Ezekiel 35:15

Eze 35:15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, [even] all of it: and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 15. As thou didst rejoice.] As thou wast sick of the devil’s disease, rejoicing at other men’s harms; so, by a strange turn of things, others shall rejoice at thy just destruction, and revel in thy ruins: and at the last day especially, when thou shalt be awarded thy portion with the devil and his angels. {2Th 1:6-8}

Thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir.] This was accordingly effected shortly after by Nebuchadnezzar and his Chaldees, as Josephus {a} testifieth; and is daily executed on the Church’s enemies, who shall all be ere long in the place that is fittest for them - scil., under Christ’s feet.

And all Idumea, even all of it.] The Edomites, that thought of seizing on others’ lands, lost their own. They who covet all, do oft lose all; yea, even the pleasure of that they possess; as a greedy dog swalloweth the whole meat that is cast him, without any pleasure, as gaping still for the next morsel.

{a} Lib. xii. cap. 11.

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.

(Oba 1:12, Oba 1:15).

The distinction between Israel and the heathen (as Edom) is: Israel has a covenant relation to God ensuring restoration after chastisement, so that the heathen's hope of getting possession of the elect people's inheritance must fail, and they themselves be made desolate (Eze 36:1-15). The reason for the chastisement of Israel was Israel's sin and profanation of God's name (Eze 36:16-21). God has good in store for Israel, for His own name's sake, to revive His people; first, by a spiritual renewal of their hearts, and, next, by an external restoration to prosperity (Eze 36:22-33). The result is that the heathen shall be impressed with the power and goodness of God manifested so palpably towards the restored people (Eze 36:34-38).

Next: Ezekiel Chapter 36

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 15. So will I do unto thee] Others shall rejoice in thy downfall as thou hast rejoiced at their downfall.

This whole chapter strongly inculcates this maxim: Do as thou wouldst be done by; and what thou wouldst not have done to thee, do not to others. And from it we learn that every man may, in some sort, be said to make his own temporal good or evil; for as he does to others, God will take care to do to him, whether it be evil or good, weal or wo. Would you not be slandered or backbitten? Then do not slander nor backbite. Wouldst thou wish to live in peace? Then do not disturb the peace of others. Be merciful, and thou shalt obtain mercy.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(15) Because it was desolate.—This is spoken of Israel; yet Israel was to preserve a remnant who should return to their land, and ultimately become the centre of the new covenant. So the desolation of Edom, though ultimately perpetual as far as its nationality is concerned, is not inconsistent with the fact foretold by Amos (Amo_9:12), that a remnant even of Edom should at last be received into the Church.

All Idumea.—It is better to keep the uniform name of Edom. Idumea is essentially the same country but is a more modern name, and when it came into use the boundaries had somewhat changed.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. The clause “as thou didst … do unto thee” is wanting in LXX.

As Edom had been active in the destruction of Judah, their own desolation must follow. The author of the Lamentations has a presentiment that the next great act of divine judgment will be on Edom (Lam_4:22; cf. Isaiah 34, Isa_63:1-6). The great empires which brought destruction upon Jerusalem were acting under commission from Jehovah and the work was according to his will. But in the first place there is a difference between the work itself and the spirit in which it is done. Jehu received commendation for his act in cutting off the seed of Ahab, but later his house was extirpated for the guilt of this same “blood of Jezreel” (Hos_1:4). The Assyrian was entrusted with a commission against the ungodly nation; but he meant not so, it was in his heart to cut off nations not a few (Isa_10:7), and the decree that he should be broken upon the mountains of Israel went out against him (Isa_14:25). Nebuchadnezzar was the “servant” of the Lord, but because Babylon laid her yoke heavily on the aged of the people, not considering the issue of such things, bereavement and widowhood shall come upon her in one day (Isa_47:6-8). Here the prophet reprobates both the actions and the spirit of Edom, and threatens that Jehovah will recompense it into their bosom. In ancient modes of thought the people and their god were one. The people were but the reflection of the god, they were the people of Chemosh or Milcom or Jehovah. All wars were religious wars, wars against a god who animated and gave strength to his people (Exo_12:12). Edom’s despite was to some extent in the strict sense directed against Jehovah. In truth they knew Jehovah only as the God of Israel, but it was he whom they knew, though they might not have such knowledge of him as Ezek. had attained to. But it is possible to be guilty of great sins against God, even though they are done unwittingly and without full knowledge of that which he is.

And in the second place, Edom received no commission from Jehovah against his people. Their place in history and among the nations of the earth gave them no significance in relation to Israel, or in Jehovah’s providence embracing all the world. The contact of Israel with the nations exercising universal empire over the earth, if it did not suggest conceptions of Jehovah’s universal power and dominion to the prophets, at least gave them occasion for expressing to the people and to all time such conceptions; and this period of Israel’s history lent a breadth and elevation to prophecy to which in political conditions such as existed in earlier times it could never have attained. The transportation of colonies of Israelites also into the Assyrian and Babylonian empires, besides purifying the religion of the people from its dependence on ritual observance and making it more inward among those who continued to adhere to it, leavened the populations of these heathen nations with truer conceptions of Deity and religion. The writers of this age often refer to the strangers joining themselves to the covenant of the Lord (Isa_14:1-2; Isa_56:1-8), and no doubt the same influence was exerted by Israel, if not to the same extent, in Babylon and the countries of the East, as we are familiar with in later times in Rome and the empire of the West. In such respects Edom had no importance, and hardly entered into the larger designs of Jehovah with respect to his people and mankind.

