Ezekiel 28:21

(Verse 20 and following) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face against Sidon and prophesy against it, and say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Sidon, and I will be glorified in you. And they shall know that I am the Lord when I execute judgments in her and am sanctified in her. And I will send pestilence upon her and blood in her streets, and the slain shall fall in her midst, by the sword all around, and they shall know that I am the Lord. And there will no longer be a stumbling block of bitterness and a thorn inflicting pain in every direction for the house of Israel (or those who have insulted them). And they will know that I am the Lord their God. Thus says the Lord God: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples (or from the nations) among whom they are scattered, I will be sanctified in them before the nations. And they will dwell in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob, and they will dwell there securely (or in hope). And they will build houses and plant vineyards, and they will dwell confidently (or in hope) when I execute judgments on all who oppose them (or have insulted them) on every side. And they will know that I am the Lord their God. And what follows, according to the Septuagint: And you, the God of their fathers, is not found in Hebrew. Furthermore, after Tyre, the speech turns to Sidon; for both cities are part of the same province. And in the Gospel, Tyre and Sidon are mentioned together: If the miracles which were done in you were done in Tyre and Sidon (Matthew 11:21). Therefore, even the Canaanite woman, whose daughter was possessed by a demon, because she came from the region of Tyre and Sidon, obtained what she had asked for (ibid., 15). But the divine word predicts that it will be taken captive by the Babylonians, and it will know the weight of its evils, that He Himself is the Lord: when He has judged it, and has been sanctified in it, and has consumed it with hunger and pestilence, and with the sword: so that it falls in its streets, and no longer becomes a stumbling block to the people of God, nor does it frequently attack them. But when this has been done, the people of Israel, whom He had dispersed into various nations, will return to their own land, and they will be sanctified in them, not for evil, as in Sidon, but for good, when He has shown mercy to them, and they will dwell in the land which He gave to their father Jacob, and they will dwell securely, and in the Lord they will trust, and they will build houses, and plant vineyards, when He has fulfilled His promises to them: and then they will know that He Himself is the Lord, whose promises are most firm. Many refer to the time of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, when the people of Israel returned and lived in the land of Judah. Others, however, hope for its fulfillment in the last time and in a thousand years. Moreover, according to spiritual understanding, this seems to have a symbolic meaning for us. Sidonians are interpreted as hunters, about whom it is also written in the Psalms: Our soul has been rescued like a bird from the snare of the hunters (Psalm 124:7). And in Proverbs: The eye of a harlot is the snare of a sinner (Prov. XXIII, 27). But there are also hunters on the good side, of whom Jeremiah writes: Behold, I will send fishermen and hunters, who will hunt you down from every hill and mountain (Jerem. XVI, 16): whom the Lord also sends to fish, and makes them fishers of men (Matth. IV). Hence the village of Peter and Andrew is called by this name: For Bethsaida in our language means 'the house of hunters'. Against these wretched hunters, the word of God is directed, and the prophet is commanded to set his face against Sidon and not waver in the wind of doctrine, but stand firm in the truth and destroy his hunters. So what is it that the Lord threatens against Sidon? Behold, I myself will come to you and be glorified in you when I destroy you, and all who live will know that I am the Lord when I repay you according to what you deserve. And I will send pestilence and blood into your streets. And rightly are they called streets of Sidon: for it is a wide and spacious road that leads to death (Matt. 7). And the slain will fall, those who stood evilly by the sword in a circle: by that sword which the Lord came to send upon the earth, so that He may separate what is improperly joined, and so that those who remain may know that He Himself is the Lord. And when they have ceased, there will no longer be any stumbling block of bitterness, nor a thorn that pierces and wounds the people of God. But all these things are said against the opposing powers, that they may be destroyed in the end time, and there may be eternal security when the Lord gathers the house of Israel, those who perceive God with understanding. And he will be sanctified in them, and that which is written will be fulfilled: Be holy, for I am holy (Leviticus 19:2). And they will dwell in their own land, as we read elsewhere: I believe in seeing the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 16:13). What Jacob gave, who had supplanted his brother earlier, and earned the primacy for himself. And they will dwell in it securely, either in hope, and they will build houses, plant vineyards, and dwell confidently in hope, according to what is read in Isaiah: Those who have been weaned from milk, those who have been taken away from the breast, expect tribulation upon tribulation, and hope upon hope (Isa. 60). But they will build houses, as also built in the Gospel, who established foundations not on sand, but on rock (Matt. 7). Of which it is written: Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it (Ps. 127:1). And in Exodus, according to the Septuagint: Because the midwives feared the Lord, they built houses for themselves (Exod. 1:21), and many such things. But when the Lord executes judgment against those who oppose or inflict insults on Israel, all creatures will know that He is the Lord, whose judgments are true and justified in themselves.

