Ezekiel 35

20:35–36:38

(Verse 35, 36, and following) And I will bring you into a desert of peoples, and there I will judge you face to face. Just as I contended with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, says the Lord. And I will subject you to my scepter, and I will bring you into the bonds of the covenant, and I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked: from their place of residence I will bring them out, and they will not enter the land of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord. Thus says the Lord: I will do for you who are in Babylon, and now serve idols, what I did for your ancestors in Egypt. I will lead you into the desert of the peoples, and there I will judge you face to face, just as I contended with them in judgment when they came out of Egypt. And after I have judged you, I will subject you to my scepter and rule, and I will make a covenant with you and bring you into your land with the bonds of love, so that bound by my love, you will never be able to depart from me. But I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked, who persist in the hardness of their hearts in evil deeds, not for possession, but for rejection. And I will indeed bring them out of the land of their dwelling, so that when they are brought out, they will not enter the land of Israel; but they will perish in various regions. And by the distinction between good and evil, you shall know that I am the Lord, who judges all things. The rest of the discourse hastens, and we briefly go through each point, in order to provide only the meaning to the readers.

Commentary on Ezekiel

1–15

(Chapter 35) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it, and say to it, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and a waste. I will demolish your cities and make you a solitude, and you shall be deserted, and you shall know that I am the Lord; because you have been an everlasting enemy and have delivered the children of Israel into the hand of the sword (or deceitfully sat against the house of Israel in the hand of the sword) in the time of their affliction, in the time of extreme wickedness. Therefore, I live," says the Lord God, "because I will deliver you to bloodshed (or because you have sinned in blood) and blood will pursue you: and when you hate blood, blood will pursue you. And I will make Mount Seir a desolation and a wasteland, and I will remove from it going and returning (or men and animals). And I will fill its mountains with the slain (or the wounded): they will fall with the sword in your hills, and in your valleys, and in the torrents of the slain. I will deliver you to everlasting desolations, and your cities shall not be inhabited: and you shall know (or shall know) that I am the Lord (Vulgate adds God): because you have said: Two nations and two lands (or regions) shall be mine, and I will possess them by inheritance, when the Lord was there. Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God: because you have done according to your wrath (or enmity), and according to your zeal, which you have shown, having hatred towards them, and I will make myself known to you (Vulgate through them) when I judge you, and you shall know that I am the Lord. I have heard all your insults (or the voice of your blasphemies) that you have spoken (or because you have spoken) against the mountains of Israel, saying, 'They are deserted and given to us to devour,' and you have risen up (or have exalted yourself) against me with your mouth (or you have spoken magnificently against me with your mouth), and you have slandered me (or you have shouted against me) with your words; I have heard it. Thus says the Lord God: While all the earth rejoices, I will make you a desolation; just as you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all of Edom shall know that I am the Lord. But that which is added in the LXX, 'and they shall be consumed,' is not found in the Hebrew. If the word of God always dwelt in the hearts of the prophets and had constant residence there, Ezekiel would not so frequently have said, 'And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying.' But because of human frailty and the necessities of this life, it sometimes departed from them. Therefore, John the Baptist speaks: 'He who sent me to baptize, said to me, "Upon whomsoever you shall see the Spirit descending as a dove and abiding on him, he is the one."' (John 1:33). For it would never be proper in Christ what is added and remains in Him, unless sometimes it would depart from others. Otherwise God speaks to Moses: I will take from the spirit which is in you (Num. XI, 17): which surely he would not have, unless it descended to him from the Lord. However, the prophecy of this entire chapter is against Mount Seir, namely the sons of Esau and Edom, who are called Idumeans in the Greek and our language, because in the time of necessity and distress, when Judah was being captured by the Babylonians, they insulted them and believed that the land was given to them to possess, and not only did they not accept their brothers, namely the sons of Jacob, but they persecuted them and attacked them with the sword. Where Symmachus interpreted more clearly, You have hated your blood, and blood will pursue you. But it is prophesied that he himself will be captured and reduced to eternal solitudes, and at the end of things he will recognize that God is the judge, because he has said: Two nations and two regions are mine; either the Edomites and the Jews, or certainly the Jews and Israel, namely two and ten tribes. And you have spoken of the mountains of Israel, saying: Deserts have been given to us to devour, not considering that this blasphemy would overflow against God. From which it follows: All the earth rejoices, I will lead you into solitude. And the meaning is: when all the land of Judaea will receive its former state, you will remain in eternal solitude. And what is added is: Just as you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was dispersed, I will do the same to you. In the Septuagint it is not found, but it was added under asterisks from the edition of Theodotion. But all the wrath of God advances there against Mount Seir, so that when it is dispersed, he himself and all of Idumea may know that he is the Lord. I have spoken these things hastily, according to historical context and meaning rather than literal words. I will now move on to the anagoge and briefly touch on a few points for the sake of brevity. 