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.

As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate,.... So Edom rejoiced at the destruction of Jerusalem, Oba 1:12, and so the followers of the man of sin will rejoice at the slaying of the witnesses, Rev 11:10, which is resented by the Lord, and therefore adds,

so will I do unto thee; make thee desolate, as is explained in the next clause:

thou shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it; not that mount only, but all the land of Edom, called Idumea; the destruction shall be general, as it was, and irretrievable; and so not Rome only, but all the antichristian states, will be destroyed, when God comes forth in his wrath against them:

and they shall know that I am the Lord; the Lord God omniscient and omnipotent; who, having foretold all this, shall accomplish it.

Next: Ezekiel Chapter 36

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

As, &c., is not in the Roman Septuagint. St. Jerome says it was marked with an asterisk, being taken from Theodotion. (Calmet) --- Grabe supplies to thou shalt. His copy has the rest:..."thou shalt know that I am their Lord." (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Thou didst rejoice; thou tookest pleasure in the ruin of my people; for this thy sin I will ruin thee, and then do to thee as thou didst, I will retaliate, and rejoice in thy ruin: thou helpedst to make Jerusalem desolate, I will make thee so: thou criedst to ruin them all, to destroy all the land; all thy land shall be ruined, and by these judgments I will be known to be the Lord.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

As thou didst rejoice. yki is here a particle of comparison; and the import of the passage is that precisely as Edom exulted over the desolation of Israel"s inheritance, so would Jehovah cause others to rejoice over the downfall and desolation of Edom. All Idumea. Instead of this Greek term, the Revised Version properly substitutes the usual word Edom. Note: That the prediction here uttered concerning Edom received literal fulfillment, the following extract relative to the present state of the country will show: "Idumea, once so rich in flocks, so strong in its fortresses and rock-hewn cities, so extensive in its commercial relations, so renowned for the architectural splendor of its palaces, is now a deserted and desolate wilderness. Its whole population is contained in some three or four miserable villages. No merchant would now dare to enter its borders; its highways are untrodden, its cities are all in ruins" (J.L. Porter, in Kitto"s "Cyclopaedia," art. "Idumea").

Rejoicing over the ruin of others.

I THE UGLY FACT. Edom had rejoiced over the ruin of Israel. One would say that such a joy must be impossible. Regarding the world from the high ground of ideal speculation, one would suppose that sympathy for the suffering must spring forth as a natural instinct, or that, if the feelings were callous and selfishness hardened the heart, still there would be no room for joy under such circumstances. But the facts of history and observation show that Edom"s joy was no monstrous, impossible experience. People do rejoice in the sufferings of others:

1. In national life. The downfall of rival nations is accepted by their more fortunate neighbors with delight.

2. In amusement. The old, fierce delights of the amphitheatre, which delicate ladies shared with bloodthirsty warriors, were just the joys of cruelty, pleasures got directly out of the sufferings of fellow-creatures. The Emperor Domitian is said to have taken a keen interest in watching the contortions of agony on the face of a dying gladiator. A similar spirit lurks in the present-day popular taste for amusements that involve great risk of life. A Christian spirit should discourage such amusements as feeding on cruelty.

3. In private life. Some People seem to take a spiteful pleasure in the disgrace and ruin of their neighbors. Is not this pleasure at the root of much idle gossip and fascinating scandal?

II ITS EVIL CAUSES. How comes it that the misery of one man can cause pleasure to his brother, when by the influence of sympathy it should produce an opposite effect? The causes of this gross perversion of the appetite for pleasure are various.

1. Revenge. Israel had been an old enemy of Edom. The commonest pleasure of cruelty is m seeing a foe humiliated. There may be natural elements in this feeling:

(1) a reaction from the tension of fear; and

(2) a satisfaction of the desire for self-protection.

Still, the joy is evil and hateful, for it exceeds self-regarding considerations, and it excludes pity; it denies the duty of loving our enemies.

1. Envy. Edom had formerly envied the prosperity of Israel. She afterwards rejoiced in her rival"s downfall. This, again, is a sort of reaction from the pain of envy. It is the more powerful if the successful rival has shown scorn for her less fortunate neighbor. Now, the scorn is reversed.

2. A sense of contrast. Sitting at ease, the spectator compares his comforts with the agonies before him, and as all feeling arises from contrasted states, the sharpness of this contrast heightens the relish of a man"s present comfort. This is brutally selfish.

3. Malignity. There does seem to be a direct pleasure in seeing others suffer. This is the glee of devils. It may be shared by diabolical men.

III ITS FATAL EFFECTS. Edom is to be punished and made desolate. God will certainly punish cruelty as a great sin, because it is the direct opposite of man"s first duty, which is to love all beings. The evil joy will work mischief in the heart of the man who cherishes it. It is a venom that will rankle in the breast that engenders it We need love and sympathy for our own soul"s health. The pleasures of cruelty cut a man off from the bonds of fellowship, even with these who are not themselves its victims, because they destroy the elements on which the spirit of brotherhood lives. Thus a cruel person is inwardly lonely. Selfishness makes the heart desolate. The exclusion of love is the exclusion of the greatest joy of human fellowship. In seeking his own pleasure the man who admits evil passions of revenge or spite into his breast darkens his life with the gloom of spiritual solitude. On the other hand, the deepest joy is found in sacrificing one"s self in order to save one"s brother.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.