I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
- BSB I will turn your cities into ruins, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
- NKJV I shall lay your cities waste, And you shall be desolate. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.
- NASB “I will turn your cities to ruins, And you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
- NLT I will demolish your cities and make you desolate. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God will lay Edom's cities waste, and through this judgment Edom will know that He is the LORD. Judgment reveals God's sovereignty even to His enemies.
Overview
The ruin of cities makes the desolation concrete and complete. The refrain 'you shall know that I am Yahweh,' usually spoken to Israel, here applies to Edom: even the nations will be forced to acknowledge the true God through His acts. God's universal lordship means no people lies outside His judgment or His self-revelation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Ezek 35:9I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
- Mal 1:3–4And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
- Joel 3:19Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
- Exod 9:14For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
- Exod 14:4And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. And they did so.
- Ezek 35:12And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
- Ezek 6:6–7In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 35:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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