1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,
3 And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
5 That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.
6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.
7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.
8 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:
10 It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.
11 And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.
12 Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.
13 Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.
14 Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together. and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.
15 I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.
16 Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.
17 I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it.
18 The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,
19 Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.
20 Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.
21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.
23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.
24 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.
25 And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,
26 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.
27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:
29 Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.
30 Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.
31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.
32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the LORD have spoken it.
1 And the word H1697 of the LORD H3068 came unto me, saying, H559
2 Son H1121 of man, H120 set H7760 thy face H6440 toward Jerusalem, H3389 and drop H5197 thy word toward the holy places, H4720 and prophesy H5012 against the land H127 of Israel, H3478
3 And say H559 to the land H127 of Israel, H3478 Thus saith H559 the LORD; H3068 Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth H3318 my sword H2719 out of his sheath, H8593 and will cut off H3772 from thee the righteous H6662 and the wicked. H7563
4 Seeing H3282 then that I will cut off H3772 from thee the righteous H6662 and the wicked, H7563 therefore shall my sword H2719 go forth H3318 out of his sheath H8593 against all flesh H1320 from the south H5045 to the north: H6828
5 That all flesh H1320 may know H3045 that I the LORD H3068 have drawn forth H3318 my sword H2719 out of his sheath: H8593 it shall not return H7725 any more.
6 Sigh H584 therefore, thou son H1121 of man, H120 with the breaking H7670 of thy loins; H4975 and with bitterness H4814 sigh H584 before their eyes. H5869
7 And it shall be, when they say H559 unto thee, Wherefore sighest H584 thou? that thou shalt answer, H559 For the tidings; H8052 because it cometh: H935 and every heart H3820 shall melt, H4549 and all hands H3027 shall be feeble, H7503 and every spirit H7307 shall faint, H3543 and all knees H1290 shall be weak H3212 as water: H4325 behold, it cometh, H935 and shall be brought to pass, H1961 saith H5002 the Lord H136 GOD. H3069
8 Again the word H1697 of the LORD H3068 came unto me, saying, H559
9 Son H1121 of man, H120 prophesy, H5012 and say, H559 Thus saith H559 the LORD; H3068 Say, H559 A sword, H2719 a sword H2719 is sharpened, H2300 and also furbished: H4803
10 It is sharpened H2300 to make a sore H2874 slaughter; H2873 it is furbished H4178 that it may glitter: H1300 should H176 we then make mirth? H7797 it contemneth H3988 the rod H7626 of my son, H1121 as every tree. H6086
11 And he hath given H5414 it to be furbished, H4803 that it may be handled: H3709 H8610 this sword H2719 is sharpened, H2300 and it is furbished, H4178 to give H5414 it into the hand H3027 of the slayer. H2026
12 Cry H2199 and howl, H3213 son H1121 of man: H120 for it shall be upon my people, H5971 it shall be upon all the princes H5387 of Israel: H3478 terrors H4048 by reason of H413 the sword H2719 shall be upon my people: H5971 smite H5606 therefore upon thy thigh. H3409
13 Because it is a trial, H974 and what if the sword contemn H3988 even the rod? H7626 it shall be no more, saith H5002 the Lord H136 GOD. H3069
14 Thou therefore, son H1121 of man, H120 prophesy, H5012 and smite H5221 thine hands H3709 H3709 together, H5221 and let the sword H2719 be doubled H3717 the third H7992 time, the sword H2719 of the slain: H2491 it is the sword H2719 of the great H1419 men that are slain, H2491 which entereth into their privy chambers. H2314
15 I have set H5414 the point H19 of the sword H2719 against all their gates, H8179 that their heart H3820 may faint, H4127 and their ruins H4383 be multiplied: H7235 ah! H253 it is made H6213 bright, H1300 it is wrapped up H4593 for the slaughter. H2874
16 Go thee one way or other, H258 either on H7760 the right hand, H3231 or on the left, H8041 whithersoever H575 thy face H6440 is set. H3259
17 I will also smite H5221 mine hands H3709 together, H3709 and I will cause my fury H2534 to rest: H5117 I the LORD H3068 have said H1696 it.
18 The word H1697 of the LORD H3068 came unto me again, saying, H559
19 Also, thou son H1121 of man, H120 appoint H7760 thee two H8147 ways, H1870 that the sword H2719 of the king H4428 of Babylon H894 may come: H935 both twain H8147 shall come forth H3318 out of one H259 land: H776 and choose H1254 thou a place, H3027 choose H1254 it at the head H7218 of the way H1870 to the city. H5892
20 Appoint H7760 a way, H1870 that the sword H2719 may come H935 to Rabbath H7237 of the Ammonites, H1121 H5983 and to Judah H3063 in Jerusalem H3389 the defenced. H1219
21 For the king H4428 of Babylon H894 stood H5975 at the parting H517 of the way, H1870 at the head H7218 of the two H8147 ways, H1870 to use H7080 divination: H7081 he made his arrows H2671 bright, H7043 he consulted H7592 with images, H8655 he looked H7200 in the liver. H3516
22 At his right hand H3225 was the divination H7081 for Jerusalem, H3389 to appoint H7760 captains, H3733 to open H6605 the mouth H6310 in the slaughter, H7524 to lift up H7311 the voice H6963 with shouting, H8643 to appoint H7760 battering rams H3733 against the gates, H8179 to cast H8210 a mount, H5550 and to build H1129 a fort. H1785
23 And it shall be unto them as a false H7723 divination H7080 in their sight, H5869 to them that have sworn H7650 oaths: H7621 but he will call to remembrance H2142 the iniquity, H5771 that they may be taken. H8610
24 Therefore thus saith H559 the Lord H136 GOD; H3069 Because ye have made your iniquity H5771 to be remembered, H2142 in that your transgressions H6588 are discovered, H1540 so that in all your doings H5949 your sins H2403 do appear; H7200 because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, H2142 ye shall be taken H8610 with the hand. H3709
25 And thou, profane H2491 wicked H7563 prince H5387 of Israel, H3478 whose day H3117 is come, H935 when H6256 iniquity H5771 shall have an end, H7093
26 Thus saith H559 the Lord H136 GOD; H3069 Remove H5493 the diadem, H4701 and take off H7311 the crown: H5850 this shall not be the same: H2063 exalt H1361 him that is low, H8217 and abase H8213 him that is high. H1364
27 I will overturn, H5754 overturn, H5754 overturn, H5754 it: and it shall be H7760 no more, until he come H935 whose right H4941 it is; and I will give H5414 it him.
28 And thou, son H1121 of man, H120 prophesy H5012 and say, H559 Thus saith H559 the Lord H136 GOD H3069 concerning the Ammonites, H1121 H5983 and concerning their reproach; H2781 even say H559 thou, The sword, H2719 the sword H2719 is drawn: H6605 for the slaughter H2874 it is furbished, H4803 to consume H398 because of the glittering: H1300
29 Whiles they see H2372 vanity H7723 unto thee, whiles they divine H7080 a lie H3577 unto thee, to bring H5414 thee upon the necks H6677 of them that are slain, H2491 of the wicked, H7563 whose day H3117 is come, H935 when H6256 their iniquity H5771 shall have an end. H7093
30 Shall I cause it to return H7725 into his sheath? H8593 I will judge H8199 thee in the place H4725 where thou wast created, H1254 in the land H776 of thy nativity. H4351
31 And I will pour out H8210 mine indignation H2195 upon thee, I will blow H6315 against thee in the fire H784 of my wrath, H5678 and deliver H5414 thee into the hand H3027 of brutish H1197 men, H582 and skilful H2796 to destroy. H4889
32 Thou shalt be for fuel H402 to the fire; H784 thy blood H1818 shall be in the midst H8432 of the land; H776 thou shalt be no more remembered: H2142 for I the LORD H3068 have spoken H1696 it.
