Ezekiel 25:1 Komentář

Judgment began at the house of God, and therefore with them the prophets began, who were the judges; but it must not end there, and therefore they must not. Ezekiel had finished his testimony which related to the destruction of Jerusalem. As to that he was ordered to say no more, but stand upon his watch-tower and wait the issue; and yet he must not be silent; there are divers nations bordering upon the land of Israel, which he must prophesy against, as Isaiah and Jeremiah had done before; and must proclaim God's controversy with them, chiefly for the injuries and indignities which they had done to the people of God in the day of their calamity. In this chapter we have his prophecy, I. Against the Ammonites (Eze 25:1-7). II. Against the Moabites (Eze 25:8-11). III. Against the Edomites (Eze 25:11-14). IV. Against the Philistines (Eze 25:15-17). That which is laid to the charge of each of them is their barbarous and insolent conduct towards God's Israel, for which God threatens to put the same cup of trembling into their hand. God's resenting it thus would be an encouragement to Israel to believe that though he had dealt thus severely with them yet he had not cast them off, but would still own them and plead their cause.

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. 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.

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 25 In this chapter the prophet foretells the judgments of God upon the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Philistines, for their ill usage of the Jews; on the Ammonites, Eze 25:1, on the Moabites, Eze 25:8, on the Edomites, Eze 25:12, on the Philistines, Eze 25:15.

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:

Chapter 25: And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against the sons of Ammon, and prophesy against them. And you shall say to the sons of Ammon: Hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God: Because you said, 'Aha!' over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and over the house of Judah when they went into exile, therefore behold, I am giving you to the people of the East for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in you and make their dwellings in you. They shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and the land of the Ammonites a fold for flocks. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Because the Lord God says these things: Because you clapped your hands, and stomped your feet, and rejoiced with all your heart (or insulted with all your soul) over the land of Israel; therefore (Vulgate adds behold) I will stretch out my hand against you, and deliver you to be plundered by the nations, and I will kill you from the peoples, and I will destroy you from the lands, and I will crush you, and you will know that I am the Lord. When Jerusalem was captured or besieged, after it came to Babylon, whoever could (or had the power to) escape, and he reported that the city was about to be captured very soon, or that the temple had been destroyed, according to the custom of all the prophets against the other surrounding nations, who insulted the ruins of Jerusalem, and the burning of the temple, the prophetic message turns, firstly against the sons of Ammon, who had a metropolis called Rabbath, which today is named Philadelphia by King Ptolemy of Egypt, also known as Philadelphus, who held both Arabia and Judah. Son, he says, of man, set your face against the sons of Ammon, who are descended from Lot, and say to them: Thus says the Lord God (for these are not the words of a prophet, but of the Lord. Concerning the hardening of the face, we have argued more fully in this same prophecy): Because you have said, 'Aha, Aha,' or have insulted and rejoiced because my temple and sanctuary have been defiled by the invasion of enemies, and over the land of Israel, which has been devastated, and especially over the house of Judah, that is, the two tribes that are now in captivity: therefore I will give you over to the sons of Edom, whom we interpret as the Easterners. There is no doubt, Madianites, that they border the entire wilderness of the land of Arabia, who have herds of camels, and multitudes of sheep and goats, and they sustain themselves with these resources. This is also narrated in the book of Judges (Judg. VI) about what happened to the land of Israel when the Midianites came and devoured all their regions up to Gaza. Metaphorically, therefore, by the term Midianites, it signifies the Ishmaelites and Hagarites, who are now called Saracens, taking for themselves the false name of Sarah so that they may appear to be born of a noble and mistress lineage. Scripture also says about king Nebuchadnezzar and his entire army that they come and capture the city of Rabbath, which either has this name specifically or because of its greatness. For Rabbath is said to be the greatest. And so that we do not doubt that Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Arabia after Jerusalem was captured, Scripture testifies above: And thou, son of man, set thee two ways, Ammon and Jerusalem, and there shall come the sword of the king of Babylon. And again: At the head of the city's way he shall cast it, and thou shalt set up a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the children of Ammon, and to the fortified Jerusalem (Above, XXI, 19, 20). And again, thus says the Lord God to the sons of Ammon, and to their reproach (verse 28). Therefore, the sons of Kedem will come and set up their tents like shepherds, and they will pitch their tents. They will destroy your crops and drink the milk and abundance of the land, with herds of camels and all the peoples, so that the sons of Ammon will be in the dwelling place of cattle and understand the necessity of evil, that it is the Lord himself who foretold the future and commanded it to be. And this was not enough for the Ammonites, that they insulted and said, 'Hurrah, hurrah for the temple and sanctuary of the Lord, which was defiled by the entrance of various nations'; but such was the wickedness of their insults that the whole people clapped their hands and stamped their feet, and with all their heart cried out: because the land of Israel was desolate. Therefore, not by angels, nor by other ministries, but by the Lord himself, extending his hand to strike, will he hand it over to plunder, not to camels and sheep herds, but more clearly to the nations, so that it may be completely eradicated from the number of peoples, and perish, and be reduced to nothingness: and after it has been crushed, then it will understand that he himself is the Lord who judges all things, and has power over all lands. We can understand the sons of Ammon according to the tropology, who were born from Lot in the cave, both born in drunkenness and incest, all heretics, of whom the Scripture and the Apostle John say: They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us (John 2:19). For they arose from inclination, for this is how Lot is translated into our language: For all have turned aside, together they have become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 14:3). Opposite to these, the prophetic face is set or hardened, in order to crush them with its severity, and it says to them: Because you have insulted my Church in the time of persecution, because my sanctuary was defiled by the fault of various people, either by those who served me, or by the cruelty of the enemies who persecuted me: and also the land of Israel, which saw the sense of God, is desolate of the choir of virtues; and how the children of the house of Judah, that is, those who confess God, in which true faith and right confession exist, were led into captivity and ceased serving the Lord: therefore, O all who insult, you will be handed over to the children of the East who have come from the true light, and you will be handed over as an inheritance, so that you too may learn to confess the Lord. And by way of translation it is said that the sons of the East will place their dwellings upon them, and pitch their tents, and drink milk, and eat fruit, and the city which was once full of pride will become a dwelling place for camels, so that they, having set aside the burden of sins, may enter through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19), and into the fold of the animals, which are guided by a good shepherd (John 10), so that when they have done this, mixed and handed over to the shepherds of the East, they may understand that he himself is the Lord. And again he reproached them, for insulting with excessive affection of the heart the ruins of the people of God, and for thinking that the land of Israel was completely deserted. For this they deserve the hand of God's avenger, as they had exceeded the limit of rejoicing and joy over the destruction of the house of Judah. They should by no means be delivered to the sons of the East, but be for plundering by all nations, and be killed and perish, and be crushed, and by no means be considered descendants of Abraham, but be believed to be for all nations. And then they shall know the magnitude of their evils, and their own contrition, and the killing of the people, that He Himself is the Lord. What we have understood in general about the Church can be understood about each of the saints, whose ruin the people of the world and the powers of the enemy rejoice in if they have lost their chastity for a long time: while the wicked think that they find comfort in their sins if they have more partners in crime and punishment: and no one does this, unless they are a son of Ammon, that is, a son of the people, who is born in a decline.

