The Mystery of Ephraim

Chapter 25 continues with the same prophecy against the Ammonites which started in Chapter 21. Just a recap: We might speculate why the Ammonites were singled out here for this special oracle; but it might have pertained to the share they had in the murder of Gedaliah, by the hand of Ishmael and the Ammonites gave these killers refuge.

Second, in historic time, when Nebuchadnezzar took his route to Jerusalem, and destroyed the city, returned to Babylon, he went about without making any attempt upon the Ammonites; which so flushed the Ammonites that they insulted the Jews and laughed at their destruction, as if their God couldn’t save them.

And thirdly, Tobiah was an Ammonite, perhaps a governor, who along with Sanballat the Horonite and Geshem the Arabian, attempted to hinder Nehemiah’s efforts to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. And besides taking over the storerooms of the Temple for his own use, he corrupted the Jewish high priest Eliashib with Samaritan’s view of some Temple practices; thus profaning God’s Sanctury.

And finally, the Ammonites are modern Jordan (or are they; or that a new group of people, the Jordanians, had replaced the ancient Ammonites) sitting on land allocated to three of the tribes of Israel, and they maybe taking their ancestral Promised land back, land that could even stretch to the Euphrates River.

Ezekiel 25

¹ The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, — as the Targum says, the word of prophecy from the Lord; that is, another prophecy as the next verse says.

² “Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites and prophesy against them; — the Ammonites; the posterity of Lot by the younger daughter, near neighbours, but bitter enemies to the Jews and who hated their religion; prophesy against them;

³ and say unto the Ammonites, ‘Hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God: Because thou saidst, “Aha,” against My sanctuary when it was profaned, and against the land of Israel when it was desolate, and against the house of Judah when they went into captivity, — note the double-fold judgement; (1) against the land of Israel and (2) against the house of Judah;

— and against the house of Judah; it is wicked to rejoics at the calamities of any, especially of God’s people when they went into captivity; the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who were carried captives by Nebuchadnezzar;

— (1) first deportation, under Jehoiakim (succeeded Jehoahaz, who replaced Josiah but reigned only 3 months); began giving tribute to Nebuchadnezzar in 605 BC; purportedly including Daniel;

— (2) second deportation under Jeconiah, (Reign: 598 – 597 BC);

— (3) third under Zedekiah (Reign 597–586 BC); which completed the destruction of Israel and Judah;

— and gave the utmost pleasure to their enemies the Ammonites; who were so impious as to rejoice at the destruction of God’s temple: “’Aha,’ against My sanctuary” which they abhorred; this brutish and barbarous behaviour of theirs is resented by the Lord.

⁴ behold, therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the East as a possession; and they shall set their palaces in thee and make their dwellings in thee. They shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk. — the men of the east for a possession; the Chaldeans, the Medes and Persians, they lay eastward of Jerusalem; and/or it may be the Arabians, who are often called the men of the east.

⁵ And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels and Ammon a couching place for flocks; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. — Rabbah is the capital of Ammon;

— and I will make Ammon or Rabbath a stable for camels; creatures much used by eastern nations, especially the Arabians; who pitching their tents about Rabbah, the royal city.

⁶ For thus saith the Lord God: Because thou hast clapped thine hands and stamped with the feet and rejoiced in heart with all thy contemptuous hate against the land of Israel, — because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with thy feet: gestures expressive of joy and gladness;

— the Ammonites; therefore, behold, I will stretch out my hand against thee, and give thee to the nations for booty, and cut thee off from the peoples, and exterminate thee from the lands; since they should expect their turn would be next; for the king of Babylon had a design against them, at the same time he came against Jerusalem, and was in doubt for a while which he should attack first; see Ezekiel 21:20.

⁷ behold, therefore I will stretch out Mine hand upon thee and will deliver thee as spoil to the nations; and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries. I will destroy thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.’ — and I will cut thee off from the people; Ammon, thou shalt no more be accounted among the nations, but cease from being a people;

— “and thou shalt know that I am the Lord” indicates the Ammonites repented, they do know God ultimately and survive!

