Oracles Against the Nations
An Oracle Against the Ammonites
25 The word of the Lord came to me.
2 Son of man, set your face toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them. 3 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, 4 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. 5 I will make Rabbah into a camel pasture and Ammon into a sheepfold. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
6 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, 7 therefore, I have stretched out my hand against you, and I have given you as plunder[a] 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.[b]
An Oracle Against Moab and Edom
8 This is what the Lord God says.
Because Moab and Seir said, “Look! The house of Judah is just like all the nations,” 9 I am about to open up the flank[c] 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.
Footnotes
- 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.
- 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.
- Ezekiel 25:9 Literally the shoulder or the slope