Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page

---

[Table of Contents] [Previous] [Next]

Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1712)

---

E Z E K I E L.

CHAP. XXXV.

---

     

It was promised, in the foregoing chapter, that when the time to favour

Zion, yea, the set time, should come, especially the time for sending

the Messiah and setting up his kingdom in the world, God would cause

the enemies of his church to cease and the blessings and comforts of

the church to abound. This chapter enlarges upon the former promise,

concerning the destruction of the enemies of the church; the next

chapter upon the latter promise, the replenishing of the church with

blessings. Mount Seir (that is, Edom) is the enemy prophesied against

in this chapter, but fitly put here, as in the prophecy of Obadiah, for

all the enemies of the church; for, as those all walked in the way of

Cain that hated Abel, so those all walked in the way of Esau who hated

Jacob, but over whom Jacob, by virtue of a particular blessing, was to

have dominion. Now here we have,

I. The sin charged upon the Edomites, and that was their spite and

malice to Israel,

ver. 5, 10-13.

II. The ruin threatened, that should come upon them for this sin. God

will be against them

(ver. 3)

and then their country shall be laid waste

(ver. 4),

depopulated, and made quite desolate

(ver. 6-9),

and left so when other nations that had been wasted should recover

themselves,

ver. 14, 15.

The Fall of Edom.	B. C. 587.

     

1 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

  2 Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy

against it,

  3 And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount

Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand

against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.

  4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and

thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

  5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the

blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the

time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had

an end:

  6 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare

thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not

hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.

  7 Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from

it him that passeth out and him that returneth.

  8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy

hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall

that are slain with the sword.

  9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall

not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

     

Mount Seir was mentioned as partner with Moab in one of the

threatenings we had before

(ch. xxv. 8);

but here it is convicted and condemned by itself, and has woes of its

own. The prophet must boldly set his face against Edom, and

prophesy particularly against it; for the God of Israel

has said, O Mount Seir! I am against thee. Note, Those that have

God against them have the word of God against them, and the face of his

ministers, nor dare they prophesy any good to them, but evil. The

prophet must tell the Edomites that God has a controversy with them,

and let them know,

     

I. What is the cause and ground of that controversy,

v. 5.

God espouses his people’s cause, and will plead it, takes what is done

against them as done against himself, and will reckon for it; and it is

upon their account that God now contends with the Edomites.

1. Because of the enmity they had against the people of God, that was

rooted in the heart. “Thou hast had a perpetual hatred to them,

to the very name of an Israelite.” The Edomites kept up an

hereditary malice against Israel, the same that Esau bore to

Jacob, because he got the birth-right and the blessing. Esau had been

reconciled to Jacob, had embraced and kissed him

(Gen. xxxiii.),

and we do not find that ever he quarrelled with him again. But the

posterity of Esau would never be reconciled to the seed of Jacob, but

hated them with a perpetual hatred. Note, Children will be more apt to

imitate the vices than the virtues of their parents, and to tread in

the steps of their sin than in the steps of their repentance. Parents

should therefore be careful not to set their children any bad example,

for though, through the grace of God, they may return, and prevent the

mischief of what they have done amiss to themselves, they may not be

able to obviate the bad influence of it upon their children. It is

strange how deeply rooted national antipathies sometimes are, and how

long they last; but it is not to be wondered at that profane Edomites

hate pious Israelites, since the old enmity that was put between

the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent

(Gen. iii. 15)

will continue to the end. Marvel not if the world hate you.

2. Because of the injuries they had done to the people of God. They

shed their blood by the force of the sword, in the time of their

calamity; they did not attack them as fair and open enemies, but

laid wait for them, to cut off those of them that had escaped

(Obad. 14),

or they drove them back upon the sword of the pursuers, by which they

fell. It was cowardly, as well as barbarous, to take advantage of their

distress; and for neighbours, with whom they had lived peaceably, to

smite them secretly when strangers openly invaded them. It was

in the time that their iniquity had an end, when the measure of

it was full and destruction came. Note, Even those that suffer justly,

and for their sins, are yet to be pitied and not trampled upon. If the

father corrects one child, he expects the rest should tremble at it,

not triumph in it.

     

II. What should be the effect and issue of that controversy. If God

stretch out his hand against the country of Edom, he will make it

most desolate,
v. 3.

Desolation and desolation.

