

and "Beth-baal-meon"

(Jos 13:17,

called so from the worship of Baal), and "Bajith," simply

(Isa 15:2).

Kiriathaim--"the double city." The strength of these cities engendered

"the pride" of Moab

(Isa 16:6).

10. with the Ammonites--FAIRBAIRN explains

and translates, "upon the children of Ammon" (elliptically for,

"I will open Moab to the men of the east, who, having overrun the

children of Ammon, shall then fall on Moab"). MAURER, as English Version, "with the

Ammonites," that is, Moab, "together with the land of Ammon," is

to be thrown "open to the men of the east," to enter and take

possession

(Jer 49:1-39).

12. taking vengeance--literally, "revenging with revengement," that

is, the most unrelenting vengeance. It was not simple hatred, but

deep-brooding, implacable revenge. The grudge of Edom or Esau was

originally for Jacob's robbing him of Isaac's blessing

(Ge 25:23; 27:27-41).

This purpose of revenge yielded to the extraordinary kindness of Jacob,

through the blessing of Him with whom Jacob wrestled in prayer; but it

was revived as an hereditary grudge in the posterity of Esau when they

saw the younger branch rising to the pre-eminence which they thought of

right belonged to themselves. More recently, for David's subjugation of

Edom to Israel

(2Sa 8:14).

They therefore gave vent to their spite by joining the Chaldeans in

destroying Jerusalem

(Ps 137:7;

La 4:22;

Ob 10-14),

and then intercepting and killing the fugitive Jews

(Am 1:11)

and occupying part of the Jewish land as far as Hebron.

13. Teman . . . they of Dedan--rather, "I will make it

desolate from Teman (in the south) even to Dedan (in the

northwest)" [GROTIUS],

(Jer 49:8),

that is, the whole country from north to south, stretching from the

south of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea.

14. by . . . my people Israel--namely, by Judas

Maccabeus. The Idumeans were finally, by compulsory circumcision,

incorporated with the Jewish state by John Hyrcanus (see

Isa 34:5; 63:1,

&c.; 1 Maccabees 5:3). So complete was the amalgamation in Christ's

time, that the Herods of Idumean origin, as Jews, ruled over the two

races as one people. Thus the ancient prophecy was fulfilled

(Ge 25:23),

"The elder shall serve the younger."

15.

(1Sa 13:1-14:52;

2Ch 28:18).

The "old hatred" refers to their continual enmity to the

covenant-people. They lay along Judea on the seacoast at the opposite

side from Ammon and Moab. They were overthrown by Uzziah

(2Ch 26:6),

and by Hezekiah

(2Ki 18:8).

Nebuchadnezzar overran the cities on the seacoast on his way to Egypt

after besieging Tyre

(Jer 47:1-7).

God will take vengeance on those who take the avenging of themselves

out of His hands into their own

(Ro 12:19-21;

Jas 2:13).

16. cut off the Cherethims--There is a play on similar sounds in the

Hebrew, hichratti cherethim, "I will slay the slayers." The name may

have been given to a section of the Philistines from their warlike

disposition

(1Sa 30:14; 31:3).

They excelled in archery, whence David enrolled a bodyguard from them

(2Sa 8:18; 15:18; 20:7).

They sprang from Caphtor, identified by many with Crete, which was

famed for archery, and to which the name Cherethim seems akin.

Though in emigration, which mostly tended westwards, Crete seems more

likely to be colonized from Philistia than Philistia from Crete, a

section of Cretans may have settled at Cherethim in South

Philistia, while the Philistines, as a nation, may have come

originally from the east (compare

De 2:23;

Jer 47:4;

Am 9:7;

Zep 2:5).

In

Ge 10:14

the Philistines are made distinct from the Caphtorim, and are

said to come from the Casluhim; so that the Cherethim were but a

part of the Philistines, which

1Sa 30:14

confirms.

remnant of--that is, "on the seacoast" of the Mediterranean: those

left remaining after the former overthrows inflicted by Samuel,

David, Hezekiah, and Psammetichus of Egypt, father of Pharaoh-necho

(Jer 25:20).

17. know . . . vengeance--They shall know Me, not in mercy, but by My

vengeance on them

(Ps 9:16).