1 Ezekiel prophesy against Jerusalem with a sign of sighing. 8 The sharp and bright sword, 18 against Jerusalem, 25 against the kingdom, 28 and against the Ammonites.
Eze 21:1 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Eze 21:2 “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, preach against the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
Eze 21:3 and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am against you, and I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked from you.
Eze 21:4 Because I will cut off both righteous and wicked from you, therefore My sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north,
Eze 21:5 that all flesh may know that I, the LORD, have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not return anymore.” ‘
Eze 21:6 Sigh therefore, son of man, with a breaking heart, and sigh with bitterness before their eyes.
Eze 21:7 And it shall be when they say to you, ‘Why are you sighing?’ that you shall answer, ‘Because of the news; when it comes, every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass,’ says the Lord GOD.”
Eze 21:8 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Eze 21:9 “Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the LORD!’ Say: ‘A sword, a sword is sharpened And also polished!
Eze 21:10 Sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter, Polished to flash like lightning! Should we then make mirth? It despises the scepter of My son, As it does all wood.
Eze 21:11 And He has given it to be polished, That it may be handled; This sword is sharpened, and it is polished To be given into the hand of the slayer.’
Eze 21:12 “Cry and wail, son of man; For it will be against My people, Against all the princes of Israel. Terrors including the sword will be against My people; Therefore strike your thigh.
Eze 21:13 “Because it is a testing, And what if the sword despises even the scepter? The scepter shall be no more,” says the Lord GOD.
Eze 21:14 “You therefore, son of man, prophesy, And strike your hands together. The third time let the sword do double damage. It is the sword that slays, The sword that slays the great men, That enters their private chambers.
Eze 21:15 I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, That the heart may melt and many may stumble. Ah! It is made bright; It is grasped for slaughter:
Eze 21:16 “Swords at the ready! Thrust right! Set your blade! Thrust left—Wherever your edge is ordered!
Eze 21:17 “I also will beat My fists together, And I will cause My fury to rest; I, the LORD, have spoken.”
Eze 21:18 The word of the LORD came to me again, saying:
Eze 21:19 “And son of man, appoint for yourself two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to go; both of them shall go from the same land. Make a sign; put it at the head of the road to the city.
Eze 21:20 Appoint a road for the sword to go to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah, into fortified Jerusalem.
Eze 21:21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.
Eze 21:22 In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege mound, and to build a wall.
Eze 21:23 And it will be to them like a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them; but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.
Eze 21:24 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear—because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.
Eze 21:25 ‘Now to you, O profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose iniquity shall end,
Eze 21:26 thus says the Lord GOD: “Remove the turban, and take off the crown; Nothing shall remain the same. Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted.
Eze 21:27 Overthrown, overthrown, I will make it overthrown! It shall be no longer, Until He comes whose right it is, And I will give it to Him.” ‘
Eze 21:28 “And you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach,’ and say: ‘A sword, a sword is drawn, Polished for slaughter, For consuming, for flashing—
Eze 21:29 While they see false visions for you, While they divine a lie to you, To bring you on the necks of the wicked, the slain Whose day has come, Whose iniquity shall end.
Eze 21:30 ‘Return it to its sheath. I will judge you In the place where you were created, In the land of your nativity.
Eze 21:31 I will pour out My indignation on you; I will blow against you with the fire of My wrath, And deliver you into the hands of brutal men who are skillful to destroy.
Eze 21:32 You shall be fuel for the fire; Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall not be remembered, For I the LORD have spoken.’ ”
Eze 21:1 And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
1. The word of the Lord. Verses 1–7 reproduce in plain language the enigmatical parable of ch. 20:45–59.
Eze 21:2 “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, preach against the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
2. Toward Jerusalem. Instead of the threefold “south” (ch. 20:46) the expressions “Jerusalem,” “the holy places,” and “the land of Israel” now appear.
Eze 21:3 and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am against you, and I will draw My sword out of its sheath and cut off both righteous and wicked from you.
3. My sword. The “fire” of the enigmatical parable (ch. 20:47) is shown to be the sword of the invader.
Eze 21:4 Because I will cut off both righteous and wicked from you, therefore My sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north,
4. The righteous. See on ch. 20:47. In national judgments the innocent are frequently involved in the same temporal sufferings as the guilty.
Eze 21:5 that all flesh may know that I, the LORD, have drawn My sword out of its sheath; it shall not return anymore.” ‘
5. Not return any more. That is, until it had completed its mission. Then it must of necessity return. The expression “not return any more” must be taken in this limited sense. The same idea of restricted duration is found in ch. 20:48, where it is stated that the fires of God’s judgments shall not be quenched (see comment there). Similar expressions are at times mistakenly taken to mean that there will be no end to the punishment. In each case the length of continuance must be determined by the context (see on ch. 30:13).
Eze 21:6 Sigh therefore, son of man, with a breaking heart, and sigh with bitterness before their eyes.
