Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
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Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
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The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
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And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying:
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Eze 25:1 The word of the LORD came again…
Eze 25:1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Ver. 1. The word of the Lord.] Contra gentes; against those nations chiefly that molested the Jews after their overthrow by the Babylonians. Sins they had enough besides, but for none did they suffer more deeply than for their malignity towards God’s poor afflicted. The Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Philistines are here more briefly threatened; the Tyrians and Egyptians more at large, because it seemed impossible that they should be brought down.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Though he had order no more yet awhile to…
Though he had order no more yet awhile to prophesy against the Jews, he was to be dumb as to them, yet he hath commission to foretell sad tidings to other nations round about the Jews.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here, I. The prophet is ordered to address himself…
Here, I. The prophet is ordered to address himself to the Ammonites, in the name of the Lord Jehovah the God of Israel, who is also the God of the whole earth. But what can Chemosh, the god of the children of Ammon, say, in answer to it? He is bidden to set his face against the Ammonites, for he is God's representative as a prophet, and thus he must signify that God set his face against them, for the face of the Lord is against those that do evil, Psa 34:16. He must speak with boldness and assurance, as one that knew whose errand he went upon, and that he should be borne out in delivering it. He must therefore set his face as a flint, Isa 1:7. He must show his displeasure against these proud enemies of Israel, and face them down, though they were very impudent, and thus must show that, though he had prophesied so much and so long against Israel, yet still he was for Israel, and, while he witnessed against their corruptions, he adhered to and gloried in God's covenant with them. Note, Those are miserable that have the preaching and praying of God's prophets against them, against whom their faces are set.
II. He is directed what to say to them. Ezekiel is now a captive in Babylon, and has been so many years, and knows little of the state of his own nation, much less of the nations that were about it; but God tells him both what they were doing and what he was about to do with them. And thus by the spirit of prophecy he is enabled to speak as pertinently to their case as if he had been among them.
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1. He must upbraid the Ammonites with their insolent and barbarous triumphs over the people of Israel in their calamities, Eze 25:3. The Ammonites said, when all went against the Jews, Aha! so would we have it. They were glad to see, (1.) The temple burned, the sanctuary profaned by the victorious Chaldeans. This is put first, to intimate what was the cause of the controversy; they had an enmity to the Jews for the sake of their religion, though it was only some poor remains of the profession of it that were to be found among them. (2.) The nation ruined. They rejoiced when the land of Israel was made desolate, the cities burnt, the country wasted, and both depopulated, and when the house of Judah went into captivity. When they had not power to oppress God's Israel themselves they were pleased to see the Chaldeans oppress them, partly because they envied their wealth and the good land they enjoyed, partly because they feared their growing power, and partly because they hated their religion and the divine oracles they were favoured with. It is repeated again (Eze 25:6): They clapped with their hands, to irritate the rage of the Chaldeans, and to set them on as dogs upon the game; or they clapped their hands in triumph, attended this tragedy with their Plaudite - Give us your applause, thinking it well acted; never was there any thing more diverting or entertaining to them. They stamped with their feet, ready to leap and dance for joy upon this occasion; they not only rejoiced in heart, but they could not forbear showing it, though every one that had any sense of honour and humanity would cry shame upon them for it, especially considering that they rejoiced thus, not for any thing they got by Israel's fall (if so, they would have been the more excusable: most people are for themselves); but this as purely from a principle of malice and enmity: Thou hast rejoiced in heart with all thy despite (which signifies both scorn and hatred) against the land of Israel. Note, The people of God have always had a great deal of ill-will borne them by this wicked world; and their calamities have been their neighbours' entertainments. See to what unnatural instances of malice the enmity that is in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman will carry them. The Ammonites, of all people, should not have rejoiced in Jerusalem's ruin, but should rather have trembled, because they themselves had such a narrow escape at the same time; it was but "cross or pile" [the toss of a halfpenny] which should be besieged first, Rabbath or Jerusalem, Eze 21:20. And they had reason to think that the king of Babylon would set upon them next. But thus were their hearts hardened to their ruin, and their insolence against Jerusalem was to them an evident token of perdition, Phi 1:28. It is a very wicked thing to be glad at the calamities of any, especially of God's people, and a sin that God will surely reckon for; such delight has God in showing mercy, and so backward is he to punish, that nothing is more pleasing to him than to be stopped in the ways of his judgments by intercessions, not any thing more provoking than to help forward the affliction when he is but a little displeased, Zac 1:15.
2. He must threaten the Ammonites with utter ruin for this insolence which they were guilty of. God turns away his wrath from Israel against them, as is said, Pro 24:17, Pro 24:18. God is jealous for his people's honour, because his own is so nearly interested in it. And therefore those that touch that shall be made to know that they touch the apple of his eye. He had before predicted the destruction of the Ammonites, Eze 21:28. Had they repented, that would have been revoked; but now it is ratified. (1.) A destroying enemy is brought against them: I will deliver thee to the men of the east, first to the Chaldeans, who came from the north-east, and whose army, under the command of Nebuchadnezzar, destroyed the country of the Ammonites, about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem (as Josephus relates, Antiq. 10.181), and then to the Arabians, who were properly the children of the east, who, when the Chaldeans had made the country desolate, and quitted it, came and took possession of it for themselves, probably with the consent of the conquerors. Shepherds' tents were their palaces; these they set up in the country of the Ammonites; there they made their dwellings, Eze 25:4. They enjoyed the products of the country: They shall eat thy fruit and drink thy milk; and the milk from the cattle is the fruit of the ground at second-hand. They made use even of the royal city for their cattle (Eze 25:5): I will make Rabbath, that was a nice and splendid city, to be a stable for camels; for its new masters, whose wealth lies all in cattle, will not think they can put the palaces of Rabbath to a better use. Rabbath had been a habitation of brutish men; justly therefore is it now made a stable for camels and the country a couching-lace for flocks, more innocent beasts than those with which it had been before replenished. (2.) God himself acts as an enemy to them (Eze 25:7): I will stretch out my hand upon thee, a hand that will reach far and strike home, which there is no resisting the blow of, for it is a mighty hand, nor bearing the weight of, for it is a heavy hand. God's hand stretched out against the Ammonites will not only deliver them for a spoil to the heathen, so that all their neighbours shall prey upon them, but will cut them off from the people and made them perish out of the countries, so that there shall be no remains of them in that place. Compare with this, Jer 49:1, etc. What can sound more terrible than that resolution (Eze 25:7), I will destroy thee? For the almighty God is able both to save and to destroy, and it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands. Both the threatenings here (Eze 25:5 and Eze 25:7) conclude with this, You shall know that I am the Lord. For, [1.] Thus God will maintain his own honour, and will make it appear that he is the God of Israel, though he suffers them for a time to be captives in Babylon. [2.] Thus he will bring those that were strangers to him into an acquaintance with him, and it will be a blessed effect of their calamities. Better know God and be poor than be rich and ignorant of him.
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John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The word of the Lord came unto me,.... After…
The word of the Lord came unto me,.... After he had done prophesying to the Jews, he is bid to prophesy against the Gentiles, the nations that lay nearest the Jews:
saying; as follows:
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain A prophesy against the Ammonites, ver. 1-7. The Moabites,…
A prophesy against the Ammonites, ver. 1-7. The Moabites, ver. 8-11. The Edomites, ver. 12-14. And the Philistines, ver. 15- 17.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain This chapter contains threatenings of the heavy judgments of
CHAPTER XXV
This chapter contains threatenings of the heavy judgments of
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God against the Ammonites, 1-7;
Moabites, 8-11;
Edomites, 12-14;
and Philistines, 15-17;
on account of their hatred to his people, and their insulting
them in the time of their distress. These prophecies were
fulfilled by the instrumentality of Nebuchadnezzar, about five
years after the destruction of Jerusalem. The same events were
predicted by several of the other prophets, as may be seen from
the citation of parallel texts in the margin.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXV
Verse 1. The word of the Lord] The chronological order of this chapter is after Eze 33:21, &c. See Abp. Newcome.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Eze 25:1-2. The word of the Lord came again…
Eze 25:1-2. The word of the Lord came again unto me — Though Ezekiel had finished his testimony with respect to the destruction of Jerusalem, he must not be silent; there were divers nations bordering upon the land of Israel which he must prophesy against, as Isaiah and Jeremiah had done before him; and must proclaim God’s controversy with them, chiefly because of the injuries and indignities which they had done to the people of God in the day of their calamity. God’s resenting thus the injurious conduct of these nations toward his Israel, was an encouragement to Israel to believe, that though he had dealt thus severely with them, yet he had not cast them finally off, but would hereafter own them and plead their cause. The chronological order of these prophecies is after Eze 33:21, &c., at a time when, not only the taking of Jerusalem was known, but also the conduct which the surrounding nations pursued, in consequence of that event. Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites — “Look thou toward the coast of the Ammonites, and in this posture prophesy against them.” — Bishop Hall. Ezekiel was now a captive in Chaldea, and had been so many years, and knew little, except by supernatural revelation, even of the state of his own nation, and much less of the nations around it; but God tells him both what they were doing, and what he was about to do with them. And thus, by the spirit of prophecy, he is enabled to speak as pertinently to their case as if he had been among them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain It was a distinct part of scriptural prophecy to…
It was a distinct part of scriptural prophecy to address pagan nations. In Isaiah Isa. 13–19, Jeremiah Jer. 46–51, and here Ezek. 25–32, one section is specially devoted to a collection of such prophecies. Every such prediction had the general purpose of exhibiting the conflict ever waging between the servants of God and the powers of the world, the struggle in which the Church of Christ has still to wrestle against her foes Eph 6:12, but in which she will surely prevail.
It was a distinct part of scriptural prophecy to address pagan nations. In Isaiah Isa. 13–19, Jeremiah Jer. 46–51, and here Ezek. 25–32, one section is specially devoted to a collection of such prophecies. Every such prediction had the general purpose of exhibiting the conflict ever waging between the servants of God and the powers of the world, the struggle in which the Church of Christ has still to wrestle against her foes Eph 6:12, but in which she will surely prevail.
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This series of prophecies, with one exception, was delivered at the time of the fall of Jerusalem; some shortly before, and some shortly after, the capture of the city. They were collected together to illustrate their original purpose of warning the nations not to exult in their neighbor’s fall. Seven nations are addressed, which have had most contact with the children of Israel - on their eastern borders Moab and Ammon, to the south, Edom, on the south-west Philistia, northward Tyre (the merchant city) and the more ancient Sidon, and lastly Egypt, alternately the scourge and the false stay of the chosen people. The number “seven” is symbolic of completeness. “Seven” prophecies against Egypt the chief of “seven” nations, denote the completeness of the overthrow of the pagan power, the antagonist of the kingdom of God. While other prophets hold out to these pagan nations some prospect of future mercy (e. g., Isa 16:14; Jer 49:6, Jer 49:11), Ezekiel speaks of their complete ruin. He was contemplating “national” ruin. In the case of Jerusalem there would be national restoration, but in the case of the pagan no such recovery. The “national” ruin was irretrievable; the remnant to whom the other prophets hold out hopes of mercy were to find it as individuals gathered into God’s Church, not as nations to be again set up. Ezekiel does not, like other prophets, prophesy against Babylon; it was his mission to show that for the moment, Babylon was the righteous instrument of the divine wrath, doing God’s work in punishing His foes. In prophesying against foreign nations, Ezekiel often adopts the language of those who preceded him.
In Ezek. 25, the four nations most closely connected with one another by geographical position and by contact, are addressed in a few brief sentences concluding with the same refrain - “Ye shall know that I am the Lord” (e. g. Eze 25:5). This prophecy was delivered immediately after the capture of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, and so is later, in point of time, than some of the prophecies that follow it.
The Ammonites were inveterate foes of the descendants of Abraham.
Eze 25:4
Men of the east - The wild wandering Arabs who should come in afterward upon the ruined land. The name was a common term for the nomadic tribes of the desert. Compare Isa 13:20.
Palaces - encampments. The tents and folds of nomadic tribes. After subjugation by Nebuchadnezzar Eze 21:28, the land was subjected to various masters. The Graeco-Egyptian kings founded a city on the site of Rabbah Eze 25:5, called Philadelphia, from Ptolemy Philadelphus. In later times, Arabs from the east have completed the doom pronounced against Rabbah.
Eze 25:7
For a spoil - Or, for a portion.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain
A–B. CHAPTERS 25–32
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THE TRANSITION FROM THE PROPHECY OF JUDGMENT TO THE PROPHECY OF COMPASSION, OR THE PROPHECIES AGAINST THE ADVERSARIES.
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The prophecies against the heathen nations are put here into one collection, as is the case also in Jeremiah and Isaiah (Introd. pp. 10, 11). The common character of their contents admits of their standing thus together, whilst they are also distinguished from each other by occasional chronological notices. From Eze_29:17, it is probable that the prophet made up at that time the preceding smaller collection, if not the greater one, of his whole book; comp. ch; 40:1. According to most, however, these prophecies actually lie between Ezekiel 24, 33.
“The prophecies (Kliefoth remarks) against foreign nations, that is, against heathenism and the heathen world, against the worldly power as opposing the kingdom of God and its development, form continually, since the prophecy of Balaam (Num_24:17-24), a separate chapter of prophecy.” So is it first of all in Obadiah, then also in Joel, Amos, etc. The later prophets in this lean upon their predecessors, whose prophecies they partly employ by citation, partly supplement and expand.
The thought which dominates the collection of Ezekiel is that of judgment, as seen in the burning of Jerusalem, the flight-fire. Ezekiel, in consequence, limits himself in the survey he takes of the heathen, as that is also still further limited, that no reference is made in it to the Chaldeans.
Only the idea of judgment connects exactly with Ezekiel 24. The discourse of judgment as now to go forth upon the adversaries was, as the silence of compassion had been, “an astonishment,” in respect to its being appointed to the prophet for this particular time. If the prophecies are viewed as an appendage to the first main division, the connection can scarcely be conceived of more precisely.
The judicial character of these chapters, however, still keeps within the historical position,—the recompense which actually takes place in the world’s history. Among the peoples that here make their appearance, there occur the heathen members of the coalition against Babylon, those who partook in Judah’s breach of oath and fidelity, denounced in Ezekiel 17. The prophets are “the divinely-authorized conscience-preachers,” as Tholuck designates them, “the directors of conscience whether wished for or not,” who stand among the people, “as the wakeful eye of the God of Israel.” The judgment of Judah must go forth from them upon these heathens; for that in human affairs there prevails a holy ordering of retributive righteousness is the general theme of prophecy.
