Ezekiel 36:2

2 thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because the enemy said concerning you, 'Ah, and [the] ancient high places will be to us as a 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.

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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 "And you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel; and [so] you must say, 'Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yahweh;

2 thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Because the enemy said concerning you, 'Ah, and [the] ancient high places will be to us as a possession!'" '

3 Therefore prophesy, and you must say, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "{Because indeed} {when you were desolate}, then they crushed you from all around, so that you became a possession to the remainder of the nations, and you became {a byword and object of slander for the people}."

4 Therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh; thus says the Lord Yahweh to the mountains and to the hills, to the river channels and to the valleys and to the ruins that [are] desolate and to the cities that [are] abandoned [and] that have become as plunder and as scorn for the remainder of the nations that [are] from all around.

5 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "{Certainly} in the fire of my passion I spoke against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who made my land as [a] possession, because of its pastureland for plunder, for themselves in all of [the] joy of their whole heart [and] in [their] inner disdain."

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "now"