Bible Strands
Ezekiel 35:5
Because you harbored an ancient hatred and delivered the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their disaster at the final stage of their punishment,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Ezekiel to the mountain of Seir (Edom), pronouncing ruin during the final stage of Israel’s punishment. The declaration occurs as Babylon besieges Jerusalem and Israel faces national disaster.
The words — The phrase אֵיבַת עוֹלָם (ʾēḇat ʿōlām) translates literally to "enmity of antiquity," marking hatred as long-standing. The verb וַתַּגֵּר (wa-ttaggēr) means "you poured out," describing the deliberate delivery of Israelites to the sword.
The thread — This ancient hostility surfaces in Psalms 137:7, where Edom calls for Jerusalem's demolition, and in Obadiah 1:10, which condemns Edom's violence against Jacob. Amos 1:11 further records God's judgment on Edom for relentlessly pursuing Israel with the sword.
Why it lands — The text states that God actively judges those who exploit another's disaster for violence, requiring readers to reject generational vengeance. It demands recognition that prolonged hatred justifies divine intervention, leaving no room for moral neutrality toward such cruelty.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Because 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:
Cross-references
- Psalms 137:7 Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”
- Obadiah 1:10 Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever.
- Amos 1:11 This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Edom, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and stifled all compassion; his anger raged continually, and his fury flamed incessantly.
- Ezekiel 21:25 And you, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, the day has come for your final punishment.’
- Ezekiel 21:29 while they offer false visions for you and lying divinations about you—to be placed on the necks of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment.
- Ezekiel 25:12 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Edom acted vengefully against the house of Judah, and in so doing incurred grievous guilt,
- Genesis 27:41 Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”
- Ezekiel 25:15 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because the Philistines acted in vengeance, taking vengeance with malice of soul to destroy Judah with ancient hostility,
- Jeremiah 18:21 Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
- Ezekiel 35:12 Then you will know that I, the LORD, have heard every contemptuous word you uttered against the mountains of Israel when you said, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to devour!’