This verse gives two reasons for the punishment that is coming on Edom. The connector Because introduces these reasons.

You cherished perpetual enmity (literally “there was to you hatred of forever”) is the first reason. God accuses the Edomites of having the same “continual hatred” (New Living Translation [1996]) of the Israelites that the Philistines had (see 25.15, where the Hebrew expression for perpetual enmity is rendered “never-ending enmity”). Their hatred for Israel just went on and on, without stopping. New Century Version says “You have always been an enemy of Israel.” An alternative meaning for the Hebrew phrase translated perpetual enmity is “ancient hatred” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh; similarly Revised English Bible), that is, their hatred for Israel started long ago and still went on. New International Reader’s Version expresses this sense by saying “you have been Israel’s enemies for a long time.” This hatred first began between Esau, the forefather of the Edomites, and Jacob, the forefather of the Israelites (see Gen 25.19-34; 27.1-45; 32.1–33.20).

And gave over the people of Israel to the power of the sword …: God also will punish the Edomites because they betrayed the Israelites by allowing them to be killed. Gave over … to the power of the sword renders an unusual Hebrew phrase, which is literally “you poured/hurled down … on the hands of the sword.” This is vivid picture language that is much stronger than “let her people be slaughtered” (Good News Translation), although that is the basic meaning. It is a picture of very many people being poured out onto swords and falling down dead all over the place. But it also carries the idea of betrayal, as if the Edomites betrayed the Israelites by allowing them to be killed. New Century Version expresses this clause well, saying “You let them be defeated in war.” For sword as an image for war, see 5.1-2. The people of Israel are the Israelites who lived in and around Jerusalem.

At the time of their calamity and at the time of their final punishment refer to the same event, which was the fall of Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar defeated the nation of Judah and took its people into exile because of their sins. The Edomites’ sin was that they betrayed the Israelites at a time of great crisis. When the Israelites needed help as they were facing death, the Edomites, their neighbors, sided with the enemy. Good News Translation renders these two phrases as “in the time of her disaster, the time of final punishment for her sins,” and New Century Version has “when they were in trouble at the time of their final punishment.”

A model for this verse is:

• You have always been an enemy of Israel. You even betrayed the Israelites and let their enemies slaughter them everywhere, at the time they were in big trouble when I [God] at last punished them for their sins.

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 .