Ezekiel 35:6

6 So now the LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Because you don't hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.

Ezekiel 35:6 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 35:6

Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God
The form of an oath; the Lord swears by himself, because he could swear by no greater; and which he never does but in matters of importance, and for the confirmation of them, as the following is: I will prepare thee unto blood;
prepare them for war, which will issue in slaughter and blood, such as the battle at Armageddon, ( Revelation 16:14 Revelation 16:16 ) ( Revelation 19:18 Revelation 19:19 ) : or, "I will make thee blood" ^F23; nothing else but blood; a mere "Aceldama", a field of blood; turn thee into blood, as the sea, rivers, and fountains will be, at the pouring out the second and third vials, ( Revelation 16:3 Revelation 16:4 ) : and blood shall pursue thee;
the guilt and vengeance of blood; or the avengers of the blood of the saints; the angels that shall pour out the vials of wrath on Rome; the ten kings that shall hate the whore. So the Targum;

``they that slay with the sword shall pursue thee;''

or the shedders of blood, as Ben Melech: saith thou hast not hated blood;
Jarchi reads it; "hast hated blood": which he interprets of the blood of the sacrifices; as others, mentioned by him, of the blood of circumcision; and others, of his brother, who was his flesh and blood, and hated by him; but it is a figurative phrase, by which less is expressed than is intended. The sense is, thou hast loved blood; thou hast delighted in shedding blood; hast thirsted after it, and drank plentifully of it, and even been drunk with it, as the whore of Rome is said to be, ( Revelation 17:5 ) : even blood shall pursue thee;
this is repeated for the confirmation of it; and this was measure for measure; a just retaliation; having shed blood, it was but right that blood should pursue, and be given, ( Revelation 16:5 Revelation 16:6 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 (Kvea Mdl) "in sanguinem redigam te", Munster; "in sanguinem faciam te", Grotius; "sanguinem faciam te", Coceeius, Starckius.

Ezekiel 35:6 In-Context

4 I will turn your cities into ruins, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

5 Because you nursed an ancient grudge, you handed the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their distress, during their final punishment.

6 So now the LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Because you don't hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.

7 I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate wasteland, when I cut off from it both passerby and homecomer.

8 I will fill its highlands—your hills and your valleys, and all your ravines—with its slain. Those who are slain by the sword will fall on them.