Thus says the Lord GOD: The final section of the prophecy against Edom begins with the same traditional prophetic formula as in verse 3 (see the comments there).

For the rejoicing of the whole earth I will make you desolate means everyone on earth will rejoice when God destroys Edom. For desolate see Ezek 35.3. New Century Version renders this sentence as “All the earth will be happy when I make you an empty ruin.” For those languages that cannot speak of the “earth” being happy, translators may say “Everyone on earth will be happy when I make you an empty wasteland.”

A model for this verse is:

• “I, the Lord Yahweh, also say this: I will destroy you and leave you empty, and [as a result] everyone on earth will be happy.

Quoted with permission from Gross, Carl & Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Ezekiel. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .