< Ezekiel 35 >

1 Yahweh gave me another message. He said,
MOREOVER the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 “You human, turn toward Edom and prophesy what will happen to its people. Say that this is what Yahweh says to them:
Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,
3 ‘You who live near Seir Mountain [in Edom], I am opposed to you, and I will use my power [MTY] to strike you and cause your country to become a wasteland.
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.
4 I will cause your country to be ruined and desolate. When that happens, people will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].
I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
5 You have always been enemies of the Israeli people. You [rejoiced] when they experienced a great disaster: [their enemies attacked them with] swords, when I punished them [for the sins that they had committed].
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:
6 Therefore, I, Yahweh the Lord, declare that as surely as I am alive, I will allow [your enemies] to slaughter [MTY] you and continue to slaughter you. You were happy when [LIT] others were slaughtered;
Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
7 so I will cause Seir Mountain to be abandoned/deserted, and I will get rid of anyone who enters it or leaves it.
Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.
8 I will cause your mountains to be filled with [the corpses of] those who have been killed. The corpses of those who have been killed by [your enemies’] swords will lie on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines.
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.
9 I will cause your land to be deserted forever. No one will live in your towns again. When that happens, you will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].
I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
10 You people said, “Israel and Judah will become ours. We will take over their territory!” You said that even though I, Yahweh, was still there [and protecting them].
Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the Lord was there:
11 Therefore, I, Yahweh the Lord, declare that as surely as I am alive, I will punish [MTY] you for being angry with my people, envying them, and hating them.
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.
12 Then you will know that I, Yahweh, have heard all the disgusting things that you have said about the mountains in Israel. You said that they have been ruined/devastated, and that they have been given to you to occupy [MET].
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.
13 When you insulted me, I heard all that you said about me.
Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
14 So this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: You people who live on Seir Mountain and in all the other places in Edom, when I cause your land to become desolate, everyone in the entire world will rejoice.
Thus saith the Lord God; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.
15 You were happy when the land [MTY] of the Israeli people became desolate, so I will cause your land to become desolate. When that happens, people will know that I, Yahweh, [have the power to do what I say that I will do].’”
As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

< Ezekiel 35 >