《The Pulpit Commentaries – Ezekiel (Vol. 3)》(Joseph S. Exell)
25 Chapter 25
Verses 1-17
EXPOSITION
The section on which we now enter—the great "parenthesis," as I have called it, of Ezekiel's prophetic work—contains messages to the seven nations that were most closely connected with the fortunes of Israel and Judah. These were
A prophet's work was hardly complete without such a survey of the Divine order of the world so far as it came within the horizon of his thoughts; and Ezekiel had before him the example of like groups of prophecies addressed to the heathen nations with which Israel was brought into contact, in Isaiah 13-23. and Jeremiah 46-51. It was natural that the two contemporary prophets should be led to address their messages to the same nations, and so we find Ezekiel's seven named together with others in Jeremiah 25:15-26, and five of them (Egypt and Philistia being excepted) in Jeremiah 27:1-4; while we have fuller and special prophecies for Egypt (Jeremiah 46:1-28.); Philistia (Jeremiah 47:1-7.); Moab (Jeremiah 48:1-47.); Ammon (Jeremiah 49:1-6); Edom (Jeremiah 49:7-22), with the addition of Damascus (Jeremiah 49:23-27); Kedar (Jeremiah 49:28-33); Elam (Jeremiah 49:34-39); Babylon (Jeremiah 1:1). What is remarkable in Ezekiel is that he has no message for Babylon, which for Isaiah and Jeremiah was the leading representative of the world-powers considered in their antagonism to the Divine kingdom. This may, in part, be explained by supposing that he omitted it in order to keep to his number of seven nations as the symbol of completeness; but a more probable hypothesis is that he was led, as Jeremiah had at one time been (Jeremiah 29:1-7), to see in the Chaldean monarchy the appointed minister of the Divine judgments on Jerusalem and on the other nations. For his immediate purpose it was fitter that the exiles for whom he wrote should "seek the peace" of the people among whom they dwelt rather than that they should exult in its future downfall. He, like Jeremiah, may have been personally favored by Nebuchadnezzar and his officials; and Daniel, whom he mentions with honor (Ezekiel 14:14), and whom he may have known personally, was the king's chief minister. There was, we may well believe, a sufficient reason for this exceptional reticence.
Ezekiel 25:2
Set thy face against the Ammonites. The main facts that are essential to a right understanding of the message to this people, not to speak of their long-standing enmity against Israel for many centuries, are
Ezekiel 25:4, Ezekiel 25:5
The men of the east; Hebrew, children of the east.The name is applied in Genesis 29:1; 1 Kings 4:30; Job 1:3; 6:3, 6:33; 7:12; 8:10, to the nomadic tribes, Midianites and others, which roamed to and fro in the wilderness east of Ammon and Moab, after the manner of the modem Bedouins, with their sheep and camels, and were looked upon as descendants of Ishmael. Palaces; better, with the Revised Version, encampments, or tent-villages.The word is found, in this sense, in Genesis 25:16; Psalms 69:25; Numbers 31:10. This was, probably, the immediate result of Nebuchadnezzar's march. Rabbah was left undefended, and became a stable for the camels of the Midianites and other tribes ( 6:5). The prediction has been slowly fulfilled. Under the Greece-Egyptian rule the city revived, was named after Ptolemy Philadel-phus, and was flourishing under the Roman Empire. Remains of temples, theatres, houses, are still found on its site, but its present desolate condition agrees with the picture drawn here by Ezekiel and in Jeremiah 49:2. The language of Jeremiah 49:6 implies captivity and a partial return from it.
Ezekiel 25:7
A spoil to the heathen. The noun for "spoil" is not found elsewhere, but probably means "food." The Hebrew Keri, i.e. its marginal reading, gives the same word as that rendered "spoil" in Ezekiel 27:5. The meaning is substantially the same whichever word we choose. Ezekiel, it will be noticed, says nothing about the return of the Ammonites, but contemplates, as in Ezekiel 21:32, entire destruction. The moaning of Rabbah ("great" or "populous"), the mother-city of Ammon, gives greater force to the prophecy of desolation.