The limitation in Ezekiel’s predictions to judgment is not to be regarded as an exclusion of the heathen from Messiah’s salvation. For out of the judgment, as for Israel, so also for the heathen, comes forth the great salvation of the future destined to embrace both. Ezekiel stands in no antagonism to the other prophets as regards their prophetic announcements on the heathen nations. It is enough to compare Ezekiel 16. There is merely a certain difference between him and them in this respect. “But he still holds by the right landmarks; temporal subversion alone, the loss of their political and civil existence, is what he threatens them with; but that a remnant of them should survive, according to the word of the earlier prophets, and that this might spiritually attain to blessing, he leaves open, without contradiction” (Kliefoth).
That the idea of judgment specially controls the following collection of Ezekiel has its explanation in his prophetic mission. It is so precisely adapted to this, that, in consequence, we find in this collection no prophetic judgment against Babylon. The explanation which is given, even by Hengstenberg, that “no reason existed for his braving the danger,” can afford little satisfaction; must “the personal relations” have been pleasantly adjusted for an Ezekiel? If Eze_21:30 sq. is not to be understood as directed against Babylon (see, however, at the passage), the silence of Ezekiel generally respecting the judgment upon Babylon, and in particular. the absence of any prediction of judgment in the section Ezekiel 25-32, finds its explanation simply in his position and calling in the exile. That Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, Tyre, Sidon, Egypt, were accessaries to the judgment upon Judah, to Judah’s faithless breach of oath towards Babylon,—this of itself would have made Babylon’s place in the midst of them fit badly. In that respect alone it would have injured the moral nexus. Still more, however, in another respect was silence upon Babylon’s judgment ordered. It may be enough for this to point to Eze_23:45; for that other decisive respect is the circumstance that Babylon had, in God’s name, to execute judgment as well upon the nations in question as upon Judah-Israel. Ezekiel’s prophetic mission we have recognised to be that of the prophet of Jehovah’s glory in the exile; and likewise, the revelation of the glory of Jehovah meets us immediately in the 1st chapter as primarily taking effect in judgment and through righteousness. Hence it follows that it was also very suitable to the prophetic mission of Ezekiel, since it accords with the glory of Jehovah as now manifesting itself, that Babylon, its instrument, should directly appear only as such, in the light of the divine judgment and the divine righteousness upon Israel, and upon the related heathen nations. The exile in its primary aspect was judgment, the judgment of God, which Babylon inflicted. With this did not suit a prophetic judgment also upon Babylon. [More especially as one of the prevailing tendencies of the time was to overlook the hand of God in the present elevation of Babylon to its high ascendency, and to fret against the dominion which God had for a season given her over the nations.—P. F.] It should necessarily, too, have obscured the more direct impression to be produced. “Whosoever,” says Hengstenberg, “obtained an insight into the whole of God’s judicial acts, must have been powerfully drawn away from politics to repentance.”
That the announcement of judgment, and of judgment alone, upon the heathen was done for the sake of consolation, which was implied therein for the exiled,—that such a consoling must here already be regarded as the prophetic mission of Ezekiel, is without warrant, according to Ezekiel 1-24, and is certainly not agreeable to the manner in which Ezekiel 25-32. are connected with that principal portion of our book.
It becomes, then, a matter of special importance to justify the position of this collection of predictions here against the heathen after Ezekiel 24, with the contents, design, etc., of these predictions. The question of place goes first; the question of time follows as the second. For as their fulfilment took place later than the downfall of Jerusalem-Judah, so their announcement also took place, and consequently the reading of them, first at the time of the second main division, so that they might also serve as a foil for this. Considered from the point of view of the later publication, we may therefore conjoin with the mode of connecting this collection relatively to the first main division, a transition-character to the idea of the second main division of our book, as scattered and occasional indications of such a transition are to be found in Eze_28:24 sq., 29:21. “These prophecies present themselves as forerunners of cheering intelligence, in so far as the downfall of the heathen powers here announced is throughout total and definitive, whereas hope is still always left to Israel” (Hengst.). This is also to be considered in accordance with the same, that the injury done to Israel is brought prominently forward among the causes of the divine judgment upon the heathen, Eze_25:3; Eze_25:8; Eze_25:12; Eze_25:15. Ewald remarks, besides, that the punishment of Edom was expected from Israel, and for the Philistines immediately from Jehovah Himself, which would connect more closely with the manner in which the prophet, onwards from Ezekiel 33, is going to speak of Israel (comp. also Introd. § 6).
In agreement with the general considerations affecting the whole, which serve to justify the position and character of the following collection, there is also to be noticed this and that individual trait in the particular parts, which belong alike to the form and to the substance of these predictions.
There are seven separate prophecies; and to this number, says Hitzig, “he very persistently adheres.” With a symbolic tendency, the Philistines are reckoned in the number, who do not appear as members of that coalition in Jeremiah 27; and so, too, Tyre and Sidon are kept quite apart from each other, as in Jeremiah. “The placing together also of four nations immediately at the beginning, while three follow, indicates the clear consciousness with which the author is minded to make out a seven number” (Hitzig). This intentional form should be reckoned as belonging to the transition-character of the portion Ezekiel 25-32 : On the ground of the covenant of the Eternal with Israel, the judgment upon their open and secret enemies goes forth. In these judgments, therefore, Jehovah brings to remembrance His covenant with Israel.
Ewald delineates the particulars of the prophetic series geographically as beginning on the north-east from Judah with Ammon, thence turning south wards toward Moab, going down with Edom entirely to the south, thereafter bending in a western direction to the Philistines, then in the west stretching again to Tyre and Sidon, lastly to Egypt. Hävernick finds a beautiful harmony in the following connection between the individual predictions:—First, peoples that were in open enmity to the theocracy, Ezekiel 25; then, in Tyre and Sidon, haughtiness, fleshly security, Ezekiel 26-28; finally, their combination in Egypt, Ezekiel 29-32. Keil has with good right perceived a distinction between Egypt and the other nations; but to suppose a formal twofold division on that account of six and one, destroys the symbol of the number seven, and is not warranted by that distinction, which lies much deeper than Keil has indicated (comp. Doct. Reflections, 29:32, 3). The idea of the coalition rather appears to have been distributed after this manner: first the four nearer are mentioned, then the two more remote members, whereupon the proper fulcrum of the whole conspiracy discovers itself according to its real significancy. The coalition could as such also historically have been one first against Babylon, and the last Egypt alone (comp. at Jeremiah 27), and so giving play to the sequence in respect to time. With this agrees the just remark of Keil, that, as well in Eze_28:24 sq. as in Eze_29:21, a prospect full of promise for Israel forms a cæsura in the heroic measure of the members.
According to the specific chronological statements (see Introd. § 6), there result, as successive series of prophecies against the heathen, since the indeterminate, if special reasons to the contrary do not exist, become determinate through the immediately preceding chronological indication:—1. Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, Ezekiel 25; Ezekiel 2. Egypt (first and second word), Eze_29:1-16; Eze_30:1-19; Ezekiel 3. Tyre (first, second, third, and fourth word) and Sidon, Ezekiel 26-28; Ezekiel 4. Egypt (third word), Eze_30:20-26; Ezekiel 5. Egypt (fourth word), Ezekiel 31; Ezekiel 6. Egypt (fifth word), Eze_32:1-16; Ezekiel 7. Egypt (sixth word), Eze_32:17-32; Ezekiel 8. Egypt (concluding word), Eze_29:17-21.
1. Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines (Ch. 25)
1And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying: 2Son of man, direct thy face 3to the sons of Ammon, and prophesy upon them. And say to the sons of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Because thou sayest “Aha” to My sanctuary, for it is profaned, and to Israel’s ground, for it is desolate, 4and to the house of Judah, for they have gone into banishment: Therefore, behold! I give thee to the sons of the east for a possession, and they place in thee their enclosures, and make in thee their dwellings: they shall eat thy 5fruit, and they shall drink thy milk! And I have given Rabbah for pasture-ground [stable] of camels, and the sons of Ammon for the lair [resting-places] of flocks; and ye know that I am Jehovah. 6For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou didst strike the hand [in the hand], and with the foot didst stamp, and didst rejoice thyself in all thy despite in the soul upon the ground of 7Israel; Therefore, behold! I have stretched out My hand against thee, and have given thee for food [booty] to the heathen; and I root thee out from among the peoples, and make thee to perish from among the lands: I will destroy thee! and thou dost know that I am Jehovah. 8Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because Moab says, and [as] Seir: Behold, as all the heathen is the house of Judah. 9Therefore, behold, I open the shoulder of Moab, from the cities, from his cities, from his end, the ornament of the land, Beth-Hajesimoth, 10Baal-Meon, and toward Kirjathaim, To the sons of the east, to the sons of Ammon; and I have given it for a possession, that the sons 11of Ammon may not be [any more] a remembrance among the heathen. And on Moab will I do judgment; and they know that I am Jehovah. 12Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because Edom exercises vindictive revenge upon the house of Judah, and they made themselves guilty and guilty, and avenged 13themselves upon them; Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, And I have (there have I) stretched out My hand upon Edom, and I root out from him man and beast; and I have given it for salvation; from Teman and to Dedan 14shall they fall by the sword. And I have given My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel; and they do on Edom as My wrath and My fury is; and they know My vengeance—sentence of the Lord Jehovah. 15Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because the Philistines act in revenge, and vengefully revenged themselves in disdain, in the soul, for destruction, everlasting enmity; 16Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I stretch out My hand against the Philistines, and root out the Cherethim, and destroy the remnant 17by the coast of the sea. And I do on them great revenges, in punishments of fury; and they know that I am Jehovah, in that I give on them My revenge.
Eze_25:7. בגוים, Sept. Arabs.
Eze_25:8. Sept.: ... ὁ οἰκος Ἰσραηλ και Ιουδα.
Eze_25:9. ...ἀπο πολεων ἀκρωτηριων αὐτου, ἐκλεκτην γην, … ἐπανω πηγης πολεως παραθαλασσιας.
Ver 12. ... και ἐμνησυκακησαν κ. ἐξεδικησαν δικην,
Ver.13. και ἐκ Θαιμαν διωκομενοι ἐν ῥομφαια—
Eze_25:15. Sept.: ... του ἐξαλειψαι ἑως αἰωνος,—implentes inimicitias veteres—
Eze_25:16. Vulg.: … et interficiam interfectores.
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
Eze_25:1-7. The Ammonites.
The time is not specified in Eze_25:1. As will be seen from what follows, however, the final execution of judgment on Jerusalem is presupposed. If the actual fact is assumed, the prediction would have its proper place after Ezekiel 333 (Jerome). The presupposition, however, is that only of anticipation, the position of the prophecy being taken from the idea of the connection with Ezekiel 24. As the prophet foretells how it is going to he with Ammon, there is a pointing backwards also to what Ammon has been. It cannot behave itself otherwise than it has been perpetually manifesting itself. See Doct. Reflections, 1:3.
Eze_25:2. Comp. Eze_6:2; Eze_21:2; Eze_13:17. With eye and hand.—Comp. for the following prophecy that already pronounced against Ammon in Eze_21:28 sqq.
Eze_25:3 Eze_6:3; Eze_13:2. Where parties look merely at results that are pleasing to them, they ought assuredly at the outset to be called upon to hear, and, indeed, what Jehovah says, not what they may themselves think, and approvingly give one another to hear.—The current speech of Ammon (אמרךְ)—feminine as a nation, the popular community—significantly places itself directly over against My sanctuary. In the judgment of it His people vanish, as in His compassion their sins vanish; He meets on behalf of this people the Aha, the malignant joy, of their enemies; comp. Eze_24:21. At the same time, the enmity of Ammon is thereby, from the first, marked as blasphemy of the Spirit who ruled over and in Judah-Israel. It is not merely injury to the land and people (Eze_21:28), that their national, human form of existence should be shattered to pieces, although there should be this also, in accordance with what follows. In the latter respect, the neighbourly relation has to be thought of, which, in point of space, was relationship of the nearest kind, to say nothing of what there was of blood-relationship, in consequence of the derivation through Lot.—בגולה, Hengst.: “went as exiles;” comp. Eze_12:11.
Eze_25:4. The offence draws after it the punishment, wherein Nebuchadnezzar entirely falls into abeyance. Jehovah comes forth, and the sons of the east—according to Grotius and others, undoubtedly the Chaldeans; according to that which is here declared of them, and always elsewhere, the Arabian tribes—descendants of Ishmael, the Bedouin, especially as in the text it is not properly the execution that is assigned to them; but they, after the judgment took effect, only gave conclusive evidence of the completed fact. They are in a sort of way classical for this, since “they always appear where fire and sword have wasted a country” (Hengst.), or generally where a place has become desert. “The old Ammonitis, the ruin of which began in the time of Nebuchadnezzar, and continued thenceforward without interruption, is abandoned to the Bedouin Arabs to this day” (Hengst.).—Hitzig translates: “and settled in thee shall be their pens;” but ישבו is probably Piel, though only here. טירוח are the enclosures (for cattle) of a nomad village.—The repeated המה impressively dismisses the Ammonites from their territory, because others have taken their place.—Besides the fruit of the ground (פריך). there is mentioned exhaustively the produce from the cattle-tending.
Eze_25:5. There is here still an especial signalizing of the old Ammonite capital city, Rabbah, Eze_21:20 (later, Philadelphia). Hengst.: “the name (the populous) in melancholy contrast to what follows, as camel and wilderness go inseparably together;” comp. Amo_1:14; Jer_49:2. The sons of Ammon, parallel for “their other cities” (Zep_2:9). [Surely a somewhat peculiar parallel: the sons of Ammon are just the Ammonites; men, not cities or places. But they were to be given “for the couching of flocks”—flocks for men, and not that merely, but flocks in a state of perfect repose. In plain terms, the agricultural parts of the country were to become pastoral—where men were wont to be seen labouring, there should only be found sheep browsing or resting.—P. F.] In the present day, Rabbah, while it has great ruins, for example, of a theatre belonging to the Roman period, yet it is wholly destitute of inhabitants. Arabians with camels met Seetzen in the neighbourhood, dangerous people for a visit to these ruins. When Buckingham spent a night among the ruins, an Arab was pitching there; and the traveller could not sleep for the bleating of sheep, the neighing of horses, and the barking of dogs.—The transition to the Ammonites themselves is prepared for Eze_25:6 (וידעתם).
Eze_25:6. Comp. for the gestures, Eze_21:14; Eze_21:17; Eze_6:11. The undoubted import is given by the and thou didst rejoice. The malicious joy is strengthened, marked, and deepened, since, as hand and foot were not wanting in it, nothing failed of despite; it was whole and entire: in the innermost soul. (Hitzig: “So that one is therein with the soul, with passion; therefore with the whole heart’s contempt of which you are capable.”)
Eze_25:7. Hand against hand. Instead of לבג, for food, the Qeri has לבז, for booty. But “booty” expresses too little, where an “allotment,” a portion had been explicitly assured, and in the comparison at Eze_25:4 is so very suitable. Hitzig only objects that “the book of Daniel is not contemporaneous with Ezekiel;” for in Dan_1:5; Dan_1:8, etc., פַּתְבַג is used of court-food [this latter word being thought by Hengst., Häv., and others to countenance the text against the Qeri here.—P. F.]