1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop `thy word' toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
3 and say to the land of Israel, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
5 and all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.
6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man; with the breaking of thy loins and with bitterness shalt thou sigh before their eyes.
7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt say, Because of the tidings, for it cometh; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and it shall be done, saith the Lord Jehovah.
8 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith Jehovah: Say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished;
10 it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it contemneth every tree.
11 And it is given to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword, it is sharpened, yea, it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.
12 Cry and wail, son of man; for it is upon my people, it is upon all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; smite therefore upon thy thigh.
13 For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that contemneth shall be no more? saith the Lord Jehovah.
14 Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thy hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one that is deadly wounded, which entereth into their chambers.
15 I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is pointed for slaughter.
16 Gather thee together, go to the right, set thyself in array, go to the left, whithersoever thy face is set.
17 I will also smite my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest: I, Jehovah, have spoken it.
18 The word of Jehovah came unto me again, saying,
19 Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they twain shall come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city.
20 Thou shalt appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.
21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows to and fro, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver.
22 In his right hand was the divination `for' Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.
23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths unto them; but he bringeth iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken.
24 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.
25 And thou, O deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,
26 thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Remove the mitre, and take off the crown; this `shall be' no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.
27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it `him'.
28 And thou, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say thou, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;
29 while they see for thee false visions, while they divine lies unto thee, to lay thee upon the necks of the wicked that are deadly wounded, whose day is come in the time of the iniquity of the end.
30 Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy birth, will I judge thee.
31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee; I will blow upon thee with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, skilful to destroy.
32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I, Jehovah, have spoken it.
1 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,
2 `Son of man, set thy face unto Jerusalem, and prophesy unto the holy places, and prophesy unto the ground of Israel;
3 and thou hast said unto the ground of Israel: Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I `am' against thee, And have brought out My sword from its scabbard, And have cut off from thee righteous and wicked.
4 Because that I have cut off from thee righteous and wicked, Therefore go out doth My sword from its scabbard, Unto all flesh, from south to north.
5 And known have all flesh that I, Jehovah, Have brought out My sword from its scabbard, It doth not turn back any more.
6 And thou, son of man, sigh with breaking of loins, yea, with bitterness thou dost sigh before their eyes,
7 and it hath come to pass, when they say unto thee, For what art thou sighing? that thou hast said: Because of the report, for it is coming, And melted hath every heart, And feeble hath been all hands, And weak is every spirit, And all knees go -- waters, Lo, it is coming, yea, it hath been, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.'
8 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,
9 `Son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said, Thus said Jehovah, say: A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished.
10 So as to slaughter a slaughter it is sharpened. So as to have brightness it is polished, Desire hath rejoiced the sceptre of my son, It is despising every tree.
11 And he giveth it for polishing, For laying hold of by the hand. It is sharpened -- the sword -- and polished, To give it into the hand of a slayer.
12 Cry and howl, son of man, For it hath been among My people, It `is' among all the princes of Israel, Cast unto the sword have been My people. Therefore strike on thy thigh,
13 Because `it is' a trier, And what if even the sceptre it is despising? It shall not be, an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.
14 And thou, son of man, prophesy, And smite hand on hand, And bent is the sword a third time, The sword of the wounded! It `is' the sword of the wounded -- the great one, That is entering the inner chamber to them.
15 To melt the heart, and to multiply the ruins, By all their gates I have set the point of a sword. Ah, it is made for brightness, Wrapt up for slaughter.
16 Take possession of the right, place thyself at the left, Whither thy face is appointed.
17 And I also, I smite My hand on my hand, And have caused My fury to rest; I, Jehovah, have spoken.'
18 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,
19 `And thou, son of man, appoint for thee two ways, for the coming in of the sword of the king of Babylon; from one land they come forth, both of them, and a station prepare thou, at the top of the way of the city prepare `it'.
20 A way appoint for the coming of the sword, Unto Rabbath of the sons of Ammon, And to Judah, in Jerusalem -- the fenced.
21 For stood hath the king of Babylon at the head of the way, At the top of the two ways, to use divination, He hath moved lightly with the arrows, He hath asked at the teraphim, He hath looked on the liver.
22 At his right hath been the divination -- Jerusalem, To place battering-rams, To open the mouth with slaughter, To lift up a voice with shouting, To place battering-rams against the gates, To pour out a mount, to build a fortification.
23 And it hath been to them as a false divination in their eyes, Who have sworn oaths to them, And he is causing iniquity to be remembered to be caught.
24 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your causing your iniquity to be remembered, In your transgressions being revealed, For your sins being seen, in all your doings, Because of your being remembered, By the hand ye are caught.
25 And thou, wounded, wicked one, Prince of Israel, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end!
26 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Turn aside the mitre, and bear away the crown, This -- not this -- the low make high, And the high make low.
27 An overturn, overturn, overturn, I make it, Also this hath not been till the coming of Him, Whose `is' the judgment, and I have given it.
28 And thou, son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah concerning the sons of Ammon, and concerning their reproach: and thou hast said: A sword, a sword, open for slaughter, Polished to the utmost for brightness!
29 In the seeing for thee of a vain thing, In the divining for thee of a lie, To put thee on the necks of the wounded of the wicked, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end.
30 Turn `it' back unto its scabbard, In the place where thou wast produced, In the land of thy birth I do judge thee.
31 And I have poured on thee Mine indignation, With fire of My wrath I blow against thee, And have given thee into the hand of brutish men -- artificers of destruction.
32 To the fire thou art for fuel, Thy blood is in the midst of the land, Thou art not remembered, For I, Jehovah, have spoken!'
1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Jerusalem, and drop [words] against the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,
3 and say to the land of Israel, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I am against thee, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
4 Seeing that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh, from the south to the north;
5 and all flesh shall know that I Jehovah have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath: it shall not return any more.
6 Sigh then, thou son of man; with breaking of the loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.
7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore dost thou sigh? that thou shalt say, Because of the tidings, for it cometh; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall languish, and all knees shall melt into water: behold, it cometh; it is here, saith the Lord Jehovah.
8 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith Jehovah: Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished.
10 It is sharpened for sore slaughter, it is furbished that it may glitter. Shall we then make mirth, [saying,] The sceptre of my son contemneth all wood?
11 And he hath given it to be furbished that it may be handled. The sword, -- it is sharpened, and it is furbished to give it into the hand of the slayer.
12 Cry and howl, son of man; for it shall be against my people, it shall be against all the princes of Israel: they are given up to the sword along with my people: smite therefore upon the thigh.
13 For the trial [is made]; and what if even the contemning sceptre shall be no [more]? saith the Lord Jehovah.
14 And thou, son of man, prophesy, and smite thy hands together; for [the strokes of] the sword shall be doubled the third time: it is the sword of the slain, the sword that hath slain the great one, which encompasseth them privily.
15 In order that the heart may melt, and the stumbling-blocks be multiplied, I have set the threatening sword against all their gates: ah! it is made glittering, it is whetted for the slaughter.
16 Gather up [strength], go to the right hand, turn thee, go to the left, whithersoever thy face is appointed.
17 And I myself will smite my hands together, and I will satisfy my fury: I Jehovah have spoken [it].
18 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
19 And thou, son of man, set thee two ways, by which the sword of the king of Babylon may come -- out of one land shall they both come -- and make thee a signpost, make it at the head of the way to the city.
20 Appoint a way for the coming of the sword to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah at the fenced [city] of Jerusalem.
