And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.
Commentary for this Verse
These last words against the Philistines end a chapter about God judging Jerusalem's neighbours. The verse joins two things that sound odd together: fury poured out, and a people at last knowing who the LORD is.
Where the verse stands
Ezekiel 25 deals with four neighbours: Ammon, Moab, Edom and Philistia. One commentator points to what they all did while Jerusalem was falling. He calls God by the older English name Jehovah, printed as "the LORD" in most Bibles today.
J. N. DarbyThe nations around Israel rejoiced when Jerusalem and the temple fell. Some of them even lived inside its land. So God would carry out judgment on them. Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines are the objects of this prophecy... The judgment falling on them would teach these nations one thing. Jerusalem had not been a faithful witness, but Jehovah alone is God.
Jerusalem had failed as a witness. That did not leave God unknown — the judgment on her neighbours made Him known instead.
The old hatred
God singles the Philistines out for something older than that moment's crisis. Their revenge came out of a grudge carried for generations. God answers it in unusually strong words.
William KellyThese strangers had come from Crete and settled in Palestine to harass and oppress Israel. They could no longer act with their old power, so they rose up to pay off their old grudges. God had not forgotten... Here the threat of God's judgment could hardly be stronger. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That is what these proud and spiteful enemies met when He avenged His people.
Touching His people
Why does God treat the hostility of these small neighbours as an attack on Himself? One writer points back to Israel's own failure, which let Philistia stay in the land.
W. T. P. WolstonGod commanded Israel, under Joshua, to take the land. Philistia was never conquered. It was a coastal strip about forty miles long and ten to twenty miles wide, west of the tribes of Dan and Simeon... Because Israel failed here, the Philistines were always a thorn in their side. Sometimes they even ruled over them... All four nations stood together against God's chosen people. So God marks them out for His vengeance. Touch God's people, and you touch Him.
Knowledge through judgment
The phrase "then they will know that I am the LORD" repeats through these chapters. It names the purpose of the whole series.
J. N. DarbyGod carries out these prophecies so that all of them may know Jehovah. Israel's case has more: understanding, and prophecy confirmed... So these prophecies display Jehovah's power. His judgments make Him known to all. Some of this already happened in Nebuchadnezzar's conquests. The rest comes later, for Israel's sake.
The same writer marks off what this knowing is not.
J. N. DarbySo they come to know Jehovah by the judgment itself, not by any spiritual knowledge of Him that follows... It will be through judgment that all the nations will know that Jehovah is God.
Philistia as a picture
One commentator also reads the Philistines as a picture. He looks at who they were: settlers who claimed a land they never really held.
F. W. GrantThey forced their way into a land promised to Israel, sure that it was theirs first. The whole land is named after them — Palestine comes from Philistia. They claim it all, though they never held more than its lowest edge... We have seen many such pictures elsewhere: people who are not spiritual pushing into spiritual things. Their name means "immigrants." They are never "Hebrews," a name that means people passing through, like pilgrims.
Commentators differ over this picture. Others keep to the history and future of the real nation.
Then and still ahead
The Philistines did fall. But one writer sees the verse reaching past that first fulfilment to a lasting principle.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe Lord's vengeance fell on the coast of Philistia. The Philistines felt His fury. He dealt with those who had corrupted His people. And so God will deal in due time with all His enemies.
Summary
- Cause. God answers an old hatred here. The neighbours cheered at Jerusalem's fall, and that cheering put them under judgment.
- Claim. Israel had been unfaithful, but they were still God's own. Touch His people and you touch Him.
- Cost. The rebukes are furious and the vengeance is His own. This is what it means to fall into the hands of the living God.
- Consequence. They do end up knowing Him. But they learn it through the judgment, not through any spiritual knowledge that follows.
- Continuing. Part of this happened in the conquests of that day. The rest comes later, and the same rule stands over all God's enemies in due time.