Eze_25:8-11. The Moabites.
The association of Edom, by means of the mountain (Seir), with Moab in this affair, implies that the sentiment uttered was one that had a much more extensive prevalence, and already provides a ground for the later judicial sentence upon Edom. What they say amounts to disavowal and blasphemy of the Spirit in Judah. Comp. with Ammon (= where is now their God?).
Eze_25:9. The punishment is, as in the case of Ammon, that the land is opened to the nomadic Arabians (Eze_25:10), and primarily, indeed, with an eye to the fortified cities. The portion contemplated therein, because it was the upper north side which leant on Ammon, is called the shoulder of Moab, on account of the position, which is more clearly indicated in what follows, probably not without respect to the gradually ascending or sloping ground; but hardly, with Grotius and Hengst.: “because there blows and sword-strokes are most easily applied,” of which nothing is said. From the cities (the מן on no account to be taken in a privative sense, with Hitzig: “bare of cities”) commences the opening very intelligibly; then occurs the strongest opposition, and, indeed, from the cities, which are designated as from the end (not: “to the last,” for to how far has not yet been said), that is, as border cities in the extremity of the land, according to the supposed side; so must the rest of the land assuredly lie open, as it is called the ornament of the land, therefore that which is brilliant by its fruitfulness, or perhaps by rich pastures. After some cities, mentioned by way of example, there is expressed in to Kirjathaim the point how far, and the intended compass is marked off.—בית הישימות, south or south-east from Jericho, on the Dead Sea (Bethsimuth, Besimoth), signifies house of the wastes—might it be Suaime, on the north-east border of the Dead Sea?—Baalmeon, now Mæin, the considerable ruins of which Seetzen saw from a distance, lying on the east of Attarus, where there are said to be springs.—Kirjathaim, west of Medaba, el Teym (?). These cities clearly point to the ancient inheritance of Reuben (Joshua 13); but when the Assyrians led into captivity the transjordanic tribes, the Moabites obtained possession of them. Comp. on Ezekiel 21:36 [28] sq. (Ewald: “Therefore I now loose Moab’s crown from the cities.”)
Eze_25:10 על׳, on to, upon Ammon and also Moab (Eze_16:37). Hävernick: “primarily upon Ammon, then pouring itself forth upon Moab.” The Ammonites still stand forth directly before the Moabites. Comp. on Ezekiel 21:37 [32].
Eze_25:11. When the land of the Ammonites should fall into the enemy’s hand, then would similar divine judgments be executed on Moab, Eze_5:10. (Comp. besides, Isa_16:6; Jeremiah 48.)
Eze_25:12-14. The Edomites.
The charge in respect to sinning mounts up; for as Edom appears in Eze_25:8 as the ringleader against the people of the Lord, so is it as to intellectual supremacy.
Eze_25:12. The old spirit of revenge, in which he had acted from the olden time, still keeps by his side. While in the more distant relationship of Ammon and Moab, malignant joy is the expression of hostile feeling, with Edom, in his much nearer relationship, the same feeling vents itself in actions of revenge (עשות־בנקם נקם): hence the charge of sinful procedure as the incurring of guilt; comp. besides, Gen_36:31 sq., 27:17 sq.; Oba_1:10 sq.; Amo_1:11; Psalms 137.
Eze_25:13. In such dealings the stretching out of the hand is plain enough (Eze_25:7). The ו, and, denotes continuation of the foregoing punishments, which form one chain.—Eze_14:13; Eze_14:17.—Ch. 5.14.—From Teman to Dedan designates the land of the Edomites from south to north.—Eze_24:21.
Eze_25:14. Revenge for revenge. So also My people Israel is set over against Edom, without, however, thereby referring to the mode of the execution. Since Israel is here so expressly announced as the executor of the divine vengeance, Nebuchadnezzar cannot possibly be thought of in connection with it; but we must think of the times of the Maccabees (John Hyrcanus). The Messianic interest must not be brought, into view. The compulsory reception into Israel, whereby the Edomites ceased as a people, is plainly to be regarded as the proper execution of judgment, as this national annihilation.
Eze_25:15-17. The Philistines.
The Philistines are in Eze_25:15 joined to Edom on the side of their doing (Eze_25:12 sq.); to Ammon-Moab on account of their contempt of the people of God. The latter was the inmost feeling, hostility the impelling force, wherein the distinction from Edom lay. For destruction, this is the design, the abiding tendency. The everlasting enmity reaches back to the earliest days. A perpetually enduring war is the standing feature of the relation, while fixed hostility was the root of it.
Eze_25:16. The outstretched hand, as in Eze_25:13; Eze_25:7.—The effect of the action on the Philistines is the extirpation of the Cherethites, a name manifestly given, not to a part of this people, but to the whole of the Philistines, for the sake of the paronomasia. Hengst.: “The name Philistines probably signifies the emigrants, those from the regions on the Black Sea, from Colchis and the adjacent Pontic Cappadocia, Kaphtor. Of substantially the same import with this name is Kretim (Eng. form: Cherethites), that is, the extirpated, namely, from their native country. These Kretim are now to become a second time Kretim; their name shall verify itself anew.”—The annihilation is announced as total, including the remnant also by the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. To this also corresponds the closing word, Eze_25:17 : in punishments of fury, as at Eze_5:15. “Jehovah Himself, never again ceasing” (Hitzig).
DOCTRINAL REFLECTIONS
1. Ammon and Moab share together, not merely the incestuous nature of their origin (Gen_19:30 sq.), but the juxtaposition of their residences, their historical outcome, in particular their hostility toward the people of God, which, having respect to what is said of them in the time of Moses (Deu_2:9-23), was the more unjustifiable in its manifestations. (See Doctrinal Reflections, 4, at the passage.) There is nothing to be alleged in vindication of it, for its root is to be traced to the strife, in Gen_13:6 sq., which led to the separation from Israel,—a separation which was kept up by the latter with the utmost care and vigilance. It is therefore the natural contrast of the carnal spirit against the Spirit of God—haughtiness its manifestation on the one side, injurious treatment on the other, blasphemy of the Spirit in all. The prescription in the law (Deu_23:3) is already a significant one as to the relation which existed between Israel and Ammon-Moab.
2. In the dark contrast, however, between Israel on the one side and Ammon-Moab on the other, the analogy is not to be overlooked; here also the elder (Moab), as there Esau, is the one that falls into the background. The younger (Ammon), on the other hand, bears the sword, and is named before the other. Both, as distinct tribes, disappear wholly at last in the Arabians.
3. Ammon and Moab, the demoniacal counterpart to Judah-Israel.
4. The people of God must undergo the experience which the man of God undergoes. Mat_10:36; Mic_7:6. Out of his blood-relationships there springs a hostility even to blood. While this revolves around the Spirit that wrought in Israel, it could not but finally array itself against the Messiah, as He has Himself said that we shall be hated for His name’s sake.
5. Edom might be the bad conscience of Israel. Esau himself, however, after Israel’s night-conflict, met him in a gracious spirit, and parted from him in peace (Genesis 33). He who has wrestled with God, and has obtained mercy, has also overcome man. Thus it was only the respect paid to the kin-relationship, which in the case also of Ammon and Moab came into consideration, but was specially made mention of in regard to Edom (Deu_2:4), that determined the holding aloof on the part of Israel. But the nearer the affinity was in Edom to Israel, so much the more horrible appears the spirit of revenge, which will even avenge, because grace has been shown to the other, because to him on that ground precedence has been granted, in order to compensate for the disadvantage on the territory of nature. The revenge of Edom, which was just a relapse into the feeling of Esau (Gen_27:41), could not endure that Israel should be a separate, and what was called God’s chosen, people. “Edom holds his ground constantly as the bitterest denier of the right of the first-born, of the divine preference of Israel” (Kliefoth). The vengeance of God could not in a more marked retribution manifest itself upon Edom than by the extirpation of his nationality, and that precisely in the form of an absorption by Israel.—Robinson delineates a scene in the land of Idumæa as it has come to be, Res. 2. p. 502: “We were now upon the plain, or rather the rolling desert, of the ’Arabah; the surface was in general loose gravel and stones, everywhere furrowed and torn with the beds of torrents. A more frightful desert it had hardly been our lot to behold. Now and then a low shrub of the Ghudâh was almost the only trace of vegetation. The mountains beyond presented a most uninviting and hideous aspect: precipices and naked conical peaks of chalky and gravelly formation rising one above another without any sign of life or vegetation.”
6. “The revenge of Edom on account of the precedence granted to Israel by God, his superiority, viewed in respect to its deep religious significance, is nothing else than the constant resistance, the permanent protest raised against the higher dispensation established by God, His method of salvation; and in that is mirrored a fundamental characteristic of heathendom generally” (Häv.).
7. As in Ammon, Moab, and Edom there appear three degenerations toward heathenism, so the whole picture is fitly closed in by the heathenish Philistines (the Ἀλλοφυλοι of the Septuagint and the Apocrypha). Heathendom was round about Israel; it was the background, the soil from which his relief comes out so much the more distinctly.
8. “The four number (remarks Kliefoth) points to the four regions of the world, and so to mankind at large; it indicates that it will not fare otherwise with collective heathenism throughout the whole earth, alike inimical to the people of God, than it did with those hostile tribes which on all the four sides surrounded that people.”
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze_25:1 sq. “The fall of Jerusalem was in a religious point of view a catastrophe for the world. The subjection of the covenant-people under heathenish ascendancy is therefore no victory of heathendom over the true theocracy. Exactly the reverse: the apparent annihilation of Israel leads to a new resurrection of it. Out of its death-conflict there breaks forth a new glorious life, salvation in its world-overcoming power. Precisely now on this account does the period always more decidedly approach when the worldly power will discover itself as a broken one, when the kingdoms of heathendom, with all the splendour of their earthly glory, shall appear as evanescent powers of the past. Accordingly, the judgment upon the theocracy and the heathen on the one side stands in inseparable connection; on the other side, it is an essentially different one” (Häv.).—“Judgment indeed begins at the house of God; but if the Father of the household does not spare the sons, how soon must it alight upon the others! This doctrine first of all shines forth from the connection of this chapter with the preceding chapters. Then, also, we see here how, with all the special solicitude wherewith God interested Himself in Israel, He still by no means let the heathen out of His sight, since He must show Himself to be a God also for the heathen” (L.).—“If thou wilt not rightly apply the gifts and loving-kindnesses of God, God can take them from thee and give them to another” (St.).
Eze_25:3. Hear: Ah, yes, it depends on the hearing! Give right ears, O God, to hear! He who suffers the damage need not care for the mockery; but sit not where the mockers sit: their seats, however festive they may be, have nothing to make them fast.
Eze_25:4 sq. The Arabians, through Mohammed, were executors of punishment of quite another sort.
Eze_25:7. “Thou canst think of no man so poor as thou thyself mayest actually become” (Stck.).
Eze_25:8 sq. However degenerate Christian people may become, Christian truth can never be as one ring among the well-known three rings.—“But we must watch that we do not cause the adversaries of the Lord to blaspheme” (W.).—What unites the world, separates it from the kingdom of God.—The Almighty God is in possession of a universal passport.—Grace makes friends, but also enemies; God, however, is expert with His enemies.—“It is best to learn to know God from His benefits” (Stck.).
Eze_25:12 sq. Edom’s revenge his special hereditary sin.—“Revenge is God’s, and not man’s; whosoever, therefore, anticipates Him in this, on him will He be again avenged. Let no one, then, recompense evil for evil” (Tüb. B.).—“When relatives by affinity or blood become inimical to one another, they are much more embittered against each other than strangers” (O.).—Even the oldest grudge that nations have toward one another must be turned to peace through the power of the gospel; else God will place Himself between them, and finally root out the haters, who will not abandon their hatred.—Disdain and frivolous scorn may stalk on before; so much the more surely will God’s judgment come after.
