Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 25:8–end
Three more of Israel's ill-natured neighbours are here arraigned, convicted, and condemned to destruction, for contributing to and triumphing in Jerusalem's fall.
I. The Moabites. Seir, which was the seat of the Edomites, is joined with them (Eze 25:8), because they said the same as the Moabites; but they were afterwards reckoned with by themselves, Eze 25:12. Now observe,
1. What was the sin of the Moabites; they said, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen. They triumphed, (1.) In the apostasies of Israel, were please to see them forsake their God and worship idols, and hoped that in a while their religion would be quite lost and forgotten and the house of Judah would be l…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Ezekiel 25:9
open . . . from the cities--I will open up the side, or border of Moab (metaphor from a man whose side is open to blows), from the (direction of) the cities on his northwest border beyond the Arnon, once assigned to Reuben (Jos 13:15-21), but now in the hands of their original owners; and the "men of the east," the wandering Bedouin hordes, shall enter through these cities into Moab and waste it. Moab accordingly was so wasted by them, that long before the time of Christ it had melted away among the hordes of the desert. For "cities," GROTIUS translates the Hebrew as proper names, the Ar and Aroer, on the Arnon. Hence the Hebrew for "cities," "Ar" is repeated twice (Num 21:28; Deu 2:36; Isa…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on Ezekiel 25:9
I will open the side - קתף ketheph, the shoulder, the strongest frontier place. Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim were strong frontier towns of Moab.
John Gill on Ezekiel 25:9
Therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities,.... Or, "the shoulder of Moab" (t); that part of their country where their greatest strength lay, So the Targum renders it,
"the strength of Moab;''
where their principal cities were, their frontier towns, and fortified places, as appears by what follows:
from his cities which are on his frontiers; or, "from his Ars" (u),
from his cities which are at his end; at the extreme part of the land, upon the borders of his countries; the two cities of Ar and Aroer, Numbers 21:28,
the glory of the country; as the above cities were, and what follow:
Bethjeshimoth; this was formerly in the tribe of Reuben, now in the possession of t…
