Shed blood - Omit "blood:" better as in the margin, i. e., and hast given up the children of Israel to the sword; thou hast scattered the children of Israel in confusion like stones poured down a mountain-side Micah 1:6.

That their iniquity had an end - Or, "of the iniquity of the end," i. e., the time when by the capture of the city the iniquity of Israel came to an end Ezekiel 21:29.

A perpetual hatred - The Edomites were the descendants of Esau; the Israelites, the descendants of Jacob. Both these were brothers; and between them there was contention even in the womb, and they lived generally in a state of enmity. Their descendants kept up the ancient feud: but the Edomites were implacable; they had not only a rooted but perpetual enmity to the Israelites, harassing and distressing them by all possible means; and they seized the opportunity, when the Israelites were most harassed by other enemies, to make inroads upon them, and cut them off wherever they found them.

To afflict the afflicted is cruel. This is scarcely of man, bad as he is. He must be possessed by the malignant spirit of the devil, when he wounds the wounded, insults over the miseries of the afflicted, and seeks opportunities to add affliction to those who are already under the rod of God.

Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred,.... There was an old grudge and enmity subsisting in the posterity of Esau against the posterity of Jacob, because the latter supplanted the former, and got the birthright and blessing from him; and which was discovered in all ages, and at all opportunities, and on all occasions which offered; and such has been the hatred of the church of Rome against the true professors and followers of Christ, as their bloody persecution of them in all ages have shown:

and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity: when Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans, the Edomites not only rejoiced at it, and took part of the spoil, but stood in the crossways, and slew those that made their escape; or drove them back upon the sword of the enemy; or delivered them into their hands; which was barbarous and inhuman usage of their neighbours and brethren; see Obadiah 1:10. The Targum is,

"and thou didst deliver the children of Israel into the hands of those that slay with the sword, in the time of their destruction:''

in the time that their iniquity had an end; when either the measure of that was full; or when they received for it full correction and chastisement; at the consummation of that.

Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their {b} iniquity had an end:

(b) When by their punishment I called them from their iniquity.

35:5 Their iniquity - When their iniquity was punished on them, which brought them to final ruin.

perpetual...: or, hatred of old

shed...: Heb. poured out the children

force: Heb. hands

5. perpetual hatred-(Ps 137:7; Am 1:11; Ob 10-16). Edom perpetuated the hereditary hatred derived from Esau against Jacob.

shed the blood of, &c.-The literal translation is better. "Thou hast poured out the children of Israel"; namely, like water. So Ps 22:14; 63:10, Margin; Jer 18:21. Compare 2Sa 14:14.

by the force of the sword-literally, "by" or "upon the hands of the sword"; the sword being personified as a devourer whose "hands" were the instruments of destruction.

in the time that their iniquity had an end-that is, had its consummation (Eze 21:25, 29). Edom consummated his guilt when he exulted over Jerusalem's downfall, and helped the foe to destroy it (Ps 137:7; Ob 11).

35:1-9 All who have God against them, have the word of God against them. Those that have a constant hatred to God and his people, as the carnal mind has, can only expect to be made desolate for ever.