Eze_25:15 sq. “It is an essential part and property belonging to the judicial administration of God, that He exercises vengeance on the ungodly; therefore He will have the same also preserved as an especial royalty, Deu_32:35” (Cr.). Above all else, survey the old world—where remain those who were enemies to God and His kingdom? Their places know them no more. But God’s word remains, as it has been verified in them.—The depopulated places of the ancient historical world.—“Israel was hated of all those nations, not on account of his sins, but for the sake of his religion. Thus the cause of Israel was God’s cause. Blessed people, whom men cannot hate and slander without hating and slandering God Himself! The malignant contempt was recompensed with the extirpation of the remembrance, the hostile revenge with a divine revenge,” etc. (Keith).—“If these prophecies of judgment only came into complete fulfilment after the lapse of centuries, one still sees their fulfilment to this day before the eyes of travellers” (Richt.).—[It is still to be remembered, however, that, as the prediction had respect not simply to the land of Edom (and the same applies equally to the other predictions of judgment), but to the land as connected with the Edomite race, “these desolations of later times have no direct relation to the Edom of Scripture; and if they are to be taken into account at all, it should only be as affording a collateral (or supplementary) proof of the judgment that was to befal the children of Edom. But it is the desolations of an earlier period, and above all, the utter extinction of Edom as a people, and that by the hand of Jacob, in which the more direct and proper fulfilment of the prophecy is to be sought. … At the present day there are, in certain parts of what was the territory of Edom, ‘wadys full of trees, and shrubs, and flowers, and the eastern and higher parts are extensively cultivated, and yield good crops’ (Robinson). Still the Edom of prophecy—Edom considered as the enemy of God and the rival of Israel—has perished for ever: all, in that respect, is an untrodden wilderness, a hopeless ruin; and therein the veracity of God’s word finds its verification.”—P. F. on Prophecy, p. 219 sq.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1–7. Prophecy against Ammon
1–7. Prophecy against Ammon
The name of this people is usually the children of Ammon (Beni Ammon). This is the name both of the people and the country (in the latter case construed as fem. Eze_25:3; Eze_25:10). Ammon was recognised by Israel as a distant member of the same family with themselves (Gen_19:38). At an early period the people was settled on the E. of the Jordan, between the Arnon and the Jabbok (Jdg_11:13), but before the Exodus they had been dispossessed of this territory by Amorites from the W. of the Jordan, and pushed eastward towards the desert (Num_21:21), though they could not forget their ancient claims to their former seat, even when Israel had wrested it from the Amorites (Jdg_11:19; cf. Jos_13:25). The relations of Ammon to Israel were for the most part unfriendly. In the times of the Judges they harassed the tribes E. of the Jordan, and were crushed by Jephthah (Judges 10-11). Saul signalised his early reign by defeating their king, who had laid siege to Jabesh in Gilead (1 Samuel 11). Owing to the affront offered to his ambassadors David invaded the country and took cruel vengeance on the inhabitants (2Sa_10:1; 2Sa_11:14; 2Sa_12:26). The Ammonites continued when opportunity offered to carry on a savage warfare with the tribes across the Jordan (Amo_1:13); and when these were carried away by the Assyrians they naturally in company with Moab seized the depopulated country (Jer_49:1; Zep_2:8). During the struggle of Judah with Babylon they shewed the old mischievous animosity (2Ki_24:2), and after the fall of the city the treacherous murder of Gedaliah the Babylonian governor by Ishmael was instigated by their king (Jer_40:14). After the Return Ammonites are again found obstructing the pious aspirations of the restored community (Neh_4:3; cf. Neh_2:10; cf. Neh_2:19), and true to their old instincts they appear on the side of the Syrians in the Maccabean war of independence (1Ma_5:6).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The section on which we now enter the great…
The section on which we now enter the great "parenthesis," as I have called it, of Ezekiel"s prophetic work contains messages to the seven nations that were most closely connected with the fortunes of Israel and Judah. These were
(1) Ammon; (Eze_25:1-7)
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(2) Moab; (Eze_25:8-11)
(3) Edom; (Eze_25:12-14)
(4) Philistia; (Eze_25:15-17)
(5) Tyre; (Eze 26:1-28:19)
(6) Zidon; (Eze_28:20-24)
(7) Egypt. (Eze 29:1-32:32)
A prophet"s work was hardly complete without such a survey of the Divine order of the world so far as it came within the horizon of his thoughts; and Ezekiel had before him the example of like groups of prophecies addressed to the heathen nations with which Israel was brought into contact, in Isaiah 13-23. and Jeremiah 46-51. It was natural that the two contemporary prophets should be led to address their messages to the same nations, and so we find Ezekiel"s seven named together with others in Jer_25:15-26, and five of them (Egypt and Philistia being excepted) in Jer_27:1-4; while we have fuller and special prophecies for Egypt; (Jer 46) Philistia; (Jer 47) Moab; (Jer 48) Ammon; (Jer_49:1-6) Edom, (Jer_49:7-22) with the addition of Damascus; (Jer_49:23-27) Kedar; (Jer_49:28-33) Elam; (Jer_49:34-39) Babylon. (Jer_1:1) What is remarkable in Ezekiel is that he has no message for Babylon, which for Isaiah and Jeremiah was the leading representative of the world-powers considered in their antagonism to the Divine kingdom. This may, in part, be explained by supposing that he omitted it in order to keep to his number of seven nations as the symbol of completeness; but a more probable hypothesis is that he was led, as Jeremiah had at one time been, (Jer_29:1-7) to see in the Chaldean monarchy the appointed minister of the Divine judgments on Jerusalem and on the other nations. For his immediate purpose it was fitter that the exiles for whom he wrote should "seek the peace" of the people among whom they dwelt rather than that they should exult in its future downfall. He, like Jeremiah, may have been personally favored by Nebuchadnezzar and his officials; and Daniel, whom he mentions with honor, (Eze_14:14) and whom he may have known personally, was the king"s chief minister. There was, we may well believe, a sufficient reason for this exceptional reticence.
Ver. 1. The judgment of the nations.
This verse introduces a new series of prophecies, which contain successive utterances of judgment against foreign nations, extending over the following chapters to the end of the thirty-second. The whole series is deserving of consideration, both for the sake of its common character and in order to note the distinctions of the several parts.
I GOD RULES OVER THE WHOLE EARTH. The prophet has not ended his mission when he has delivered his message to the Jews. He has a new oracle to utter. The word of God comes to him again with fresh, full, distinct declarations, and the whole of these declarations concern foreign nations. Seven nations are specified. The number is suggestive; the typical number of completeness, it implies that the nations named are not the only ones over whom God exercises jurisdiction, but that those nations, being the nearest to Israel, are selected as prominent specimens. The Hebrew prophets repeatedly extended their gaze far beyond the hills of Palestine. The Moabites might regard Jehovah as the tribal God of Israel, in the same sense in which Chemosh was their God (see the Moabite Stone), and Jephthah might use language which appeared to recognize this position, (Jud_1:11:24) but the inspired prophets made no such mistake. They knew that the one God was Lord over the whole earth. God is now concerned with the heathen. He is also concerned with the godless at home. Men may ignore, renounce, or oppose him, but they cannot elude his notice or escape from his authority.
II GOD EXERCISES HIS JUDGMENTS AGAINST WICKEDNESS OVER THE WHOLE EARTH. Those seven nations were called to account by God, charged with wickedness, and threatened with destruction. They were heathen nations, but that fact did not exonerate them from blame or protect them against just punishment. Christ announced a judgment of all the nations to follow that of Israel (Mat_25:32) St. Paul spoke to the Athenians of God"s judgment of all men, (Act_17:30, Act_17:31) and pointed out to the Romans that the heathen would be subject to it. (Rom_1:18) These and other expressions show us that those people who had not light and law would not be judged by the high standard of the more instructed, but that their own consciences would be the measure of their guilt. The heathen know sin. Unbelievers cannot deny their own misconduct in daily life, though they may deny the doctrines of Scripture. As sinners, just like other men, if not as unbelievers, will they be judged. We cannot escape the consequences of our sins by repudiating religion.
III GOD VISITS NATIONAL SINS WITH NATIONAL JUDGMENTS.
1. Each nation is judged as a whole. There is and there will be separate, individual judgments. Of this Christ spoke. (Mat_25:32) But while the New Testament is individualistic, the Old Testament is national. It more frequently takes a nation as a corporate unit. There are national sins,
(1) sins which are committed by many in the nation, and so become characteristic of it, as drunkenness among Teutonic nations; and
(2) sins committed by the people as a whole through its government. For such sins the nation is punished. England will be punished as a nation for England"s sins.
2. Each nation is judged separately. A distinct judgment is pronounced against each of the seven nations. God is discriminating in his judgment of communities as well as in his judgment of individuals. All have not sinned in the same way, therefore all will not be punished on the same scale. The Judge of all the earth will do right.
In conclusion, note that God, who rules over all the nations, and will judge them all, has sent his Son to be the Savior of all. The gospel is as broad as the judgment. (Rom_5:20)
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Vers. 1-7. Malignity.
The prophet, having been enjoined to silence for a season with regard to Israel, turns to the several heathen nations by which his countrymen were encompassed. His mission to them must have been one very painful to discharge; for he was called upon to rebuke their sins and to denounce against them the anger of an omniscient and righteous Ruler. Between Ammon and Israel there was ancient feud. But the day of Ammon"s judgment was now at hand.
I THE NATURE OF MALIGNITY. The children of Ammon are charged with malevolence and malignity. They wished harm to their neighbors, the children of Israel; and, when evil came upon them, they rejoiced in their neighbors" calamities. When Judah"s sanctuary was profaned, when the land was laid waste and desolate, when Judah"s sons were carried captive, they said, "Aha!" they clapped their hands, they stamped with their feet, and rejoiced with all the despite of their soul. All these actions were manifestations of a vile disposition and habit of mind leading to satisfaction in the ills and adversity befalling others. The reality of such a vice as malignity cannot be questioned.
II THE BASENESS OF MALIGNITY. There are sins into which men fall through the pressure of temptation arising from their natural constitution, and through the circumstances of life providentially permitted. We recognize in such sins signs of the frailty of human nature, and we make allowances for the strength of the temptation to which the sinner has yielded. But the sin of which the Ammonites were guilty was of a different kind. What were called by Lord Shaftesbury, the author of the "Characteristics," the "unsocial passions," are of all the most blamable and inexcusable. They are those habitual emotions known as malice, envy, jealousy, malignity. It is wrong to seek our own pleasures overmuch; but it is worse to seek and to delight in the suffering and the ruin of our fellow-creatures. Inasmuch as we are members of one race, of one body, and partakers of one nature, we are peculiarly bound to sympathy, benevolence, and mutual helpfulness. The Christian law is one of great beauty both in substance and in expression, "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, weep with them that weep." The malignity displayed by the children of Ammon was not only neglect and violation of the natural law of sympathy, it was in exact opposition to that law. This is a sin not even now extinct; traces of its presence may be found even in Christian communities, though decency may compel those who are guilty of it to conceal it with a thin disguise. But it is a sin which every conscience must condemn, and in defense or even extenuation of which no word can be uttered.
III THE EXPLANATION OF MALIGNITY. This habit of mind may have originated in a state of society in which every man"s hand was against his neighbor, in which, consequently, suspicion and distrust were prevalent. In such a state of social life (if it may so be called) the strength of a neighbor was a source of danger and fear to a people conscious of their own weakness; and any calamity which diminished a formidable neighbor"s power to harm would awaken satisfaction and rejoicing, as presaging peace and the opportunity of progress and prosperity. The emotion may survive the circumstances in which it arose. But this can be no excuse for the cherishing of malevolence and malignity in ordinary states of society, in which it is an unjustifiable expression of the worst tendencies of human nature.
IV THE CONDEMNATION AND PUNISHMENT OF MALIGNITY. The sentence issued against Ammon is one of awful severity; the sin must have been inexcusable and even horrible to call for such a punishment as is here published. They were to be conquered and spoiled; strangers were to possess their land and enjoy its produce; and as a people they were to be blotted out from amongst the nations, and to be no more. The displeasure of the Eternal could not be more powerfully exhibited. And there is every reason for believing that the same sin is ever regarded with the same disapproval and meets with a similar retribution. Malignity reached its deepest depths when the holy Jesus was hated by scribes, Pharisees, and religious leaders, who found in his goodness the reproach of their sin. Israel rejected Israel"s noblest Son, nay, the Son of God himself. And in rejecting Christ the ancient people of God brought upon themselves the condemnation which has from that day to this remained upon the scattered and homeless sons of Abraham. How awful and how instructive are the lessons concerning God"s hatred of sin embodied in the history of mankind! T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Vers. 1-17. The tribunal of nations.
The Hebrews in captivity might, with probability, suppose that, since God had employed other armies to chastise Israel, such nations were without sin, or else their sins had been condoned by God. Nothing of the sort. God is no Respecter of nations. Righteousness everywhere is acceptable to him. Unrighteousness anywhere is offensive. And touching the degrees of iniquity, he claims to be Supreme Judge and the wise Punisher. Because he employs men in his service, he does not allow this to be a criterion of their acceptance. Internal character, not external service, is the only passport to heaven. "The just shall live.
I THE SUPREME AUTHORITY AMONG NATIONS. Never yet have the nations of the world combined to elect a common tribunal, before which international disputes may be heard. We may hope for such in the future. Yet a Supreme Authority there is a King of nations! Undoubtedly, the God of heaven takes note of every national delinquency, deals with every nation in a method consonant with its present development, and visits it with reward or punishment according to its desert. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." And not individual persons only, but societies and empires, are weighed every day in the balance of Divine justice. A fierce light, not only from human eyes, but from the Divine eye, bends upon every throne.
II THE INDICTMENT. The indictment brought against the neighbors of Israel was twofold.
1. Rancorous hatred. The people of Ammon and others were chiefly incensed against Israel because of their peculiar religion. For a long period, Israel had maintained a great distinction, in that they scorned idol-deities. By virtue of their allegiance to the true God they had gained their triumphs over the degenerate Canaanites. Hence this dislike of Israel was, at its root, a dislike of Jehovah; and dislike of Jehovah meant dislike of righteousness.
2. Spiteful revenge. The nations whom God employed to humble Israel had gone beyond their commission. They had fostered the lowest animal passions, and had given way to fiercest revenge. So far as a nation wages war in defense of its rights, it may be approved. Yet if, in the prosecution of its task, it inflicts needless suffering, or rejoices in mere destruction, that nation, in its turn, has violated the rights of humanity, and will be punished. Even if God has given to a nation the clearest command to invade and to conquer, that command is circled round with the requirements of righteousness. Personal feeling must be repressed. Public advantage alone must be promoted. Otherwise that nation so employed becomes a criminal.
III THE SENTENCE.
1. It is equitable. Edom had dealt vengeance "against the house of Judah." Therefore the sentence is, "I will lay my vengeance upon Edom." The Philistines had "taken vengeance with a despiteful heart." Therefore, said God, "I will execute great vengeance upon them." Retribution is complete. The same word that describes the sin describes also the penalty. Every sin contains in its womb the embryo of chastisement.
2. The sentence includes desolating war. "They that take the sword, perish by the sword." The successful warrior teaches his enemies how to handle spear and shield. His personal strength does not abide forever, nor yet his personal influence. His watchful, sleepless foes wait in secret for their opportunity of revenge. Violence naturally begets violence. In return for reckless destruction on others, their lands were to be desolated productiveness to cease, cities to be razed, and their palaces to be occupied by the foe!
3. Annihilation of empire and name. The justice of God is far more sweeping than anything that we can conceive. "The Ammonites shall not be remembered among the nations." "I will cause thee to perish out of the countries." Men find a pleasure in posthumous fame. They love the anticipation of living again in their children and in their children"s children. To know in their lifetime that this prospect is cut off is a serious loss of enjoyment. One great source of pleasure is destroyed. One great inspiration to effort is extinguished.
IV A GRACIOUS RESPITE. The simple fact that Jehovah"s prophet fore-announced these things was an act of kindness. It gave the people an occasion and an urgent reason for repentance. This is not after the manner of men. In human jurisprudence there is no place for repentance. But God"s agencies are every way superior to man"s. As it was with Nineveh in Jonah"s day, so might it have been with Moab and Edom and Philistia. God"s patience and pity are wonderful. Yet, at length, justice strikes the avenging blow.
V THE FINAL AIM. "They shall know that I am the Lord." This conviction of God"s existence and God"s active righteousness will surely come at length, but in many cases will not come in time to avert the great catastrophe. Every such national overthrow will be a monument to God"s power and God"s veracity. "Being dead, these nations yet speak." The mounds ransacked today for treasures produce eloquent demonstrations of the truthfulness of ancient prophecy and of the certainty of Divine retribution. There is a knowledge that saves; there is a knowledge that does not save. D.
HOMILIES BY W. JONES Vers. 1-7. The sin and judgment of the Ammonites.
word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites," etc. For a time the mouth of Ezekiel was closed in relation to his own countrymen; he was to be to them as a dumb man, or at least dumb as a prophet. (Eze_24:27) But having already proclaimed the judgment of God upon Israel and Judah by various figures and with much reiteration, he proceeds to declare that judgment against the neighboring heathen nations. "Judgment indeed begins at the house of God; but if the Father of the household does not spare the sons, how soon must it alight upon the others! This doctrine first of all shines forth from the connection of this chapter with the preceding chapters. Then, also, we see here how, with all the special solicitude wherewith God interested himself in Israel, he still by no means lets the heathen out of his sight, since he must show himself to be a God also for the heathen." Of these nations the prophet first addresses himself to the Ammonites. They were related to the Israelites, being the descendants of Ben-ammi, the son of Lot by his younger daughter. Yet they were inveterate enemies to Israel. "They had joined Eglon, had oppressed Israel in the time of Jephthah, had fought against Saul, David, Jehoshaphat, and Jotham. They had joined the Moabites in Nebuchadnezzar"s army, when he besieged Jerusalem in the reign of Jehoiakim. (2Ki_24:2) And they exulted in the miseries of Israel and Judah. The date of this prophecy is uncertain. Hengstenberg says that "the date in Eze_24:1 applies to this also. What was predicted in Eze 24. regarding the immediate future of Judah is here presupposed as already accomplished; so that the point of view is ideal." But the "Speaker"s Commentary" supposes "that this prophecy was delivered immediately after the capture of the city by Nebuchadnezzar." We have in the text
I AN EXHIBITION OF THE SIN OF THE AMMONITES.