Ezekiel 25:8
Moab and Seir. "Seir" stands elsewhere for Edom, but here appears as distinguished from it, the latter nation having a distinct message in Ezekiel 25:12. A possible explanation is found in 2 Chronicles 20:23, where we find Moab and Ammon joined together against the inhabitants of Mount Seir. The Moabites may have retained possession of it, and so Ezekiel may have coupled the two names together. Their sin also, like that of Ammon, is that they exulted in the fall of Jerusalem. It was come down to the level of other cities, no longer exalted above them by the blessing of Jehovah. The Moabite Stone, found in the ruins of Dibon ('Records of the Past,' 9.165), on which Mesha, King of Moab, narrates his conquests over neighboring nations, including Israel, testifies to the strength of the kingdom, and in Isaiah 15:1-9. and 16. it is represented as conspicuous for its pride. They too, like the Ammonites, served in Nebuchadnezzar's army (2 Kings 24:2).
Ezekiel 25:9
I will open the side of Moab; literally, the shoulder, i.e. the slopes of the mountain of Moab (Joshua 15:8, Joshua 15:10). For Beth-jeshimoth (equivalent to "House of wastes"), see Numbers 33:49; Joshua 12:3; Joshua 13:20. It had been assigned to Reuben, but had been seized by the Moabites. It has been identified by De Sauley with the ruins now known as Suaime, on the northeastern border of the Dead Sea. Baal-moon (Numbers 32:38), more fully Beth-baal-meon (Joshua 13:17), or Beth-moon (Jeremiah 48:23). The name is found in ruins of some extent, known as the fortress of Mi'un or Maein, about three miles south of Heshbon ('Dict. Bible,' s.v.).Kiriathaim. The dual form of the name (equivalent to "Two cities") implies, perhaps, the union of an old and new town, or two towns on the opposite sides of a brook or wady. The name appears in Genesis 14:5; Numbers 32:37; Joshua 13:19; Jeremiah 48:1, Jeremiah 48:23. It has been identified with El-Teym, about two miles from Medeba (Burckhardt), and with Kurei-yat, on the south side of Jebel Attarus.Eusebius ('Onom.,' s.v.)describes it as about ten miles from Medeba, and close to the Baris, lint nothing is known as to the last-named place. The three cities all belonged to the region which Sihon and Og had conquered from the Moabites before Israel obtained possession of them, and they were afterwards claimed as belonging to the Israelites by right of conquest ( 11:23), and them may therefore be a touch of irony in Ezekiel's language describing them as Moabite cities. Collectively they were the glory of the country, the region known as the Belka, in which they were situated, giving the best pasturage, then as now, in Southern Syria. Havernick quotes a Bedouin proverb, "There is no land like Belka". Kirjath and Baal-meon appear in Mesha's inscription on the Moabite Stone.
Ezekiel 25:10
Unto the men of the east with the Ammonites. The Authorized Version is obscure. What is meant is that the Moabites as well as the Ammonites were to be given to the nomadic tribes, the "children of the east," for a possession. The doom that Ammon was to be no more remembered (Ezekiel 21:32) was to be carried out to the uttermost, and the children of the east were to complete what Nebuchadnezzar had begun. The utter destruction of Ammon was, as it were, uppermost in the prophet's thoughts, and that of Moab was but secondary. Historically, the words received a partial fulfillment in Nebuchadnezzar's conquests five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, but the Ammonites were still an important people in the time of the Maccabees (1 Macc. 5:6, 30-45) and Justin Martyr.
