Mount Seir and the Mountains of Israel
1 Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, 3 and tell it, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you. I will make you a desolation and an astonishment. 4 I will lay your cities waste, and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. 5 “‘“Because you have had a perpetual hostility, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end, 6 therefore, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Since you have not hated blood, therefore blood will pursue you. 7 Thus I will make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation. I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns. 8 I will fill its mountains with its slain. The slain with the sword will fall in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses. 9 I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. 10 “‘“Because you have said, ‘These two nations and these two countries will be mine, and we will possess it,’ although Yahweh was there, 11 therefore, as I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them when I judge you. 12 You will know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, ‘They have been laid desolate. They have been given to us to devour.’ 13 You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me. I have heard it.” 14 The Lord Yahweh says: “When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. 15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’” Ezekiel 36 1 You, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say, “You mountains of Israel, hear Yahweh’s word. 2 The Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because the enemy has said against you, “Aha!” and, “The ancient high places are ours in possession!”’ 3 therefore prophesy, and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because, even because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession to the residue of the nations, and you are taken up in the lips of talkers, and the evil report of the people;” 4 therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yahweh: The Lord Yahweh says to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which have become a prey and derision to the residue of the nations that are all around; 5 therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “Surely in the fire of my jealousy I have spoken against the residue of the nations, and against all Edom, that have appointed my land to themselves for a possession with the joy of all their heart, with despite of soul, to cast it out for a prey.”’ 6 Therefore prophesy concerning the land of Israel, and tell the mountains, the hills, the watercourses and the valleys, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my wrath, because you have borne the shame of the nations.” 7 Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “I have sworn, ‘Surely the nations that are around you will bear their shame.’ 8 “‘“But you, mountains of Israel, you shall shoot out your branches and yield your fruit to my people Israel; for they are at hand to come. 9 For, behold, I am for you, and I will come to you, and you will be tilled and sown. 10 I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, even all of it. The cities will be inhabited and the waste places will be built. 11 I will multiply man and animal on you. They will increase and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before, and you will do better than at your beginnings. Then you will know that I am Yahweh. 12 Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Israel. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will never again bereave them of their children.” 13 “‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because they say to you, ‘You are a devourer of men, and have been a bereaver of your nation;’ 14 therefore you shall devour men no more, and not bereave your nation any more,” says the Lord Yahweh. 15 “I won’t let you hear the shame of the nations any more. You won’t bear the reproach of the peoples any more, and you won’t cause your nation to stumble any more,” says the Lord Yahweh.’”
Two mountains are addressed in turn — one that gloated over an empty land and one that is promised people again.
The pairing is the point, and the chapters are built to be read together. Mount Seir is Edom, and the mountains of Israel are the terrain of chapter 6, where the high places had stood. The same form of address is used for both, and the outcomes are opposite.
Edom's offense is stated in three parts. There was a perpetual enmity — an old grudge, and the two nations were descended from twin brothers. There was the handing over of Israel to the sword in the time of their calamity, which is the charge of taking advantage at the worst possible moment. And there was a sentence spoken about the two kingdoms: These two nations and these two countries will be mine, and we will possess it. Edom looked at an emptied land and made a claim on it.
The reply contains a clause that explains why the offense is treated so seriously: although Yahweh was there. The land was not vacant. Its owner had removed his people from it, and a third party read the removal as abandonment and moved in. That is the same mistake the sealed room in chapter 8 was built on, and the same mistake the inhabitants of Jerusalem made about the exiles.
Then the address turns, and the tone changes completely. The mountains of Israel are told that they have borne the shame of the nations and are taken up in the lips of talkers, and what is promised to them is entirely agricultural and demographic. Shoot out your branches. Yield your fruit. You will be tilled and sown. Men multiplied on you, cities inhabited, waste places built.
Two phrases in that promise are worth marking. The first is for they are at hand to come, which gives the land a reason to start growing again. The second is stranger and more generous: you will do better than at your beginnings. The restoration is not described as a return to a former condition. And the last line of the section promises the land itself that it will never again bereave its people of their children, which addresses the ground as if it were guilty of what happened on it.
settled What this mark means