Ezekiel 25:8-11--Prophecy Against Moab and Seir

Ezekiel 25:8-11
English Standard Version

Prophecy Against Moab and Seir
8 “Thus says the Lord GOD: Because Moab and Seir said, ‘Behold, the house of Judah is like all the other nations,’ 9 therefore I will lay open the flank of Moab from the cities, from its cities on its frontier, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. 10 I will give it along with the Ammonites to the people of the East as a possession, that the Ammonites may be remembered no more among the nations, 11 and I will execute judgments upon Moab. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

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Moab and Seir (Edom) round out the "close relatives" of Israel and Judah who will be destroyed by the peoples of the East (probably the Chaldeans).  These people will celebrate when Israel and Judah are attacked and go into Exile.  They will say among themselves that Israel and Judah are just like the other nations and God no longer loves them with His eternal covenant love that is unbreakable.  They will say in a sense that they became too bad for God to love them, and they will be destroyed like all the other wicked nations.  The LORD says that Moab and Edom should know better though.  They should know that the Twelve Tribes of Israel were special, and the tribe of Judah was extra-special because the Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah.  They should not have been celebrating the thought that Messiah would not come.  Yet, they imagined that somehow they might take possession of the Land and everything that belonged to the LORD's people.  Many of them even helped capture those who were trying to avoid capture and they turned them over to the Babylonians for bounties.  They chose not to offer aid, comfort or refuge to those who were fleeing.  They killed or sold into slavery their own close relatives.

Therefore, the LORD will bring onto them what they wished brought onto Judah.  They will become like the Ammonites who were utterly destroyed (with the exception of King Herod the Great who was an Edomite).  Edom will become a place of darkness and uncleanliness that represents hell in Old Testament prophecy.  That is not to say that no one from any of these peoples were saved (I already mentioned Ruth), but there is something especially wicked about Edom that was opposed to the Jewish people and the Messiah as one of the last Edomites that we know about was King Herod the Great who tired to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding area to try to stop the Messianic prophecies from being fulfilled.  Truly, the spirit of antichrist was at work among the people of Moab and Edom throughout their whole existence, and from the very beginning of these peoples, they were opposed to the people of God and were jealous to try to take the blessing and birthright that belonged to the LORD's people of Israel and especially Judah.