Ezekiel 25:12, Ezekiel 25:13
Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah, etc. The statement receives many illustrations, notably in Psalms 137:7, and at an earlier date in Amos 1:11; Obadiah 1:11. What had been malicious exultation (the ἐπιχαιρεκακία, which Aristotle describes as the extremest type of evil) passed in the case of Edom into overt acts of hostility. The moment of Judah's weakness was seized on as an opportunity for gratifying what Ezekiel elsewhere (Ezekiel 35:5) calls the "perpetual hatred" of the people against Israel, for taking vengeance for the primal wrong which Esau had suffered at the hand of Jacob (Genesis 27:36). (For other prophecies against Edom, see Numbers 24:18, Numbers 24:19; Isaiah 11:14; Jeremiah 49:7-12; Joel 3:19.) Teman. The name, which signifies "South," was probably applied to a district—twice, here and in Jeremiah 49:7, Jeremiah 49:8, coupled with Dedan. In Jeremiah 49:20, Jeremiah 49:21 the cry of the inhabitants of Teman is said to have been "heard in the Red Sea," and this determines its geographical position, as being, in accordance with its name, the southern region of Edom. In Job 2:11 we have Eliphaz the Temanite as one of the patriarch's friends, and the same name appears as that of a son of Esau (Genesis 36:11). In Jeremiah (loc. cit.)Teman is named as famous for its wisdom. Dedan is named as a grandson of Cash in Genesis 10:7, and of Abraham by Keturah in Genesis 25:3. It has been inferred from this that there were two branches of the nation, one on the shores of the Persian Gulf, nomadic and trading, as in the "travelling companies" of Dedanim (Isaiah 21:13; Ezekiel 27:15, Ezekiel 27:20); the other settled in the territory of the Edomites ('Dict. Bible'). The latter is that to which Ezekiel refers. A various punctuation gives, with a better sense, "From Teman even unto Dedan they shall fall by the sword."
Ezekiel 25:14
By the hand of my people Israel: The words received a fulfillment in the conquest of Edom by John Hyrcanus, who compelled its people to receive circumcision (Josephus, 'Ant.,' 13.9. 1). In Amos 9:12 its subjugation is connected with the Messianic prophecy that the fallen tabernacle of David should be raised up. There is an obvious emphasis in the repetition of the word vengeance. The law of a Divine retribution will work out its appointed purpose-vengeance to those who sought vengeance. They (the Edomites) shall reap as they have sown, and shall know that the vengeance of Jehovah is more terrible than their own.
Ezekiel 25:15
The sin of the Philistines is virtually the same as that of the Edomites. They also had a perpetual hatred. Century after century they had been, with various fortunes, the enemies of Israel—defeated (to confine ourselves to more recent history) by Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 17:11) and Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:6), formidable under Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:16) and Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:18), repressed by Hezekiah (Isaiah 14:31), combining with Amalek, and Ammon, and Tyre, and Assyria against Jerusalem (Psalms 83:7).
Ezekiel 25:16
The Cherethims. The name appears, coupled with the Philistines, in Zephaniah 2:5, and has been supposed to be connected with Crete as the region from which they came, or in which they afterwards settled. By many writers both names are identified with the Cherethites and Pelethites, who appear as David's body-guard in 2 Samuel 8:18; 2 Samuel 15:18, et al; and who are supposed to represent a body of mercenary or subject troops formed out of the two nations. Both Ezekiel and Zephaniah connect the Cherethims with a paronomasia, the verb I will cut off being almost identical in sound with it. (For other prophecies, see Isaiah 11:14; Isaiah 14:29-31; Jeremiah 47:1-7.; Joel 3:4; Amos 1:6-8; Zephaniah 2:4-7; Zechariah 9:4-7.)
HOMILETICS.
Ezekiel 25:1
The judgment of the nations.
This verse introduces a new series of prophecies, which contain successive utterances of judgment against foreign nations, extending over the following chapters to the end of the thirty-second. The whole series is deserving of consideration, both for the sake of its common character and in order to note the distinctions of the several parts.
I.GODRULESOVERTHEWHOLEEARTH. The prophet has not ended his mission when he has delivered his message to the Jews. He has a new oracle to utter. The word of God comes to him again with fresh, full, distinct declarations, and the whole of these declarations concern foreign nations. Seven nations are specified. The number is suggestive; the typical number of completeness, it implies that the nations named are not the only ones over whom God exercises jurisdiction, but that those nations, being the nearest to Israel, are selected as prominent specimens. The Hebrew prophets repeatedly extended their gaze far beyond the hills of Palestine. The Moabites might regard Jehovah as the tribal God of Israel, in the same sense in which Chemosh was their God (see the Moabite Stone), and Jephthah might use language which appeared to recognize this position ( 11:24), but the inspired prophets made no such mistake. They knew that the one God was Lord over the whole earth. God is now concerned with the heathen. He is also concerned with the godless at home. Men may ignore, renounce, or oppose him, but they cannot elude his notice or escape from his authority.