1. Exultation in the miseries of others. "Thou saidst, Aha! against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity." "They were," says Greenhill, "the neighbors bordering upon them; they were their confederates, in league with the King of Egypt, as the Jews were; they were their half-brethren, descending from Lot; and upon these accounts should have sympathized with the Jews, wept with those that wept, (Rom_12:15) been sensible of their great adversities; (Heb_13:3) but they insulted over them, mocked at them, were despiteful against them, and added coals to the fire, weight to their burdens, and more chains to their bonds". (cf. Lam_1:2) They rejoiced when Shalmaneser King of Assyria invaded Israel, desolated the land, and carried the people into captivity. (2Ki_17:1-6) Again, they exulted in the miseries of the people of Judah when they were conquered and carried into exile in Babylon. (2Ki_24:10-16 2Ki_25:1-11) They triumphed in the national ruin and sore calamities of the Jews. (cf. Eze_21:28; Lam_2:15, Lam_2:16; Zep_2:8) Such derision and insultation are directly opposed to the will of God, especially when, as in this ease, the mockers are themselves also guilty of the sin which brought down the distresses. When some suffer sore calamities, God"s will is that others should be thereby stimulated to consider their ways and repent of their evil doings. (cf. Luk_13:1-5) Moreover, in exulting over the fallen and mocking the miserable there is Satanic malevolence and shocking cruelty. Sometimes saintly men have severely suffered by reason of such mockery. David smarted under it, (Psa_35:12-16) But the guilt of the Ammonites was darker even than this. They rejoiced in the desecration of the temple of God. "Thou saidst, Aha! against my sanctuary, when it was profaned." They looked upon that as the overthrow of the religion of the Jews, and probably declared that Jehovah was unable to defend either his temple or his worshippers. Thus they were guilty of blasphemy against the Lord God.
1. Exultation in the miseries of others with cruel animosity. "Thou hast rejoiced with all the despite of thy soul against the land of Israel" (Ver. 6). They rejoiced "with the soul, with passion, therefore with the whole heart"s contempt of which" they were capable. They triumphed with revolting malignity.
2. Exultation in the miseries of others with cruel animosity in unrestrained expression. "Thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet," etc. (Ver. 6). Their bitter rejoicing knew no bounds of moderation or even of common decency. Such was their grievous and inhuman sin.
II A DECLARATION OF THE PUNISHMENT OF THE AMMONITES.
1. Their land should be given to others. "Therefore, behold, I will deliver thee to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in thee, and make their dwellings in thee; they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk." In the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar made war against the Ammonites, and brought them under subjection (Josephus, "Ant.," 10:9. 7). "After this the land was subjected to various masters" But at length it fell to the Arabians, who are spoken of by the prophet as "the children of the east." This was a common designation of the wandering tribes of the desert (cf. Jud_1:6:3) "They encamp now periodically in the land of Ammon. They have continued to do so for centuries. They, and they only, eat up the fruits of the land." Thus the children of Ammon, who had exulted in the expatriation of Israel and Judah, were despoiled of their own country.
2. Their metropolis should become a desolation. "And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the children of Ammon a couching-place for flocks." When this judgment was fulfilled we know not. But that it has been fulfilled is placed beyond dispute by the ruins of what was once a flourishing city. That city entered upon an era of marked prosperity under Egyptian rule. It was rebuilt or restored by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and was called Philadelphia, after his name. It existed for some centuries afterward with varying fortunes. "As far down as the fourth century (of the Christian era) it was esteemed one of the most remarkable and strongest cities of the whole of Coele-Syria." And now amidst its ruins may be traced the remains of a magnificent theatre, an ancient castle, temples, mausoleum, and other buildings. The doom has been fulfilled, and Rabbah, "the populous" (as the name signifies), is now a desolation and without an inhabitant. Dr. Kitto brings forward several witnesses to the fulfillment of the word of the Lord by the prophet in Ver. 5. Dr. Keith, in the last edition of his " Evidence from Prophecy," states that Lord Claud Hamilton told him that " while he was traversing the ruins of the city the number of goats and sheep which were driven in among them was exceedingly annoying, however remarkable as fulfilling the prophecies." Lord Lindsay found bones and skulls of camels moldering in the area of the theatre, and in the vaulted galleries of this immense structure. He says, " The valley stinks with dead camels, one of which was rolling in the stream; and although we saw none among the ruins, they were absolutely covered in every direction with their dung. That morning"s ride would have convinced a skeptic. How says the prophecy? "I will make Rabbah a stable for camels." He adds, "We met sheep and goats by thousands, and camels by hundreds, coming down to drink, all in beautiful condition." Mr. George Robinson also testifies, "The space intervening between the river and the western hills is entirely covered with the remains of private buildings, now only used as stables for camels and sheep. There is not a single inhabitant remaining: thus realizing the prophecy respecting this devoted city." These testimonials have occurred since attention has been called to the subject of the literal fulfillment of local prophecies. We add that of Mr. Buckingham, which is all the more valuable as being of anterior date. He halted for the night with a tribe of Arabs which he found encamped among the ruins, in a hollow behind the top of the theatre. Next morning he writes in his journal, "During the night I was almost entirely prevented from sleeping by the bleating of flocks, the neighing of mares, and the barking of dogs." "Thus literally and minutely has the prediction of the prophet been accomplished.
3. Their existence as a people would be terminated. "Therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the nations; and I will cut thee off from the peoples, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord." These expressions indicate utter and total, destruction. In this respect the judgment of the Ammonites was more severe than that pronounced upon Israel. For the latter there was hope and a future; but for the former the prophetic message closes darkly, even as their history has closed. As a tribe the Ammonites "disappear wholly at last in the Arabians.
CONCLUSION. "Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished". (Pro_17:5) "He that maketh others" calamities the object of his gladness stirs up God to be the Author of his destruction" (Greenhill). W.J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Set thy face against the Ammonites.
Eze_25:1-7
Set thy face against the Ammonites.
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Prophecies against foreign nations
At the outset it must be understood that prophecies of this kind form part of Jehovahs message to Israel. Although they are usually cast in the form of direct address to foreign peoples, this must not lead us to imagine that they were intended for actual publication in the countries to which they refer. A prophets real audience always consisted of his own countrymen, whether his discourse was about themselves or about their neighbours. And it is easy to see that it was impossible to declare the purpose of God concerning Israel in words that came home to mens business and bosoms, without taking account of the state and the destiny of other nations. Just as it would not be possible nowadays to forecast the future of Egypt without alluding to the fate of the Ottoman Empire, so it was not possible then to describe the future of Israel in the concrete manner characteristic of the prophets without indicating the place reserved for those peoples with whom it had close intercourse. Besides this, a large part of the national consciousness of Israel was made up of interests, friendly or the reverse, in neighbouring states. We cannot read the utterances of the prophets with regard to any of these nationalities without seeing that they often appeal to perceptions deeply lodged in the popular mind, which could be utilised to convey the spiritual lessons which the prophets desired to teach. It must not be supposed, however, that such prophecies are in any degree the expression of national vanity or jealousy. What the prophets aim at is to elevate the thoughts of Israel to the sphere of eternal truths of the kingdom of God; and it is only in so far as these can be made to touch the conscience of the nation at this point that they appeal to what we may call its international sentiments. Now, the question we have to ask is, What spiritual purpose for Israel is served by the announcements of the destiny of the outlying heathen populations? Speaking generally, prophecies of this class had a moral value for two reasons. In the first place, they re-echo and confirm the sentence of judgment passed on Israel herself. They do this in two ways: they illustrate the principle on which Jehovah deals with His own people, and His character as the righteous judge of men. Wherever a sinful kingdom was found, whether in Israel or elsewhere, that kingdom must be removed from its place among the nations. But again, not only was the principle of the judgment emphasised, but the manner in which it was to be carried out was more clearly exhibited. In all cases the pre-exilic prophets announce that the overthrow of the Hebrew states was to be effected either by the Assyrians or the Babylonians. These great world powers were in succession the instruments fashioned and used by Jehovah for the performance of His great work in the earth. Now it was manifest that if this anticipation was well founded, it involved the overthrow of all the nations in immediate contact with Israel. The people of Israel or Judah were thus taught to look on their fate as involved in a great scheme of Divine providence, overturning all the existing relations which gave them a place among the nations of the world, and preparing for a new development of the purpose of Jehovah in the future. When we turn to that ideal future we find a second and more suggestive aspect of these prophecies against the heathen. All the prophets teach that the destiny of Israel is inseparably bound up with the future of Gods kingdom on earth. What men needed to be taught then, and what we need to remember still, is that each nation holds its position in subordination to the ends of Gods government; that no power or wisdom or refinement will save a state from destruction when it ceases to serve the interests of His kingdom. The foreign peoples that come under the survey of the prophets are as yet strangers to the true God, and are therefore destitute of that which could secure them a place in the reconstruction of political relationships of which Israel is to be the religious centre. And whether any particular nation should survive to participate in the glories of that latter day depends on the view taken of its present condition and its fitness for incorporation in the universal empire of Jehovah soon to be established. We now know that this was not the form in which Jehovahs purpose of salvation was destined to be realised in the history of the world. Since the coming of Christ the people of Israel has lost its distinctive and central position as the bearer of the hopes and promises of the true religion. In its place we have a spiritual kingdom of men united by faith in Jesus Christ, and in the worship of one Father in spirit and in truth--a kingdom which from its very nature can have no local centre or political organisation. Hence the conversion of the heathen can no longer be conceived as national homage paid to the seat of Jehovahs sovereignty on Zion; nor is the unfolding of the Divine plan of universal salvation bound up with the extinction of the nationalities which once symbolised the hostility of the world to the kingdom of God. This fact has an important bearing on the question of the fulfilment of the foreign prophecies of the Old Testament. As concrete embodiments of the eternal principles exhibited in the rise and fall of nations, they have an abiding significance for the Church in all ages; but the actual working out of these principles in history could not, in the nature of things, be complete within the limits of the world known to the inhabitants of Judaea. If we are to look for their ideal fulfilment, we shall only find it in the progressive victory of Christianity over all forms of error and superstition, and in the dedication of all the resources of human civilisation--its wealth, its commercial enterprise, its political power--to the advancement of the kingdom of our God and His Christ. (John Skinner, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Ezekiel 25
AMMON, MOAB, EDOM, AND PHILISTIA
Ezekiel 25
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THE next eight chapters (25-32) form an intermezzo in the Book of Ezekiel. They are inserted in this place with the obvious intention of separating the two sharply contrasted situations in which our prophet found himself before and after the siege of Jerusalem. The subject with which they deal is indeed an essential part of the prophets message to his time, but it is separate from the central interest of the narrative, which lies in the conflict between the word of Jehovah in the hands of Ezekiel and the unbelief of the exiles among whom he lived. The perusal of this group of chapters is intended to prepare the reader for the completely altered conditions under which Ezekiel was to resume his public ministrations. The cycle of prophecies on foreign peoples is thus a sort of literary analogue of the period of suspense which interrupted the continuity of Ezekiels work in the way we have seen. It marks the shifting of the scenes behind the curtain before the principal actors again step on the stage.
It is natural enough to suppose that the prophets mind was really occupied during this time with the fate of Israels heathen neighbours; but that alone does not account for the grouping of the oracles before us in this particular section of the book. Not only do some of the chronological notices carry us far past the limit of the time of silence referred to, but it will be found that nearly all the prophecies assume that the fall of Jerusalem is already known to the nations addressed. It is therefore a mistaken view which holds that in these chapters we have simply the result of Ezekiels meditations during his period of enforced seclusion from public duty. Whatever the nature of his activity at this time may have been, the principle of arrangement here is not chronological, but literary; and no better motive for it can be suggested than the writers sense of dramatic propriety in unfolding the significance of his prophetic life.
In uttering a series of oracles against heathen nations, Ezekiel follows the example set by some of his greatest predecessors. The Book of Amos, for example, opens with an impressive chapter of judgments on the peoples lying immediately round the borders of Palestine. The thundercloud of Jehovahs anger is represented as moving over the petty states of Syria before it finally breaks in all its fury over the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Similarly the Books of Isaiah and Jeremiah contain continuous sections dealing with various heathen powers, while the Book of Nahum is wholly occupied with a prediction of the ruin of the Assyrian empire. And these are but a few of the more striking instances of a phenomenon which is apt to cause perplexity to close and earnest students of the Old Testament. We have here to do, therefore, with a standing theme of Hebrew prophecy; and it may help us better to understand the attitude of Ezekiel if we consider for a moment some of the principles involved in this constant pre-occupation of the prophets with the affairs of the outer world.
At the outset it must be understood that prophecies of this kind form part of Jehovahs message to Israel. Although they are usually cast in the form of direct address to foreign peoples, this must not lead us to imagine that they were intended for actual publication in the countries to which they refer. A prophets real audience always consisted of his own countrymen, whether his discourse was about themselves or about their neighbours. And it is easy to see that it was impossible to declare the purpose of God concerning Israel in words that came home to mens business and bosoms, without taking account of the state and destiny of other nations. Just as it would not be possible nowadays to forecast the future of Egypt without alluding to the fate of the Ottoman empire, so it was not possible then to describe the future of Israel in the concrete manner characteristic of the prophets without indicating the place reserved for those peoples with whom it had close intercourse. Besides this, a large part of the national consciousness of Israel was made up of interests, friendly or the reverse, in neighbouring states.
The Hebrews had a keen eye for national idiosyncrasies, and the simple international relations of those days were almost as vivid and personal as of neighbours living in the same village. To be an Israelite was to be something characteristically different from a Moabite, and that again from an Edomite or a Philistine, and every patriotic Israelite had a shrewd sense of what the difference was. We cannot read the utterances of the prophets with regard to any of these nationalities without seeing that they often appeal to perceptions deeply lodged in the popular mind, which could be utilised to convey the spiritual lessons which the prophets desired to teach.
