Thus says the Lord GOD: Because the enemy said of you, ‘Aha!’ and, ‘The ancient heights have become our possession,’
Ezekiel has just pronounced judgment on Mount Seir. Now God tells him to speak to the land itself — to hills left in ruins while outsiders gloated. The enemy sneers that the ancient heights now belong to him, and that sneer is why God speaks. It raises the question this chapter answers: who owns this land?
Who Is Claiming the Land
Who is this enemy? Commentators name Edom, the neighbouring nation of the previous chapter. God's reply answers a false claim of ownership — and names the ground on which Israel will hold the land.
Numerical Bible NotesFirst we have Jehovah's word to the land itself. This connects plainly with the claim the Edomite enemy had made to own it. So the land must be cleared of this reproach. The land really is Jehovah's land. He has never given up His right to it, and He will never hand it over to those who are His enemies. Israel will hold it on the surest ground possible — the ground of God's grace. They are to live with Him as His guests, and so to know all the resources of His hand.
Another writer puts it plainly. Israel can fail, and the land still does not pass to anyone else.
J. N. DarbyThe Land — 'My Land,' whatever its state or divisions. It is Jehovah's Land, and if the people fail in every way, it falls into His hands. It was only entrusted to Israel. The nations have no right to it except through Israel's sin, and no right at all against the Lord.
Why God Speaks to the Mountains
The prophet had spoken to these same mountains before. That earlier message was no comfort at all. Israel's idolatry stood on open display in those high places. That is why the ruin came — and why the enemy could turn the ruin into a jeer.
Numerical Bible NotesThese mountains have heard a message before, in chapter six, but in very different words. Back then they were the home of an idolatry that showed itself most boldly in the high places of the land. So ruin came upon them, and the enemy used it as an insult against them and against Jehovah Himself.
The Sneer Reaches God's Ears
"Aha!" is the sound of someone enjoying another's collapse. Commentators see more here than rudeness toward Israel. The gloating treats Israel's punishment as a win over Israel's God. God hears it, and waits.
William KellyIf even an unspoken taunt is written down before Jehovah, how much more this spiteful boasting! They boasted over the humbling Israel needed, and over the ruin of the land that followed, as if it were their victory over the only true God. But He heard, and the warning soon came through His servant the prophet; yet He was slow to judge. His hand will before long carry out what His mouth declared.
A Possession Nobody Can Enjoy
Seizing ground and profiting from it are two different things. Commentators read the land's long barrenness as proof that the boast was empty. Even the occupiers serve a purpose in the meantime.
Numerical Bible NotesThis is all the enemy could do. He could not make the land give him its fruit. We see this already in the long Sabbaths of rest the land has kept while Israel has been driven out of it. It would give its strength to none of the nations... The hordes still sweep over it. The government it lives under makes anything like prosperity impossible. All of this is only a sign that the land is still waiting for her true people.
The Insult Becomes the Doorway to Blessing
What the nations meant as mockery God turns into an opening for promise. The insult is the hinge on which the whole chapter swings from ruin to restoration.
J. N. DarbyThe nations insulted Israel as a land whose ancient high places were their prey, and — as the spies had said — a land that devoured its inhabitants. God uses this as His opening to show that He favours His people. Jehovah declares that He will restore peace and prosperity to the land, and take away their reproach.
Two things run together in the reply, and neither cancels the other.
William KellyGod has not made the earth or man upon it to be ever the victims of sin and sorrow, of vanity and corruption. He will surely show Himself a deliverer from all the mischief Satan has worked; but there must be judgment as well as mercy, and both we see here.
Where the Chapter Is Heading
Verse 2 opens a chapter that looks forward. Commentators place its fulfilment ahead of us.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe first seven verses announce once more the future judgment of Israel's enemies. Then comes the promised return to the land... The characteristic words in verses 23-28 are the words "I will do." It is the word of sovereign grace. Eighteen times Jehovah says what He will do.
Summary
- Boast. The enemy claims the ancient heights as his own. Commentators trace the boast to Edom, and God treats it as a reproach He must answer.
- Owner. The land is Jehovah's. Israel's sin cost them the use of it, never His right to it — and grace alone gives it back.
- Target. The taunt runs past Israel and strikes God Himself. The enemy cheers as though he had beaten the only true God.
- Emptiness. Occupation is not ownership. The land gave its strength to no other nation, and it still waits for its true people.
- Reversal. God takes the insult as His occasion to speak — judgment on the mockers, and eighteen "I will"s of grace for His people.