What does Ezechiel Chapter 35 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Seir’s enmity and blood wording remain exact. Hostile inheritance claims receive judgment. Joy over Israel’s ruin precedes corresponding desolation.

Chapter breakdown

Ezechiel 35 addresses Mount Seir. The Lord stretches out his hand to make it desolate and its cities waste, bringing recognition of him. Its everlasting enmity shut Israel's children up to the sword in their affliction, at the time of their last iniquity. The oracle says that because Seir has hated blood, blood will pursue it. That difficult wording must remain intact rather than being changed to a craving for blood. Those going and returning are cut off, and hills, valleys and torrents fill with sword-slain people; cities become uninhabited wastes.

Seir claimed two nations and two lands as its inheritance although the Lord was there. The passage does not name those two nations in this sentence. The Lord answers its envy, wrath and hatred with judgment and makes himself known by them. Reproaches against Israel's mountains, said to be desolate and given for consumption, and multiplied words against the Lord have been heard. Whispered plotting and detailed annexation plans are not supplied.

As the whole earth rejoices, Seir will be made desolate. Its joy over Israel's ruined inheritance receives corresponding desolation upon Mount Seir and all Idumea, and recognition of the Lord concludes the word. The stated correspondence does not establish a universal guarantee that every act of aggression receives immediate punishment.

The story inside

Opening: Seir’s enmity and blood wording remain exact. Development: Hostile inheritance claims receive judgment. Conclusion: Joy over Israel’s ruin precedes corresponding desolation.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Seir’s enmity and blood wording remain exact.
2
Hostile inheritance claims receive judgment.
3
Joy over Israel’s ruin precedes corresponding desolation.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 95130–95153
35:3. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against thee, mount Seir, and I will stretch forth my hand upon thee, and I will make thee desolate and waste. 35:4. I will destroy thy cities, and thou shalt be desolate: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. 35:5. Because thou hast been an everlasting enemy, and hast shut up the children of Israel in the hands of the sword in the time of their affliction, in the time of their last iniquity. 35:6. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will deliver thee up to blood, and blood shall pursue thee: and whereas thou hast hated blood, blood shall pursue thee. 35:7. And I will make mount Seir waste and desolate: and I will take away from it him that goeth and him that returneth. 35:8. And I will fill his mountains with his men that are slain: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in thy torrents they shall fall that are slain with the sword. 35:9. I will make thee everlasting desolations, and thy cities shall not be inhabited: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord God.
Lines 95155–95177
35:10. Because thou hast said: The two nations, and the two lands shall be mine, and I will possess them by inheritance: whereas the Lord was there. 35:11. Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will do according to thy wrath, and according to thy envy, which thou hast exercised in hatred to them: and I will be made known by them, when I shall have judged thee. 35:12. And thou shalt know that I the Lord have heard all thy reproaches, that thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying. They are desolate, they are given to us to consume. 35:13. And you rose up against me with your mouth, and have derogated from me by your words: I have heard them. 35:14. Thus saith the Lord God: When the whole earth shall rejoice, I will make thee a wilderness. 35:15. As thou hast rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was laid waste, so will I do to thee: thou shalt be laid waste, O mount Seir, and all Idumea: and they shall know that I am the Lord.