Ezekiel 25 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~588-585 BC, around the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon
Location
Spoken from Babylonia against four neighbouring peoples east and west of Judah: Ammon and Moab across the Jordan, Edom to the south, and Philistia on the coastal plain
Audience
The Judean exiles, who were meant to overhear judgments spoken about their neighbours
Situation
The book turns from Judah to the surrounding nations, opening with four short oracles against Ammon, Moab, Edom and Philistia. Each is condemned not for idolatry but for how it behaved toward Judah in her collapse, cheering the desecration of the temple, treating Judah as just another nation, taking revenge, or seizing land.
Key Background
Collections of oracles against foreign nations were a standard prophetic form, appearing in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos as well, and they served to insist that the same God who judged Israel governed everyone else. These four peoples were long-standing neighbours and rivals, related to Israel in the ancestral traditions, and border raiding between them went back centuries. When Babylon crushed Judah, its neighbours moved into the vacuum, taking territory and captives, which is the specific opportunism these oracles name.
The of Yahweh came to me:
of turn your face toward the people of and speak against them.
Say to the people of Ammon: Hear the word of Yahweh, the This is what Yahweh, the says: Because you shouted 'Yes!' when the for me was when the land of Israel was laid waste, and when the people of Judah were dragged off into
— because of this, I am handing you over to the from the as their possession. They will set up their camps among you and pitch their tents in your land. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk.
I will turn into a pasture for camels, and the land of Ammon into a resting place for flocks. Then you will that I am
For this is what Yahweh, the sovereign God, says: Because you and and gloated with such deep over the land of Israel —
— because of this, I am out my against you. I will you over as to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and wipe you out from the lands. I will destroy you — and you will know that I am Yahweh.
This is what Yahweh, the sovereign God, says: Because and said, 'Look — the people of Judah are just like every other nation now,'
— because of this, I am going to the of Moab, starting from its border towns — Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim, the of its
I will hand it over to the desert tribes from the east — along with the land of Ammon — as their possession. The people of Ammon will be forgotten among the nations.
I will against Moab, and they will know that I am Yahweh.
This is what Yahweh, the sovereign God, says: acted out of bitter vengeance against the people of Judah. They became by taking revenge on them.
Because of this, Yahweh, the sovereign God, says: I will stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off from it both people and animals. I will make it a wasteland. From to they will fall by the sword.
I will carry out my against Edom through the hands of my people Israel. They will deal with Edom according to my burning anger and my fury. And Edom will know my — this is the of Yahweh, the sovereign God.
This is what Yahweh, the sovereign God, says: Because the acted out of vengeance and took revenge with deep contempt from their very being, destroying with —
— because of this, Yahweh, the sovereign God, says: I am stretching out my hand against the Philistines. I will cut off the and wipe out what remains along the coast.
I will carry out of against them, punishing them in my fury. And they will know that I am Yahweh — when I bring my vengeance down on them.