21 For the king of Babylon standeth at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shaketh [his] arrows, he inquireth of the teraphim, he looketh in the liver.
22 In his right hand is the lot of Jerusalem to appoint battering-rams, to open the mouth for bloodshed, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering-rams against the gates, to cast mounds, to build siege-towers.
23 And this shall be a false divination in their sight, for them that have sworn oaths; but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.
24 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because ye make your iniquity to be remembered in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.
25 And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, at the time of the iniquity of the end,
26 -- thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Remove the mitre and take off the crown; what is shall be no [more]. Exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.
27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn it! This also shall be no [more], until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [to him].
28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus speaketh the Lord Jehovah concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and thou shalt say, A sword, a sword is drawn; for the slaughter is it furbished, that it may consume, that it may glitter:
29 whilst they see vanity for thee, whilst they divine a lie unto thee, to lay thee upon the necks of the wicked that are slain, whose day is come at the time of the iniquity of the end.
30 Restore [it] to its sheath. I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy birth.
31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow upon thee the fire of my wrath, and give thee into the hand of brutish men, skilful to destroy.
32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt not be remembered: for I Jehovah have spoken.
1 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
2 Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop [your word] toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel;
3 and tell the land of Israel, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.
4 Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
5 and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.
6 Sigh therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your loins and with bitterness shall you sigh before their eyes.
7 It shall be, when they tell you, Why do you sigh? that you shall say, Because of the news, for it comes; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.
8 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: Say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished;
10 it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it condemns every tree.
11 It is given to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword, it is sharpened, yes, it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the killer.
12 Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh.
13 For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that condemns shall be no more? says the Lord Yahweh.
14 You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one who is deadly wounded, which enters into their chambers.
15 I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is pointed for slaughter.
16 Gather you together, go to the right, set yourself in array, go to the left, wherever your face is set.
17 I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
18 The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,
19 Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they both shall come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city.
20 You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.
21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows back and forth, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver.
22 In his right hand was the divination [for] Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.
23 It shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken.
24 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand.
25 You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,
26 thus says the Lord Yahweh: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; this [shall be] no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.
27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [him].
28 You, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say you, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;
29 while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day is come in the time of the iniquity of the end.
30 Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, will I judge you.
31 I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.
32 You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be no more remembered: for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
2 Son of man, let your face be turned to Jerusalem, let your words be dropped in the direction of her holy place, and be a prophet against the land of Israel;
3 And say to the land of Israel, These are the words of the Lord: See, I am against you, and I will take my sword out of its cover, cutting off from you the upright and the evil.
4 Because I am going to have the upright and the evil cut off from you, for this cause my sword will go out from its cover against all flesh from the south to the north:
5 And all flesh will see that I the Lord have taken my sword out of its cover: and it will never go back.
6 Make sounds of grief, son of man; with body bent and a bitter heart make sounds of grief before their eyes.
7 And when they say to you, Why are you making sounds of grief? then say, Because of the news, for it is coming: and every heart will become soft, and all hands will be feeble, and every spirit will be burning low, and all knees will be turned to water: see, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord.
8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
9 Son of man, say as a prophet, These are the words of the Lord: Say, A sword, a sword which has been made sharp and polished:
10 It has been made sharp to give death; it is polished so that it may be like a thunder-flame: ...
11 And I have given it to the polisher so that it may be taken in the hand: he has made the sword sharp, he has had it polished, to put it into the hand of him who gives death.
12 Give loud cries and make sounds of grief, O son of man: for it has come on my people, it has come on all the rulers of Israel: fear of the sword has come on my people: for this cause give signs of grief.
13 ...
14 So then, son of man, be a prophet, and put your hands together with a loud sound, and give two blows with the sword, and even three; it is the sword of those who are wounded, even the sword of the wounded; the great sword which goes round about them.
15 In order that hearts may become soft, and the number of those who are falling may be increased, I have sent death by the sword against all their doors: you are made like a flame, you are polished for death.
16 Be pointed to the right, to the left, wherever your edge is ordered.
17 And I will put my hands together with a loud sound, and I will let my wrath have rest: I the Lord have said it.
18 And the word of the Lord came to me again, saying,
19 And you, son of man, have two ways marked out, so that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; let the two of them come out of one land: and let there be a pillar at the top of the road:
20 Put a pillar at the top of the road for the sword to come to Rabbah in the land of the children of Ammon, and to Judah and to Jerusalem in the middle of her.
21 For the king of Babylon took his place at the parting of the ways, at the top of the two roads, to make use of secret arts: shaking the arrows this way and that, he put questions to the images of his gods, he took note of the inner parts of dead beasts.
22 At his right hand was the fate of Jerusalem, to give orders for destruction, to send up the war-cry, to put engines of war against the doors, lifting up earthworks, building walls.
23 And this answer given by secret arts will seem false to those who have given their oaths and have let them be broken: but he will keep the memory of evil-doing so that they may be taken.
24 For this cause the Lord has said: Because you have made your evil-doing come to mind by the uncovering of your wrongdoing, causing your sins to be seen in all your evil-doings; because you have come to mind, you will be taken in them.
25 And you, O evil one, wounded to death, O ruler of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the last punishment;
26 This is what the Lord has said: Take away the holy head-dress, take off the crown: this will not be again: let that which is low be lifted up, and that which is high be made low.
27 I will let it be overturned, overturned, overturned: this will not be again till he comes whose right it is; and I will give it to him.
28 And you, son of man, say as a prophet, This is what the Lord has said about the children of Ammon and about their shame: Say, A sword, even a sword let loose, polished for death, to make it shining so that it may be like a flame:
29 Your vision is to no purpose, your use of secret arts gives a false answer, to put it on the necks of evil-doers who are wounded to death, whose day has come, in the time of the last punishment.
30 Go back into your cover. In the place where you were made, in the land from which you were taken, I will be your judge.
31 And I will let loose my burning passion on you, breathing out on you the fire of my wrath: and I will give you up into the hands of men like beasts, trained to destruction.