It must not be supposed, however, that such prophecies are in any degree the expression of national vanity or jealousy. What the prophets aim at is to elevate the thoughts of Israel to the sphere of eternal truths of the kingdom of God; and it is only in so far as these can be made to touch the conscience of the nation at this point that they appeal to what we may call its international sentiments. Now the question we have to ask is, What spiritual purpose for Israel is served by the announcements of the destiny of the outlying heathen populations? There are of course special interests attaching to each particular prophecy which it would be difficult to classify. But, speaking generally, prophecies of this class had a moral value for two reasons. In the first place, they re-echo and confirm the sentence of judgment passed on Israel herself. They do this in two ways: they illustrate the principle on which Jehovah deals with His own people, and His character as the righteous judge of men. Israel was to be destroyed for her national sins, her contempt of Jehovah, and her breaches of the moral law. But other nations, though more excusable, were not less guilty than Israel. The same spirit of ungodliness, in different forms, was manifested by Tyre, by Egypt, by Assyria, and by the petty states of Syria. Hence, if Jehovah was really the righteous ruler of the world, He must visit upon these nations their iniquities. Wherever a "sinful kingdom" was found, whether in Israel or elsewhere, that kingdom must be removed from its place among the nations. This appears most clearly, in the Book of Amos, who, though he enunciates the paradoxical truth that Israels sin must be punished just because it was the only people that Jehovah had known, nevertheless, as we have seen, thundered forth similar judgments on other nations for their flagrant violation of the universal law written in the human heart. In this way therefore the prophets enforced on their contemporaries the fundamental lesson of their teaching that the disasters which were coming on them were not the result of the caprice or impotence of their Deity, but the execution of His moral purpose, to which all men everywhere are subject. But again, not only was the principle of the judgment emphasised, but the manner in which it was to be carried out was more clearly exhibited. In all cases the pre-exilic prophets announce that the overthrow of the Hebrew states was to be effected either by the Assyrians or the Babylonians. These great world-powers were in succession the instruments fashioned and used by Jehovah for the performance of His great work in the earth. Now it was manifest that if this anticipation was well founded it involved the overthrow of all the nations in immediate contact with Israel.
The policy of the Mesopotamian monarchs was well understood; and if their wonderful successes were the revelation of the Divine purpose, then Israel would not be judged alone. Accordingly we find in most instances that the chastisement of the heathen is either ascribed directly to the invaders or else to other agencies set in motion by their approach. The people of Israel or Judah were thus taught to look on their fate as involved in a great scheme of Divine providence, overturning all the existing relations which gave them a place among the nations of the world and preparing for a new development of the purpose of Jehovah in the future.
When we turn to that ideal future we find a second and more suggestive aspect of these prophecies against the heathen. All the prophets teach that the destroy of Israel is inseparably bound up with the future of Gods kingdom on earth. The Old Testament never wholly shakes off the idea that the preservation and ultimate victory of the true religion demands the continued existence of the one people to whom the revelation of the true God had been committed. The indestructibility of Israels national life depends on its unique position in relation to the purposes of Jehovah, and it is for this reason that the prophets look forward with unwavering confidence to a time when the knowledge of Jehovah shall go forth from Israel to all the nations of mankind. And this point of view we must try to enter into if we are to understand the meaning of their declarations concerning the fate of the surrounding nations. If we ask whether an independent future is reserved in the new dispensation for the peoples with whom Israel had dealings in the past, we find that different and sometimes conflicting answers are given. Thus Isaiah predicts a restoration of Tyre after the lapse of seventy years, while Ezekiel announces its complete and final destruction. It is only when we consider these utterances in the light of the prophets general conception of the kingdom of God that we discern the spiritual truth that gives them an abiding significance for the instruction of all ages. It was not a matter of supreme religious importance to know whether Phoenicia or Egypt or Assyria would retain their old place in the world, and share indirectly in the blessings of the Messianic age. What men needed to be taught then, and what we need to remember still, is that each nation holds its position in subordination to the ends of Gods government, and no power or wisdom or refinement will save a state from destruction when it ceases to serve the interests of His kingdom. The foreign peoples that come under the survey of the prophets are as yet strangers to the true God, and are therefore destitute of that which could secure them a place in the reconstruction of political relationships of which Israel is to be the religious centre. Sometimes they are represented as having by their hostility to Israel or their pride of heart so encroached on the sovereignty of Jehovah that their doom is already sealed. At other times they are conceived as converted to the knowledge of the true God, and as gladly accepting the place assigned to them in the humanity of the future by consecrating their wealth and power to the service of His people Israel. In all cases it is their attitude to Israel and the God of Israel that determines their destiny: that is the great truth which the prophets design to impress on their countrymen. So long as the cause of religion was identified with the fortunes of the people of Israel no higher conception of the redemption of mankind could be formed than that of a willing subjection of the nations of the earth to the word of Jehovah which went forth from Jerusalem {cf. Isa_2:2-4} And whether any particular nation should survive to participate in the glories of that latter day depends on the view taken of its present condition and its fitness for incorporation in the universal empire of Jehovah soon to be established.
We now know that this was not the form in which Jehovahs purpose of salvation was destined to be realised in the history of the world. Since the coming of Christ the people of Israel has lost its distinctive and central position as the bearer of the hopes and promises of the true religion. In its place we have a spiritual kingdom of men united by faith in Jesus Christ, and in the worship of one Father in spirit and in truth-a kingdom which from its very nature can have no local centre or political organisation. Hence the conversion of the heathen can no longer be conceived as national homage paid to the seat of Jehovahs sovereignty on Zion; nor is the unfolding of the Divine plan of universal salvation bound up with the extinction of the nationalities which once symbolised the hostility of the world to the kingdom of God. This fact has an important bearing on the question of the fulfilment of the foreign prophecies of the Old Testament. Literal fulfilment is not to be looked for in this case any more than in the delineations of Israels future, which are after all the predominant element of Messianic prediction. It is true that the nations passed under review have now vanished from history, and in so far as their fall was brought about by causes operating in the world in which the prophets moved, it must be recognised as a partial but real vindication of the truth of their words. But the details of the prophecies have not been historically verified. All attempts to trace their accomplishment in events that took place long afterwards and in circumstances which the prophets themselves never contemplated only lead us astray from the real interest which belongs to them. As concrete embodiments of the eternal principles exhibited in the rise and fall of nations they have an abiding significance for the Church in all ages; but the actual working out of these principles in history could not in the nature of things be complete within the limits of the world known to the inhabitants of Judaea. If we are to look for their ideal fulfilment, we shall only find it in the progressive victory of Christianity over all forms of error and superstition, and in the dedication of all the resources of human civilisation-its wealth, its commercial enterprise, its political power-to the advancement of the kingdom of our God and His Christ.
It was natural from the special circumstances in which he wrote, as well as from the general character of his teaching, that Ezekiel, in his oracles against the heathen powers, should present only the dark side of Gods providence. Except in the case of Egypt, the nations addressed are threatened with annihilation, and even Egypt is to be reduced to a condition of utter impotence and humiliation. Very characteristic also is his representation of the purpose which comes to light in, this series of judgments. It is to he a great demonstration to all the earth of the absolute sovereignty of Jehovah. "Ye shall know that I am Jehovah" is the formula that sums up the lesson of each nations fall. We observe that the prophet starts from the situation created by the fall of Jerusalem. That great calamity bore in the first instance the appearance of a triumph of heathenism over Jehovah the God of Israel. It was, as the prophet elsewhere expresses it, a profanation of His holy name in the eyes of the nations. And in this light it was undoubtedly regarded by the petty, principalities around Palestine, and perhaps also by the more distant and powerful spectators, such as Tyre and Egypt. From the standpoint of heathenism the downfall of Israel meant the defeat of its tutelary Deity; and the neighbouring nations, in exulting over the tidings of Jerusalems fate, had in their minds the idea of the prostrate Jehovah unable to save His people in their hour of need. It is not necessary to suppose that Ezekiel attributes to them any consciousness of Jehovahs claim to be the only living and true God. It is the paradox of revelation that He who is the Eternal and Infinite first revealed Himself to the world as the God of Israel; and all the misconceptions that sprang out of that fact had to be cleared away by His self-manifestation in historical acts that appealed to the world at large. Amongst these acts the judgment of the heathen nations holds the first place in the mind of Ezekiel. A crisis has been reached at which it becomes necessary for Jehovah to vindicate His divinity by the destruction of those who have exalted themselves against Him. The world must learn once for all that Jehovah is no mere tribal god, but the omnipotent ruler of the universe. And this is the preparation for the final disclosure of His power and Godhead in the restoration of Israel to its own land, which will speedily follow the overthrow of its ancient foes. This series of prophecies forms thus an appropriate introduction to the third division of the book, which deals with the formation of the new people of Jehovah.
It is somewhat remarkable that Ezekiels survey of the heathen nations is restricted to those in the immediate vicinity of the land of Canaan. Although he had unrivalled opportunities of becoming acquainted with the remote countries of the East, he confines his attention to the Mediterranean states which had long played a part in Hebrew history. The peoples dealt with are seven in number-Ammon, Moab, Edom, the Philistines, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt. The order of the enumeration is geographical: first the inner circle of Israels immediate neighbours, from Ammon on the east round to Sidon in the extreme north; then outside the circle the preponderating world-power of Egypt. It is not altogether an accidental circumstance that five of these nations are named in the twenty-seventh chapter of Jeremiah as concerned in the project of rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar in the early part of Zedekiahs reign. Egypt and Philistia are not mentioned there, but we may surmise at least that Egyptian diplomacy was secretly at work pulling the wires which set the puppets in motion. This fact, together with the omission of Babylon from the list of threatened nations, shows that Ezekiel regards the judgment as falling within the period of Chaldean supremacy, which he appears to have estimated at forty years. What is to be the fate of Babylon itself he nowhere intimates, a conflict between that great world-power and Jehovahs purpose being no part of his system. That Nebuchadnezzar is to be the agent of the overthrow of Tyre and the humiliation of Egypt is expressly stated; and although the crushing of the smaller states is ascribed to other agencies, we can hardly doubt that these were conceived as indirect consequences of the upheaval caused by the Babylonian invasion.
Chapter 25, then, consists of four brief prophecies addressed respectively to Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines. A few words on the fate prefigured for each of these countries will suffice for the explanation of the chapter.
1. AMMON (Eze_25:2-7) lay on the edge of the desert, between the upper waters of the Jabbok and the Arnon, separated from the Jordan by a strip of Israelitish territory from twenty to thirty miles wide. Its capital, Rabbah, mentioned here (Eze_25:5), was situated on a southern tributary of the Jabbok, and its ruins still bear amongst the Arabs the ancient national name Amman. Although their country was pastoral (milk is referred to in Eze_25:4) as one of its chief products, the Ammonites seem to have made some progress in civilisation. Jeremiah {Jer_49:4} speaks of them as trusting in their treasures: and in this chapter Ezekiel announces that they shall be for a spoil to the nations (Eze_25:7). After the deportation of the transjordanic tribes by Tiglath-pileser, Ammon seized the country that had belonged to the tribe of Gad, its nearest neighbour on the west. This encroachment is denounced by the prophet Jeremiah in the opening words of his oracle against Ammon: "Hath Israel no children? or has he no heir? why doth Milcom" (the national deity of the Ammonites) "inherit Gad, why hath his" (Milcoms) "folk settled in his" (Gads) "cities." {Jer_49:1} We have already seen (chapter 21) that the Ammonites took part in the rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, and stood out after the other members of the league had gone back from their purpose. But this temporary union with Jerusalem did nothing to abate the old national animosity, and the disaster of Judah was a signal for an exhibition of malignant satisfaction on the part of Ammon. "Because thou hast said, Aha, against My sanctuary when it was profaned, and the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and the house of Judah when it went into captivity," etc. (Eze_25:3)-for this crowning offence against the majesty of Jehovah, Ezekiel denounces an exterminating judgment on Ammon. The land shall be given up to the "children of the East"-i.e.., the Bedouin Arabs-who shall pitch their tent encampments in it, eating its fruits and drinking its milk, and turning the "great city" Rabbah itself into a resting-place for camels (Eze_25:4-5). It is not quite clear (though it is commonly assumed) that the children of the East are regarded as the actual conquerors of Ammon. Their possession of the country may be the consequence rather than the cause of the destruction of civilisation, the encroachment of the nomads being as inevitable under these circumstances as the extension of the desert itself where water fails.
2. MOAB (Eze_25:8-11) comes next in order. Its proper territory, since the settlement of Israel in Canaan, was the elevated tableland south of the Arnon, along the lower part of the Dead Sea. But the tribe of Reuben, which bordered it on the north, was never able to hold its ground against the superior strength of Moab, and hence the latter nation is found in possession of the lower and more fertile district stretching northwards from the Arnon, now called the Belka. All the cities, indeed, which are mentioned in this chapter as belonging to Moab-Bethjeshimoth, Baalmeon, and Kirjathaim-were situated in this northern and properly Israelite region. These were the "glory of the land," which were now to be taken away from Moab (Eze_25:9). In Israel Moab appears to have been regarded as the incarnation of a peculiarly offensive form of national pride, {Isa_16:6; Isa_25:11 Jer_48:29; Jer_48:42} of which we happen to have a monument in the famous Moabite Stone, which was erected by the Mesha in the ninth century B.C. to commemorate the victories of Chemosh over Jehovah and Israel. The inscription shows, moreover, that in the arts of civilised life Moab was at that early time no unworthy rival of Israel itself. It is for a special manifestation of this haughty and arrogant spirit in the day of Jerusalems calamity that Ezekiel pronounces Jehovahs judgment on Moab: "Because Moab hath said, Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations" (Eze_25:8). These words no doubt reflect accurately the sentiment of Moab towards Israel, and they presuppose a consciousness on the part of Moab of some unique distinction pertaining to Israel in spite of all the humiliations it had undergone since the time of David. And the thought of Moab may have been more widely disseminated among the nations than we are apt to suppose: "The kings of the earth believed not, neither all the inhabitants of the world, that the adversary and the enemy should enter into the gates of Jerusalem". {Lam_4:12} The Moabites at all events breathed a sigh of relief when Israels pretensions to religious ascendency seemed to be confuted, and thereby they sealed their own doom. They share the fate of the Ammonites, their land being handed over for a possession to the sons of the East (Eze_25:10).
Both these nations, Ammon and Moab, were absorbed by the Arabs, as Ezekiel had foretold; but Ammon at least preserved its separate name and nationality through many changes of fortune down to the second century after Christ.