⁸ “Thus saith the Lord God: ‘Because Moab and Seir do say, “Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen,” — the Moabites are first prophesied of, and then the Edomites who both joined in saying, behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathens;

— Moabites mocks: Judah fares no better with them than with the rest of the nations, who do not profess and serve the same God they do; yet they are fallen into the hands of the king of Babylon;

— and yet are brought into the same miserable circumstances, and left in them, as others are; where is their God they boast of, and their superior excellence to the rest of the world? ~ thus blasphemously, as well as wickedly, did they insult them, which was provoking to the Lord;

— the Targum renders it interrogatively, “in what do the house of Judah differ from all people?” ~ the Septuagint, “behold, are not the house of Israel and Judah in like manner as all nations?”

⁹ therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country; Bethjeshimoth, Baalmeon, and Kiriathaim; — I will open the side or border; that is, lay it open to attack from the side or border of their enemies into the cities, from his frontier;

¹⁰ unto the men of the East with the Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations. — this prophecy against Ammon and the Ammonites has no promise of restoration; this seems to contradict verse 7 above where “thou shalt know that I am the Lord.” One apparent solution could be that there are several tribes of Ammonites?

¹¹ And I will execute judgements upon Moab, and they shall know that I am the Lord.’ — and Moab, the Moabites was Lot by incest with his eldest daughter; they, too, would suffer the same fate, no, not quite, as “and they shall know that I am the Lord,” indicates they will survive and come to acknowledge God.

¹² “Thus saith the Lord God: ‘Because Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended and revenged himself upon them, — because Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance: the Edomites bore an old grudge against the Jews, not only because their father Jacob had got the birthright and blessing from their father Esau;

— but also because they were made tributaries to them in David’s time, and afterwards severely chastised by Amaziah; these things they laid up in their minds, and vowed revenge whenever they had an opportunity; and now one offered at the destruction of Jerusalem, which they took;

— Edom dwelt to the South of the house of Jacob in ancient history; a study of the book of  Obadiah incorporates the prophecy of Edom in more details; but briefly here, it is Spain in Europe and the Latinos in the Americas, who live South of the children of Israel today.

¹³ therefore thus saith the Lord God: I will also stretch out Mine hand upon Edom and will cut off man and beast from it, and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.

— one theory is that the Ottoman Turks (or today’s Turkey) are the sons of Teman. Perhaps they could be another branch.

¹⁴ And I will lay My vengeance upon Edom by the hand of My people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to Mine anger and according to My fury; and they shall know My vengeance, saith the Lord God.’

— by the hand of my people Israel; this points distinctly to the fact that Edom should be accomplished by the hand of the Israelites, a prophecy which was fulfilled when they were conquered by John Hyrcanus, and compelled to submit to circumcision as a mark of absorption into the Jewish people;

— some nations that “clap thine hands and stamp your feet” when these happen again will get a Spanking so bad that their names will be remembered no more; but here, “they shall know My vengeance.”

¹⁵ “Thus saith the Lord God: ‘Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge and have taken vengeance with a scornful heart to destroy it for the old hatred, — with a despiteful heart; with hatred to them, and contempt of them.

¹⁶ therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will stretch out Mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast. — the Philistines lies to the West of Judah; they could be destroyed completely; Moab lies to the East.

¹⁷ And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay My vengeance upon them.’” — “and they shall know that I am the Lord,” indicates they will survive and come to acknowledge God;

— “when I shall lay my vengeance upon them,” that is, they will see the hand of God in it, acknowledge his justice, and confess that their gods were idols, and that the God of Israel is the only true God.

Ezekiel 26

¹ And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

² “Son of man, because Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people; she is turned unto me; I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste,’

— Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, aha…. as rejoicing at her destruction, and insulting over her in it; which was barbarous and inhuman, and resented by the Lord.

³ therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.

— and God will cause many nations to come up against thee, O Tyre, as the sea causeth his waves to come up; the Chaldean army, consisting of soldiers of many nations; who for their number, noise, and fury, are compared to the raging waves of the sea;

— so the Targum says, “I will bring up against thee an army of many people, as the sea ascendeth in the raging of its waves.”