This chapter contains threatenings of the heavy judgments of God against the Ammonites, Eze 25:1-7; Moabites, Eze 25:8-11; Edomites, Eze 25:12-14; and Philistines, Eze 25:15-17; 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.

The word of the Lord - The chronological order of this chapter is after Eze 33:21, etc. See Abp. Newcome.

APPROPRIATELY IN THE INTERVAL OF SILENCE AS TO THE JEWS IN THE EIGHT CHAPTERS, (TWENTY-FIFTH THROUGH THIRTY-SECOND) EZEKIEL DENOUNCES JUDGMENTS ON THE HEATHEN WORLD KINGDOMS. (Eze. 25:1-17) (Jer 49:1). when . . . profaned; . . . when . . . desolate; . . . when . . . captivity--rather, "for . . . for . . . for": the cause of the insolent exultation of Ammon over Jerusalem. They triumphed especially over the fall of the "sanctuary," as the triumph of heathenism over the rival claims of Jehovah. In Jehoshaphat's time, when the eighty-third Psalm was written (Psa 83:4, Psa 83:7-8, Psa 83:12, "Ammon . . . holpen the children of Lot," who were, therefore, the leaders of the unholy conspiracy, "Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession"), we see the same profane spirit. Now at last their wicked wish seems accomplished in the fall of Jerusalem. Ammon, descended from Lot, held the region east of Jordan, separated from the Amorites on the north by the river Jabbok, and from Moab on the south by the Arnon. They were auxiliaries to Babylon in the destruction of Jerusalem (Kg2 24:2).

