The big picture
Ezekiel 35 addresses Mount Seir at the point where Israel's land is about to become the subject of restoration. Edom's "perpetual hatred" has not remained an attitude. It became bloodshed at the moment of Israel's calamity, an attempt to turn a neighbor's judgment into an opportunity for violence and possession. The oracle answers that conduct in matching terms. Because Edom did not hate blood, blood becomes its pursuer. Because its hostility endured, desolation is described with enduring force. Most revealing is Edom's claim that the two countries will become its own. The LORD interrupts the assumption with the fact of his continuing presence and ownership. Israel's defeat did not create abandoned property. Edom's rejoicing over ruined inheritance is heard, remembered, and answered before the next chapter turns directly to Israel's mountains.
In this chapter
- Hatred Kept for the Day of Calamity Ezekiel 35:1-5
Mount Seir receives sustained attention just as Ezekiel is preparing to speak about the restoration of Israel's mountains.
- Blood Becomes the Pursuer Ezekiel 35:6-9
Blood becomes almost a character in the oracle.
- The Owner Has Heard the Claim Ezekiel 35:10-15
Edom's claim sounds like the conclusion of a property dispute: "These two nations and these two countries shall be mine." Then Ezekiel inserts the fact that ruins had not erased: "whereas the LORD was there." Israel and Judah could be judged, emptied, and humiliated without the land becoming ownerless.
Scripture beside the summary
Ezekiel · King James Version · 15Ezekiel 35:1-5
Hatred Kept for the Day of Calamity
Mount Seir receives sustained attention just as Ezekiel is preparing to speak about the restoration of Israel's mountains. The timing matters because Edom had read Israel's calamity as an opening. Its hostility was not a passing reaction but "perpetual hatred," and that hatred found its opportunity when Israel was already under judgment. Blood was shed at the moment when a wounded neighbor was least able to resist. Ezekiel does not allow Israel's own guilt to become Edom's defense. The fact that Jerusalem was suffering under the LORD's judgment did not grant surrounding peoples a moral blank check to exploit the disaster. Seir's cities are therefore threatened with desolation in direct answer to what Edom did with another nation's collapse. The chapter begins by making opportunism part of the crime. A calamity can expose the wrongdoing of the person under judgment and, at the same time, expose the character of the neighbor who celebrates and exploits it.
Deep dive
Edom has already appeared in Ezekiel 25, but this oracle does not simply repeat its name. Mount Seir now receives sustained attention at the point where the book is turning toward the restoration of Israel's land. The opposing mountain becomes a way of exposing the hostility that has tried to determine what happens to that land after judgment.
The accusation combines duration and opportunity. Seir has maintained "a perpetual hatred" and shed Israelite blood in the time of calamity. The disaster that should have demonstrated the seriousness of the LORD's judgment became, for Edom, the moment to act upon its own hostility. The passage does not excuse that action because Israel was itself under punishment. Its explanation of Edom's judgment rests precisely on what Edom did with the occasion. Ruined cities and desolation are announced as the answer, turning the apparent beneficiary of Israel's fall into the subject of another oracle against the land.
Words to trace: LORD, desolate, mount, Seir, time, blood
Verse-by-verse path
- Ezekiel 35:1
Edom’s conduct at Jerusalem’s fall left a mark on several books. Psalm 137:7 remembers “the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it”, and the whole of Obadiah answers the same betrayal. This undated word adds Ezekiel’s voice to theirs.
- Ezekiel 35:2
“Set thy face against” is the posture Ezekiel took in 6:2 toward “the mountains of Israel”, when they were under judgment. Mount Seir is the high sandstone range east of the Arabah, south of the Dead Sea, where Genesis 36:8 says “dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.”
- Ezekiel 35:3
“Most desolate” is the same doubled Hebrew phrase, shemamah umeshammah, spoken over Israel’s land in 33:28. The stretched-out hand was already raised against Edom in 25:13. Edom will receive exactly the ruin it watched fall on its neighbour.
- Ezekiel 35:4
Edom’s towns included Bozrah, its capital, Teman and Sela, strongholds cut into rock and perched on ridges. Their position made them feel unassailable; Obadiah 3 mocks the Edomite who says, “Who shall bring me down to the ground?”
