Ezekiel 35 - Mount Seir Condemned for Perpetual Hatred
Edom, pictured as Mount Seir, is sentenced to desolation for its lasting hatred of Israel.
Mount Seir, standing for Edom, is condemned for a 'perpetual hatred' that shed Israelite blood in the time of Judah's calamity and for boasting that the land left desolate was theirs to take. The short oracle follows the shepherd promises of Ezekiel 34 with a sharp reminder that not every neighbor shares in that restoration.
Moveover the worde of the Lord came vnto me, saying,
Sonne of man, Set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesie against it,
And say vnto it, Thus sayth the Lord God, Behold, O mount Seir, I come against thee, and I wil stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee desolate and waste.
I wil lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt knowe that I am the Lord.
Because thou hast had a perpetuall hatred and hast put the children of Israel to flight by the force of the sword in the time of their calamitie, when their iniquitie had an ende,
Therefore as I liue, sayth the Lord God, I wil prepare thee vnto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: except thou hate blood, euen blood shall pursue thee.
Thus will I make mount Seir desolate and waste, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.
And I will fill his mountaines with his slayne men: in thine hilles, and in thy valleys and in all thy riuers shall they fall, that are slayne with the sworde.
I wil make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not returne, and ye shall knowe that I am the Lord.
Because thou hast said, These two nations, and these two countreys shalbe mine, and we wil possesse them (seeing the Lord was there)
Therefore as I liue, sayth the Lord God, I wil euen do according to thy wrath, and according to thine indignation which thou hast vsed in thine hatred against them: and I wil make my selfe knowen among them whe I haue iudged thee.
And thou shalt know, that I the Lord haue heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountaines of Israel, saying, They lye waste, they are giuen vs to be deuoured.
Thus with your mouthes ye haue boasted against me, and haue multiplied your words against me: I haue heard them.
Thus sayth the Lord God, So shall all the world reioyce when I shall make thee desolate.
As thou diddest reioyce at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I doe vnto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea wholly, and they shall know, that I am the Lord.