Bible Commentaries

Eze 25:1-17.

APPROPRIATELY IN THE INTERVAL OF SILENCE AS TO THE JEWS IN THE EIGHT CHAPTERS, (TWENTY-FIFTH THROUGH THIRTY-SECOND) EZEKIEL DENOUNCES JUDGMENTS ON THE HEATHEN WORLD KINGDOMS.

If Israel was not spared, much less the heathen utterly corrupt, and having no mixture of truth, such as Israel in its worst state possessed

(1Pe 4:17, 18).

Their ruin was to be utter: Israel's but temporary

(Jer 46:28).

The nations denounced are seven, the perfect number; implying that God's judgments would visit, not merely these, but the whole round of the heathen foes of God. Babylon is excepted, because she is now for the present viewed as the rod of God's retributive justice, a view too much then lost sight of by those who fretted against her universal supremacy.

3.

(Jer 49:1).

when . . . profaned; . . . when . . . desolate; . . . when . . . captivity--rather, "for . . . for . . . for": the cause of the insolent exultation of Ammon over Jerusalem. They triumphed especially over the fall of the "sanctuary," as the triumph of heathenism over the rival claims of Jehovah. In Jehoshaphat's time, when the eighty-third Psalm was written

(Ps 83:4, 7, 8, 12,

"Ammon . . . holpen the children of Lot," who were, therefore, the leaders of the unholy conspiracy, "Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession"), we see the same profane spirit. Now at last their wicked wish seems accomplished in the fall of Jerusalem. Ammon, descended from Lot, held the region east of Jordan, separated from the Amorites on the north by the river Jabbok, and from Moab on the south by the Arnon. They were auxiliaries to Babylon in the destruction of Jerusalem

(2Ki 24:2).

4. men of . . . east--literally, "children of the East," the nomad tribes of Arabia-Deserta, east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea.

palaces--their nomadic encampments or folds, surrounded with mud walls, are so called in irony. Where thy "palaces" once stood, there shall their very different "palaces" stand. Fulfilled after the ravaging of their region by Nebuchadnezzar, shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem (compare

Eze 21:22; Jer 49:1-28).

5. Rabbah--meaning "the Great," Ammon's metropolis. Under the Ptolemies it was rebuilt under the name Philadelphia; the ruins are called Amman now, but there is no dwelling inhabited.

Ammonites--that is, the Ammonite region is to be a "couching place for flocks," namely of the Arabs. The "camels," being the chief beast of burden of the Chaldeans, are put first, as their invasion was to prepare the Ammonite land for the Arab "flocks." Instead of busy men, there shall be "still and couching flocks."

6, 7. "Because thou hast clapped thine hands," exulting over the downfall of Jerusalem, "I also will stretch out Mine hand upon thee" (to which

Eze 21:17

also may refer, "I will smite Mine hands together").

hands . . . feet . . . heart--with the whole inward feeling, and with every outward indication. Stamping with the foot means dancing for joy.

7. a spoil--so the Hebrew Margin, or Keri, for the text or Chetib, "meat" (so

Eze 26:5; 34:28).

Their goods were to be a "spoil to the foe"; their state was to be "cut off," so as to be no more a "people"; and they were as individuals, for the most part, to be "destroyed."

8. Moab, Seir, and Ammon were contiguous countries, stretching in one line from Gilead on the north to the Red Sea. They therefore naturally acted in concert, and in joint hostility to Judea.

Judah is like . . . all . . . heathen--The Jews fare no better than others: it is of no use to them to serve Jehovah, who, they say, is the only true God.

9, 10. open . . . from the cities--I will open up the side, or border of Moab (metaphor from a man whose side is open to blows), from the (direction of) the cities on his northwest border beyond the Arnon, once assigned to Reuben

(Jos 13:15-21),

but now in the hands of their original owners; and the "men of the east," the wandering Bedouin hordes, shall enter through these cities into Moab and waste it. Moab accordingly was so wasted by them, that long before the time of Christ it had melted away among the hordes of the desert. For "cities," GROTIUS translates the Hebrew as proper names, the Ar and Aroer, on the Arnon. Hence the Hebrew for "cities," "Ar" is repeated twice

(Nu 21:28; De 2:36; Isa 15:1).

glory of the country--The region of Moab was richer than that of Ammon; it answers to the modern Belka, the richest district in South Syria, and the scene in consequence of many a contest among the Bedouins. Hence it is called here a "glorious land" (literally, "a glory," or "ornament of a land") [FAIRBAIRN]. Rather, "the glory of the country" is in apposition with "cities" which immediately precedes, and the names of which presently follow.

Beth-jeshimoth--meaning "the city of desolations"; perhaps so named from some siege it sustained; it was towards the west.

Baal-meon--called also "Beth-meon"

(Jer 48:23),

and "Beth-baal-meon"

(Jos 13:17,

called so from the worship of Baal), and "Bajith," simply

(Isa 15:2).

Kiriathaim--"the double city." The strength of these cities engendered "the pride" of Moab

(Isa 16:6).