25 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face towards the Ammonites and prophesy against them. 3 Say to the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God, Because you said, ‘Aha!’ over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and over the house of Judah when they went into exile,4 therefore behold, I am handing you over to the people of the East for a possession, and they shall set their encampments among you and make their dwellings in your midst. They shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. 5 I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon a fold for flocks. Then you will know that I am the Lord. 6 For thus says the Lord God: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within your soul against the land of Israel, 7 therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand against you, and will hand you over as plunder to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and will make you perish out of the countries; I will destroy you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
8 “Thus says the Lord God: Because Moab and Seir said, ‘Behold, the house of Judah is like all the other nations’, 9 therefore I will lay open the flank of Moab from the cities, from its cities on its frontier, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. 10 I will give it along with the Ammonites to the people of the East as a possession, that the Ammonites may be remembered no more among the nations, 11 and I will execute judgements upon Moab. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
12 “Thus says the Lord God: Because Edom acted revengefully against the house of Judah and has grievously offended in taking vengeance on them,13 therefore thus says the Lord God, I will stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off from it man and beast. And I will make it desolate; from Teman even to Dedan they shall fall by the sword. 14 And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, declares the Lord God.
15 “Thus says the Lord God: Because the Philistines acted revengefully and took vengeance with malice of soul to destroy in never-ending enmity,16 therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the rest of the sea coast. 17 I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon them.”
We come, in this chapter, to the second of the major sections of Ezekiel's prophecy (see II in Note on page 6). Here is a series of prophecies made during the siege of Jerusalem, and uttered against the surrounding nations. They were uttered as if to assert that every true prophet of God has a word, not only for God's people, but also for God's world. One wonders if one of the immediate purposes in their being uttered and being gathered together in this form, and at this point in Ezekiel's ministry, was to imply that Israel need not hope to get any help from any of the surrounding nations against Babylon, for one and all were going to be judged and destroyed. It is true that the people of God had an almost incredible aptitude for turning to foreign nations for help against the oppressor, instead of turning to the Lord. This is what spelt the downfall of Zedekiah in Jerusalem. His persistent attempts to get help from other nations was a source of distress to the prophets and to the Lord Himself. It was as if God were saying in effect, 'Spare yourself further trouble, because all these nations you are seeking help from are coming under My judgment'. Furthermore, it was to be seen that the judgment coming upon them was from God, because we have the reiterated refrain 'They shall know that I am the Lord' (7, 11, 14, 17).
Four nations are brought before us in this chapter, Ammon, Moab, Edom and Philistia, and we shall look at what is said about them in some detail in the next Note.