32 You will be food for the fire; your blood will be drained out in the land; there will be no more memory of you: for I the Lord have said it.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 21
Commentary on Ezekiel 21 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The Sword of the Lord and Its Disastrous Effects
Ezekiel 21:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 21:2. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and trickle over the holy places, and prophesy over the land of Israel, Ezekiel 21:3. And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will deal with thee, and will draw my sword out of its scabbard, and cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. Ezekiel 21:4. Because I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword to go forth from its scabbard against all flesh from south to north. Ezekiel 21:5. And all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, have drawn my sword out of its scabbard: it shall not return again. Ezekiel 21:6. And thou, son of man, sigh! so that the hips break; and with bitter pain sigh before their eyes! Ezekiel 21:7. And when they say to thee, Wherefore dost thou sigh? say, Because of a report that it is coming; and every heart will sink, and all hands become powerless, and every spirit will become dull, and all knees turn into water: Behold, it cometh, and will happen, is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. - In the preceding parable, the expression “forest of the field in the south,” or “forest of the south-land,” was enigmatical. This is explained to signify Jerusalem with its holy places ( מקדּשׁים , see comm. on Ezekiel 7:24), and the land of Israel, i.e., the kingdom of Judah. In accordance with this, the fire kindled by the Lord is interpreted as being the sword of the Lord. It is true that this is a figurative expression; but it is commonly used for war, which brings with it devastation and death, and would be generally intelligible. The sword will cut off both righteous and wicked. This applies to the outer side of the judgment, inasmuch as both good and bad fall in war. This is the only aspect brought into prominence here, since the great purpose was to alarm the sinners, who were boasting of their security; but the distinction between the two, as described in Ezekiel 9:4., is not therefore to be regarded as no longer existing. This sword will not return, sc. into the scabbard, till it has accomplished the result predicted in Ezekiel 21:3 (cf. 2 Samuel 1:22; Isaiah 55:11). As Tremellius has aptly observed upon this passage, “the last slaughter is contrasted with the former ones, in which, after the people had been chastened fore a time, the sword was returned to its scabbard again.” In order to depict the terrors of this judgment before the eyes of the people, the prophet is commanded to groan before their eyes in the most painful way possible (Ezekiel 21:6.). בּשׁברון מתנים , with breaking of the hips, i.e., with pain sufficient to break the hips, the seat of strength in man (compare Nahum 2:11; Isaiah 21:3). מרירוּת , bitterness, i.e., bitter anguish. The reason which he is to assign to the questioners for this sighing is “on account of the report that is coming,” - an antiptosis for “on account of the coming report” (cf. Genesis 1:4, etc.). the report comes when the substance of it is realized. The reference is to the report of the sword of the Lord, - that is to say, of the approach of the Chaldeans to destroy Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah. The impression which this disclosure will make upon the hearers will be perfectly paralyzing ( Ezekiel 21:7 ). All courage and strength for offering resistance will be crippled and broken. נמס כּל־לב (cf. Nahum 2:11) is strengthened by כּהתה , every spirit will become dull, so that no one will know what counsel to give. ' כּל־בּרכּים תּלכנה וגו corresponds to רפוּ כּל־ידים (cf. Ezekiel 7:17). The threat is strengthened by the words, “behold, it cometh, and will take place.” The subject is שׁמוּעה , the report, i.e., the substance of the report. - This threat is more fully expanded in Ezekiel 21:8-17; Ezekiel 21:8-13 corresponding to Ezekiel 21:1-5, and Ezekiel 21:14-17 to Ezekiel 21:6, Ezekiel 21:7.
The Sword is Sharpened for Slaying
Ezekiel 21:8. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 21:9. Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith Jehovah, A sword, a sword sharpened and also polished: Ezekiel 21:10. That it may effect a slaughter is it sharpened; that it may flash is it polished: or shall we rejoice (saying), the sceptre of my son despiseth all wood? Ezekiel 21:11. But it has been given to be polished, to take it in the hand; it is sharpened, the sword, and it is polished, to give it into the hand of the slayer. Ezekiel 21:12. Cry and howl, son of man, for it goeth over my people, it goeth over all the princes of Israel: they have fallen by the sword along with my people: therefore smite upon the thigh. Ezekiel 21:13. For the trial is made, and what if the despising sceptre shall not come? is the saying of the Lord Jehovah. Ezekiel 21:14. And thou, son of man, prophesy and smite the hands together, and the sword shall double itself into threefold, the sword of the pierced: it is the sword of a pierced one, of the great one, which encircles them. Ezekiel 21:15. That the heart may be dissolved, and stumbling-blocks may be multiplied, I have set the drawing of the sword against all their gates: Alas! it is made into flashing, drawn for slaying. Ezekiel 21:16. Gather thyself up to the right hand, turn to the left, whithersoever thine edge is intended. Ezekiel 21:17. And I also will smite my hands together, and quiet my wrath: I, Jehovah, have spoken it. - The description of the sword is thrown into a lyrical form (Ezekiel 21:8-13), - a kind of sword-song, commemorating the terrible devastation to be effected by the sword of the Lord. The repetition of חרב in Ezekiel 21:9 is emphatic. הוּחדּה is the perfect Hophal of חדד , to sharpen. מרוּטה is the passive participle of מרט , to polish; מרטּה (Ezekiel 21:10), the participle Pual , with מ dropped, and Dagesh euphon . היה , a rare form of the infinitive for היות . The polishing gives to the sword a flashing brilliancy, which renders the sharpness of its edge still more terrible. The very obscure words, ' או נשׂישׂ וגו , I agree with Schmieder and Kliefoth in regarding as a protest, interposed by the prophet in the name of the people against the divine threat of the sword of vengeance, on the ground of the promises which had been given to the tribe of Judah. או , or perhaps; introducing an opposite case, or an exception to what has been said. The words ' שׁבט are to be taken as an objection, so that לאמר is to be supplied in thought. The objection is taken from the promise given in Jacob's blessing to the tribe of Judah: “the sceptre will not depart from Judah” (Genesis 49:10). שׁבט בּני points unquestionably to this. בּני is taken from Ezekiel 21:9, where the patriarch addresses Judah, whom he compares to a young lion, as בּני . Consequently the sceptre of my son is the command which the patriarch holds out to view before the tribe of Judah. This sceptre despises all wood, i.e., every other ruler's staff, as bad wood. This view is not rendered a doubtful one by the fact that שׁבט is construed as a feminine here, whereas it is construed as a masculine in every other case; for this construction is unquestionable in Ezekiel 21:7 (12), and has many analogies in its favour. All the other explanations that have been proposed are hardly worth mentioning, to say nothing of refuting, as they amount to nothing more than arbitrary conjectures; whereas the assumption that the words are to be explained from Genesis 49:10 is naturally suggested by the unquestionable allusion to the prophecy in that passage, which we find in Ezekiel 21:27 of the present chapter. ויּתּן in Ezekiel 21:11 is to be taken adversatively, “but he gave it (the sword) to be sharpened.” The subject to ויּתּן is not Jehovah, but is indefinite, “one” ( man , Angl. they), although it is actually God who has prepared the sword for the slaughter of Israel. The train of thought is the following: Do not think we have no reason to fear the sharply-ground sword of Jehovah, because Judah has received the promise that the sceptre shall not depart from it; and this promise will certainly be fulfilled, and Judah be victorious over every hostile power. The promise will not help you in this instance. The sword is given to be ground, not that it may be put into the scabbard, but that it may be taken in the hand by a slayer, and smite all the people and all its princes. In the phrase היא הוּחדּה חרב , חרב is in apposition to the subject היא , and is introduced to give emphasis to the words. It is not till Ezekiel 21:19 that it is stated who the slayer is; but the hearers of the prophecy could be in no doubt. Consequently - this is the connection with Ezekiel 21:12 - there is no ground for rejoicing from a felling of security and pride, but rather an occasion for painful lamentation.
