Yehezkiel 35:1-9

Prophecy Against Mount Seir

35:1 The word of the Lord came to me: 35:2 “Son of man, turn toward ¹  Mount Seir, ²  and prophesy against it. 35:3 Say to it, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Look, I am against you, Mount Seir;

I will stretch out my hand against you

and turn you into a desolate ruin.

35:4 I will lay waste your cities;

and you will become desolate.

Then you will know that I am the Lord!

35:5 “‘You have shown unrelenting hostility and poured the people of Israel onto the blades of a sword ³  at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment. 35:6 Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will subject you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. 35:7 I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate ruin; ⁴  I will cut off ⁵  from it the one who passes through or returns. 35:8 I will fill its mountains with its dead; on your hills and in your valleys and in all your ravines, those killed by the sword will fall. 35:9 I will turn you into a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

[35:2]  ¹ tn Heb “set your face against.”

[35:2]  ² sn Mount Seir is to be identified with Edom (Ezek 35:15), home of Esau’s descendants (Gen 25:21-30).

[35:5]  ³ tn Or “gave over…to the power of the sword.” This phrase also occurs in Jer 18:21 and Ps 63:10.

[35:7]  ⁴ tc The translation reads with some manuscripts לְשִׁמְמָה וּמְשַׁמָּה (lÿshimmah umÿshammah, “desolate ruin”) as in verse 3 and often in Ezekiel. The majority reading reverses the first mem (מ) with the shin (שׁ) resulting in the repetition of the word desolate: לְשִׁמְמָה וּשְׁמָמָה (lÿshimmah ushÿmamah).

[35:7]  ⁵ tn Or “kill.”