Page 175 - NOTES ON EZEKIEL

CHAPTER XXXV. 169
God notices the feelings of the heart, and distin­
guishes too in judgment as everywhere else. There
were many haughty enemies of Israel; and which of
them was not disposed to injure the people of Jehovah’s
choice? But He fixes His eyes on “ the old enmity” of
Edom, and the relentlessness which was even more
cruel than its wont in the day of their calamity, “ at
the time of the iniquity of the end.” Not an atom of
generosity was there; natural feeling had turned to gall
and wormwood. He who had been so basely dis­
honoured by His people was chastening them in mea­
sure : who and what were the Edomites to avail them­
selves of it to crush without measure and destroy
without mercy? “ Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord
Jehovah, I will prepare tliee 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 mountain 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
Jehovah.” (Ver. 6—9.) The emphasis is very strong,
not only blood flowing and pursuing the blood-thirsty
Edomites, but themselves made perpetual desolations,
their mountains and valleys filled with their slain, and
their cities not to be restored : so should they know
Him to be Jehovah.
Again, God heeds what men say as well as their
feelings; as said the Lord still more comprehensively and
profoundly and solemnly in Matthew xii. “ Because