The word ‘desolation’ shows up more than ten times in today’s chapter, describing one the horrific aftermaths of war. Nature keeps going - but the prophet imagines even the mountains and rivers weeping in grief.
The bloody battle for the holy land did not begin recently, and neither did the two-state contention - or possible solution. For thousands of years, people of different national origins have claimed this little land, sometimes with faith and often with force, and sometimes with a fusion of both. Some of the origins of these conflicts echo in today’s words of Ezekiel, eyewitness to a critical historical shift.
The relationship between the people of Judah and their Edomite neighbors to the east has had its ups and downs over the centuries. But the defining factor that will seal Edom, descended from Esau, not as a long-ago sibling turned rival but into a loathed enemy, was what happened after Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 BCE. According to historical records, and several explicit mentions throughout the Bible, including today’s chapter, The Edomites supported Babylon during the war on Jerusalem, joined the figthing, then saw the desolation of Judea as a perfectly legitimate opportunity for moving in. It’s a practical move. But the Judean survivors, mostly in Babylon, some still in Jerusalem, who refused to give up on their dreams of returning home one day back to their ancestral lands, saw and seethed.
As soon as they could - they vowed - they would try and eventually claim those lands back. But in the meanwhile, powerless, they had the power of words - and they spoke out with hurt against Edom. That’s what Ezekiel is doing in this chapter, the first of two that address not just the people but the actual landscape of the bruised promised land.
But promised to who? Can there be more than one promise??Does Edom have another narrative? These questions already echo in the words of the people who are the prophet’s audience.
Ezekiel imagines their faraway deserted towns and villages, mountains and valleys, trees and fields, in a litany of longing. And then he lifts up his eyes to address the Edomites, who’ve settled in those towns, and curses them with a similar fate - their homelands will be lonely and desolate one day, deserted and mourned - just like Judea. In this vengeful speech he quotes their claim to the land with a phrase that feels chilling in today’s reality - and adds another puzzling and painful coda:
יַ֣עַן אֲ֠מׇרְךָ֠ אֶת־שְׁנֵ֨י הַגּוֹיִ֜ם וְאֶת־שְׁתֵּ֧י הָאֲרָצ֛וֹת לִ֥י תִהְיֶ֖ינָה וִֽירַשְׁנ֑וּהָ וַיהֹוָ֖ה שָׁ֥ם הָיָֽה׃
“Because you thought “The two nations and the two lands shall be mine and we shall possess them”—although YHWH was there —
Ezekiel 35:9
The two nations and lands that Ezekiel imagines Edom talking about here, and occupying - are not Edom and Judah. What he means here are the Northern and Southern kingdoms, Israel and Judah - both now conquered and partially empty of its original people. But the mention of two nations also echoes the narrative of Jacob and Esau - the two brothers who fought over the birthright of this land and later turned enemies - Judah and Edom.
But he’s not just talking about territorial birthright but also about theology. And here Ezekiel contradicts himself. Or perhaps he holds multiple complex truths. The final words of this verse are intriguing - why does the presence of YHWH matter here?
The Edomite claims to the lands of Judah and Israel were not just territorial, according to Ezekiel - they were also a religious rejection of the land’s sacred status as YHWH’s own, defying the notion Israel’s God is still there, waiting for the people to return.
It was common back then for gods to be associated with their lands, as those expanded or contracted. Some gods have perished when their nation dissolved. Whoever worships Chemosh anymore, the once powerful Supreme God of the Moabites, who like the Kingdom of Israel, were destroyed by the Assyrians.
YHWH is still associated with the land, Ezekiel suggests - even if most of them are not there anymore. But YHWH is also in Babylon - and that’s the contradiction which is maybe also a theological paradigm shift.
In earlier chapters, Ezekiel elaborates the ways in which the Divine Presence departed from Jerusalem and flew on a mysterious chariot to Babylon, exiled with the nation. But here he wants to let his fellow exiles know that their homeland is still the land of their God, who is somehow both here and there. The divine presence in the holy land is a guarantee that the promised land is not a no-man’s-land up for grabs by the neighbors.
Ezekiel is saying these words to his aching family, in deep mourning for their loss of home and too many dead to count. By blasting Edom - he’s giving the Judeans some ventilation of anger and maybe hope that one day there will be some justice. At the moment they are hit badly but there will be better days - and those who hurt them now will be avenged.
He can’t name the real destroyer - Babylon -because they are exiles by the rivers of Babylon - but he can name Edom, and on behalf of YHWH he is promising another chapter in which the tides will turn.
The shift from a local land-locked deity to a presence that is equally at home in the diaspora - is substantial. Ezekiel next turns his eyes deeper into the holy land, and sacred earth, imagines the future, with fruit trees once again tended to and celebrated and the land rejoicing with the laughter of life, beyond borders. In the next chapter talks directly to the holy land, expanding its reach as he did with the divine presence, with sufficient abundance and promises to go around on both sides of the river, on every piece of land.
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I continue to be amazed at what Ezekiel offers you, Amichai, by way of theme and image through which to channel in a timely way your personal responses to present tragedies while using the latter to demonstrate the timelessness of the prophet's visions. I wonder if any text could be shaped to offer these mirrors. Somehow I doubt it. There seems something modestly uncanny in the co-incidences you tease out. Also, I feel your own voice and emotions benefit from the Ezekial's powerful responses to his own time. He gives you cover in a way and perhaps strength---or so it seems to me. thank you : Peter