therefore prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Precisely because they made you desolate and crushed you from all sides, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations, and you became the talk and evil gossip of the people,
The prophet speaks to the hills of Israel — land stripped bare, seized, and made the talk of the nations around it. Verse 3 names the charge against the plunderers, and raises a question: who owns this land, and what does God do when His property is mocked?
Why God Speaks to the Mountains
These hills have a history with God, and it is not a flattering one. One writer traces the ruin back to its cause.
Numerical Bible NotesGod had spoken to these mountains before, in the sixth chapter, but in very different terms. Back then they were the home of an idolatry that dared to raise its head in a special way in the high places of the land. So desolation came upon them, and the enemy used it as an insult against both them and Jehovah Himself.
The Enemy's Fatal Misreading
Israel's ruin was real. What its neighbour Edom got wrong was what the ruin meant.
Numerical Bible NotesIf they said of the mountains of Israel that they were desolate, was it not true? But they did not see the difference between discipline and rejection. So they said, "They are given us to devour." Yet even if Israel can for a time cast themselves out of the very land that is their own, Edom can never enjoy it.
Whose Land Is It
The nations treated the empty land as unclaimed property. The word of God goes to the land itself, because the land has an owner.
Numerical Bible NotesFirst of all, we have Jehovah's word to the land itself. This answers the claim the Edomite enemy had made to own it. So the land must be cleared of this insult. The land is truly Jehovah's land. He has never forfeited it, and He will never hand it over to His enemies. Israel will hold it on the surest ground there is — the ground of God's grace.
Another writer puts the legal position in a single line, and notes what happens to the land when the people fail.
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 but entrusted to Israel — the Gentiles have no right but by their (Israel's) sin, and none as against the Lord.
The Talk God Hears
Becoming "the talk and evil gossip of the people" sounds like the smallest injury on the list. Yet God answers that talk, and His delay is not indifference.
William KellyIf even an unspoken taunt is recorded before Jehovah, how much more this malicious boasting! They gloated over the humiliation Israel needed and over the ruin of the land that followed, as if it were their own victory over the only true God. But He heard, and warning soon came by His servant the prophet; yet He was slow to judge. Before long His hand will make good what His mouth declared.
Judgment and Mercy Together
The "because" of verse 3 leads to a "therefore" that brings comfort, not only sentence. This prophecy is not all gloom.
William KellyBut here God is dealing with the earth, not with eternal judgment. The prophet was to speak comfort to the mountains of Israel, desolate for so long. For God did not make the earth, or man upon it, to be the victims of sin and sorrow, of vanity and corruption forever. He will show Himself a deliverer from all the harm Satan has done. But there must be judgment as well as mercy, and we see both here.
The Insult Becomes the Occasion of Blessing
God does more than punish the sneer of the nations. He turns it into the starting point of what He does next.
J. N. DarbyThe nations insulted Israel. They called it a land whose ancient high places were now their prey, and — as the spies had said — a land that devoured its own people. God uses this as His occasion to show that He favours His people. Jehovah declares that He will restore peace and prosperity to the land and take away their reproach.
The reversal is exact: the shame Israel carried passes over to those who mocked, and the barren hills become fruitful again.
William KellyBehold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because you have borne the shame of the heathen. Therefore thus says the Lord Jehovah: I have lifted up my hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame. But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.
Summary
- Owner — the land is Jehovah's. He never forfeits it and never hands it to His enemies. Israel holds it by grace, not by strength.
- Misread — the nations saw ruin and assumed rejection. They could not tell the difference between God disciplining His people and God finishing with them.
- Heard — God records even the taunt no one wrote down. His slowness to act is patience, not deafness.
- Answered — God's reply holds judgment and mercy together: judgment for the enemy, comfort for the long-desolate hills.
- Restored — God makes the insult itself His starting point. What was meant to disgrace Israel becomes the setting for peace and prosperity, with their reproach taken away.