(Verse 27, 29 onwards) Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and tell them: Thus says the Lord God: Moreover, your fathers have blasphemed against me and have treated me with contempt, even as they spurned me. And I brought them into the land that I had lifted my hand to give them ((Vulgate adds: that land)): they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices and presented there the irritation of their offerings, and they placed there the fragrance of their sweetness, and they poured out their ((Vulgate is silent on this)) libations there. And I said to them, 'What is the high place to which you are going?' And its name was called the High Place until this day. Therefore speak to the house of Israel, son of man, and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: As for your fathers, they have provoked Me to anger by their iniquities, by the fact that they have fallen away from Me. So I brought them into the land that I had lifted My hand in an oath to give them.' They saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices. They also presented there the provocation of their gifts, and they set there their pleasing aroma, and they poured out there their drink offerings. And I said to them: What is abbana, because you enter there? And they called its name abbana until this day. I wanted, he said, to scatter them in the wilderness, and to give them not good precepts, so that they would sacrifice to idols what they should have offered to me, and consecrate all their first-fruits to them by fire, so that I might kill them and destroy them. But when he says, I wanted, he shows that he did not do what he wanted. And that which follows: 'And they shall know that I am the Lord,' is not found in the Septuagint. For it did not seem fitting to them to know after their destruction that he himself is the Lord. But you, son of man, speak again to them, that is, to the elders of the house of Israel, who have come to inquire of you: Your fathers, from whom you have descended, have also blasphemed against me and held me in contempt; after I brought them into the land which I had given them to possess, they turned against me to provoke me. For when they saw every high hill and leafy tree, they would sacrifice on the mountains and in the groves and thickets, and offer victims to the idols, and pour out libations. And when I saw this, I said to them: What is this, Bama? for it is called high: or why do you enter into such a place which you have chosen for yourselves in all the hills, so that even today these places are called Bamoth, and the ancient error retains its original name? Regarding Bama, which we translate as excelsum, there is an error in the Septuagint edition, where it is written as ἀββανὰ, which does not resonate in the Hebrew language. Bama can mean 'in which' if the two syllables are divided into two words, but in the present context, that sense does not fit. However, wherever it is written in the Books of Kings and Chronicles: 'The people still sacrificed and offered incense on the high places,' Bama in the singular and Bamoth in the plural mean 'high places.'

(Verse 35, 36, and following) And I will bring you into a desert of peoples, and there I will judge you face to face. Just as I contended with your fathers in the desert of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you, says the Lord. And I will subject you to my scepter, and I will bring you into the bonds of the covenant, and I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked: from their place of residence I will bring them out, and they will not enter the land of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord. Thus says the Lord: I will do for you who are in Babylon, and now serve idols, what I did for your ancestors in Egypt. I will lead you into the desert of the peoples, and there I will judge you face to face, just as I contended with them in judgment when they came out of Egypt. And after I have judged you, I will subject you to my scepter and rule, and I will make a covenant with you and bring you into your land with the bonds of love, so that bound by my love, you will never be able to depart from me. But I will choose from among you the transgressors and the wicked, who persist in the hardness of their hearts in evil deeds, not for possession, but for rejection. And I will indeed bring them out of the land of their dwelling, so that when they are brought out, they will not enter the land of Israel; but they will perish in various regions. And by the distinction between good and evil, you shall know that I am the Lord, who judges all things. The rest of the discourse hastens, and we briefly go through each point, in order to provide only the meaning to the readers.