Ezekiel 25:8 - Meaning and Application

Three more of Israel’s unfriendly neighbors are now charged, found guilty, and sentenced to destruction, because they helped Jerusalem fall and celebrated it. The first are the Moabites. Seir, the region where the Edomites lived, is joined with them here (Ezekiel 25:8), because they spoke the same way as the Moabites. They are later dealt with separately (Ezekiel 25:12).

Notice, first, what sin the Moabites committed. They said, “Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations.” They were glad to see Israel turn away from God and worship idols, and they hoped Judah’s religion would soon disappear. When people who claim to follow God live badly, they give enemies of true religion reason to think it will collapse and be forgotten. But the Moabites should know this, even if many in Judah acted like the nations, there was still a faithful remnant. Judah’s faith would not vanish among the nations, but would keep its own identity until God brought it to a better order.

They also rejoiced in Israel’s troubles. Their thought was, “Judah is no different from the other nations, and their God is no more able to save them than the gods of the nations can save them.” They mocked the promises Judah trusted in and the wonders handed down from earlier generations. They looked down on Judah because it had fallen to the same level as the nations, or so it seemed. But those who judge only by outward events are quick to think God’s people have lost everything when they lose worldly success. That is not true, because faithful people, even in suffering and exile among the nations, still have grace and comfort within them that mark them off from everyone else. The same event may look the same to the righteous and the wicked, yet in truth it is very different.

Now see the punishment for this sin. Because the Moabites mocked Judah’s ruin, their own land would be overthrown in the same way as the Ammonites’ land, since the Ammonites shared the same guilt (Ezekiel 25:9, Ezekiel 25:10). God says, “I will open Moab’s side, uncover its shoulder, and remove its defenses,” so it will be easy prey for anyone who attacks it. The frontier towns, which were Moab’s strength and protection, would be torn down by the Babylonians and left open. Some of the cities named here were the glory of the land, and the Moabites boasted that they were safe and unbreakable. Yet these places would fail, be abandoned, be betrayed, or fall into enemy hands, leaving the whole land exposed. Those who trust in any defense other than God’s power, care, and promise will one day be ashamed of their pride.

God also shows who would take the land. The people of the east, when they came to possess the Ammonites’ country, would also seize Moab’s. The Lord, who rules all lands, would give them the land, because he gives kingdoms to whom he wills. The Arabians, quiet shepherds who live in tents, would be put in possession of Moab’s land, even though the Moabites were soldiers, warlike men, and skilled hunters. The Babylonians would conquer it by war, and the Arabians would live in it peacefully. About the Ammonites, God says they would no longer be remembered among the nations (Ezekiel 25:10), because they had helped in the murder of Gedaliah (Jeremiah 40:14). About Moab, he says, “I will execute judgments on Moab.” They would feel God’s displeasure, though perhaps not to the same degree as the Ammonites. Still, it would be enough to show that the Lord is God, that the God of Israel has power, and that his covenant with his people has not failed.

The second group are the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, whose family had long been at odds with Jacob’s family. Their sin is described in Ezekiel 25:12. Like the Moabites and Ammonites, they rejoiced over Judah’s ruin, but they also took the chance to do real harm to Judah in its weakness. They likely raided the borderlands and plundered the country. Edom “dealt against the house of Judah by taking revenge.” Long before this, the Edomites had been subject to the Jews, according to the rule that the older would serve the younger. In Jehoram’s time they broke away, and Amaziah later punished them severely (2 Kings 14:7). Now they sought revenge for that. They were eager to settle old scores, stirred up the Babylonians against Jerusalem by crying, “Raze it, raze it” (Psalm 137:7), and also cut down those who escaped, as Obadiah’s prophecy says. This is called taking “revenge for a revenge,” which shows how fierce and cruel they were, repaying the Jews more than twice over. This was a serious offense. It is a great sin against God to take revenge on a brother, because God has said, “Vengeance is mine.” We are forbidden to avenge ourselves or even hold a grudge. Even if Judah had treated Edom harshly before, it was base for Edom to strike back when Judah was helpless. The Jews had also been given authority over Edom, so the Edomites had no right to retaliate. It was especially shameful for them to keep an old hatred alive when God had told his people not to hate an Edomite (Deuteronomy 23:7).

Now hear the judgment against them. God says, “I will stretch out my hand against Edom” (Ezekiel 25:13). Their land would become desolate from Teman in the south to Dedan in the north. War would sweep through the whole nation. They had taken revenge, so God would bring his vengeance on them (Ezekiel 25:14). Those who will not leave revenge in God’s hands should expect him to deal with them. And those who refuse to believe and fear his vengeance will be made to know and feel it. They will be judged not by the weakness of the human tools used against them, but by the strength of the hand that sends those tools.

They had taken revenge on Israel, and God would answer with his own vengeance through Israel’s hands. They suffered heavily at the hands of the Babylonians, which seems to be what Jeremiah 49:8 refers to. But there was also a later promise that saviors would come to Mount Zion and judge Mount Esau (Obadiah 1:21). And Israel’s Redeemer would come from Bozrah in garments dyed with blood (Isaiah 63:1).

This points to a promise that Israel would rise again enough to hold back the pride of its neighbors. We see this later when Judas Maccabeus fought the descendants of Esau in Idumea, defeated them badly, weakened their confidence, and took their spoil (1 Maccabees 5:3). Josephus also says that Hyrcanus made the Edomites pay tribute to Israel (Antiquities 13.257). We should notice the fairness of God’s judgments. He not only punishes those who did wrong, but sometimes does it through the very people they had wronged.

The Philistines were much the same. Their sin was like the Edomites’ sin. They took revenge on the people of Israel and acted with a spiteful heart, not just to trouble them, but to destroy them. This was the old hatred of (Ezekiel 25:15), a grudge they had carried for a long time and meant to keep.

Their anger would not let go. They made revenge their business, as if malice were their trade. It was their steady practice, and their spiteful heart was set on it. Their punishment would match their sin. Those who wanted to destroy God’s people would themselves be cut off and destroyed (Ezekiel 25:16). Those who sought revenge would find that God would bring great vengeance on them (Ezekiel 25:17).

This was fulfilled when the Chaldean army wasted that land not long after Jerusalem was destroyed, as foretold in Jeremiah 47:1-7. It is strange that these nations, which bordered Israel, were not shaken by the Chaldeans’ success and made to fear for themselves. When their neighbor’s house was on fire, they should have hurried to protect their own. But their godlessness and malice blinded them, until God’s judgments showed them that the danger was passing around, and they were no safer because they felt secure.