This narration is from a previous version of the study. The text on this page is current.
Jerusalem’s judgment does not make her neighbors’ cruelty innocent. Ezekiel turns from bereavement and siege to the peoples who clap, sneer, remember grievances, and take revenge. The Lord distinguishes His judgment from the pleasure human beings take in another’s ruin.
Historical and Scriptural Context
Ammon and Moab lie east of the Jordan, Edom to Judah’s south and southeast, and Philistia along the southwestern coast. These are nearby peoples, not abstract symbols of evil. Chapter 25 begins the nations cycle of chapters 25-32. Its four oracles expose responses to Judah’s catastrophe before the prophecy turns to Tyre’s commercial pride. Israel has already been judged; the chapter cannot declare every action of Israel righteous.
Geographical Significance ⛰️
Ammon and its capital Rabbah lie east of the Jordan; Moab lies east of the Dead Sea. Edom, called Idumea in Brenton, is southeast of Judah and includes Teman. Philistia occupies the southern coastal plain. The oracles circle Judah’s near neighbors, showing that geographic closeness can become an opportunity either for mercy or for predation.
The Characters 👥
- Ammon: The neighbor who claps over sanctuary, land, and people laid waste.
- Moab: The neighbor whose contempt dismisses Judah’s covenant life.
- Edom: The neighbor who lets remembered injuries become revenge.
- Philistia: The neighbor who pursues vengeance from the heart.
- The children of Kedem: Eastern peoples whom the Lord names as instruments of dispossession.
- Israel: Already judged for its own sins, named as the Lord’s instrument in 25:14, not declared innocent in everything.
Ammon, who clapped (Ezekiel 25:1-7)
The “children of Kedem” in 25:4 are the Hebrew’s people of the East; the “city of Ammon” in 25:5 is Rabbah, today’s Amman.
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, set thy face steadfastly against the children of Ammon, and prophesy against them; 3 and thou shalt say to the children of Ammon, Hear ye the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord; Forasmuch as ye have rejoiced against my sanctuary, because it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, because it was laid waste; and against the house of Juda, because they went into captivity; 4 therefore, behold, I will deliver you to the children of Kedem for an inheritance, and they shall lodge in thee with their stuff, and they shall pitch their tents in thee: they shall eat thy fruits, and they shall drink thy milk. 5 And I will give up the city of Ammon for camels’ pastures, and the children of Ammon for a pasture of sheep: and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 6 For thus saith the Lord; Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with thy foot, and heartily rejoiced against the land of Israel; 7 therefore I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will make thee a spoil to the nations; and I will utterly destroy thee from among the peoples, and I will completely cut thee off from out of the countries: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
Ammon rejoices over the profaned sanctuary, the wasted land, and Judah’s captivity. Its response has a body: hands clap, feet stamp, and the heart exults. The Lord sees the inward applause as surely as the outward destruction. A neighbor’s judgment has become entertainment.
The oracle reverses Ammon’s position. Those who looked at an emptied land become a land occupied by others’ tents and flocks. Their offense is not simply that they were outside Israel. It is that another people’s wound became their gladness. When an enemy falls, the heart may feel secret satisfaction. Ezekiel 25 says the Lord sees that inner movement.
Moab, who dismissed Judah (Ezekiel 25:8-11)
The Hebrew of 25:8 names “Moab and Seir”; Brenton names Moab. Bethasimuth in 25:9 is Beth Jeshimoth; the Hebrew also names Baal Meon and Kirjathaim.
8 Thus saith the Lord; Because Moab has said, Behold, are not the house of Israel and Juda like all the other nations? 9 Therefore, behold, I will weaken the shoulder of Moab from his frontier cities, even the choice land, the house of Bethasimuth above the fountain of the city, by the sea-side. 10 I have given him the children of Kedem in addition to the children of Ammon for an inheritance, that there may be no remembrance of the children of Ammon. 11 And I will execute vengeance on Moab; and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Moab treats Judah as no different from any other nation, as if the covenant’s collapse proves that the Lord is nothing. The charge is contempt, not an argument that Judah’s conduct was righteous. Israel’s judgment has already filled the preceding chapters. Moab sees that judgment and draws a convenient conclusion: holiness was always a fiction.
The Lord answers by exposing Moab’s own defenses. The choice frontier land cannot keep judgment outside. Another person’s failure cannot prove that mercy, truth, and worship were never real. A Christian can recognize scandal without making scandal a reason to abandon the good. To dismiss a wounded community as hopeless is another way of refusing to love it.
Edom, who remembered injuries (Ezekiel 25:12-14)
12 Thus saith the Lord; Because of what the Idumeans have done in taking vengeance on the house of Juda, and because they have remembered injuries, and have exacted full recompence; 13 therefore thus saith the Lord; I will also stretch out my hand upon Idumea, and will utterly destroy out of it man and beast; and will make it desolate; and they that are pursued out of Thæman shall fall by the sword. 14 And I will execute my vengeance on Idumea by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall deal in Idumea according to mine anger and according to my wrath, and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord.
Edom remembers injuries and exacts full recompense. Memory has become a treasury for retaliation: each remembered offense earns another act of harm. Ezekiel does not sanctify private hatred. The text names the Lord’s vengeance because vengeance belongs to Him, not to the bitter heart.
Verse 14 is the Lord’s sentence on a nation in history, not a commission to any Christian to repay an enemy. The Church hears Romans 12:19 beside it. Naming an injury, reporting a crime, and maintaining safety are not the same as organizing life around another person’s pain. Repentance does not demand that the harmed person forget; it asks that remembered harm cease to govern the soul as a rival lord.
