Ezekiel 25:14

14 I'll use my people Israel to bring my vengeance down on Edom. My wrath will fuel their action. And they'll realize it's my vengeance. Decree of God the Master."

Ezekiel 25:14 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 25:14

And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by fie hand of my people
Israel
This was fulfilled in the times of the Maccabees, when Judas Maccabins overthrew and conquered them, ``Then Judas fought against the children of Esau in Idumea at Arabattine, because they besieged Gael: and he gave them a great overthrow, and abated their courage, and took their spoils.'' (1 Maccabees 5:3) and when Hyrcanus took their cities, and subdued them, and they became Jews, as Josephus ^F24 relates; though Kimchi thinks this refers to future time, and is yet to be accomplished; and it is, by the ancient Jews ^F25, understood of the times of the Messiah: some choose to understand the phrase, by the hand of my people Israel,
the same hand by which judgment was inflicted upon Israel; suggesting that by the same hand vengeance would be inflicted on the Edomites, namely, by the Babylonians: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my
fury;
that is, shall execute all the anger and fury, or all that punishment in anger and fury, which the Lord in righteous judgment has appointed them to, and has determined shall be performed upon them, by the children of Israel or the Babylonians, as his instruments: and they shall know my vengeance,
saith the Lord God; the meaning is, they shall feel it, and be sensible of it, and know that it comes from the Lord himself; full of resentment against them, and highly displeased at their behaviour towards his people Israel.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 Antiqu. l. 13. c. 9. sect. 1.
F25 In Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 2. fol. 179. 3.

Ezekiel 25:14 In-Context

12 "God, the Master, says: Because Edom reacted against the people of Judah in spiteful revenge and was so criminally vengeful against them,

13 therefore I, God, the Master, will oppose Edom and kill the lot of them, people and animals both. I'll waste it - corpses stretched from Teman to Dedan.

14 I'll use my people Israel to bring my vengeance down on Edom. My wrath will fuel their action. And they'll realize it's my vengeance. Decree of God the Master."

15 "God, the Master, says: Because the Philistines were so spitefully vengeful - all those centuries of stored-up malice! - and did their best to destroy Judah,

16 therefore I, God, the Master, will oppose the Philistines and cut down the Cretans and anybody else left along the seacoast.