3. EDOM (Eze_25:12-14), famous in the Old Testament for its wisdom, {Jer_49:7; Oba_1:8} occupied the country to the south of Moab from the Dead Sea to the head of the Gulf of Akaba. In Old Testament times the centre of its power was in the region to the east of the Arabah Valley, a position of great commercial importance, as commanding the caravan route from the Red Sea port of Elath to Northern Syria. From this district the Edomites were afterwards driven (about 300 B.C.) by the Arabian tribe of the Nabataeans, when they took up their abode in the south of Judah. None of the surrounding nations were so closely akin to Israel as Edom, and with none were its relations more embittered and hostile. The Edomites had been subjugated and nearly exterminated by David, had been again subdued by Amaziah and Uzziah, but finally recovered their independence during the attack of the Syrians and Ephraimites on Judah in the reign of Ahaz. The memory of this long struggle produced in Edom a "perpetual enmity," an undying hereditary hatred towards the kingdom of Judah. But that which made the name of Edom to be execrated by the later Jews was its conduct after the fall of Jerusalem. The prophet Obadiah represents it as sharing in the spoil of Jerusalem (Eze_25:10), and as "standing in the crossway to cut off those that escaped" (Eze_25:14). Ezekiel also alludes to this in the thirty-fifth chapter (Eze_25:5), and tells us further that in the time of the captivity the Edomites seized part of the territory of Israel (Eze_25:10-12), from which indeed the Jews were never able altogether to dislodge them. For the guilt they thus incurred by taking advantage of the humiliation of Jehovahs people, Ezekiel here threatens them with extinction; and the execution of the divine vengeance is in their case entrusted to the children of Israel themselves (Eze_25:13-14). They were, in fact, finally subdued by John Hyrcanus in 126 B.C., and compelled to adopt the Jewish religion. But long before then they had lost their prestige and influence, their ancient seats having passed under the dominion of the Arabs in common with all the neighbouring countries.
4. THE PHILISTINES (Eze_25:15-17)-the "immigrants" who had settled along the Mediterranean coast, and who were destined to leave their name to the whole country-had evidently played a part very similar to the Edomites at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem; but of this nothing is known beyond what is here said by Ezekiel. They were at this time a mere "remnant" (Eze_25:16), having been exhausted by the Assyrian and Egyptian wars, Their fate is not precisely indicated in the prophecy. They were in point of fact gradually extinguished by the revival of Jewish domination under the Asmonean dynasty.
One other remark may here be made, as showing the discrimination which Ezekiel brought to bear in estimating the characteristics of each separate nation. He does not ascribe to the greater powers, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt, the same petty and vindictive jealousy of Israel which actuated the diminutive nationalities dealt with in this chapter. These great heathen states, which played so imposing a part in ancient civilisation, had a wide outlook over the affairs of the world; and the injuries they inflicted on Israel were due less to the blind instinct of national hatred than to the pursuit of far-reaching schemes of selfish interest and aggrandisement. If Tyre rejoices over the fall of Jerusalem, it is because of the removal of an obstacle to the expansion of her commercial enterprise. When Egypt is described as having been an occasion of sin to the people of God, what is meant is that she had drawn Israel into the net of her ambitious foreign policy, and led her away from the path of safety pointed out by Jehovahs will through the prophets. Ezekiel pays a tribute to the grandeur of their position by the care he bestows on the description of their fate. The smaller nations embodying nothing of permanent value for the advancement of humanity, he dismisses each with a short and pregnant oracle announcing its doom. But when he comes to the fall of Tyre and of Egypt his imagination is evidently impressed; he lingers over all the details of the picture, he returns to it again and again, as if he would penetrate the secret of their greatness and understand the potent fascination which their names exercised throughout the world. It would be entirely erroneous to suppose that he sympathises with them in their calamity, but certainly he is conscious of the blank which will be caused by their disappearance from history; he feels that something will have vanished from the earth whose loss will be mourned by the nations far and near. This is most apparent in the prophecy on Tyre, to which we now proceed.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain PREDICTIONS OF JUDGMENTS UPON THE AMMONITES, MOABITES, EDOMITES, AND…
PREDICTIONS OF JUDGMENTS UPON THE AMMONITES, MOABITES, EDOMITES, AND PHILISTINES. (Chap. 25)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.—In chs. 25–32, we come to a new group of prophecies. They are predictions of judgment upon the heathen nations.
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“While the prophet’s mouth was to be mute to Israel, the Lord directed him to speak against the heathen nations, and to foretell to them the judgment of destruction, that they might not be lifted up by the fall of the people and kingdom of God, but might recognise in the judgment upon Israel a work of the Omnipotence and righteousness of the Lord, the Judge of the whole earth. There are seven heathen nations whose destruction Ezekiel foretells in this section of his book, viz.,
(1) Ammon;
(2) Moab;
(3) Edom;
(4) the Philistines (ch. 25);
(5) Tyre;
(6) Sidon (ch. 26–28); and
(7) Egypt (ch. 29–32). These prophecies are divided into thirteen words of God by the introductory formula, ‘the word of Jehovah came to me,’ the utterances against Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines, being all comprehended in one word of God whereas there are four separate words of God directed against Tyre, one against Sidon, and seven against Egypt. In the seven nations and the seven words of God directed against Egypt we cannot fail to discover an allusion to the symbolical significance of the number. And in order to make it the more apparent that the number has been chosen on account of its significance, Ezekiel divides his announcement of the judgment upon the seventh people into seven words of God. On the basis of Genesis 1, seven is the number denoting the completion of the works of God. When therefore, Ezekiel selects seven nations and utters seven words of God concerning the principal nation, namely Egypt, he evidently intends to indicate thereby that the judgment predicted will be executed and completed upon the heathen world and its peoples through the word and acts of God.”—(Keil).
(Eze_25:1-17).
Eze_25:3. “The Ammonites … Because thou saidst, Aha, against My sanctuary, when it was profaned.” etc. “They were the descendants of Lot, and occupied the territory to the east of the Jordan, beyond that pertaining to the tribes of Reuben and Gad. They formed one of the most powerful of the minor neighbouring states, and were frequently at war with the Hebrews. They were gross idolaters, and had for their national God Moloch or Milcom. On the fall of Jerusalem, to which as auxiliaries they contributed, and the transportation of the inhabitants of Judea to Babylon, they insolently triumphed over them, on which account the present threatening is denounced against them.”—(Henderson).
Eze_25:4. “I will deliver thee to the men of the East for a possession.” “The men of the East are the inhabitants of Arabia Deserta, east of the territories immediately bordering on the Jordan and the Dead Sea. On the destruction of the Jewish state by Nebuchadnezzar, the country was to be taken possession of by the nomadic tribes, who should there form their encampments and dwell in their tents, leading the same pastoral life to which they had been accustomed.”—(Henderson.) “Palaces.” The Heb. word never means “palaces,” but only “villages,” or “folds.” These were nomadic encampments, surrounded by mud walls, as is common in the East. “Thy fruit … thy milk.” Besides the produce of the soil, the milk is also mentioned as one of the products of a pastoral life, and the principal food of nomads.
Eze_25:5. “Rabbah.” This was the metropolis of the Ammonites. It is elsewhere called Rabbah of Ammon to distinguish it from a city of that name in the tribe of Judah. Ptolemy rebuilt it and gave it the name of Philadelphia. “A stable for camels.” The city rebuilt by Ptolemy was in ruins in the fourteenth century. These have been visited by modern travellers, who have found remains of a palace, a mausoleum, an ampitheatre, a temple, a church, and a castle, but they could not discover a single inhabited dwelling. Burckhardt found a party of Arabs there, who had stabled their camels among the ruins.
Eze_25:7. “I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee.” “This desolate state of Rabbah must be referred to the three hundred years which intervened between the destruction of Jerusalem and the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, after which it became celebrated among the Greeks and Romans, by whom, no doubt, the splendid buildings, the ruins of which still remain; were erected.”—(Henderson.)
Eze_25:8. “Moab and Seir do say, Behold the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen.” They had forgotten that nine centuries before this a king of Moab had been told by a Gentile seer, that Israel should “dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations.” (Num_23:9.)
Eze_25:9. “I will open the side of Moab.” The mountain passes would be cleared, which were otherwise closed and fortified. Thus the enemy could easily enter the country and take possession.
Eze_25:12. “Revenged himself upon them.” “The old spirit of revenge, in which he had acted from the olden time, still keeps by his side. While in the more distant relationship of Ammon and Moab, malignant joy is the expression of hostile feeling, with Edom, in his much nearer relationship, the same feeling vents itself in actions of revenge. Hence the charge of sinful procedure as the incurring of guilt.”—(Lange.)
Eze_25:15. “Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge.” “The Philistines are in Eze_25:15 joined by Edom on the side of their doing (Eze_25:12, &c.); to Ammon-Moab on account of their contempt of the people of God. The latter was the inmost feeling, hostility the impelling force, wherein the distinction from Edom lay. “To destroy it for the old hatred.” This is the design, the abiding tendency. The everlasting enmity reached back to the earliest days. A perpetually enduring war is the standing feature of the relation, while fixed hostility was the root of it.”—(Lange.)
Eze_25:16. “I will cut off the Cherethims.” “The name Philistines signifies probably the emigrants, in accordance with the accounts of the books of Moses concerning their migration from the regions on the Black Sea. By the side of this name goes, of substantially like signification for the same people, Kerethim, extirpated—those who were forced to leave their native land. These Kerethim are now become Kerethim a second time; their name shall verify itself anew. The destruction of the remnant points to this, that they shall be destroyed to the last man, as in fact the Philistines have utterly disappeared. It is the great privilege of the people of God, that how heavy soever the judgments of God may be upon them, never will it be said of them, I will destroy the remnant.”—(Hengstenberg.)
HOMILETICS
THE PROPHECIES AGAINST HEATHEN NATIONS
I. Heathen nations formed the dark background to Israel. In the spiritual darkness in which they dwelt, we may trace different shades. Ammon, Moab, Edom, in their order, represent increasing blackness of darkness, until we come to the full depths of it in the Philistines. These heathen nations were a source of continual danger to the people of God. The Church of God is ever surrounded by the world; a world which exhibits every gradation of evil, coarse, refined; the devil rough and blustering, or as an angel of light. In the case of the three first nations mentioned by the prophet, their guilt was enhanced by their relationship to Israel. “The people of God must undergo the experience which the man of God undergoes (Mat_10:36, Mic_7:6). Out of his blood-relationships there springs a hostility even to blood. While this revolves around the Spirit that wrought in Israel, it could not but finally array itself against the Messiah, as He has Himself said that we shall be hated for His name’s sake.”—(Lange).
II. Heathen nations had sinned against Israel. Ammon, by profane mocking at their calamities (Eze_25:3-6). Moab, by a false estimate of Israel’s spiritual position. “The house of Israel is like unto all the heathen” (Eze_25:8). They could not understand that it was impossible that Israel should ever become as the heathen (Eze_20:32). Israel would have more responsibility than the rest of the nations, as she would sin against the light. Edom, “by taking vengeance” (Eze_25:12). The Philistines, by an old and deeply-rooted hatred towards Israel (Eze_25:15).
III. Heathen nations have responsibilities towards God. They were not held so strictly responsible as those who had more light and privilege, yet they were not in such total and unrelieved darkness as to render them inexcusable.
1. They were capable of hearing and receiving God’s message. “Hear the word of the Lord” (Eze_25:3). They had some knowledge of what righteousness was. They had a conscience to which an appeal might be made.
2. They were capable of forming judgments on the subject of religion. We mean religion in the sense of Godliness, and including all duty. The heathen nations knew that Israel was punished for her sins against God. They rejoiced over her fall (Eze_25:3). They thought that all these calamities disproved their claim to be the people of God. A Gentile seer (probably of Edomite extraction) was, long ago, struck with the conviction that the nation was holy (Num_23:10). The surrounding heathen nations felt that they were not as Israel when Israel was right with God.
3. They were capable of the knowledge of God. “And they shall know that I am the Lord” (Eze_25:17). They would be made to know God through His manifest judgments.
IV. God’s treatment of heathen nations shows His purpose of salvation concerning all mankind. It was no true victory that the heathen nations obtained over Israel. Though to all outward seeming Israel was about to be numbered with dead empires, yet she would rise again in a more glorious form, and become the life and light of the nations. Her disasters and failures would serve but to prepare the way for God’s kingdom. The Gentile nations would, in the course of Providence, be made to see that the chosen people were preserved for the salvation of the world.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Section 1 (Eze 25:1-11).
Section 1 (Eze 25:1-11).
Ammon-Moab, one in descent, in sin, and retribution. Their land given to the sons of the East.
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First of all, the kindred peoples of Ammon and Moab are set before us: one in their origin, according to their well-known shameful history, and one in their sin, as we shall see directly; one also, therefore, in the retribution which comes upon their sin. Yet there is a difference between them, a difference fully recognized in what we find here.
1. Ammon faces us first. In him is marked opposition to the sanctuary and to the land of Israel. But the sanctuary is God’s dwelling among men, the expression thus of grace -a grace which has been only more fully made known in after-times. In Christ we have had the fullest expression of it, dwelling amongst men in such a way as told out His delight in them; and this is a step which He will never take back. In Him, God and man are indissolubly joined, and with Him there is no repentance. The land of Israel is the portion which God in grace has given them, and in which He would make manifest the blessedness of those who draw near to Him. These are lessons which at all times are meant to speak to all; but as Israel on the one hand could take such privileges to glorify themselves with them, and despise others, so on the other hand, men could take them as the mere exhibition of a narrow partiality on God’s part, and make Him but as one of the gods of the nations round about.
If in this way we look back at the history of Ammon it will have continual significance for us. Their first father’s name, Ben-ammi, "son of my people," is significant, if we think of it as in opposition to the people of God. The land also, as we find in the history of the Judges, he covets for himself, though he can take possession really of nothing, being only the nomad ravager which everything shows him to be. Thus, as others have remarked, we have no cities of the land of Ammon; nothing that indicates the proper occupation of the soil or the care of the agriculturist. Rabbah is his one city, "numerous," as we may read the word, the hold of a motley host, as it were, but the stronghold of a Bedouin race; and the judgment which falls upon it is completely in character with this. In the congruous ways of God, the land of Ammon is given up to similar raiders, "the sons of the East;" the word for east signifying what is opposite to you, but which may easily acquire the character of what we find in the east wind -what is in opposition, or adverse. "The sons of the East," such as the Ishmaelites, were men whose hand was against every one, and every one’s hand against them. Rabbah, under them, becomes itself broken up, and is but a habitation for camels, "the burden bearers" of the desert.
If we look further at Ammon, and in the light of his previous history, which has been elsewhere considered, we need have little difficulty in discerning the foe who makes his attack upon the things of primary importance for us; above all, upon the grace of God and the portion which grace has for His people. It is characteristic of the errorist of all time, in whom the power of Satan specially is at work, one who is ever against Christ, and necessarily, therefore, against His people. Nahash, "the serpent," the king of Ammon, is thus the figure of the great adversary of God and man. His attack upon the people in Saul’s time has been already considered in its place. Heresy, as we know, takes away the portion of God’s people, but it is able to do nothing with it. It cannot make the land fruitful in which it is simply a raider, and indeed cannot retain that upon which it may lay hold, as we see in Ammon’s previous possession of the land of Sihon which they had lost to the Amorite.