Philistia, who took vengeance from the heart (Ezekiel 25:15-17)
Brenton’s “Cretans” in 25:16 corresponds to the Hebrew Cherethites, a people of the Philistine coast.
15 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Because the Philistines have wrought revengefully, and raised up vengeance rejoicing from their heart to destroy the Israelites to a man; 16 therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines, and will utterly destroy the Cretans, and will cut off the remnant that dwell by the sea-coast. 17 And I will execute great vengeance upon them; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have brought my vengeance upon them.
Philistia’s vengeance comes from the heart and aims at destruction. The chapter has moved from applause to contempt, then to an old ledger of injuries, and finally to the desire to leave no one standing. These are neighboring forms of the same sickness: the other person’s ruin is imagined as my good.
The surrounding nations are not judged for being non-Israelite. They are judged for cruelty toward the wounded, joy over another’s humiliation, and old hatred turned into policy. Christ reveals the opposite heart. He judges without cruelty, and His people must never confuse zeal for righteousness with delight in another’s destruction. Mercy can protect the endangered, demand accountability, and still refuse hatred’s final ambition.
Gems from the Fathers 💎
Preaching against envy, St John Chrysostom recalls the Moabites’ exultation over Israel. He insists that “not even when He punishes” does God permit us to rejoice over the punished.1 Ezekiel names Ammon’s clapping and Moab’s contempt; Chrysostom hears the warning within Christian hearts. Relief that harm may stop is not the same as pleasure in a person’s humiliation. The distinction is small enough to miss and important enough to bring into confession.
The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪
At Compline and in the Third Watch of Midnight Prayer, the Agpeya gives remembered injury a prayer addressed to God in Psalm 137 (LXX 136). Edom’s cruelty is not forgotten, but the remembering is handed to the Lord rather than kept as a private mandate to repay. Prayer can tell the truth about harm without turning the one praying into an avenger.
At the Liturgy on the first Saturday of Great Lent, Romans 12:1-21 is heard with Matthew 5:38-48: leave vengeance to God, love enemies, and pray for those who do harm. The Church begins the fast by challenging hatred, not merely changing food. St Stephen the Archdeacon, whose martyrdom is kept on Toba 1, embodies that freedom in Acts 7:60. His prayer does not make the violence innocent. It refuses to let another person’s hatred determine his heart.
Iconography Connection 🖼️
St Stephen praying for those who stone him shows the opposite of Ammon’s inward applause. The deacon serves Christ even while being wronged. His mercy is not indifference to evil; it is a heart that does not give evil a second home.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
Refuse the inward applause. When an opponent is exposed, distinguish relief that harm may stop from pleasure in humiliation. Pray for justice and repentance, and decline to pass along the extra story whose only purpose is ridicule.
Do not make old injury an identity. Naming harm and maintaining safe boundaries may be necessary. Organizing life around another person’s eventual pain is different. Bring the desire to retaliate honestly into confession.
Practice mercy without denying wrong. Christ commands prayer for enemies, not pretending abuse is harmless. Protect those at risk while leaving vengeance to God. His judgment is not our permission to become cruel.
Teaching Notes
Ezekiel 25:1-7 - Ammon
- Ask: What is the difference between relief that harm has stopped and pleasure in humiliation?
- Emphasize: The Lord sees inward applause.
- Watch for: Using judgment as permission to gloat.
- Connect: Christ commands prayer for enemies.
- Practice: Pray for an opponent before speaking of that person’s failure.
Ezekiel 25:8-11 - Moab
- Ask: How can contempt hide behind apparently sober realism?
- Emphasize: Another person’s failure does not make holiness unreal.
- Watch for: Writing off a person or community as beyond mercy.
- Connect: God’s mercy is not disproved by our unfaithfulness.
- Practice: Name a person or community you dismiss as like all the others, and pray for them this week.
Ezekiel 25:12-14 - Edom
- Ask: When does remembering harm become an identity built on revenge?
- Emphasize: Safety and accountability are different from a desire to wound.
- Watch for: Pressuring a harmed person to reconcile unsafely.
- Connect: Romans 12:17-21 entrusts vengeance to God.
- Practice: Pray Psalm 137 (LXX 136), naming one old injury before God rather than rehearsing a plan to repay it.
Ezekiel 25:15-17 - Philistia
- Ask: What does vengeance from the heart want beyond justice?
- Emphasize: Hatred wants the person’s destruction; mercy seeks truth without cruelty.
- Watch for: Calling a wounding retort a necessary correction.
- Connect: Matthew 5:43-48 makes prayer for enemies a practice of the Father’s children.
- Practice: Set aside for three days a retort meant to wound; pray and seek a truthful, non-cruel response.
Glossary
- Vengeance: Judgment belonging to God, not a personal right to repay harm.
- Remembered injuries: Real wounds preserved as a motive for retaliation.
- Kedem: The East, here peoples coming from the eastern region.
- Cherethites: A coastal people, called Cretans in Brenton.
Translation and Source Notes
The notes before the passages identify Kedem, Rabbah, Moab and Seir, Bethasimuth, and the Cretans. Brenton’s Idumea is Edom. The four oracles distinguish different acts of cruelty; they do not turn neighboring ethnic identities into permanent moral types.
Sources
Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX).
Matthew 5:43-48; Romans 12:17-21; Acts 7:60; Psalm 137 (LXX 136).
St John Chrysostom, Homilies on John 55 §3, New Advent.
The Book of Agpeya, Compline and Midnight Third Watch, Psalm 137 (LXX 136).
Coptic Katameros, first Saturday of Great Lent, Liturgy; Coptic Synaxarium, Toba 1, martyrdom of St Stephen the Archdeacon.
Footnotes
-
St John Chrysostom, Homilies on John 55 §3, direct text. ↩