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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezekiel 28:20 - 28:20
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Prophecy Against Sidon and Promise for Israel
The threatening word against Sidon is very brief, and couched in general terms, because as a matter of fact the prophecy against Tyre involved the announcement of the fall of Sidon, which was dependent upon it; and, as we have already observed, Sidon received a special word of God simply for the purpose of making up the number of the heathen nations mentioned to the significant number seven. The word of God against Sidon brings to a close the cycle of predictions of judgment directed against those heathen nations which had given expression to malicious pleasure at the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah. There is therefore appended a promise for Israel (Eze 28:25, Eze 28:26), which is really closely connected with the threatening words directed against the heathen nations, and for which the way is prepared by Eze 28:24. The correspondence of נִקְדַּשְׁתִּי בָהּ (I shall be sanctified in her) in Eze 28:22 to נִקְדַּשְׁתִּי בָם (I shall be sanctified in them) in Eze 28:25, serves to place the future fate of Israel in antithesis not merely to the future fate of Sidon, but, as Eze 28:24 and Eze 28:26 clearly show, to that of all the heathen nations against which the previous threats have been directed.
Eze 28:20-24
And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 28:21. Son of man, direct thy face towards Sidon, and prophesy against it, Eze 28:22. And say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will be against thee, O Sidon, and will glorify myself in the midst of thee; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I execute judgments upon it, and sanctify myself upon it. Eze 28:23. I will send pestilence into it, and blood into its streets; slain will fall in the midst of it by the sword, which cometh upon it from every side; and they shall learn that I am Jehovah. Eze 28:24. And there shall be no more to the house of Israel a malignant thorn and smarting sting from all round about them, who despise them; but they shall learn that I am the Lord Jehovah. - Jehovah will glorify Himself as the Lord upon Sidon, as He did before upon Pharaoh (compare Exo 14:4, Exo 14:16-17, to which the word נִכְבַּדְתִּי in Eze 28:22, an unusual expression for Ezekiel, evidently points). The glorification is effected by judgments, through which He proves Himself to be holy upon the enemies of His people. He executes the judgments through pestilence and blood (vid., Eze 5:17; Eze 38:22), i.e., through disease and bloodshed occasioned by war, so that men fall, slain by the sword (cf. Eze 6:7). Instead of נָפַל we have the intensive form נִפְלַל, which is regarded by Ewald and Hitzig as a copyist's error, because it is only met with here. Through these judgments the Lord will liberate His people Israel from all round about, who increase its suffering by their contempt. These thoughts sum up in Eze 28:24 the design of God's judgments upon all the neighbouring nations which are threatened in Ezekiel 25-28, and thus prepare the way for the concluding promise in Eze 28:25 and Eze 28:26. The figure of the sting and thorn points back to Num 33:55, where it is said that the Canaanites whom Israel failed to exterminate would become thorns in its eyes and stings in its sides. As Israel did not keep itself free from the Canaanitish nature of the heathen nations, God caused it to fell these stings of heathenism. Having been deeply hurt by them, it was now lying utterly prostrate with its wounds. The sins of Canaan, to which Israel had given itself up, had occasioned the destruction of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 16). But Israel is not to succumb to its wounds. On the contrary, by destroying the heathen powers, the Lord will heal His people of the wounds which its heathen neighbours have inflicted upon it. סִלֹּון, synonymous with סַלֹּון in Eze 2:6, a word only found in Ezekiel. מַמְאִיר, on the contrary, is taken from Lev 13:51 and Lev 14:44, where it is applied to malignant leprosy (see the comm. on the former passage). - For הַשָּׁאטִים אֹותָם, see Eze 16:57 and Eze 25:6.
Eze 28:25-26
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, When I shall gather the house of Israel out of the peoples among whom they have been scattered, I shall sanctify myself upon them before the eyes of the heathen nations, and they will dwell in their land which I have given to my servant Jacob. Eze 28:26. They will dwell there securely, and build houses and plant vineyards, and will dwell securely when I execute judgments upon all who despise them of those round about them; and they shall learn that I Jehovah am their God. - Whilst the heathen nations succumb to the judgments of God, Israel passes on to a time of blessed peace. The Lord will gather His people from their dispersion among the heathen, bring them into the land which He gave to the patriarch Jacob, His servant, and give them in that land rest, security, and true prosperity. (For the fact itself, compare Eze 11:17; Eze 20:41; Eze 36:22.)