All this is in the deepest way instructive for those who have learned in Scripture history to find not merely that, but prophecy also, bringing out, as prophecy ever does, the mind of God, His judgment of all the things that come into man’s mind. It is not the place to dwell upon it here at length, but the history will be found in this way significant throughout, and not merely in a few points which a lively imagination may read things into. The history as such, with all its admonition, is the more confirmed, of course, as we realize it to be an inspired history; with the breath of the Spirit of God in them, the prophets wrote much better than they knew.
2. From Ammon now we turn to Moab, who is associated in the closest way with Ammon, and with Seir also, in whom one of the great lessons that we read is the gravity of the association. In all that is here Moab is scarcely seen alone. Moab is the company-lover, and not careful as to the company he keeps; he is the true child of Lot, as we see at once, if we remember him as with Abraham on the one hand, and on the other off into Sodom, drawn there by what gain he can find in it. Moab is thus the very type of the comfortable worldling who will keep company with the people of God until he can almost persuade himself, as he would others, that he is one with them, while on the other hand he can consort with what is in deadliest opposition to the people of God; he is not able to discern for himself what constitutes the difference.
Thus, "Moab and Seir say, Behold the house of Judah is like unto all the nations." Moab’s character is thus as plainly marked as that of Ammon. In contrast with Ammon, he can win his land and have his cities, which are the glory of it. As mentioned specially here, he has a Beth-jeshimoth ("a house of the wastes") to redeem the wastes. He has a Baal-meon, or more fully, Beth-baal-meon ("the house of the possessor of a dwelling"), and he appreciates it, of course. Then he has a Kiriathaim, "a walled double city," in which security and the association which he loves, so favorable for polish and practical activities, are combined. These things stand for principles which men still glory in; and they come so near to what is true and right, that we find them taken up and adopted by Reuben, the typical child of God, as there is, no doubt, such transformation in them as that into which faith introduces him (Jos 13:17-20. Compare Num 32:38, Notes).
In all this, Moab exemplifies typically the professor of religion, but always tending to go easily with the heretic; he makes Christianity itself, as Moab made Judaism, but one of the forms which illustrate the religious element in man. Every one knows what a favorite idea this is coming to be in these last days. Thus Moab, in full company with Ammon in his later history and in his spirit, becomes partaker of his doom. In other places of Scripture they are treated as if one. The company he keeps testifies of the man he is; this is a lesson as to association which is continually needful.*
{*Moab and Ammon, the children of Lot, as pointed out in the text, are by their close relationship to Israel types of profession. From the history in the book of Judges, we would gather that Moab represents profession closely coupled with the lusts of the flesh; Ammon with the lusts of the mind. The one brought God’s people into slavery through their appetite; the other through the darkening of their minds. See Jdg 3:12-30; Jdg 11:4-28. We see the bondage of Moab in the worldliness, love of ease and pleasure of the day; of Ammon in the infidelity, higher criticism and general unbelief so common. -S. Ridout.}
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Prophecies against Foreign Nations
Prophecies against Foreign Nations
These chapters come between those which deal with the overthrow of the Old Israel (1-24) and those which describe the establishment of the New Israel (33-48), and they form an introduction to the latter group. Their significance is well explained in Eze_28:24-26. The fall of Jerusalem seemed to be a victory of heathendom over the people of the true God, and it was needful to show that it was not so. The God of Israel who had visited His people with this punishment would send His judgments on the heathen nations also, and would öonvinöe them that He was the living God. The humiliation of these nations would clear the stage for the restoration of Israel, which would no longer be troubled by its formerly hostile neighbours. These prophecies fall into three groups: (1) against the lesser and nearer nations, Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines (Ezekiel 25), (2) against Tyre and Sidon (Ezekiel 26-28), (3) against Egypt (Ezekiel 29-32). With the exception of Eze_29:17-21, these prophecies are mostly dated in years either just before or just after the capture of Jerusalem.
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§ 1. Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia
These four nations were the neighbours of Israel on the E., SE., and SW. respectively, and are dealt with in their geographical order. Ammon and Moab are denounced for their exultation at the fall of Jerusalem, Edom and Philistia for their revengeful share in Israel's humiliation. All of them are threatened with destruction from God. The instruments of the judgment are to be the Bedouins of the desert in the case of Ammon and Moab, and Israel in the case of Edom. The destroyers of the Philistines are not indicated.
1-7. Ammon.
For the Ammonites see on Eze_21:28. In addition it may be observed that the king of Ammon was a party to the plot against Gedaliah, the governor whom Nebuchadrezzar left in Palestine after the capture of Jerusalem (Jer_40:14; Jer_41:10, Jer_41:15). See Intro
3. The destruction of Jerusalem has taken place. The Ammonites have rejoiced at Israel's calamity. Eze_21:6 speaks of their gestures of triumph.
4. Men of the east] the Bedouins of the desert: so in Eze_25:10. Palaces] RV 'encampments.'
5. Rabbah] the capital of Ammon.
8-11. Moab.
The Moabites, like the Ammonites, were descended from Lot (Gen_19:37). Their country lay E. of the Dead Sea, and S. of Ammon, the Arnon being the boundary. They were at times subject to Israel and at times independent, but always hostile.
8. And Seir] These words should be omitted. Edom (Seir) is dealt with separately below. Behold, etc.] The Moabites denied Israel's claim to be the people of the true God. Heathen] RV 'nations.'
9. Side] RM 'shoulder,' i.e. frontier. Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, Kiriathaim] three frontier cities of Moab: see Num_33:49; Jos_12:3; Jos_13:17, Jos_13:19, Jos_13:20. The last two were in the territory of Reuben (Num_32:37-38).
12-14. Edom.
The Edomites were descended from Esau (Gen_36:43). They showed a specially unbrotherly spirit when Jerusalem fell: see Psa_137:7; Lam_4:21-22; Oba_1:11-16.
13. Teman] a grandson of Esau (Gen_36:11). Also a town or district of Edom (Jer_49:7, Jer_49:20; Amo_1:11; Oba_1:9). And they of Dedan] RV 'even unto Dedan.' Dedan was a district of N. Arabia, and is mentioned here as the southern border of Edom, Teman being presumably the northern extremity: see Gen_10:7; Gen_25:3; Isa_21:13; Jer_25:23.
15-17. Philistia.
The Philistines dwelt on the coast, SW. of Palestine. They were oppressors of Israel in early times, but were vanquished by David. They sought every opportunity of annoying Israel afterwards (2Ch_21:16; 2Ch_26:7; 2Ch_28:18), and they seem to have joined with Edom in embittering the fate of Jerusalem: see Eze_16:57.
15. For the old hatred] RV 'with perpetual enmity.'
16. Cherethims] RV 'Cherethites,' a Philistine tribe (1Sa_30:14; Zep_2:5) from which David's body-guard was partly drawn (2Sa_8:18; 2Sa_15:18; 2Sa_20:7; 1Ki_1:38, etc.).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Predictions of Judgments Against the Nations
CHAPTERS 25-32
Predictions of Judgments Against the Nations
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1. Prophecies concerning Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines (Eze 25:1-17)
2. Concerning Tyrus (Eze 26:1-21)
3. The glory of Tyrus and Her Fall (Eze 27:1-36)
4. The prince of Tyrus (Eze 28:1-26)
5. Concerning Egypt (Eze 29:1-21; Eze 30:1-26)
6. Pharaoh’s greatness and his overthrow (Eze 31:1-18)
7. Lamentations and the great funeral dirge (Eze 32:1-32)
Eze 25:1-17. The eight chapters as analyzed above are on prophecies concerning nations which were in touch with Israel. These predictions concern seven nations, and these are divided into four and three. The first four were the immediate neighbors of Israel. The first message concerns the Ammonites (Eze 25:1-7). Both Ammon and Moab had a racial connection with Israel and were the incestuous offspring of Lot Gen 19:37-38. They were in constant conflict with Israel. Their evil character is revealed in this message. Moab is mentioned next (Eze 25:8-11). We give several passages which may be consulted about Moab and the character of the people Jer 48:29; Isa 16:6. There is promised for both Ammon and Moab a national restoration in the latter days, that is, when the Lord comes Jer 48:47; Jer 49:6. Let us remember that these nations were proud in the extreme. And these judgments upon proud, self-exalting, God-forgetting nations, are not confined to the past. They will be repeated in the future when He will judge the nations.
Eze 25:12-14 concern Edom. The descendants of Esau, Edom, were closer to Israel than Ammon and Moab. Edom’s deeds were more prominently against the people of God, more wicked and defiant, than the others. Israel was especially commanded not to abhor an Edomite Deu 23:7. Amos shows the sin of Edom Amo 1:11. So does Obadiah (Oba 1:3-4). The cruel Herods, the types of the man of sin, were Edomites. The judgment upon Edom is to be executed by Israel. This is to take place in a future day. (See Oba 1:17-21 and Amo 9:11-12.) The final paragraph is concerning the Philistines (Eze 25:15-17). The Philistines dwelt on a narrow strip on the seashore and were the long continued enemies of the people Israel. Jeremiah speaks of them (chapter 47). See also Amo 1:6-9,Joe 3:4; Isa 14:29-32. The vengeance of the Lord fell upon the coast of Palestina, the Philistines, and they experienced the fury of the Lord. He dealt with them who had corrupted His people. And so God will deal in due time with all His enemies.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain In the eight chapters now following there are contained…
In the eight chapters now following there are contained some of the mightiest prophecies of the Old Testament against the chief heathen nations of the time, all of whom had, at one time or another, opposed the people of God and hindered His good and gracious will concerning them.
Against Ammon and Moab
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v. 1. The word of the Lord, now withheld from the Jews for a time, came again unto me, saying,
v. 2. Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, the descendants of Lot’s younger daughter and therefore related to Israel, whose God they had originally known, Gen 19:38, and prophesy against them,
v. 3. and say unto the Ammonites, in a formal declaration of God’s attitude toward them, Hear the word of the Lord God, of the sovereign Ruler of the universe, who is at the same time the God of the covenant, Thus saith the Lord God, Because thou saidst, Aha! an expression of malignant joy, against My Sanctuary when it was profaned, exulting over the triumph which heathenism desired to celebrate over the supposed downfall of Israel’s religion, and against the land of Israel when it was desolate, Cf Psa 83:4; Psa 7:8-12, and against the house of Judah when they went into captivity, from the time when the first companies of Jews were driven away into exile, for the Ammonites had been the auxiliaries of the Chaldeans at that time, 2Ki 24:2:
v. 4. behold, therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the East, that is, the Bedouin tribes of the Arabian deserts, for a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee, that is, their corrals and enclosures for their cattle, and make their dwellings in thee, pitching their tents wherever they chose; they shall eat thy fruit, all the products of the land, and they shall drink thy milk, for that, in a stock-raising country, was a staple product.
v. 5. And I will make Rabbah, the capital of Ammonitis, Deu 3:11, a stable for camels, the nomad tribes using it for this very purpose, and the Ammonites, the inhabitants of the country here standing for the entire province, a couching-place for flocks, the Arabs choosing any place they liked for the purpose, to bed down their flocks for the night; and ye shall know that I am the Lord, being fully convinced by the evidence of righteous anger and punishment.
v. 6. For thus saith the Lord God, Because thou hast clasped thine hands, in malignant glee, and stamped with the feet, as if dancing for joy, and rejoiced in heart, with a malicious delight of the innermost soul, with all thy despite against the land of Israel, with all the contempt of which the Ammonites were able,
v. 7. behold, therefore I will stretch out Mine hand upon thee, in the gesture and act of a stern punishment, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen, the nation which eventually brought about the complete destruction of Ammon; and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries, in its position among the nations; I will destroy thee, thereby causing their identity as a state to be lost and bringing about an almost total annihilation of them as a people; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Cf Amo 1:13-15; Jer 49:1-5.
v. 8. Thus saith the Lord God, Because that Moab and Seir, Idumea joining Moab in its hatred of the Lord’s people, do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen, that is, without advantage over them, subject to the same in life, without the protection of God,
v. 9. therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab, literally, "the shoulder of Moab," the Moabites being descendants of the older daughter of Lot, Gen 19:37, from the cities, so that the entire country would be included in this sentence of punishment, from his cities which are on his frontiers, from the greatest to the least, the glory of the country, distinguished for their fine location and architectural beauty, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim, the most important cities of the entire province,
v. 10. unto the men of the East, the Bedouin tribes, with the Ammonites, whose fate they would be obliged to share, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations, Moab thus sharing the fate of her sister state toward the north.
v. 11. And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the Lord. Cf Isa 16:6-8; Jeremiah 48. While the Moabites are indeed still mentioned after the exile, they were no longer of importance as a nation and soon disappeared entirely from historical accounts, the word of the Lord thus being fulfilled in every detail.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 the word of Yahweh came
the word of Yahweh came
This is an idiom that is used to introduce something that God told his prophets or his people. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 3:16. AT: "Yahweh spoke this message" or "Yahweh spoke these words" (See: Idiom)
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Son of man
"Son of a human being" or "Son of humanity." God calls Ezekiel this to emphasize that Ezekiel is only a human being. God is eternal and powerful, but humans are not. See how you translated this in Ezekiel 2:1. AT: "Mortal person" or "Human"
set your face against the people of Ammon
This is a command to stare at the people of Ammon as a symbol of punishing them. AT: "stare at the people of Ammon" or "stare at the people of Ammon so that they will be harmed" (See: Symbolic Action)
set your face against the people of Ammon
Ammon was far away, so Ezekiel could not see the people there, but staring in that direction would be a symbol of harming the people. See how you translated a similar phrase in Ezekiel 6:2. AT: "Turn toward the people of Ammon and stare" or "stare toward Ammon so that the people there will be harmed" (See: Symbolic Action)
the people of Ammon
"the descendants of Ammon" or "those who live in the land of Ammon"
prophesy against them
"prophesy about the bad things that will happen to them." This means to prophesy about the horrible things that will happen to the people of Ammon. See how you translated a similar phrase in in Ezekiel 4:7.
translationWords
word of God
Son of Man
face
Ammon
prophet
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 25:1–32:32 This section contains a series of oracles against…
25:1–32:32 This section contains a series of oracles against surrounding nations. There are six shorter oracles against Judah’s immediate neighbors, in clockwise geographical order, followed by a climactic seventh oracle against Egypt (chs 30–32). Through their experience of God’s judgment, the nations would recognize God’s sovereignty over all things. The nations might be used to bring about God’s judgment of his people, but that would not exempt them from judgment. • One of the key purposes of these oracles against the nations was to affirm that the negative side of God’s covenant with Abraham (“I will . . . curse those who treat you with contempt,” Gen 12:3) was in force. No one can assault God’s people and escape unscathed, even when God’s people are themselves under his judgment.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.