- Ezekiel 35:5
“Perpetual hatred” goes back to Genesis 27:41, “Esau hated Jacob”. Amos 1:11 had accused Edom of pursuing “his brother with the sword” and keeping “his wrath for ever”. “By the force of the sword” is literally “poured them out upon the hands of the sword”. “Their iniquity had an end” echoes 21:25.
Ezekiel 35:1-5
King James Version1Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,
3And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.
4I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
5Because 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:
Ezekiel 35:6-9
Blood Becomes the Pursuer
Blood becomes almost a character in the oracle. Edom did not hate bloodshed, so "blood shall pursue thee." The violence it accepted when directed outward returns as the defining image of what comes home. Ezekiel then spreads the consequences across mountains, hills, valleys, and rivers until no corner of the landscape can pretend the judgment belongs somewhere else. Travelers disappear from the roads, cities are denied easy recovery, and slain people fill the terrain. The duration of the sentence also answers the duration of the offense. "Perpetual hatred" is met with "perpetual desolations." The language is deliberately matched. Edom's judgment is not described as an unrelated accident that happens to follow its violence. Cause and consequence are joined in the oracle's own vocabulary. Even after Israel's ruin seemed to leave Edom with an advantage, Mount Seir remains fully visible to the LORD and fully answerable for what it chose to do.
Deep dive
The oath intensifies the announcement, and blood becomes an active pursuer. Edom has not hated bloodshed, so blood will follow it. The wording makes the relationship between offense and judgment unmistakable without requiring an explanation for every detail of the coming conflict. The violence is not presented as an unrelated misfortune.
Mountains, hills, valleys, and rivers are filled with the slain, while the movement of travelers is cut off. The distribution across the landscape matters: desolation is not confined to a damaged capital that the remainder of the country can simply bypass. Its cities are denied the prospect of easy recovery. The language of perpetual desolation answers the earlier perpetual hatred, giving duration on one side a corresponding weight on the other. Once again, the stated end is recognition of the LORD. Edom's use of Israel's calamity has not placed Edom beyond his notice.
Words to trace: blood, LORD, pursue, slain, cities, desolate
Verse-by-verse path
- Ezekiel 35:6
“Sith” is the old form of “since”. There is a play on sounds: blood is dam, Edom is Edom, and Genesis 25:30 ties the name to the red, adom, pottage Esau bought with his birthright. The nation named for red will be pursued by blood.
- Ezekiel 35:7
“Him that passeth out and him that returneth” means travellers coming and going. Edom’s wealth depended on the caravan routes, including the King’s Highway that Israel asked leave to use in Numbers 20:17. With the traffic cut off, Edom’s trade dies with its towns.
- Ezekiel 35:8
The pronouns move from “his mountains” to “thy hills” within a single verse, turning from description to direct address. The “rivers” are afiqim, ravines, the steep wadis that cut down through Edom’s plateau toward the Arabah.
- Ezekiel 35:9
The Hebrew consonants can be read “thy cities shall not return”, which the King James follows, or “shall not be inhabited”, the scribes’ marginal reading. Malachi 1:4 later quotes Edom saying, “we will return and build the desolate places”, and the LORD replying, “They shall build, but I will throw down.”
Ezekiel 35:6-9
King James Version6Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
7Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.
8And 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.
9I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel 35:10-15
The Owner Has Heard the Claim
Edom's claim sounds like the conclusion of a property dispute: "These two nations and these two countries shall be mine." Then Ezekiel inserts the fact that ruins had not erased: "whereas the LORD was there." Israel and Judah could be judged, emptied, and humiliated without the land becoming ownerless. Edom mistook divine judgment for divine abandonment and treated another people's devastation as a transfer of title. The oracle also keeps returning to speech. Boasts against Israel's mountains and multiplied words against the LORD have been heard. What sounded like triumphant human talk was also testimony before the one Edom's words dismissed. The judgment is then measured against the emotions named in the passage itself: anger, envy, hatred, and rejoicing over Israel's desolation. Seir will experience the desolation it celebrated. Chapter 36 can therefore turn to Israel's mountains with the failed takeover attempt still ringing in the background.
Deep dive
The claim to the "two nations" and "two countries" concerns the divided people and land of Israel and Judah. Edom treats their defeat as a vacancy to be occupied. The short reply that the LORD was there interrupts that assumption. His judgment upon the inhabitants has not turned the land into ownerless territory available to the first neighbor with a claim.
