(7) Him that passeth out.--The cutting off of the traveller is a striking feature in the doom of Edom, for her nomadic tribes had been the great carriers between India and the East and Egypt, and she had grown rich by this commerce. The fierceness of the few tribes now wandering over the land make even the occasional visit of the curious traveller a matter of difficulty and danger.

Verse 7. - Thus will I make Mount Seir most desolate; literally, desolation and a desolation (שְׁמֲמָּה וּשְׁמָמָה); or, as in the Revised Version, an astonishment and a desolation; changing שְׁמֲמַה into מְשַׁמָּה, for which, however, there is no sufficient warrant. And I will out off... him that passeth out (or, through) and him that returneth. No more should traders or travelers pass through the land of Edom or go to and return from it (cf. Ezekiel 33:28; Zechariah 7:15; 9:8, 10).

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.Thus will I make Mount Seir most desolate,.... By shedding the blood of the inhabitants of it; and as Rome will be, when it will be utterly burnt with fire, as that city will, and the flesh of the whore also, and made desolate; and when all the vials shall be poured out on the antichristian states under her jurisdiction, Revelation 16:1,

and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth: every traveller that passeth to and fro; it shall no more be frequented by merchants; nor will there be any merchandise any more in it, Revelation 18:11.