Ezekiel 35:1-15
Mount Seir's ancient hatred will return upon its own head: the nation that loved bloodshed, rejoiced over Israel's desolation, and claimed the Lord's land will itself become desolate and know that the Lord heard every boast.
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;’ whereas 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 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.’ ”
Mount Seir's ancient hatred will return upon its own head: the nation that loved bloodshed, rejoiced over Israel's desolation, and claimed the LORD's land will itself become desolate and know that the LORD heard every boast.
To announce the LORD's judgment against Mount Seir/Edom for ancient hostility, bloodshed, malicious rejoicing over Israel's calamity, and presumptuous claims over the LORD's land, so that both Edom and the surrounding nations will know that the LORD hears, judges, and defends His covenant purposes.
Mount Seir represents Edom, the people associated with Esau and the mountainous region southeast of Judah. Within the biblical storyline, Edom's relationship to Israel is marked by kinship and conflict. Ezekiel speaks after Jerusalem's collapse, when neighboring peoples could interpret Judah's ruin as an opportunity for revenge and territorial expansion. The oracle condemns Edom not simply for being a foreign nation but for ancient hostility, bloodshed in the time of Israel's calamity, arrogant claims over Israel's inheritance, and malicious rejoicing over devastation.