Against the Ammonites Eze 25:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 25:2. Son of man, direct thy face towards the sons of Ammon, and prophesy against them, Eze 25:3. And say to the sons of Ammon, Hear ye the word of the Lord Jehovah! Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou sayest, Aha! concerning my sanctuary, that it is profaned; and concerning the land of Israel, that it is laid waste; and concerning the house of Judah, that they have gone into captivity; Eze 25:4. Therefore, behold, I will give thee to the sons of the east for a possession, that they may pitch their tent-villages in thee, and erect their dwellings in thee; they shall eat thy fruits, and they shall drink thy milk. Eze 25:5. And Rabbah will I make a camel-ground, and the sons of Ammon a resting-place for flocks; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah. Eze 25:6. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou hast clapped thy hand, and stamped with thy foot, and hast rejoiced in soul with all thy contempt concerning the house of Israel, Eze 25:7. Therefore, behold, I will stretch out my hand against thee, and give thee to the nations for booty, and cut thee off from the peoples, and exterminate thee from the lands; I will destroy thee, that thou mayst learn that I am Jehovah. - In Eze 21:28., when predicting the expedition of Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem, Ezekiel had already foretold the destruction of the Ammonites, so that these verses are simply a resumption and confirmation of the earlier prophecy. In the passage referred to, Ezekiel, like Zephaniah before him (Zep 2:8, Zep 2:10), mentions their reviling of the people of God as the sin for which they are to be punished with destruction. This reviling, in which their hatred of the divine calling of Israel found vent, was the radical sin of Ammon. On the occasion of Judah's fall, it rose even to contemptuous and malicious joy at the profanation of the sanctuary of Jehovah by the destruction of the temple (a comparison with Eze 24:21 will show that this is the sense in which נחל is to be understood), at the devastation of the land of Israel, and at the captivity of Judah, - in other words, at the destruction of the religious and political existence of Israel as the people of God. The profanation of the sanctuary is mentioned first, to intimate that the hostility to Israel, manifested by the Ammonites on every occasion that presented itself (for proofs, see the comm. on Zep 2:8), had its roots not so much in national antipathies, as in antagonism to the sacred calling of Israel. As a punishment for this, they are not only to lose their land (Eze 25:4 and Eze 25:5), but to be cut off from the number of the nations (Eze 25:6 and Eze 25:7). The Lord will give up their land, with its productions, for a possession to the sons of the east, i.e., according to Gen 25:13-18, to the Arabs, the Bedouins (for בּני קדם, see the comm. on Jdg 6:3 and Job 1:3). The Piel ישּׁבוּ, although only occurring here, is not to be rejected as critically suspicious, and to be changed into Kal, as Hitzig proposes. The Kal would be unsuitable, because the subject of the sentence can only be בּני קדם, and not טירותיהם; and ישׁב in the Kal has an intransitive sense. For טירות, tent-villages of nomads, see the comm. on Gen 25:16. משׁכּנים, dwellings, are the separate tents of the shepherds. In the last clauses of Eze 25:4, המּה is repeated for the sake of emphasis; and Hitzig's opinion, that the first המּה corresponds to the subject in the clause 'וישּׁבוּ וגו, the second to that in ונתנוּ, is to be rejected as a marvellous flight of imagination, which approaches absurdity in the assertion that פּרי הארץ signifies the folds, i.e., the animals, of the land. Along with the fruit of the land, i.e., the produce of the soil, milk is also mentioned as a production of pastoral life, and the principal food of nomads. On the wealth of the Ammonites in flocks and herds, see Jdg 6:5. The words are addressed to Ammon, as a land or kingdom, and hence the feminine suffix. The capital will also share the fate of the land. Rabbah (see the comm. on Deu 3:11) will become a camel-ground, a waste spot where camels lie down and feed. This has been almost literally fulfilled. The ruins of Ammn are deserted by men, and Seetzen found Arabs with their camels not far off (vid., von Raumer, Palestine, p. 268). In the parallel clause, the sons of Ammon, i.e., the Ammonites, are mentioned instead of their land. In Eze 25:6 and Eze 25:7, the Lord announces to the nation of the Ammonites the destruction that awaits them, and reiterates with still stronger emphasis the sin which occasioned it, namely, the malicious delight they had manifested at Israel's fall. בּכל־שׁאטך is strengthened by בּנפשׁ: with all thy contempt in the soul, i.e., with all the contempt which thy soul could cherish. In Eze 25:7 the ἁπ λεγ.. לבג occasions some difficulty. The Keri has substituted לבז, for booty for the nations (cf. Eze 26:5); and all the ancient versions have adopted this. Consequently בּג might be a copyist's error for בּז; and in support of this the circumstance might be adduced, that in Eze 47:13, where גּה stands for זה, we have unquestionably a substitution of ג for ז. But if the Chetib בז be correct, the word is to be explained - as it has been by Benfey (Die Montasnamen, p. 194) and Gildemeister (in Lassen's Zeitschrift fr die Kunde des Morgenlandes, iv. 1, p. 213ff.) - from the Sanscrit bha=ga, pars, portio, and has passed into the Semitic languages from the Aryan, like the Syriac bagaa', esca, which P. Boetticher (Horae aram. p. 21) has correctly traced to the Sanscrit bhaj, conquere. - The executors of the judgment are not named; for the threat that God will give up the land of the Ammonites to the Bedouins for their possession, does not imply that they are to exterminate the Ammonites. On the contrary, a comparison of this passage with Amo 1:13-15 and Jer 49:1-5, where the Ammonites are threatened not only with the devastation of their land, but also with transportation into exile, will show that the Chaldeans are to be thought of as executing the judgment. (See the comm. on Eze 25:11.)