The repeated references to speech give this section its force. Edom has spoken against Israel's mountains and multiplied words against the LORD, and he says that he has heard them. What looked like triumphant conversation among human victors has also been testimony before the one their words dismiss. The judgment is measured against the anger, envy, and rejoicing the oracle itself names. Seir will experience desolation corresponding to the desolation over which it rejoiced. The next chapter's address to Israel's mountains will therefore begin with this failed attempt at possession still in view.
Words to trace: LORD, desolate, Israel, know, anger, blasphemies
Verse-by-verse path
- Ezekiel 35:10
“Possess it” is singular: the two nations are treated as one prize. After 586 BC Edomites did move west into southern Judah, a region later called Idumea, and 1 Maccabees 5:65 still speaks of Hebron as a place held by the sons of Esau centuries afterwards.
- Ezekiel 35:11
Anger, envy and hatred are named as the measure of the sentence: “I will even do according to” them. The envy, qin’ah, is the word used elsewhere in Ezekiel for the LORD’s own jealousy. “Among them” means Israel, who will come to know the LORD by watching Edom judged.
- Ezekiel 35:12
“Blasphemies” renders ne’atsot, contemptuous speech. “Given us to consume” is literally “given us for food”, the very language of chapter 34, where the flock became meat. Edom looks at Israel’s mountains the way the bad shepherds looked at the sheep.
- Ezekiel 35:13
The boasts were aimed at the mountains, yet the LORD counts them as spoken “against me”. The address moves to the plural, “your mouth”, taking in all Edom’s people. “I have heard them” closes the verse in two Hebrew words.
- Ezekiel 35:14
The phrase “when the whole earth rejoiceth” has puzzled readers. Some take it as the world rejoicing at Edom’s ruin; others take it as a promise that when the whole earth is glad in the restoration, Edom alone will be desolate. Verse 15 gives the reason in either case.
- Ezekiel 35:15
“Idumea” is the Greek form of Edom, which the King James uses here and in 36:5; the Hebrew has simply Edom. “Inheritance” is nachalah, the word for tribal land, the very land that chapter 47 will parcel out again. Obadiah 12 had said, “neither shouldest thou have rejoiced”.
Ezekiel 35:10-15
King James Version10Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:
11Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.
12And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
13Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
14Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.
15As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Questions to keep in mind while reading
- Identify the historical crisis, covenant failure, warning, and promised hope.
- Distinguish the prophet’s immediate audience from later biblical connections.
- Do not turn present-day headlines into confident fulfillment claims without textual evidence.
Text first
Where readers differ
The chapter summary begins with what the passage says and how its parts fit together. It does not assume one denomination has already settled every question. Where a conclusion depends on a tradition, literary theory, or historical reconstruction, that dependence is named openly.
The KJV text is presented first. Interpretive conclusions are labeled, and differences are introduced only when they help a reader understand why serious communities do not always reach the same answer.
Comparative interpretive notes for this chapter are in preparation. Until reviewed notes are ready, this page separates the KJV text from summary and application without claiming that serious readers agree on every question.
Questions beneath the surface
- What account of God, human freedom, responsibility, and the good life emerges from Ezekiel 35?
- Which tension does the chapter refuse to resolve quickly?
- What changes when the chapter is read as part of the whole canon rather than as an isolated moral lesson?
- Where might a sincere reader confuse a familiar tradition with something the text states directly?
Questions for serious personal contemplation
These open-ended questions make room for tension, honest response, prayer, and conclusions that remain accountable to the chapter.
Observe without rushing
What part of Ezekiel 35 makes you stop, feel unsettled, or feel surprised, and why?
Which detail in the passage would be easiest to overlook? How does that detail change your understanding?
Where do you see tension between what happens and this focus: Ezekiel 35:1–15 completes a passage that was not covered by the original study-unit map. Its own wording and immediate context supply the focus.?
What important question does the passage leave open instead of resolving quickly?
Examine your inner life honestly
Which person, response, fear, or desire in the passage feels most like your own life right now?
What assumption about God, other people, or yourself does this text challenge?
Which part would you rather soften, avoid, or explain away too quickly? What might that reaction reveal?
If this Scripture could ask you one direct question, what do you think it would ask?
Respond with wisdom and courage
What do you need to remember, confess, grieve, thank God for, or trust after reading this passage?
How might another faithful person read this situation differently without ignoring the text?
What obedient response would be costly, uncomfortable, or slow, yet still faithful to Scripture?
What question will you carry into prayer this week, and which verses will you keep in front of you?
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