This is the meaning contained in the command to the prophet to cry and howl. For the sword will come upon the nation and its princes. It is the simplest rendering to take היא as referring to הרב , היה ב , to be at a person, to fasten to him, to come upon him, as in 1 Samuel 24:14; 2 Samuel 24:17. מגוּרי , not from גּוּר , but the passive participle of מגר in the Pual , to overthrow, cast down (Psalms 89:45): “fallen by the sword have they (the princes) become, along with my people.” The perfects are prophetic, representing that which will speedily take place as having already occurred. - Smiting upon the thigh is a sign of alarm and horror (Jeremiah 31:19). בּחן , perfect Pual , is used impersonally: the trial is made. The words allude to the victories gained already by Nebuchadnezzar, which have furnished tests of the sharpness of his sword. The question which follows וּמה contains an aposiopesis : and what? Even if the despising sceptre shall not come, what will be the case then? שׁבט מאסת , according to Ezekiel 21:10, is the sceptre of Judah, which despises all other sceptres as bad wood. יהיה , in this instance, is not “to be,” in the sense of to remain, but to become, to happen, to come (come to pass), to enter. The meaning is, if the sceptre of Judah shall not display, or prove itself to possess, the strength expected of it. - With Ezekiel 21:14 the address takes a new start, for the purpose of depicting still further the operations of the sword. Smiting the hands together (smiting hand in hand) is a gesture expressive of violent emotion (cf. Ezekiel 6:11; Numbers 24:10). The sword is to double, i.e., multiply itself, into threefold ( שׁלישׁתה , adverbial), namely, in its strength, or its edge. Of course this is not to be taken arithmetically, as it has been by Hitzig, but is a bold paradoxical statement concerning the terrible effect produced by the sword. It is not even to be understood as referring to three attacks made at different times by the Chaldeans upon Jerusalem, as many of the commentators suppose. The sword is called חבב חללים , sword of pierced ones, because it produces the pierced or slain. The following words are rendered by Hitzig and Kliefoth: the great sword of the slain. But apart from the tautology which this occasions, the rendering can hardly be defended on grammatical grounds. For, in the first place, we cannot see why the singular חלל should have been chosen, when the expression was repeated, instead of the plural חללים ; and secondly, חגּדול cannot be an adjective agreeing with חרב , for חרב is a noun of the feminine gender, and is construed here as a feminine, as החדרת clearly shows. הגּדול is in apposition to חלל , “sword of a pierced man, the great one;” and the great man pierced is the king, as Ewald admits, in agreement with Hengstenberg and Hävernick. The words therefore affirm that the sword will not only slay the mass of the people, but pierce the king himself. (See also the comm. on Ezekiel 21:25.) - Ezekiel 21:15 is not dependent upon what precedes, but introduces a new thought, viz., for what purpose the sword is sharpened. God has placed the flashing sword before all the gates of the Israelites, in order that ( למען , pleonastic for למען ) the heart may dissolve, the inhabitants may lose all their courage for defence, and to multiply offendicula , i.e., occasions to fall by the sword. The ἁπ. λεγ. אבחת signifies the rapid motion or turning about of the sword (cf. Genesis 3:24); אבח , related to הפך , in the Mishna אפך . The ἁπ. λεγ. מעטּה , fem. of מעט , does not mean smooth, i.e., sharpened, synonymous with מרט , but, according to the Arabic m̀t , eduxit e vagina gladium , drawn (from the scabbard). In Ezekiel 21:16 the sword is addressed, and commanded to smite right and left. התאחדי , gather thyself up, i.e., turn with all thy might toward the right (Tanchum). To the verb השׂימוּ it is easy to supply פּניך , from the context, “direct thine edge toward the left.” אנה , whither, without an interrogative, as in Joshua 2:5 and Nehemiah 2:16. מעדות , from יעד , intended, ordered; not, directed, turned. The feminine form may be accounted for from a construction ad sensum , the gender regulating itself according to the חרב addressed in פּניך . The command to the sword is strengthened by the explanation given by Jehovah in Ezekiel 21:17, that He also (like the prophet, Ezekiel 21:14) will smite His hands together and cool His wrath upon them (cf. Ezekiel 5:13).
The sword of the king of Babylon will smite Jerusalem, and then the Ammonites also. - Ezekiel 21:18. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Ezekiel 21:19. And thou, son of man, make to thyself two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come by them; out of one land shall they both come forth, and draw a hand, at the cross road of the city do thou draw it. Ezekiel 21:20. Make a way that the sword may come to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and to Judah into fortified Jerusalem. Ezekiel 21:21. For the king of Babylon is stopping at the cross road, at the parting of the two ways, to practise divination. He is shaking the arrows, inquiring of the teraphim, looking at the liver. Ezekiel 21:22. The divination falls to his right: Jerusalem, to set battering-rams, to open the mouth with a death-cry, to lift up the voice with a war-cry, to set battering-rams at the gates, to heap up a rampart, to build siege towers. - After the picture of the terrible devastation which the sword of the Lord will produce, the last word of God in this prophecy answers the questions, in whose hand Jehovah will place His sword, and whom it will smite. The slayer into whose hand the sharpened sword is given (Ezekiel 21:11) is the king of Babylon, and it will smite not only Judah, but the Ammonites also. Jerusalem and Judah will be the first to fall, and then the arch-enemy of the covenant nation, namely Ammon, will succumb to the strokes of the sword of Jehovah, in order that the embittered enemies of the Lord and His people may learn that the fall of Jerusalem is not, as they fancy, a proof of the impotence, but rather of the omnipotence, of its God. In this way does our prophecy expand into a prediction of the judgment which will fall upon the whole of the world in hostility to God. For it is only as the arch-enemies of the kingdom of God that the Ammonites come into consideration here. The parallel between Israel and the sons of Ammon is carried out in such a way as to give constant prominence to the distinction between them. Jerusalem will fall, the ancient theocracy will be destroyed till he shall come who will restore the right (Ezekiel 21:26 and Ezekiel 21:27). Ammon, on the other hand, will perish, and not a trace be left (Ezekiel 21:31, Ezekiel 21:32).
This prediction is exhibited to the eye by means of a sign. The prophet is to make two ways, i.e., to prepare a sketch representing a road leading from a country, viz., Babylon, and dividing at a certain spot into two roads, one of which leads to Rabbath-Ammon, the capital of the kingdom of the Ammonites, the other to Judah, into Jerusalem. He is to draw the ways for the coming ( לבוא ) of the sword of the king of Babylon. At the fork of the road he is to engrave a hand, יד , i.e., an index. בּרא signifies in the Piel to cut away (Joshua 17:15, Joshua 17:18), to dig or hew (Ezekiel 23:47), here to engrave written characters in hard material. The selection of this word shows that Ezekiel was to sketch the ways upon some hard material, probably a brick or tile (cf. Ezekiel 4:1). יד does not mean locus spatium , but a hand, i.e., an index. ראשׁ , the beginning of the road, i.e., the fork of the road (Ezekiel 16:25), is explained in Ezekiel 21:21, where it is called אם , mother of the road, inasmuch as the roads start from the point of separation, and ראשׁ שׁני הדּרכים , beginning of the two roads. דּרך עיר , the road to a city. For Rabbath-Ammon , which is preserved in the ruins of Ammân , on the Upper Jabbok ( Nahr Ammân ), see the comm. on Deuteronomy 3:11. The road to Judah is still more precisely defined by בּירוּשׁלים בּצוּרה , into fortified Jerusalem, because the conquest of Jerusalem was the purpose of Nebuchadnezzar's expedition. The omission of the article before בּצוּרה may be explained from the nature of the participle, in which, even in prose, the article may be left out after a definite noun (cf. Ewald, §335 a ). The drawing is explained in Ezekiel 21:21 and Ezekiel 21:22. The king of Babylon is halting ( עמד , to stand still, stop) to consult his oracles, and inquire which of the two roads he is to take. קסם , to take in hand, or practise divination. In order that he may proceed safely, he avails himself of all the means of divination at his command. He shakes the arrows (more strictly, the quiver with the arrows). On the practice itself Jerome writes as follows: “He consults the oracle according to the custom of his nation, putting his arrows into a quiver, and mixing them together, with the names of individuals inscribed or stamped upon them, to see whose arrow will come out, and which state shall be first attacked.”
(Note: The arrow-lot ( Belomantie ) of the ancient Greeks (Homer, Il . iii. 324, vii. 182, 183) was similar to this; also that of the ancient Arabs (vid., Pococke, Specim. hist. Arab . pp. 327ff., and the passages from Nuweiri quoted by Reiske, Samml. einiger Arab. Sprichwörter von den Stecken oder Stäben , p. 21). Another kind, in which the lot was obtained by shooting off the arrows, was common according to the Fihrist el Ulum of En-Nedîm among the Hananian Ssabians (see Chwolsohn, Ssabier , ii. pp. 26 and 119, 200).)
