Ezekiel 25:14 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.

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.

And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by fie hand of my people Israel,.... This was fulfilled in the times of the Maccabees, when Judas Maccabins overthrew and conquered them, "Then Judas fought against the children of Esau in Idumea at Arabattine, because they besieged Gael: and he gave them a great overthrow, and abated their courage, and took their spoils.'' (1 Maccabees 5:3) and when Hyrcanus took their cities, and subdued them, and they became Jews, as Josephus (x) relates; though Kimchi thinks this refers to future time, and is yet to be accomplished; and it is, by the ancient Jews (y), understood of the times of the Messiah: some choose to understand the phrase, by the hand of my people Israel, the same hand by which judgment was inflicted upon Israel; suggesting that by the same hand vengeance would be inflicted on the Edomites, namely, by the Babylonians: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; that is, shall execute all the anger and fury, or all that punishment in anger and fury, which the Lord in righteous judgment has appointed them to, and has determined shall be performed upon them, by the children of Israel or the Babylonians, as his instruments: and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God; the meaning is, they shall feel it, and be sensible of it, and know that it comes from the Lord himself; full of resentment against them, and highly displeased at their behaviour towards his people Israel. (x) Antiqu. l. 13. c. 9. sect. 1. (y) In Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 2. fol. 179. 3.

(Vers. 12, 13, et seqq.) Thus says the Lord God: Because Edom has acted vengefully against the children of Judah and has incurred guilt by taking vengeance upon them, therefore thus says the Lord God: I will stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off from it man and beast. I will make it a desolation from Teman, and Dedan shall fall by the sword. I will execute my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, declares the Lord God. LXX: Thus says the Lord God: Because Edom acted revengefully against the house of Judah and took vengeance upon them with utmost hatred, therefore thus says the Lord God, I will stretch out my hand against Edom, and cut off from it man and beast, and I will make it desolate; from Teman even to Dedan they shall fall by the sword. And I will execute vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, says the Lord God. Above, the two proposed, for what they said about Moab and Seir, and later in silence about Seir, spoke only against Moab: now it refutes the problem that Seir, that is, Edom, has done. That Esau and Seir, and Edom, and Idumea, and Duma, are called one nation, no one should doubt who has knowledge of the Scriptures. And not to mention the other prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, who prophesied against Idumea, Duma, and Edom: Obadiah directed his entire prophecy against this nation, which we have discussed before as best we could. Therefore Seir is accused, who because he was hairy, received the name 'hairy', and Edom the bloodthirsty, who lost the birthright due to the cooking of a red lentil, and obtained the name from the dish. Also, Esau's actions are interpreted. And it should be known that in Hebrew, Idumaea is never written, but always Edom, which the Greek translation expressed as Idumaea. Therefore, it is not Idumaea (Edom), as Moab spoke, but he took revenge on the sons of Judah: he sinned, or retained the memory of the previous pain, in order to take revenge on them, from whom he was supplanted in the womb. Therefore not through angels, nor through any other: but the Lord himself, stretching out his hand over Idumea, took away from it man and beast, and reduced the cities thereof into a desert, that is, Themam, which we turn towards the south: and of the same city Dedan, there shall be no remains. And they shall know my vengeance and retribution, saith the Lord God: I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to my fury, and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord God. Those who act in Edom, or Idumea, according to my anger and fury, to fulfill my indignation, and through the hands of my people Israel, let my wrath rage against the enemy nation, and let them understand that my just vengeance was against the unjust retribution of Idumea, says the Lord Adonai. According to the allegory, this is the meaning that I perceive. Earthly and fleshly Idumea is called, which rises against the spirit, so that we do not do those things which are of the spirit, and it hastens to draw back the soul placed in its midst; and it wants to exact revenge, to which it was previously subjected, on the sons of Judah, and it remembers the ancient pain, which was not of its own power, and therefore sought revenge on those who turned away from the flesh and followed the spirit. Therefore, the Lord Himself, being the avenger of the children of Judah, has stretched out His hand over Edom and has taken away from it both man and beast, whatever it seems to possess of reason or simple faith, in order to reduce it to a wilderness. And He has slain with the sword all of Theman, which means failing, and Dedan, which also signifies kinship, which He has placed in the hand of His people Israel, so that Edom may be overthrown and may feel the anger and fury of the Lord, and may understand that His vengeance has accomplished this, in order to serve the house of Judah. This is that which the Apostle disputes about, writing: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Rom. IX, 13). But Jacob is loved, because he supplants and surpasses the carnal and earthly, and deserves to receive his blessings. For first we live according to the flesh, and afterwards according to the spirit. First vices, then virtues, by which vices are overturned, because the heart of man is inclined towards evil from childhood, and the age of maturity condemns the errors of youth (Genesis VIII). And David also says: Remember not the sins of my youth, and my ignorances. (Ps. 24:7). And yet it should be known that Jacob received the first blessing, Esau the second. And what is said of him at the end, 'You shall be your brother's servant' (Gen. 27:40), signifies that after the flesh is subject to the spirit and united to it, it ceases to be flesh and passes from Edom to Judah.

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.

I will lay my vengeance upon Edom - God will not allow men to insult those whom he has cast down. His judgment is sufficient; to add more is an insult to God. By the hand of may people Israel - This was fulfilled by the Maccabees, who not only defeated them and brought them under complete subjection, but obliged them to receive circumcision, Joseph. Antiq. 50 xiii., c. 17; 1 Maccabees 5:65; 2 Maccabees 10:16.

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).

by . . . my people Israel--namely, by Judas Maccabeus. The Idumeans were finally, by compulsory circumcision, incorporated with the Jewish state by John Hyrcanus (see Isa 34:5; Isa 63:1, &c.; 1 Maccabees 5:3). So complete was the amalgamation in Christ's time, that the Herods of Idumean origin, as Jews, ruled over the two races as one people. Thus the ancient prophecy was fulfilled (Gen 25:23), "The elder shall serve the younger."