Ezekiel 36:2

2 This is what the Lord God says: Because the enemy has said about you, 'Good![a] The ancient heights have become our possession,'

Ezekiel 36:2 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 36:2

Thus saith the Lord God
By the mouth of the prophet, who was bid to prophesy: because the enemy had said against you, aha:
rejoicing at the calamity of God's people, particularly the Edomites or Idumeans, as in the preceding chapter; and who are chiefly meant; and also the Ammonites and Tyrians, ( Ezekiel 25:3 ) ( 26:2 ) : even the ancient high places are ours in possession;
or, "the high places of the world shall be unto us for a possession" F6; the land of Israel, according to Kimchi and others, was the highest part of the world, Jerusalem the highest part of that land, and the temple was built on the highest part of the city; and all these the Edomites claimed as their own, the land, city, and temple, and thought themselves sure of the same, as if they had them in actual possession; even the hilly part of the country, which had been so from the creation, and where stood many of the fortified and frontier towns and cities; which as strong as they were, or had been, they fancied would easily fall into their hands, now such desolations were made in the land.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 (wnl htyh hvrwml Mlwe twmb) "excelsa seculi haereditario jure futura sunt nobis", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus; "celsa seculi haereditas evenit nobis", Cocceius, Starckius.

Ezekiel 36:2 In-Context

1 "Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord.
2 This is what the Lord God says: Because the enemy has said about you, 'Good! The ancient heights have become our possession,'
3 therefore, prophesy and say: This is what the Lord God says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you from every side, so that you became a possession for the rest of the nations and an object of people's gossip and slander,
4 therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God . This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become plunder and a mockery to the rest of the nations all around.
5 "This is what the Lord God says: Certainly in My burning zeal I speak against the rest of the nations and all of Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted rejoicing and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder.

Footnotes 1

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