6. Breaking of thy loins. Compare Nahum 2:1, 10. The prophet is bidden to make vivid to his listeners how deeply all would be moved by the news of Jerusalem’s fall.
Eze 21:7 And it shall be when they say to you, ‘Why are you sighing?’ that you shall answer, ‘Because of the news; when it comes, every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming and shall be brought to pass,’ says the Lord GOD.”
7. Every heart shall melt. Compare Luke 21:26.
Eze 21:8 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
8. The word of the Lord. Verses 8–17 may be entitled “The Song of the Sharpened and Furbished Sword.” In general these verses are an expansion of the message of vs. 1–6.
Eze 21:9 “Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the LORD!’ Say: ‘A sword, a sword is sharpened And also polished!
Eze 21:10 Sharpened to make a dreadful slaughter, Polished to flash like lightning! Should we then make mirth? It despises the scepter of My son, As it does all wood.
10. Contemneth the rod of my son. The Hebrew of this sentence is obscure. It reads literally, “Or we will rejoice, the rod of my son, despising every tree.” The LXX reads, “Slay, set at nought, despise every tree” (the reference may be to the green and dry trees of ch. 20:47). The Hebrew may be understood as follows: “Or shall we rejoice, the rod [that is, of chastisement (see Prov. 10:13)], my son, despising every tree” (see on Eze. 20:47).
Eze 21:11 And He has given it to be polished, That it may be handled; This sword is sharpened, and it is polished To be given into the hand of the slayer.’
11. The slayer. That is, the king of Babylon (see v. 19).
Eze 21:12 “Cry and wail, son of man; For it will be against My people, Against all the princes of Israel. Terrors including the sword will be against My people; Therefore strike your thigh.
12. Upon thy thigh. A mark of extreme shame or grief (see Jer. 31:19). The object of the gestures was to attract attention and to raise inquiry (see on Eze. 4:1).
Eze 21:13 “Because it is a testing, And what if the sword despises even the scepter? The scepter shall be no more,” says the Lord GOD.
13. Because it is a trial. The Hebrew of this passage is obscure. The translation of the RSV, “For it will not be a testing—what could it do if you despise the rod?” is an attempt to make understandable this obscure passage.
Eze 21:14 “You therefore, son of man, prophesy, And strike your hands together. The third time let the sword do double damage. It is the sword that slays, The sword that slays the great men, That enters their private chambers.
14. Smite thine hands. A gesture of strong emotion, here evidently of horror (see Eze. 21:17; cf. Num. 24:10).
The third time. An obscure passage possibly meaning that the stroke of the sword would come not only once or twice but three times.
Privy chambers. The last clause reads literally, “which encompasses them,” that is, preventing escape.
Eze 21:15 I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, That the heart may melt and many may stumble. Ah! It is made bright; It is grasped for slaughter:
15. The point. Heb. ibchah, a word occurring only here. Some think ’ibchah may be a misspelling of ṭibcah, a word occurring in 1 Sam. 25:11; Ps. 44:22; Jer. 12:3 with the meaning “flesh,” or “slaughter.” The sentence would then read, “I have appointed a sword for slaughter.”
Eze 21:16 “Swords at the ready! Thrust right! Set your blade! Thrust left—Wherever your edge is ordered!
The command is given to the sword, as is clear in the Hebrew.
Eze 21:17 I too will strike my hands together, and my wrath will subside. I the LORD have spoken.”
17. Strike my hands together. By a figure ascribing human acts and feelings to God, He is here declared as doing what He commanded the prophet to do (see on v. 14).
Eze 21:18 The word of the LORD came to me again, saying:
18. The word of the Lord. The third prophecy of the chapter, more
Eze 21:19 “And son of man, appoint for yourself two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to go; both of them shall go from the same land. Make a sign; put it at the head of the road to the city.
19. Appoint for yourself. The king of Babylon is pictured at the crossroads hesitating as to whether he should take first the road to Jerusalem or the one to the capital of the Ammonites (v. 20).
Choose thou a place. Literally, “cut a hand.” That is, erect a signpost. This would be placed several hundred miles west of Babylon, perhaps at Tadmor (see on 1 Kings 9:18), or perhaps as far as the valley of the Orontes.
Eze 21:20 Appoint a road for the sword to go to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah, into fortified Jerusalem.
Eze 21:21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.
Use divination.
The heathen resorted to divination when important questions were to be decided. Three forms are here mentioned.
Shakes the arrows. The Babylonian method was probably like that used by the Arabs later. A quiver or other vessel was filled with several headless arrows marked with suitable messages. One of the arrows was pulled out by shaking the container, or the first one to fall out was selected. This arrow’s mark was meant to represent the gods’ will.
Images. Heb. teraphim, small human figurines (see on Gen. 31:19). How they were used for divination is not known.
Looked in the liver. This mode of divining, called hepatoscopy (see on Dan. 1:20), was common among the Babylonians. Clay models of sheep’s livers, marked with lines and inscriptions, and evidently used for instructional purposes, have been discovered.