He consults the Teraphim , or Penates, worshipped as oracular deities and gods of good fortune (see the comm. on Genesis 31:19 and my Biblical Archaeology , §90). Nothing is known concerning the way in which these deities were consulted and gave their oracles. He examines the liver. The practice of ἡπατοσκοπία , extispicium , in which signs of good or bad luck, of the success or failure of any enterprise, were obtained from the peculiar condition of the liver of the sacrificial animals, was a species of divination to which great importance was attached by both the Babylonians (vid., Diod. Sic. ii. 29) and the Romans (Cicero, de divin . vi. 13), and of which traces were found, according to Barhebr. Chron . p. 125, as late as the eighth century of the Christian era among the Ssabians of Haran.
The divination resulted in a decision for Jerusalem. בּימינו היה is not to be translated “in his right hand was,” but “into his right hand there came.” היה : ἐγένετο (lxx), נפיל (Chald.), קסם does not mean lot (Ges.), but soothsaying, divination. ירוּשׁלים is connected with this in the form of a noun in apposition: the divination which indicated Jerusalem. The right hand is the more important of the two. The meaning of the words cannot be more precisely defined, because we are not acquainted with the king of divination referred to; even if we were to take the words as simply relating to the arrow in this sense, that an arrow with the inscription “Jerusalem” came into his right hand, and thus furnished the decision, which was afterwards confirmed by consulting the Teraphim and examining the liver. But the circumstance itself, that is to say, the fact that the divination coincided with the purpose of God, must not be taken, as Hävernick supposes, as suggesting a point of contact between Hebraism and the soothsaying of heathenism, which was peculiar to Ezekiel or to the time of the captivity. All that is proved by this fact is, that even heathenism is subject to the rule and guidance of Almighty God, and is made subservient to the accomplishment of the plans of both His kingdom and His salvation. In the words, to set bettering rams, etc., the substance of the oracle obtained by Nebuchadnezzar is more minutely given. It is a double one, showing what he is to do: viz., (1) to set bettering rams, i.e., to proceed to the siege of Jerusalem, as still further described in the last portion of the verse (Ezekiel 4:2); and (2) to raise the war-cry for storming the city, that is to say, to take it by storm. The two clauses ' לפתּח וגו and ' להרים וגו are synonymous; they are not “pure tautology,” however, as Hitzig affirms, but are chosen for the purpose of giving greater emphasis to the thought. The expression בּרצח creates some difficulty, inasmuch as the phrase “ ut aperiat os in caede ” (Vulg.), to open the mouth in murder or ruin, i.e., to put to death or lay in ruins, is a very striking one, and could hardly be justified as an “energetic expression for the battle-cry” (Hävernick). ב does not mean “to,” and cannot indicate the intention, all the less because בּרצח is parallel to בּתרוּעה , where תרועה is that in which the raising of the voice expresses itself. There is nothing left then but to take רצח in the sense of field-or war-cry, and to derive this meaning either from רצח or, per metathesin , from צרח .
This announcement will appear to the Judaeans, indeed, to be a deceptive divination, but nevertheless it will be verified. - Ezekiel 21:23. And it is like deceptive divination in their eyes; sacred oaths are theirs (lit., to them); but he brings the iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken. Ezekiel 21:24. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because ye bring your iniquity to remembrance, in that your offences are made manifest, so that your sins appear in all your deeds, because ye are remembered ye shall be taken with the hand. Ezekiel 21:25. And thou pierced one, sinner, prince of Israel, whose day is come at the time of the final transgression, Ezekiel 21:26. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, The turban will be removed, the crown taken off. This is not this; the low will be lifted up, and the lofty lowered. Ezekiel 21:27. Overthrown, overthrown, overthrown will I make it; even this shall not be, till He cometh, to whom is the right, to Him do I give it. - In Ezekiel 21:23 (28), להם , which is more precisely defined by בּעיניהם , refers to the Israelites, i.e., the Judaeans. This also applies to the following להם , which cannot possibly be taken as referring to a different subject, say, for example, the Chaldeans. It is evident, therefore, that it is impossible to sustain the rendering given in Gesenius' Thesaurus (s.v.) to the obscure words שׁבעי שׁבעות , viz., qui juramenta jurarunt eis (sc., Chaldaeis), which Maurer has modified and expounded thus: “they will not fear these auguries; they will swear oaths to them (the Chaldeans), that is to say, according to their usual custom, these truce-breakers will take fresh oaths, hoping that the Chaldeans will be conciliated thereby.” Moreover, the thought itself is an unsuitable one, inasmuch as “the defiant attitude of confidence with which they looked such awfully threatening danger in the face must have had some other ground than a reliance upon false oaths and Chaldean credulity” (Hävernick). The common explanation, which Rosenmüller and Kliefoth uphold, is, “because the Chaldeans are sworn allies, sworn confederates of theirs;” or as Kliefoth explains it, “on account of the oath of fealty or vassalage sworn by Zedekiah to Nebuchadnezzar, they have sworn confederates in the Chaldeans, and relying upon this, they are confident that they have no hostile attack to fear from them.” But this is altogether untenable, not only because it is perfectly arbitrary to supply “the Chaldeans,” but still more for the reason adduced by Maurer. “How,” he justly asks, “could the Judaeans despise these auguries because the Chaldeans were bound to them by an oath when they themselves had broken faith? When a treaty has been violated by one party, is not the other released from his oath?” We therefore adopt the same explanation as Hävernick: “oaths of oaths are theirs (to them), i.e., the most sacred oaths are (made) to them, namely, by God.” They rely upon that which God has solemnly sworn to them, without considering upon what this promise was conditional, namely, upon a faithful observance on their part of the commandments of God. For the fact itself, compare Ezekiel 20:42, and such passages as Psalms 105:9., etc. The form שׁבעי by the side of שׁבעות may be explained in a very simple way from the relation of the construct state, i.e., from the endeavour to secure an obvious form for the construct state, and cannot in any case furnish a well-founded argument against the correctness of our explanation. As Ezekiel uses נפשׁים for נפשׁות in Ezekiel 13:20, he may also have formed שׁבעים ( שׁבעי ) by the side of שׁבעות . - As they rely upon the promises of God without reflecting upon their own breach of covenant, God will bring their sin to remembrance through His judgment. והוּא is Jehovah, upon whose oaths they rely. עון must not be restricted to Zedekiah's breach of covenant, since Ezekiel 21:24 clearly shows that it is the wrong-doing of Judah generally. להתּפשׂ in Ezekiel 21:24 (29) is also to be understood of the whole nation, which is to be taken and punished by the king of Babylon. For Ezekiel 21:24 (29) introduces the reason for the statement made in the last clause of Ezekiel 21:23 (28). God must put the people in remembrance of their iniquity by inflicting punishment, because they have called it to remembrance by sins committed without any shame, and thereby have, so to speak, compelled God to remember them, and to cause the sinners to be grasped by the hand of the slayer. הזכּיר עון is used in Ezekiel 21:24 (29) in a different sense from Ezekiel 21:23 (28), and is therefore explained by ' בּהגּלות . בּכּף , which is indefinite in itself, points back to יד הורג in Ezekiel 21:11 (16), and receives from that its more exact definition.
