Sidon, and the Gathering of Israel
20 Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 21 “Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it, 22 and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Sidon. I will be glorified among you. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I have executed judgments in her, and am sanctified in her. 23 For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets. The wounded will fall within her, with the sword on her on every side. Then they will know that I am Yahweh. 24 “‘“There will no longer be a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them that scorned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.” 25 “‘The Lord Yahweh says: “When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am shown as holy among them in the sight of the nations, then they will dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob. 26 They will dwell in it securely. Yes, they will build houses, plant vineyards, and will dwell securely when I have executed judgments on all those around them who have treated them with contempt. Then they will know that I am Yahweh their God.”’”
The last of the neighboring oracles is brief, and its purpose is stated in a single image: no more briers.
The oracle against Sidon is the shortest of the series and it is unusual in what it emphasizes. There is no charge sheet, no quoted boast, no catalogue of trade. What is announced is God's own purpose: I will be glorified among you... and am sanctified in her. The judgment on Sidon is described almost entirely from the side of what it will show, and only then in terms of what it will do.
The reason it is placed here becomes clear in the next verse, and it draws the whole section together. There will no longer be a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them that scorned them. Seven oracles have named seven neighbors — Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, its king, and now Sidon — and the summary treats them as a hedge of thorns around a field. What the chapters have been describing is the clearing of a perimeter.
That is why the section ends where it does. The clearing is not an end in itself, and the last two verses state what it is for. When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am shown as holy among them in the sight of the nations, then they will dwell in their own land.
What that dwelling looks like is described in three ordinary activities, and the modesty of the list is the point. They will build houses. They will plant vineyards. They will dwell securely. After a hundred verses about naval empires, gold treasuries and the wisdom of kings, the promised alternative is a man with a house and some vines who is not afraid. The oracles against the nations turn out to be, in their own summary, about making that possible.
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