II.GODEXERCISESHISJUDGMENTSAGAINSTWICKEDNESSOVERTHEWHOLEEARTH. Those seven nations were called to account by God, charged with wickedness, and threatened with destruction. They were heathen nations, but that fact did not exonerate them from blame or protect them against just punishment. Christ announced a judgment of all the nations to follow that of Israel (Matthew 25:32). St. Paul spoke to the Athenians of God's judgment of all men (Acts 17:30, Acts 17:31), and pointed out to the Romans that the heathen would be subject to it (Romans 1:18). These and other expressions show us that those people who had not light and law would not be judged by the high standard of the more instructed, but that their own consciences would be the measure of their guilt. The heathen know sin. Unbelievers cannot deny their own misconduct in daily life, though they may deny the doctrines of Scripture. As sinners, just like other men, if not as unbelievers, will they be judged. We cannot escape the consequences of our sins by repudiating religion.
III.GODVISITSNATIONALSINSWITHNATIONALJUDGMENTS.
1.Each nation is judged as a whole.There is and there will be separate, individual judgments. Of this Christ spoke (Matthew 25:32). But while the New Testament is individualistic, the Old Testament is national. It more frequently takes a nation as a corporate unit. There are national sins,
2.Each nation is judged separately.A distinct judgment is pronounced against each of the seven nations. God is discriminating in his judgment of communities as well as in his judgment of individuals. All have not sinned in the same way, therefore all will not be punished on the same scale. The Judge of all the earth will do right.
In conclusion, note that God, who rules over all the nations, and will judge them all, has sent his Son to be the Savior of all. The gospel is as broad as the judgment (Romans 5:20).
Ezekiel 25:2-7
The scoffing nation.
The first nation selected for denunciation is the Ammonite, situated on the east of the Jordan and to the north of Moab, with its further border towards the Syrian desert. Its scoffing at the sacred things of the Jews, and its cruel mockery of their calamities, are to be followed by a dreadful destruction. Scoffing and mockery are dangerous practices for those who indulge in them.
I.THECRUELSCOFFING.
1. An insult to religion."Thou saidst, Aha! against my sanctuary when it was profaned" (Ezekiel 25:3). No doubt the sanctuary was regarded as a mystical center of the power of the Jews. When the sacred edifice was overthrown, the talisman was destroyed, the spell was broken. This was a matter of delight to an enemy. Thus scoffing is itself a testimony to the power of religion, though that power may be apprehended in a very ignorant and superstitious way. But to rejoice in the downfall of religious influence is to proclaim one's self an enemy of God. It is fair, however, to see that scoffing at religion may be provoked by the misconduct of its champions. Much of the scoffing of unbelievers at Christianity is not inspired by hatred to the gospel, but by disgust at the unworthy conduct of Christians. The sins of the Jews led to dishonor to their temple. The sins of Christians invite insults against Christ.
2. The love of destruction.The Ammonites scoffed "against the land of Israel when it was desolate." The northern nation had been already destroyed and scattered, but the waste and ruined condition of the deserted land was a delight to the jealous neighbors on the eastern border. There is a fierce joy in the idea delenda est Carthago.But this is heathenish and wicked. Sin that works for death creates a delight in destruction. The Christian idea is the opposite to this—not breaking a bruised reed, but helping on the time when "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose" (Isaiah 35:1).
3. A pleasure in cruelty.The Ammonites scoffed at the contemporary calamity of the southern kingdom—"the house of Judah, when they went into captivity." The earlier destruction of Israel is a source of wild, fiendish joy. "Thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despite against the land of Israel" (Ezekiel 25:6). There is no more Satanic wickedness than joy springing from the contemplation of the misery of others.