Ezekiel 35:10
Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:
Because thou hast said, these two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it,.... Meaning either Idumea he was now possessed of, and Israel he hoped to be, upon the people of it being carried captive; or rather the two nations of Israel and Judah, and their countries; which he pleased himself with would fall into his hands, as next heir to them; the posterity of his brother being dispossessed of them. This may denote the claim that Rome makes upon each of the Protestant nations and countries; and which she will think all her own, and that she is in the possession of them, upon the slaying of the witnesses; and when she will say, "I sit a queen, and am no widow", Revelation 18:7.
whereas the LORD was there; and heard their words, as Kimchi; and knew their thoughts, as Jarchi; so the Targum,
"and before the Lord the thoughts of the heart were manifest.''
The land of Judea was Immanuel's land; and as the Lord had been in it, and granted his gracious presence in the tabernacle and temple, so he still continued his powerful presence in it, to protect and keep it for his people; who should return to it after their captivity, and inhabit it until the Messiah came, who was to be born in it. Or it may be rendered, "though the Lord was" or "dwelt there" {x}; denoting the great impiety and daring wickedness of the Edomites, to think and talk of possessing a country that was the Lord's, and where he was: and this holds good of the true reformed churches of Christ; the Lord is there, and therefore, though they may be brought very low, and antichrist may triumph over them, and imagine he has got them under his power again, where they shall continue; yet on a sudden his destruction will come, and their deliverance. Or, "where the Lord was" {y}; but he has now departed, and will never return more, the temple being destroyed; so they said, encouraging themselves.
{x} hyh Mv hwhyw "licet Dominus ibi habitaverit", Piscator. So Syr.
{y} "Ubi Jehovah fuit", Junius & Tremellius, Polanus; "et Jehovah ibi fuit", Starckius.