Discovery BoxEzekiel 35:2-7 
Context35:2 “Son of man, turn toward 1 Mount Seir, 2 and prophesy against it. 35:3 Say to it, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:
“‘Look, I am against you, Mount Seir;
I will stretch out my hand against you
and turn you into a desolate ruin.
35:4 I will lay waste your cities;
and you will become desolate.
Then you will know that I am the Lord!
35:5 “‘You have shown unrelenting hostility and poured the people of Israel onto the blades of a sword 3 at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment. 35:6 Therefore, as surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, I will subject you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you. 35:7 I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate ruin; 4 I will cut off 5 from it the one who passes through or returns.
1 tn Heb “set your face against.”
2 sn Mount Seir is to be identified with Edom (Ezek 35:15), home of Esau’s descendants (Gen 25:21-30).
3 tn Or “gave over…to the power of the sword.” This phrase also occurs in Jer 18:21 and Ps 63:10.
4 tc The translation reads with some manuscripts לְשִׁמְמָה וּמְשַׁמָּה (lÿshimmah umÿshammah, “desolate ruin”) as in verse 3 and often in Ezekiel. The majority reading reverses the first mem (מ) with the shin (שׁ) resulting in the repetition of the word desolate: לְשִׁמְמָה וּשְׁמָמָה (lÿshimmah ushÿmamah).
5 tn Or “kill.”