1. The inhabitants shall be slain with the sword

(v. 6):

I will prepare thee unto blood. Edom shall be gradually

weakened, and so be the more easily conquered, and the enemy shall

gather strength the more effectually to subdue it. Thus preparation is

in the making a great while before for this destruction. Thou hast

not hated blood; it implies, “Thou hast delighted in it and

thirsted after it.” Those that do not keep up a rooted hatred of sin,

when a temptation to it is very strong, will be in danger of yielding

to it. Some read it, “Unless thou hatest blood” (that is,

“unless thou dost repent, and put off this bloody disposition) blood

shall pursue thee.” And then it is an intimation that the judgment

may yet be prevented by a thorough reformation. If he turn not, he

will whet his sword,
Ps. vii. 12.

But, if he turn, he will lay it by. Blood shall pursue thee,

the guilt of the blood which thou hast shed or the

judgment of blood; thy blood-thirsty enemies shall pursue thee,

which way soever thou seekest to make thy escape. A great and general

slaughter shall be made of the Idumeans, such as had been foretold

(Isa. xxxiv. 6):

The mountains and hills, the valleys and rivers, shall be

filled with the slain,
v. 8.

The pursuers shall overtake those that flee and shall give no quarter,

but put them all to the sword. Note, When God comes to make inquisition

for blood those that have shed the blood of his Israel shall have blood

given them to drink, for they are worthy. Satia te sanguine quem

sitisti–Glut thyself with blood, after which thou hast thirsted.

2. The country shall be laid waste. The cities shall be destroyed

(v. 4),

the country made most desolate

(v. 7);

for God will cut off from both him that passes out and

him that returns; and when the inhabitants are cut off that

should keep the cities in repair they will decay and go into ruins, and

when those are cut off that should till the land that will soon be

over-run with briers and thorns and become a wilderness. Note, Those

that help forward the desolations of Israel may expect to be themselves

made desolate. And that which completes the judgment is that Edom shall

be made perpetual desolations

(v. 9)

and the cities shall never return to their former state, nor the

inhabitants of them come back from their captivity and dispersion.

Note, Those that have a perpetual enmity to God and his people, as the

carnal mind has, can expect no other than to be made a perpetual

desolation. Implacable malice will justly be punished with irreparable

ruin.

The Fall of Edom.	B. C. 587.

     

10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two

countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD

was there:

  11 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do

according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou

hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself

known among them, when I have judged thee.

  12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have

heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the

mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are

given us to consume.

  13 Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have

multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.

  14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I

will make thee desolate.

  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.

     

Here is,

I. A further account of the sin of the Edomites, and their bad conduct

towards the people of God. We find the church complaining of them for

setting on the Babylonians, and irritating them against Jerusalem,

saying, Rase it, rase it, down with it, down with it

(Ps. cxxxvii. 7),

inflaming a rage that needed no spur; here it is further charged upon

them that they triumphed in Jerusalem’s ruin and in the desolations of

the country. Many blasphemies they spoke against the

mountains of Israel, saying, with pride and pleasure, They

are laid desolate,
v. 12.

Note, The troubles of God’s church, as they give proofs of the

constancy and fidelity of its friends, so they discover and draw out

the corruptions of its enemies, in whom there then appears more brutish

malice than one would have thought of. Now their triumphing in

Jerusalem’s ruin is here said to proceed,

1. From a sinful passion against the people of Israel; from

anger and envy, and hatred against them

(v. 11),

that perpetual hatred spoken of

v. 5.

Though they were not a match for them, and therefore could not do them

a mischief themselves, yet they were glad when the Chaldeans did them a

mischief.

2. From a sinful appetite to the land of Israel. They pleased

themselves with hopes that when the people of Israel were destroyed

they should be let into the possession of their country, which they had

so often grudged and envied them. They thought they could make out

something of a title to it, ob defectum sanguinis–for want of other

heirs. If Jacob’s issue fail, they think that they are next in the

entail, and that the remainder will be to his brother’s issue:

“These two nations of Judah and Israel shall be mine. Now is the

time for me to put in for them.” At least they hope to come in as first

occupants, being near neighbours: We will possess it when it is

deserted. Ceditur occupanti–Let us get possession and that will be

title enough. Note, Those have the spirit of Edomites who desire

the death of others because they hope to get by it, or are pleased with

their failing because they expect to come into their business. When we

see the vanity of the world in the disappointments, losses, and

crosses, that others meet with in it, instead of showing ourselves,

upon such an occasion, greedy of it, we should rather be made thereby

to sit more loose to it, and both take our affections off it and lower

our expectations from it. But in this case of the Edomites’ coveting

the land of Israel, and gaping for it, there was a particular affront

to God, when they said, “These lands are given us to devour, and

we shall have our bellies full of their riches.” God says, You have

boasted against me and have multiplied your words against me; for

they expected possession upon a vacancy, because Israel was driven out,

whereas the Lord was still there,
v. 10.

