Ezekiel 35:6

6 therefore, as I live, saith the LORD GOD, I will prepare thee for blood, and blood shall pursue thee. Since thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.

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 lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end,

6 therefore, as I live, saith the LORD GOD, I will prepare thee for blood, and blood shall pursue thee. Since thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.

7 Thus will I make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.

8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men; in thy hills and in thy valleys and in all thy rivers shall they fall that are slain with the sword.