BibleTools.info

Thy mighty men, O Teman - This was one of the strongest places in Idumea; and is put here, as in Amos 1:2, and elsewhere, for Idumea itself.

Mount of Esau - Mount Seir.

And thy mighty, O Teman, shall be dismayed - The pagan, more religiously than we, ascribed panic to the immediate action of one of their gods, or to Nature deified, Pan, i. e., the Universe: wrong as to the being whom they “ignorantly worshiped;” right, in ascribing it to what they thought a divine agency. Holy Scripture at times discovers the hidden agency, that we may acknowledge God‘s Hand in those terrors which we cannot account for. So it relates, on occasion of Jonathan‘s slaughter of the Philistine garrison 1 Samuel 14:15, “there was a trembling in the host and in the field, and among all the people: the garrison and the spoilers, they also trembled, and the earth quaked, so it became a trembling from God,” or (in our common word,) a panic from God. All then failed Edom. Their allies and friends betrayed them; God took away their wisdom. Wisdom was turned into witlessness, and courage into cowardice; “to the end that every one from mount Esau may be cut off by slaughter.” The prophet sums up briefly God‘s end in all this. The immediate means were man‘s treachery, man‘s violence, the failure of wisdom in the wise, and of courage in the brave. The end of all, in God‘s will, was their destruction Romans 8:28.

By slaughter - , literally “from slaughter,” may mean either the immediate or the distant cause of their being “cut off,” either the means which God employed, “All things work together for good to those who love God,” and for evil to those who hate Him, that Edom was cut off by one great slaughter by the enemy; or that which moved God to give them over to destruction, their own “slaughter” of their brethren, the Jews, as it follows;

This prophecy is against Edom. Its destruction seems to have been typical, as their father Esau's rejection; and to refer to the destruction of the enemies of the gospel church. See the prediction of the success of that war; Edom shall be spoiled, and brought down. All the enemies of God's church shall be disappointed in the things they stay themselves on. God can easily lay those low who magnify and exalt themselves; and will do it. Carnal security ripens men for ruin, and makes the ruin worse when it comes. Treasures on earth cannot be so safely laid up but that thieves may break through and steal; it is therefore our wisdom to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Those that make flesh their trust, arm it against themselves. The God of our covenant will never deceive us: but if we trust men with whom we join ourselves, it may prove to us a wound and dishonour. God will justly deny those understanding to keep out of danger, who will not use their understandings to keep out of sin. All violence, all unrighteousness, is sin; but it makes the violence far worse, if it be done against any of God's people. Their barbarous conduct towards Judah and Jerusalem, is charged upon them. In reflecting on ourselves, it is good to consider what we should have done; to compare our practice with the Scripture rule. Sin, thus looked upon in the glass of the commandment, will appear exceedingly sinful. Those have a great deal to answer for, who are idle spectators of the troubles of their neighbours, when able to be active helpers. Those make themselves poor, who think to make themselves rich by the ruin of the people of God; and those deceive themselves, who call all that their own on which they can lay their hands in a day of calamity. Though judgment begins at the house of God, it shall not end there. Let sorrowful believers and insolent oppressors know, that the troubles of the righteous will soon end, but those of the wicked will be eternal.