⁴ And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. — Tyre, at that time the most famous city for trade and commerce in the world; and make her like the top of a rock means Tyre will be made barren.

⁵ It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God; and it shall become a spoil to the nations. — the army of many nations, one that besieged it for thirteen years was under Nebuchadnezzar.

⁶ And her daughters who are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the Lord. — and they shall know that I am the Lord when they shall see all these things exactly accomplished, that the omniscient God could foretell events and come to their senses, thus they survive rather having their names remember no more;

— the Targum says, “and the inhabitants of the villages which are in the field shall be killed by the sword,” and they shall know that I am the Lord.

⁷ “For thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will bring upon Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings from the north, with horses and with chariots and with horsemen and companies, and many people. — “king of kings” because of the many countries subject to his sway, whose kings were his vassals;

— Nebuchadnezzar, was king of Babylon, a king of kings from the NORTH, but at the endtime, the prophecised SWORD (Ezekiel 20:45to 21:5) is destined to come from the SOUTH!

⁸ He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field; and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a siege mound against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. — and lift up the buckler against thee; or “shield” that is, as the Targum paraphrases it, “set against thee such who are armed with shields.”

⁹ And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. — and with his axes he shall break down thy towers; the word here used signifies anything made of iron, as swords, spears, hammers, and axes; the latter, being more proper to demolish towers.

¹⁰ By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust shall cover thee. Thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen and of the wheels and of the chariots when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach.

— he shall enter into thy gates; Nebuchadnezzar, without fear, shall enter and possess his conquest, which Tyre at last yielded to him after thirteen years’ hard siege.

¹¹ With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets. He shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground. — Josephus wrote: “that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Tyre thirteen years,” before the fruits fell onto the ground. Tyre had a large fleet and were very rich with merchandise.

¹² And they shall make a spoil of thy riches and make a prey of thy merchandise; and they shall break down thy walls and destroy thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.

— and they shall make a spoil of thy riches; the Chaldean army, when they entered the city, and got possession of it, would plunder it, and divide the riches of it among them.

¹³ And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease, and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard. — and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard; neither vocal nor instrumental music; and this will be one day the case of Rome, of which Tyre was a type, Revelation 18:22.

¹⁴ And I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon. Thou shalt be built no more; for I the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God. — and I will make thee like the top of a rock; that is, smooth and bare; and thou shall be a place to spread nets upon; and thou shalt be built no more..

¹⁵ “Thus saith the Lord God to Tyre: Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

¹⁶ Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes and put off their embroidered garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment and be astonished at thee.

— the princes, governors and rulers of other countries that dwell by the sea: by which he signifies that her destruction would be so horrible that all the world would hear of it and be afraid.

¹⁷ And they shall take up a lamentation for thee and say to thee: “‘How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who cause their terror to be on all that haunt it! — see how high, how great Tyre had been; see how low Tyre has bocame. 

¹⁸ Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure.’ — shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall? all those that dwell upon the sea-coast near thee shall be thrown into a consternation at the news of thy being taken and destroyed;

— all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones; all the princes and rich merchants (or the merchants who are as princes, as Isaiah speaks) of Sidon, Carthage, and other maritime cities that maintained a trade with Tyre, and got great wealth by that means, shall express a deep grief and concern for thee.

¹⁹ “For thus saith the Lord God: When I shall make thee a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the deep upon thee and great waters shall cover thee, — and great waters shall cover thee; either, literally, the waters of the sea, or metaphorically, great afflictions shall cover thee.

²⁰ when I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit with the people of olden times, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited, and I shall set glory in the land of the living.”

— when buried under the sea she goes down into the abode of the dead, and possibly he regards the “places desolate of old” as also gone down and gathered in the underworld.

²¹ I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more. Though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord God.” — Oops, it seems here that Tyre “shalt be no more,” contrary to what verse 6 says. Perhaps verse 6 was meant for the time of Nebuchadnezzar, but here it’s the endtime? Any other possibilities?

~ by Joel Huan on November 10, 2022.

Posted in Ezekiel