Ezekiel 36:3

3. Because …] lit. because, because, Eze_13:10. The passage throughout betrays passionate feeling on the part of the prophet. His patriotism is aglow as the loved mountains of his native land rise before his mind; cf. the pathetic words in reference to the exiled king, Eze_19:9. Hence the excitation and solemnity displayed in introducing the prophecy, which itself is expressed (Eze_36:7 seq.) only after four or five commands to utter it (Eze_36:3-6). For made desolate gaped for might be read, Isa_42:14.

and ye are taken up] Or, and are come up upon the lips, Deu_28:37; Lam_2:15; Dan_9:16 (niph. not unusual in this verb, Jer_37:5).

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.

Eze 36:3 Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they have made [you] desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and [are] an infamy of the people:

Ver. 3. Because they have.] Heb., Because and because; importing earnestness and heat of indignation. So Lev 26:43.

And ye are taken up in the lips of talkers.] Heb., Ye are made to ascend upon the lip of the tongue, and upon the evil fame of the people. God takes it extreme ill that his people should be traduced and defamed; which yet hath been their lot in all ages; but he will not fail to vindicate them, and to avenge them.

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.

Ye are made a matter of talk and derision to all the world.

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

Literally, "Because, even because."

swallowed you up--literally, "panted after" you, as a beast after its prey; implying the greedy cupidity of Edom as to Israel's inheritance (Psa 56:1-2).

lips of talkers--literally, "lips of the tongue," that is, of the slanderer, the man of tongue. Edom slandered Israel because of the connection of the latter with Jehovah, as though He were unable to save them. Deu 28:37, and Jer 24:9 had foretold Israel's reproach among the heathen (Dan 9:16).

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

(3) In the lips of talkers, and are an infamy.—A phrase equivalent to a by-word and a reproach. (Comp. Deu_28:37; 1Ki_9:7, &c.) In the previous clause the words, “have swallowed you up,” should rather be “pant for you,” the word being taken from the snuffing and panting of wild beasts. It was after this fashion that “the residue of the heathen,” all those whom the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar had yet left, panted for the possession of the lands of Israel.

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

Therefore prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord God,.... Who heard all the enemy said, and knew all their designs and purposes, their schemes and devices:

because they have made you desolate; ravaged their country, destroyed their cities, burnt their temple, and carried them captive, and left the land without men or cattle:

and swallowed you up on every side; all their neighbours, being their enemies, were like ravenous beasts of prey, gaping upon them with their mouths; and, observing the low condition into which they were brought by the king of Babylon, helped forward the destruction; and everyone shared in the spoil and plunder nearest to them they could conveniently come at:

that ye might be a possession to the residue of the Heathen; either to those that were left in the land by the king of Babylon, or to the rest of the Heathen nations round about them:

ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people; reproached, defamed, and made a proverb and byword, by every foul mouthed prating fellow.

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

The residue of the pagan - Those of the surrounding nations which had survived Jerusalem’s fall, and may have profited by it.

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

Reproach. This God had repeatedly threatened, Deuteronomy xxviii. 37., (Calmet) and Jeremias xxiv. 9. --- People talked of their distress. (Worthington)

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).

Because they, Edomites, and others with them,

have made you desolate; first broken your strength, wasted your cities, and burnt the temple, and waylaid you, to cut off them that were escaped at last.

Swallowed you up; devoured you, as hungry beasts devour the prey.

On every side; from all coasts of the land, through the whole.

That ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen; that such of the heathen as remained here might have, what they no where else could have, being the scum and worst of men, an inheritance and possession; so unnatural was Edom, that east out his own kindred, to bring in the vilest of men and the most barbarous strangers.

Ye are taken up in the lips of talkers; you are the subject on which wild and foul mouths discourse, which is explained, in that the people ever talked of them with reproach, and branding them as infamous. This was foretold to Israel, Jer 24:9, and they were advised to prevent it.

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

3. Because — The Hebrew repeats this word to make it doubly emphatic. Jehovah’s judgments are never arbitrary. (Compare “therefore,” Eze_36:4-6.)

Heathen — Rather, nations.

And are an infamy of the people — R.V., “and the evil report of the people.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore. Ewald calls attention to the fivefold repetition of this conjunction, saying, "It repeats itself five times, the reasons for God"s judgments against these enemies thrusting themselves forward, before the discourse calmly dwells upon the mountains of Israel, of which it is strictly intended to treat." As it were, the prophet"s emotion is so strong, and his indignation against Israel"s enemies so vehement, that, though he three times in succession begins to prophesy to the mountains of Israel, he on each occasion breaks off before he can get his message told, to expatiate upon the wickedness of Israel"s foes. In the prophet"s estimation that wickedness was so heinous as to inevitably carry in its bosom appropriate retribution. Because literally, because and because, or even because, a reduplication for the sake of emphasis, as in Eze_13:10 and Lev_26:43they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side; literally, wasting of and panting after you (are) round about. Fairbairn, Ewald, and Smend, deriving twOmvfrom "to pant," rather than from "to lay waste," translate, "because there is snapping and puffing at you round about," which Plumptre thinks "falls in better be with the context," since "the prophet"s spirit seems to dwell throughout on the derision rather than the desolation to which his country, the mountains of Israel, had been subject." And ye are taken up; literally, ye are made to come, if an imperf., niph. of hl "to go up "(Rosenm Schroder); or, ye are come, if it be imperf., kal of ll; "to press, or go in" (Ewald, Havernick); or, ye are gone up , if it be second pers. kal of hl (Hitzig, Smend). In the lips of talkers; literally, upon the lip of the tongue the lip being regarded as the instrument or organ with which the tongue speaks. Havernick unnecessarily takes "the tongue" as equivalent to "people" in the parallel clause a signification wOvl has only in Isa_66:18; while Kliefoth views it as synonymous with "slander," as in Psa_140:11, and translates, "upon the lip of slander and of the evil report of the people." Keil sees in "the tongue" a personification for the "tongue-man" or talker of Psa_140:11; and Gesenius considers the two clauses as tautological.

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

Swallowed - Devoured you, as hungry beasts devour their prey. Ye are taken up - You are the subject of all their discourse. An infamy - Ever branding you as infamous.

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

those around you were appalled and longed [Your neighbors] were appalled and astounded [at the opportunity] to laugh and see the end of your destruction, and were longing, pining, and looking forward to your becoming an inheritance for the remnant of the nations.

and you were brought up on the lips of every language And now in your destruction, all talk and gossip (other editions: and hawk) about you, saying, “Aha! they have become desolate.”

and the gossip of every people [Heb. וְדִבַּת,] parlemant in Old French, gossip, slander.

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.