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Ezekiel 35

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1 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying:

2 `Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,

3 and thou hast said to it: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against thee, O mount Seir, And have stretched out My hand against thee, And made thee a desolation and an astonishment.

4 Thy cities a waste I make, and thou art a desolation, And thou hast known that I [am] Jehovah.

5 Because of thy having an enmity age-during, And thou dost saw the sons of Israel, By the hands of the sword, In the time of their calamity, In the time of the iniquity of the end:

6 Therefore, I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, Surely for blood I do appoint thee, And blood doth pursue thee, If blood thou hast not hated, blood also doth pursue thee.

7 And I have given mount Seir for a desolation and an astonishment, And have cut off from it him who is passing over and him who is returning,

8 And filled his mountains with his wounded, Thy hills, and thy valleys, and all thy streams, The pierced of the sword fall into them.

9 Desolations age-during I make thee, And thy cities do not return, And ye have known that I [am] Jehovah.

10 Because of thy saying: The two nations and the two lands are mine, and we have possessed it, And Jehovah hath been there;

11 Therefore, I live -- an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah, And I have done according to thine anger, And according to thine envy, With which thou hast wrought, Because of thy hatred against them, And I have been known among them when I judge thee.

12 And thou hast known that I -- Jehovah, I have heard all thy despisings that thou hast spoken Against mountains of Israel, saying: A desolation, to us they were given for food.

13 And ye magnify yourselves against Me with your mouth, And have made abundant against Me your words, I -- I have heard.

14 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: According to the rejoicing of the whole land, A desolation I make of thee.

15 According to thy joy at the inheritance of the house of Israel because of desolation, So I do to thee -- a desolation thou art, O mount Seir, and all Edom -- all of it, And they have known that I [am] Jehovah!

   

Commentary

 

Field

  
The Sower, by Vincent van Gogh

A "field" in the Bible usually represents the Lord's church, and more specifically the desire for good within the church. It's where good things start, take root, and grow. When you have a desire to be a good person and to do good things, the natural first questions are "What does that mean?", "What should I do?", "What can I do?". You look for ideas, concepts, direction. Once you figure out something you want to do or a change you want to make in yourself, you seek specific knowledge. If you want to volunteer at a food pantry, say, you'd need to know whom to call, when they need help, where to go, what to bring. Armed with that knowhow, you're ready to get to work. That process could be compared to food production. You start with a field -- which is that desire to be good. Then you plant seeds -- those ideas and concepts. Those seeds sprout into plants -- the specific facts and knowledge needed for the task (easily seen in the food pantry example, but also true with deeper tasks like "being more tolerant of my co-workers" or "taking more time for prayer," or "consciously being a more loving spouse"). Finally, those plants produce food -- the actual good thing that you go and do. The Writings also say that in a number of cases a "field" represents the doctrine, or teachings, of the church. This sounds markedly different. The desire for good is emotional, a drive, a wanting; doctrine is a set of ideas. But for a church to be true, its doctrine must be centered on a desire for good, and must lead people toward doing what is good. So sound doctrine is actually closely bound up with the desire for good.

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