With Ezekiel 21:25 the address turns to the chief sinner, the godless King Zedekiah, who was bringing the judgment of destruction upon the kingdom by his faithless breach of oath. The words חלל , רשׁע , and ' נשׂיא ישׂ are asyndeta , co-ordinate to one another. חלל does not mean profane or infamous ( βέβηλε , lxx), but simply pierced, slain. This meaning is to be retained here. This is demanded not only by the fixed usage of the language, but also by the relation in which חלל stands both to Ezekiel 21:14 and to חללי רשׁעים in Ezekiel 21:29 (34). It is true that Zedekiah was not pierced by the sword either at that time or afterwards, but was simply blinded and led in captivity to Babylon, where he died. But all that follows from this is, that חלל is used here in a figurative sense, given up to the sword, i.e., to death; and Zedekiah is so designated for the purpose of announcing in a more energetic manner the certainty of his fate. The selection of the term חלל is the more natural, because throughout the whole prophecy the description of the judgment takes its character from the figure of the sword of Jehovah. As God does not literally wield a sword, so חלל is no proof of actual slaying with the sword. יומו .dro , his day, is the day of his destruction (cf. 1 Samuel 26:10), or of the judgment upon him. The time of the final transgression is not the time when the transgression reaches its end, i.e., its completion, but the time when the wickedness brings the end, i.e., destruction (cf. Ezekiel 35:5, and for קץ in this sense, Ezekiel 7:2-3). The fact that the end, the destruction, is come, i.e., is close at hand, is announced in Ezekiel 21:26 to the prince, and in his person to the whole nation. If we understand the connection in this way, which is naturally suggested by Ezekiel 21:25 , we get rid of the objection, which led Kliefoth to question the fact that it is the king who is addressed in Ezekiel 21:25 , and to take the words as collective, “ye slaughtered sinners, princes of Israel,” and to understand them as referring to the entire body of rulers, including the priests, - an explanation that is completely upset by the words נשׂיא ... אתּה (thou...prince), which are so entirely opposed to the collective view. Again, the remark that “what follows in Ezekiel 21:26, viz., the statement to be made to the נשׂיא , has really nothing to do with him, since the sweeping away of the priesthood did not affect Zedekiah personally” (Kliefoth), is neither correct nor conclusive. For Ezekiel 21:26 contains an announcement not only of the abrogation of the priesthood, but also of the destruction of the kingdom, which did affect Zedekiah both directly and personally. Moreover, we must not isolate the king addressed, even as an individual, from the position which he occupied, or, at any rate, which he ought to have occupied as a theocratic monarch, so as to be able to say that the abrogation of the priesthood did not affect him. The priesthood was one of the fundamental pillars of the theocracy, the removal of which would necessarily be followed by the collapse of the divine state, and therefore by the destruction of the monarchy. Hence it is that the abolition of the priesthood is mentioned first. The infinitives absolute (not imperatives) הסיר and הרים are selected for the purpose of expressing the truth in the most emphatic manner; and the verbs are synonymous. הרים , to lift up, i.e., not to elevate, but to take away, to abolish, as in Isaiah 57:14; Daniel 8:11. מצנפת does not mean the royal diadem, like צניף in Isaiah 62:3, but the tiara of the high priest, as it does in every instance in the Pentateuch, from which Ezekiel has taken the word. העטרה , the king's crown. The diadem of the priest and the regal crown are the insignia of the offices of high priest and king; and consequently their removal is the abolition of both high-priesthood and monarchy. These words contain the sentence of death upon the theocracy, of which the Aaronic priesthood and the Davidic monarchy constituted the foundations.
They predict not merely a temporary, but a complete abolition of both offices and dignities; and their fulfilment took place when the kingdom of Judah was destroyed by the king of Babylon. The earthly sovereignty of the house of David was not restored again after the captivity; and the high-priesthood of the restoration, like the second temple, was only a shadowy outline of the glory and essential features of the high-priesthood of Aaron. As the ark with the Shechinah, or the gracious presence of God, was wanting in the temple of Zerubbabel; so were the Urim and Thummim wanting to the high-priesthood, and these were the only means by which the high priest could really carry out the mediation between the Lord and the people. זאת לא זאת .el (this is not this) does not refer to the tiara (mitre) and crown. זאת is neuter, and therefore construed with the masculine היה . This (mitre and crown) will not be this ( היה is prophetic), i.e., it will not continue, it will be all over with it (Hävernick, Maurer, and Kliefoth). To this there is appended the further thought, that a general inversion of things will take place. This is the meaning of the words - the low will be lifted up, and the lofty lowered. הגבּהּ and השׁפּיל are infinitives, and are chosen in the same sense as in the first hemistich. The form השּׁפלה , with ה without the tone, is masculine; the ־ה probably serving merely to give greater fulness to the form, and to make it correspond more nearly to הגּבהּ .
(Note: Hitzig has given a most preposterous exposition of this verse. Taking the words הסיר and הרים as antithetical, in the sense of removing ad exalting or sustaining in an exalted position, and regarding the clauses as questions signifying, “Shall the high-priesthood be abolished, and the real dignity, on the contrary, remain untouched?” he finds the answer to these questions in the words זאת לא (this, not this). They contain, in his opinion, as affirmation of the former and a negation of the latter. But he does not tell us how זאת לא זאת without a verb can possibly mean, “the former (the abrogation of the high-priesthood) will take place, but the latter (the exaltation of the monarchy) will not occur.” And, finally, the last clause, “the low shall be lifted up,” etc., is said to contain simply a watchword, which is not for the time being to be followed by any result. Such trifling needs no refutation. We simply observe, therefore, that there is no ground for the assertion, that הרים without מן cannot possibly signify to abolish.)
This general thought is expressed still more definitely in Ezekiel 21:27 . עוּה , which is repeated twice to give greater emphasis to the thought, is a noun derived from עוּה , inversion, overthrow; and the suffix in אשׂימנּהּ points back to זאת in Ezekiel 21:26 (31). This, the existing state, the high-priesthood and the monarch, will I make into destruction, or utterly overthrow. But the following זאת cannot also refer to the tiara and crown, as Kliefoth supposes, on account of the גּם which precedes it. This shows that זאת relates to the thing last mentioned. Even this, the overthrow, shall have no durability; or, as Tanch. has correctly expressed it, neque haec conditio erit durabilis . The following עד־בּא attaches itself not so much to this last clause as to the main thought: overthrow upon overthrow will ensue. The thought is this: “nowhere is there rest, nowhere security; all things are in a state of flux till the coming of the great Restorer and Prince of peace” (Hengstenberg). It is generally acknowledged that the words עד־בּא אשׁר־לו המּשׁפּט contain an allusion to Genesis 49:10, עד כּי ; and it is only by a false interpretation of the preceding clauses, wrung from the words by an arbitrary alteration of the text, that Hitzig is able to set this connection aside. At the same time, אשׁר־לו המּשׁפּט is of course not to be taken as a philological explanation of the word שׁילה , but is simply a theological interpretation of the patriarchal prophecy, with direct reference to the predicted destruction of the existing relations in consequence of the ungodliness and unrighteousness of the leaders of the theocracy up to that time. המּשׁפּט is not the rightful claim to the mitre and crown, but right in an objective sense, as belonging to God (Deuteronomy 1:17), and entrusted by God to the earthly government as His representative. He then, to whom this right belongs, and to whom God will give it, is the Messiah, of whom the prophets from the time of David onwards have prophesied as the founder and restorer of perfect right on earth (cf. Ps 72; Isaiah 9:6; Isaiah 42:1; Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:17). The suffix attached to נתתּיו is not a dative, but an accusative, referring to משׁפּט (cf. Psalms 72:1). There was no necessity to mention the person again to whom God would give the right, as He had already been designated in the previous expression אשׁר לו .
