Ezekiel 35:9

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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שִֽׁמְמ֤וֹת

shᵉmâmâh

H8077

“desolations of”

Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct

Appears 58× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Exodus 23:29

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H8076

TWOT: 2409b , 2409c

devastation, waste, desolation

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

11: words
11: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

שִֽׁמְמ֤וֹת desolation H8077 occurs in 54 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
4 nouns
1 pronoun
1 conjunction
1 particle

Verb forms

אֶתֶּנְךָ֔ Qal · Imperfect
תישבנה Qal · Imperfect
תָשֹׁ֑בְנָה Qal · Imperfect
וִֽידַעְתֶּ֖ם Qal · Sequential Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 22 words from the Hebrew and 25 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 11 Hebrew tokens and 18 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Ezekiel 35:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Ezekiel 25:13 therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, I will stretch out my hand on Edom, and will cut off man and animal from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; even to Dedan shall they fall by the sword.
Ezekiel 6:7 The slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Ezekiel 35:4 I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Malachi 1:3–4 but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness."
Jeremiah 49:13 For I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities of it shall be perpetual wastes.
Jeremiah 49:17–18 Edom shall become an astonishment: everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues of it.
Ezekiel 7:4 My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Ezekiel 7:9 My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will bring on you according to your ways; and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I, Yahweh, do strike.

Ezekiel 36:11 and I will multiply on you man and animal; and they shall increase and be fruitful; and I will cause you to be inhabited after your former estate, and will do better [to you] than at your beginnings: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
Zephaniah 2:9 Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Ezekiel 35:9 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

שִֽׁמְמ֤וֹת עוֹלָם֙ אֶתֶּנְךָ֔ וְעָרֶ֖יךָ לֹ֣א תישבנה תָשֹׁ֑בְנָה וִֽידַעְתֶּ֖ם כִּֽי אֲנִ֥י יְהוָֽה

I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Ezekiel 35:9 Septuagint · lemma form

ἐρημία αἰώνιος τίθημι σύ καί ὁ πόλις σύ οὐ μή καταοἰκέω ἔτι καί γιγνώσκω ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμί κύριος

I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited any more: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

On this verse, The Pulpit Commentary discusses the Septuagint’s reading. Read the note in Commentary ↓

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

צְדוּ עֲלַם אֶתְּנִינַךְ וְקִרְוָךְ לָא יִתְיַתְבָן וְתֵידְעוּן אֲרֵי אֲנָא יְיָ:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Ezekiel 35:9 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Eze 35:9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.

Ver. 9. I will make thee perpetual desolations.] For thy perpetual hatred. {Eze 35:5}

And thy cities.] See Eze 35:4.

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.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

To wit, to their former estate.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

shall not return--to their former state (Eze 16:55); shall not be restored. The Hebrew text (Chetib) reads, "shall not be inhabited" (compare Eze 26:20; Mal 1:3-4).

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 9. Perpetual desolations] Thou shalt have perpetual desolation for thy perpetual hatred.

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

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

9. cities shall not return] Probably, shall not be inhabited (Heb. text teshabnah). The pointing “return” possibly reposes on Eze_16:55.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return,.... To their former dignity and glory; should not be built and inhabited again, but lie waste for ever: this agrees with what is prophesied of Edom, Mal 1:4 and will be true of Rome or Babylon when destroyed; it will never rise more, but be like a millstone in the midst of the sea, Rev 18:21,

and ye shall know that I am the Lord; See Gill on Eze 35:4.

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

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Return - Or, “be inhabited.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Inhabited for a considerable time, as [in] chap. xxvi. 20.

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).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Edom’s sin was perpetual hatred, and Edom’s punishment shall be perpetual desolations. Edomites would never return into friendship with the Israelites, but still hate, and molest, and waste them; now for just recompence Edom’s cities shall be wasted, and never return to their former glory.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Thy cities shall not return, as in Eze_16:55 (Authorized Version after the Keri) or, shall not be inhabited, as in Eze_26:20 Eze_29:11 Eze_36:33 (LXX and Revised Version, both of which follow the Chethib) Hengstenberg"s translation, "Thy cities shall not sit," but lie prostrate, is not extremely happy.

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

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Return - To their former glory.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

and your cities will not return [Heb. תָשֹּׁבְנָה,] not as I said about Egypt (above 29:14): “And I will return the captives of Egypt”; (Jer. 49:6): “And afterward, I will return the captivity of the children of Ammon.” And this is what Malachi (1:3) said, “And I hated Esau, and I made his mountains desolate,” for I made them destined for everlasting desolations.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Ezekiel, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 11 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is shᵉmâmâh (“desolation”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word shᵉmâmâh carries the sense “desolation.” How does it shape the verse?
Exodus 23:29 shares the word «desolation» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «אֶתֶּנְךָ֔» is Qal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 18 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 8 words in this verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.