Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set
thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it, 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. I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be
desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. 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: Therefore, as I live, saith
the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue
thee: since thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him
that passeth out and him that returneth. 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. I
will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not
return: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Because thou hast
said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and
we will possess it; whereas the Lord was there: 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. 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. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and
have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them (verses
1-13).
Mount Seir is mentioned for the first time in Genesis xxxvi:9, as the
dwelling place of the Edomites. Seir means "shaggy," an allusion to the
rugged character of Idumea. The Edomites and Israelites were descendants
of Abraham; Edom from Esau and Israel from Jacob. God told Israel not to
forget their relationship to the descendants of Esau. But the Edomites
hated Israel. Beautiful were the words which Moses addressed to Edom,
when he sent messengers from Kadesh. "Thus saith thy brother Israel,
thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us, how our fathers went
down to Egypt and dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians evil
entreated us, and our fathers; and when we cried unto the Lord, He heard
our voice, and sent an angel, and brought us forth out of Egypt, and
behold we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border; let us
pass, I pray thee through thy land" (Numbers xx:14-17). The Edomites
rejected this loving word and forced the Israelites to take another way.
More than once did they attack from their mountains the people Israel
and slew them. "He did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast
off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath
forever" (Amos i:11). Most scathing is Edom's arraignment through the
prophet Obadiah. "For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall
cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off forever. In the day that thou
stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away
captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots
upon Jerusalem, even thou wast one of them. But thou shouldest not have
looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger;
neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the
day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in
the day of distress" (Obad. verses 9-14). Theirs was a perpetual hatred
as God speaks here through Ezekiel. Judgment is therefore announced, a
judgment which should make their land desolate and extinguish them as a
nation. "I will make thee most desolate." "I will lay thy cities waste,
and thou shalt be desolate." "Thus will I make mount Seir most
desolate." "I will make thee perpetual desolation, and thy cities shall
not return." They were a proud, a boasting people, defying God and
hating His chosen people. "Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against
me, and have multiplied your words against me; I have heard them."
And this threatened judgment has fallen upon Edom's land. Their capital
was the great rock city Petra, called Selah in the Bible (2 Kings
xiv:7).
It was once a powerful city, which carried on an immense trade; it was,
according to ancient historians, the terminus of one of the great
commercial routes of Asia. And now in that once so prosperous land an
indescribable desolation reigns. Its great commerce has utterly passed
away and the doom announced in this chapter has been almost fully
accomplished. Yet all this also stands related to a future day when
Israel is being delivered and when the Lord will judge Edom and all the
nations which hate His people. "The punishment of their iniquity is
accomplished, O, daughter of Zion; He will no more carry thee away into
captivity; He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; He will
discover thy sins" (Lam. iv:22). The spirit of hatred, pride, envy and
blasphemy mentioned in verses 11-13 is characteristic of the ungodly
nations who defy God when the times of the Gentiles end. Of that final
beast which domineers over the earth and persecutes the remnant of
Israel, before the Lord comes, it is written, "And he opened his mouth
in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and his tabernacle, and
them that dwell in heaven" (Rev. xiii:6). But as Ezekiel declares
concerning these blasphemies spoken against Israel and Israel's Lord, "I
have heard them," and He will act, in judgment against all His enemies.