Through My Bible Yr 02 – June 04

Ezekiel 25 – 26

Through My Bible – June 04

Ezekiel 25 – 26 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Oracles Against the Nations
An Oracle Against the Ammonites

Ezekiel 25

The word of the Lord came to me.

Son of man, set your face toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them. You are to tell the Ammonites: Hear the word of the Lord God. This is what the Lord God says. Because you said “Aha!” against my sanctuary when it was desecrated, and against the land of Israel when it was devastated, and against the house of Judah when they went into exile, therefore, I am about to give you to the people of the East as their possession. They will set up their camps in your midst and place their dwellings among you. They will eat your produce, and they will drink your milk. I will make Rabbah into a camel pasture and Ammon into a sheepfold. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

So this is what the Lord God says. Because you clapped your hands and stomped your feet and celebrated against the land of Israel with all the contempt in your soul, therefore, I have stretched out my hand against you, and I have given you as plunder [1] to the nations. I have cut you off from the peoples, and I have made you perish from among the countries. When I have exterminated you, you will know that I am the Lord. [2]

An Oracle Against Moab and Edom

This is what the Lord God says.

Because Moab and Seir said, “Look! The house of Judah is just like all the nations,” I am about to open up the flank [3] of Moab from one end to the other: its cities, its border towns, and the glory of the land, Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim. 10 I will deliver Moab, together with the Ammonites, into the possession of the people of the East. I will hand them over to the people of the East as their possession so that the Ammonites will no longer be remembered among the nations. 11 I will execute judgments upon Moab, and they will know that I am the Lord.

12 This is what the Lord God says. Because Edom has inflicted bitter revenge on the house of Judah and has incurred great guilt by pursuing revenge against Judah, 13 therefore, this is what the Lord God says. I will stretch out my hand against Edom. I will cut off man and beast from it and turn it into a wasteland. From Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword. 14 I will take my revenge on Edom by means of my people Israel, and they will carry out my anger and my wrath against Edom. So they will experience my revenge, declares the Lord God.

An Oracle Against the Philistines

15 This is what the Lord God says.

Because the Philistines pursued revenge and carried their revenge to an extreme, with bitter contempt in their soul, in order to destroy Judah with everlasting hatred, 16 therefore, this is what the Lord God says. I am about to stretch out my hand against the Philistines. I will cut off the Kerethites and destroy those who remain by the seacoast. 17 I will carry out great acts of revenge and furious punishments among them, and they will know that I am the Lord when I lay my revenge upon them.

An Oracle Against Tyre

Ezekiel 26

In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, [4] the word of the Lord came to me.

Son of man, because Tyre said about Jerusalem, “Aha! The gateway to the peoples has been broken. It has been turned over to me. Because of her devastation, I will achieve my goal,” this is what the Lord God says.

I am against you, Tyre, and I will send many nations against you, as the sea sends up its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers. I will scrape away even the dust off her and make her a bare rock. In the middle of the sea, she will become nothing but a place where fishing nets are spread out to dry, for I have spoken it, says the Lord God. She will become plunder for the nations, and her daughters on the mainland [5] will be slain by the sword. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

So this is what the Lord God says. I am bringing against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and king of kings, together with horses, chariots, horsemen, and a vast array of troops from many nations. Your daughters on the mainland he will kill with the sword. He will set up a siege wall against you and heap up a ramp against you, and erect a roof of shields [6] against you. He will direct the blows of his battering ram against your walls, and he will demolish your towers with his swords. 10 His horses will be so numerous that the dust they raise will cover you. Your walls will shake from the noise of the horses’ hoofs, the wheels, and the chariots when he enters your gates, as men enter a breached city. 11 With the hoofs of his horses, he will trample all your streets. He will kill all your people with the sword. Your mighty pillars will topple to the ground. 12 They will plunder your wealth and take your merchandise as loot. They will tear down your walls and demolish your magnificent houses. Your stones, your timbers, and your rubble they will throw into the water. 13 I will put an end to the noise of your songs, and the sound of your lyres will be heard no more. 14 I will turn you into a bare rock.

She [7] will become a place where fishing nets are spread out to dry. She will never be rebuilt, for I, the Lord, have spoken, declares the Lord God.

15 This is what the Lord God says to Tyre. How the coastlands will shudder at the sound of your downfall, when the victims groan, when the slain are slaughtered in your midst! 16 All the rulers of the sea will descend from their thrones, remove their robes, and take off their fine embroidered garments. Instead, they will be clothed with trembling. They will sit on the ground and tremble every moment. They will be appalled by you. 17 They will raise a lament over you and say to you, “How you have perished, you city inhabited by men from the sea, you city that was celebrated, a city that was the strongest in the sea. She and her inhabitants, who spread their terror—she and all of her inhabitants have perished. [8] 18 Now the coastlands tremble on the day of your downfall. The coastlands that are on the sea are terrified by your collapse.”

19 So this is what the Lord God says. When I make you a ruined city like the cities that are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you and the many waters cover you, 20 then I will bring you down to be with those who have descended to the pit, to the people from ancient times. I will make you live below the earth, like ancient ruins. You will be with those who have descended to the pit, so that you will be uninhabited, and I will not give you glory in the land of the living. 21 I will make you an object of horror, and you will no longer exist. You will be sought but never found again, declares the Lord God.

Footnotes

  1. Ezekiel 25:7 Plunder (baz) is the reading from the margin of the Hebrew text. The reading in the body of the Hebrew text is bag, a word that appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Those who attempt to translate it render it as food.
  2. Ezekiel 25:7 Though the events described in this verse are still in the future at the time of speaking, the verbs are all past tense verbs, since, in God’s decree, events he foretells are as good as done.
  3. Ezekiel 25:9 Literally the shoulder or the slope
  4. Ezekiel 26:1 The Hebrew date formula is incomplete since it lacks the name of a month. One Greek manuscript reads in the twelfth year. A date in the second half of the twelfth year would place this prophecy after the fall of Jerusalem, an event which occurred in the middle of the twelfth year according to Ezekiel’s system of dating.
  5. Ezekiel 26:6 Tyre’s daughters are her suburbs on the mainland. Tyre was an island.
  6. Ezekiel 26:8 Apparently this was a cover providing protection for the battering ram.
  7. Ezekiel 26:14 That is, the city personified as a woman
  8. Ezekiel 26:17 The construction of the last part of the sentence is unclear. For clarity, the verb have perished is repeated from the start of the verse.

The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.