Bible Strands
Ezekiel 35:9
I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Ezekiel to pronounce judgment on Edom for its hostility toward Judah during a period of geopolitical conquest. The declaration targets the nation and its urban centers following the anticipated slaughter on its hills and ravines.
The words — The Hebrew עוֹלָם (olam) denotes enduring duration, paired with שִׁמְמֹת (shimmot) for desolations. The verb תָשֹׁבְנָה (tashovenah) literally means "they will return," indicating permanent abandonment rather than temporary ruin.
The thread — The announced ruin of urban centers recurs in Ezekiel 35:4, while the pattern of slaughter leading to divine recognition appears in Ezekiel 6:7. Ezekiel 25:13 is cited for the parallel judgment against Edom but does not contain the recognition formula.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that geopolitical conquest and national destruction operate under divine authority. It requires the reader to accept that human claims to territory are nullified when divine judgment is executed.
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
I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 25:13 therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword.
- Ezekiel 6:7 The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
- Ezekiel 35:4 I will turn your cities into ruins, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
- Malachi 1:3 but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
- Jeremiah 49:13 For by Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and a curse, and all her cities will be in ruins forever.”
- Jeremiah 49:17 “Edom will become an object of horror. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.
- Ezekiel 7:4 I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’
- Ezekiel 7:9 I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow.
- Ezekiel 36:11 I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
- Zephaniah 2:9 Therefore, as surely as I live,” declares the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab will be like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah—a place of weeds and salt pits, a perpetual wasteland. The remnant of My people will plunder them; the remainder of My nation will dispossess them.”