'Put,' he says, 'or turn your face towards Mount Seir.' And significantly, he says 'turn,' from one prophecy to another prophecy. However, he is not referring to the physical face, but rather the face of the soul, as the Apostle also says: 'But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord' (2 Corinthians 3:18). However, the mountain of Seir, which is interpreted as rough and hairy, represents the opposing strength that presided over the nation of the sons of Esau, and rose up against the people of Judah, that is, the confession and true faith. But if an astute reader objects, how can Seir, that is, rough and hairy, be understood in a negative sense, since even Elijah is called a hairy man (2 Kings 1)? I will respond briefly: it is written about Esau that he was red and like a hairy skin (Genesis 25), but about Elijah that he was only a hairy man. Esau, who is bloodthirsty and cruel, is compared to a rough animal skin, a symbol of human works and of death itself; while Elijah represents manliness. Therefore, both his dwelling in solitude and his austere way of life not only showed him to be a man, but also a very strong man. On the other hand, Jacob, who had supplanted Esau and taken his birthright (Genesis, 25), is called light and polished because he simply lived at home and was not a hunter like the giant, Nimrod. Let us see then what God commands to be said to the mountain, or against the mountain of Seir. Behold, I will come to you, Mount Seir, I will not send Angels, nor will I use other ministers, but I myself will come to you, and I will extend my hand over you, and I will assume the appearance of one who strikes, and I will make you desolate and deserted, as one who dwelt wickedly, and you had many partners in your impiety, so much so that you built cities and claimed them as your own dominion: now desolated together with your cities, which Jeremiah is commanded to destroy and dig up (Jer. 51), in that you will make progress by building good cities in their place, so that you may know that I am the Lord, whom you could not know before the desolation of your land. However, the root cause of sin is that you have been an eternal enemy. Hence, the psalm says: Be angry, but do not sin (Psalm 4:5), so that we may quickly reconcile with our enemies and change hatred into love. However, not such is Mount Seir, which encompasses eternal enmities or besieges the children of Israel deceitfully with a sword in hand. From this we understand that whoever takes up the sword against the children of God, acts deceitfully, and besieges them, shall be handed over to the power of the sword, just as Mount Seir did in a time of extreme wickedness, when the days were evil and the world was filled with evil. And with the increase of wickedness, the love of many grows cold. But there is another sin of the mountain of Seir: that, because it hated the blood of the just, which it desired to spill in every persecution, it suffers persecution from the same blood. Therefore, the souls under the altar of the saints cry out and beg for vengeance from the Lord for their bloodshed. And they are taken away from the mountain of Seir, going and returning, that is, every inhabitant, whether humans or animals that are saved in the Church, of whom it is written: You will save humans and animals, Lord. (Psalm 35:5). That in the mountain of Seir both those who seem to have some reason, and those who are content with simple faith, should perish at God's command. And its mountains are filled with the wounded and slain. And not only the mountains, which have reached the summit of impiety, but also the hills, that is, the lesser disciples of the mountain of Seir, and the valleys that are in the depths, or the torrents, which have muddy waters, collected from here and there, coming from pride, or, according to the Septuagint, the fields, which are in the middle between the hills and the valleys. All the slain will fall by the sword of the Lord, and His outstretched hand and striking, so that they may be reduced to everlasting desolation; and if there were cities, that is, assemblies of evil dwelling, let them perish themselves and cease to have agreement in a bad way, and let their languages be divided (Genesis 11), so that they may not be able to build a tower of blasphemy against God; and being reduced to solitude and desert, let them know that He is the Lord. It is not enough that you have spoken so much about Mount Seir, as the previous discourse narrated; but you have also spoken this out of pride: 'There are two peoples and two lands or regions that belong to me, namely Idumea and Judaea, and I will possess the heretics and the Ecclesiastics alike.' And you said this when the Lord was there, who governed His people. Therefore the Lord swears and says: 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I will make myself known to you when I strike and judge you, in accordance with your anger with which you raged against the people of God, and with your zeal with which you persecuted the family of Christ, hating those whom you desired to possess. Then you will know that it was I who made known your reproaches and blasphemies, and not someone else, for I myself have heard what you have said against the mountains of Israel, saying: 'They have been given to us as a desolation to devour.' We must accept the mountains of Israel, Moses, the prophets, and the apostles, whom the heretics and the leader of the heretics, the devil, think they have been handed over to devour: when either rarely or not at all is found in the Church, who is able to fight for the mountains of the Lord, and defend their tearing apart with his voice. And you have risen up, he says, against me with your mouth, whether you have spoken magnificently, not as you think against the mountains, but through them against me, and you have either asked or shouted against me. For all your prayers, O Mount Seir, and companions of Mount Seir, of which it was said above (above, the same): I will fill his mountains and hills, and valleys, and fields, or torrents, they were against us: not prayers and supplications, as you think to God, but shouts, vociferations, and blasphemies. Therefore, the Lord threatens and says: Just as you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, when it was scattered and torn by your persecutions and dispersed throughout the whole world: so I will do to you. For the whole earth of the living rejoices, and the land of the saints, and all those converted to the service of God, you will be scattered, O rough mountain, O hairy mountain, and all Idumea, devoted indeed to earthly works and to bloodshed and slaughter, so that then you may know that I myself am the Lord, who have spoken elsewhere: I am the Lord your God.

Commentary on Ezekiel