His temple indeed was burnt, and the other tokens of his presence were

gone; but his promise to give that land to the seed of Jacob for an

inheritance was not made void, but remained in full force and virtue;

and by that promise he did in effect still keep possession for Israel,

till they should in due time be restored to it. That was Immanuel’s

land

(Isa. viii. 8);

in that land he was to be born, and therefore that people shall

continue in it of whom he is to be born, till he has passed his time in

it, and then let who will take it. The Lord is there, the Lord

Jesus is to be there; and therefore Israel’s discontinuance of

possession is no defeasance of their right, but it shall be kept for

them, and they shall have, hold, and enjoy it by virtue of the divine

grant, till the promise of this Canaan shall by the Messiah be changed

into the promise of a far better. Note, It is a piece of presumption

highly offensive to God for Edomites to lay claim to those privileges

and comforts that are peculiar to God’s chosen Israel and are reserved

for them. It is blasphemy against the mountains of Israel, the

holy mountains, to say, because they are for the present made a prey of

and trodden under foot of the Gentiles

(Rev. xi. 2),

even the holy city itself, that therefore the Lord has

forsaken them, their God has forgotten them. The apostle

will by no means admit such a thought as this, that God hath cast

away his people,
Rom. xi. 1.

No; though they are cast down for a time, they are not cast off for

ever. Those reproach the Lord who say they are.

     

II. The notice God took of the barbarous insolence of the Edomites, and

the doom passed upon them for it: I have heard all thy

blasphemies,
v. 12.

And again

(v. 13),

You have multiplied your words against me, and I have heard

them, I have observed them, I have kept an account of them. Note,

In the multitude of words, not one escapes God’s cognizance; let men

speak ever so much, ever so fast, though they multiply words, which

they themselves regard not, but forget immediately, yet none of them

are lost in the crowd, not the most idle words; but God hears them, and

will be able to charge the sinner with them. All the haughty and hard

speeches, particularly, which are spoken against the Israel of God, the

words which are magnified (as it is in the margin,

v. 13)

as well as the words which are multiplied, God takes notice of. For, as

the most trifling words are not below his cognizance, so the most

daring are not above his rebuke. I have heard all thy

blasphemies. This is a good reason why we should bear reproach as

if we heard it not, because God will hear,
Ps. xxxviii. 13, 15.

God has heard the Edomites’ blasphemy; let them therefore hear their

doom,

v. 14, 15.

It was a national sin (the blasphemies charged upon them were the sense

and language of all the Edomites), and therefore shall be punished with

a national desolation. And,

1. It shall be a distinguishing punishment. As God has peculiar

favours for Israelites, so he has peculiar plagues for Edomites: so

that “When the whole earth rejoices I will make thee desolate;

when other nations have their desolations repaired, to their joy, thine

shall be perpetual,”

v. 9.

2. The punishment shall answer to the sin: “As thou didst rejoice in

the desolation of the house of Israel, God will give thee enough of

desolation; since thou art so fond of it, thou shalt be desolate; I

will make thee so.” Note, Those who, instead of weeping with the

mourners, make a jest of their grievances, may justly be made to weep

like the mourners, and themselves to feel the weight, to feel the

smart, of those grievances which they set so light by. Some read

v. 14

so as to complete the resemblance between the sin and the punishment:

The whole earth shall rejoice when I make thee desolate, as thou

didst rejoice when Israel was made desolate. Those that are glad

at the death and fall of others may expect that others will be glad of

their death, of their fall.

3. In the destruction of the enemies of the church God designs his own

glory, and we may be sure that he will not come short of his design.

(1.) That which he intends is to manifest himself, as a just and

jealous God, firm to his covenant and faithful to his people and their

injured cause

(v. 11):

I will make myself known among them when I have judged thee. The

Lord is and will be known by the judgments which he executes.

(2.) His intention shall be fully answered; not only his own people

shall be made to know it to their comfort, but even the Edomites

themselves, and all the other enemies of his name and people, shall

know that he is the Lord,
v. 4, 9, 15.

As the works of creation and common providence demonstrate that there

is a God, so the care taken of Israel shows that Jehovah, the God of

Israel, is that God alone, the true and living God.

---

[Table of Contents] [Previous] [Next]

Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1712)

---

Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download Contact Us

---