While the Christian church does not support divination in any form, many Christians try to get heavenly guidance through unsanctioned means, which are fundamentally like older forms of divination.
Among such methods may be listed that of seeking an answer from God by tossing up a coin; or that of asking the Lord to answer Yes or No by writing the words on either side of the card, and then dropping it, accepting as an answer the way in which the card falls.
Some permit the Bible to fall open at random and accept the message of the text upon which their eyes fall. Again, others place various ideas on different cards, then shake them around and accept the answer of the one drawn. Other devices could be listed, all of which follow the same basic pattern of chance. It is not denied that the Lord at times has given guidance by some of these means, especially to the unenlightened, or possibly in emergencies, but they are haphazard methods that ought to be discarded as the soul grows in grace.
If, in every decision of life, a man received a direct answer from God by some outward sign, he would become a mere machine. He would rob himself of the basic right and freedom of man, namely, that of self-determination, a faculty given to him of God.
The casting of lots belongs in this same category and ought not to be resorted to. The following counsel has been given: “I have no faith in casting lots. … To cast lots for the officers of the church is not in God’s order” (EGW letter 37, 1900).
Eze 21:22 In his right hand is the divination for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call for a slaughter, to lift the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege mound, and to build a wall.
22. At his right hand. That is, the lot for Jerusalem came into the king’s right hand.
Eze 21:23 And it will be to them like a false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn oaths with them; but he will bring their iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.
23. As a false divination. That is, in the sight of the people of Jerusalem.
Sworn oaths. This again may be understood to refer to the Jews, who had sworn fidelity to the Babylonians (2 Chron. 36:13; Eze. 17:18, 19). These oaths they had violated. This appears to be the simplest meaning of the text.
Call to remembrance. The subject may be the Lord, and the “iniquity” the general sinfulness of the people. Or the subject may be Nebuchadnezzar, who will call to remembrance and punish the violation of the oath (2 Chron. 36:10, 13; Jer. 52:3; Eze. 17:15–19).
Eze 21:24 “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear—because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.
24. Your sins do appear. Their sins should have been covered in the service of the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). Inasmuch as Israel had refused to acknowledge her guilt, it stood “discovered,” and demanded punishment. Every fresh transgression called to mind the whole record of the earlier sinful course, and now the cumulative total called for speedy retribution.
Eze 21:25 ‘Now to you, O profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose iniquity shall end,
Eze 21:26 thus says the Lord GOD: “Remove the turban, and take off the crown; Nothing shall remain the same. Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted.
26. Diadem. Heb. miṣnepheth, translated “diadem” only here. Elsewhere (Ex. 28:4, 37, 39; 29:6; 39:28, 31; Lev. 8:9; 16:4) it describes the “mitre” of the high priest. Miṣnepheth comes from the root, ṣanaph, “to wrap around,” hence properly means a turban. Here the kingly turban, a badge of royalty, is apparently referred to.
Not be the same. There would be a complete change in the existing state of things.
Eze 21:27 Overthrown, overthrown, I will make it overthrown! It shall be no longer, Until He comes whose right it is, And I will give it to Him.” ‘
27. I will overturn. The passage reads literally, “a ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I will set it.” The threefold repetition intensifies the idea. The edict is concerning the throne of the house of David. “Not until Christ Himself should set up His kingdom, was Judah again to be permitted to have a king” (PK 451; cf. Ed 179).
Eze 21:28 “And you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach,’ and say: ‘A sword, a sword is drawn, Polished for slaughter, For consuming, for flashing—
28. Concerning the Ammonites. Although the king of Babylon chose to attack Jerusalem instead of Rabbath (vs. 20–22), the Ammonites would not escape punishment (see ch. 25:1–7).
Eze 21:29 While they see false visions for you, While they divine a lie to you, To bring you on the necks of the wicked, the slain Whose day has come, Whose iniquity shall end.
29. See. Heb. chazah, frequently used with reference to the utterances of the seer or prophet; here doubtless of the Ammonite soothsayers.
To bring thee. That is, the sword described in v. 28.
Eze 21:30 ‘Return it to its sheath. I will judge you In the place where you were created, In the land of your nativity.
30. Shall I cause it to return? Literally an imperative: “Cause it to return into its sheath.” The command is addressed to the Ammonites (see v. 28). Their venture would be carried out in vain. In their own country they would receive punishment for their misdeeds.
Eze 21:31 I will pour out My indignation on you; I will blow against you with the fire of My wrath, And deliver you into the hands of brutal men who are skillful to destroy.
31. Brutish. Heb. bo‘arim, derived from be‘ir, “beasts,” “cattle” (see Ps. 49:10; 92:6). These brutish men are pointed out in Eze. 25:4, 10.
Eze 21:32 You shall be fuel for the fire; Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall not be remembered, For I the LORD have spoken.’ ”
32. No more remembered. In contrast with the glorious promise to Israel (v. 27).