Overthrow of the Ammonites
Ezekiel 21:28. And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, concerning the sons of Ammon, and concerning their scorn, sword, sword, drawn to slay, polished, that it may devour, that it may flash! Ezekiel 21:29. While they prophesy deceit to thee, while they divine lying to thee, it shall lay thee by the necks of the sinners slain, whose day cometh at the time of the final transgression. Ezekiel 21:30. Put it in its scabbard again. At the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy birth will I judge thee, Ezekiel 21:31. And pour out my anger upon thee, kindle the fire of my wrath against thee, and give thee into the hand of foolish men, of smiths of destruction. Ezekiel 21:32. Thou shalt be for the fire to devour; thy blood shall remain in the midst of the land; thou shalt be remembered no more; for I Jehovah have spoken it. - As Judah in Jerusalem will fall by the sword of the king of Babylon, contrary to all expectation; so will the Ammonites be punished for their scorn with utter extermination. חרפּה is scorn at the overthrow of Israel (cf. Ezekiel 25:3, Ezekiel 25:6, and Zephaniah 2:8). The sword is already drawn against them. פּתוּחה , taken out of the scabbard, as in Psalms 37:14. לטבח is to be connected with פּתוּחה , notwithstanding the accents, and להכיל להכיל with מרוּטה . This is required by the correspondence of the clauses. הכיל is regarded as a derivative of כּוּל by Ewald and others, in the sense of ad sustinendum , according to capacity, i.e., as much as possible. But the adverbial rendering it opposed to the context, and cannot be sustained from Ezekiel 23:32. Moreover, כּוּל , to contain, is applicable enough to goblets and other vessels, but not to a sword. Hitzig therefore explains it from the Arabic kll , to blunt (sc., the eyes), i.e., to blind. But this is open to the objection that the form הכיל points to the verb כּוּל rather than כּלל ; and also to a still greater one, - namely, that there is nothing in the Hebrew usage to suggest the use of כלל in such a sense as this, and even if it were used in the sense of blunting, it would be perfectly arbitrary to supply עינים ; and lastly, that even the flashing of the sword does not suggest the idea of blinding, but is intended to heighten the terror occasioned by the sharpness of the sword. We therefore adhere to the derivation of הכיל from אכל , and regard it as a defective form for האכיל , like תּמרוּ for תּאמרוּ in 2 Samuel 19:14, יהל as syncopated form for יאהל (Isaiah 13:20), and watochez ותּחז for ותּאחז in 2 Samuel 20:9; literally, to cause it to eat or devour, i.e., to make it fit for the work of devouring. למען , literally, for the sake of the lightning (flash) that shall issue therefrom (cf. Ezekiel 21:10). - In Ezekiel 21:29 (34), לתת (to lay, or place) is also dependent upon חרב פּתוּחה , drawn to lay thee; so that the first half of the verse is inserted as a parenthesis, either to indicate the occasion for bringing the sword into the land (Hitzig), or to introduce an attendant circumstance, according to the sense in which the ב in בּחזות is taken. The parenthetical clause is understood by most of the commentators as referring to deceptive oracles of Ammonitish soothsayers, which either determined the policy of Ammon, as Hitzig supposes (cf. Jeremiah 27:9-10), or inspired the Ammonites with confidence, that they had nothing to fear from the Chaldeans. Kliefoth, on the other hand, refers the words to the oracles consulted by Nebuchadnezzar, according to Ezekiel 21:23. “These oracles, which directed the king not to march against the Ammonites, but against Jerusalem, proved themselves, according to Ezekiel 21:29, to be deceptive prophesying to the Ammonites, inasmuch as they also afterwards fell by the sword; just as, according to Ezekiel 21:23, they proved themselves to be genuine so far as the Israelites were concerned, inasmuch as they were really the first to be smitten.” This view is a very plausible one, if it only answered in any degree to the words. But it is hard to believe that the words, “while it (one) prophesies falsehood to thee,” are meant to be equivalent to “while its prophecy proves itself to be false to thee.” Moreover, Nebuchadnezzar did not give the Ammonites any oracle, either false or true, by the circumstance that his divination at the cross-road led him to decide in favour of the march to Jerusalem; for all that he did in consequence was to postpone his designs upon the Ammonites, but not to relinquish them. We cannot understand the words in any other sense, therefore, than as relating to oracles, which the Ammonites received from soothsayers of their own.
Hitzig takes offence at the expression, “that it (the sword) may lay thee by (to) the necks of the sinners slain,” because colla cannot stand for corpora decollata , and consequently proposes to alter אותך into אותהּ , to put it (the sword) to the necks. But by this conjecture he gets the not less striking thought, that the sword was to be put to the necks of those already slain; a thing which would be perfectly unmeaning, and is therefore not generally done. The sinners slain are the Judaeans who have fallen. The words point back to Ezekiel 21:25, the second half of which is repeated here, and predict the same fate to the Ammonites. It is easy to supply חרב to השׁב אל־תּערהּ : put the sword into its scabbard again. These words can only be addressed to the Ammonites; not to the Chaldeans, as Kliefoth imagines, for the latter does not harmonize in any way with what follows, viz., in the place of thy birth will I judge thee. God does not execute the judgment independently of the Chaldeans, but through the medium of their sword. The difficulties occasioned by taking the words as referring to the Ammonites are not so great as to necessitate an alteration of the text (Hitzig), or to call for the arbitrary explanation: put it now or for the present into the scabbard (Kliefoth). The use of the masculine השׁב (with Patach for השׁב , as in Isaiah 42:22), if Ammon is addressed by the side of the feminine אותך , may be explained in a very simple way, from the fact that the sword is carried by men, so that here the thought of the people, the warriors, is predominant, and the representation of the kingdom of the Ammonites as a woman falls into the background. The objection that the suffix in תּערהּ can only refer to the sword (of the Chaldean) mentioned in Ezekiel 21:28, is more plausible than conclusive. For inasmuch as the scabbard presupposes a sword, and every sword has a scabbard, the suffix may be fully accounted for from the thing itself, as the words, “put the sword into its scabbard,” would lead any hearer to think at once of the sword of the person addressed, without considering whether that particular sword had been mentioned before or not. The meaning of the words is this: every attempt to defend thyself with the sword and avert destruction will be in vain. In thine own land will God judge thee. For מכרותיך , see the comm. on Ezekiel 16:3. This judgment is still further explained in Ezekiel 21:31, where the figure of the sword is dropped, and that of the fire of the wrath of God introduced in its place. אפיח ... בּאשׁ , we render: “the fire of my wrath I blow (kindle) against thee,” after Isaiah 54:16, and not “with the fire...do I blow, or snort, against thee,” as others have done; because blowing with the fire is an unnatural figure, and the interpretation of the words in accordance with Isa. l.c. is all the more natural, that in the closing words of the verse, חרשׁי משׁחית , the allusion to that passage is indisputable, and it is only from this that the combination of the two words can be accounted for. - Different explanations have been given of בּערים . Some render it ardentes , and in accordance with Isaiah 30:27 : burning with wrath. But בּער is never used in this sense. Nor can the rendering “scorching men” (Kliefoth) be sustained, for בּער , to burn, only occurs in connection with things which are combustible, e.g., fire, pitch, coals, etc. The word must be explained from Psalms 92:7, “brutish,” foolish, always bearing in mind that the Hebrew associated the idea of godlessness with folly, and that cruelty naturally follows in its train. - Ezekiel 21:32. Thus will Ammon perish through fire and sword, and even the memory of it be obliterated. For Ezekiel 21:32 compare Ezekiel 15:4. The words, “thy blood will be בּתוך הארץ in the midst of the land,” can hardly be understood in any other sense than “thy blood will flow over all the land.” For the rendering proposed by Ewald, “remain in the midst of the earth, without thy being mentioned,” like that given by Kliefoth, “thy blood will the earth drink,” does not harmonize with Ezekiel 24:7, where דּמהּ בּתוכהּ היה is affirmed of blood, which cannot penetrate into the earth, or be covered with dust. For תּזּכרי , see Ezekiel 25:10. Ammon as the enemy of the kingdom of God will utterly perish, leaving no trace behind, and without any such hope of restoration as that held out in Ezekiel 21:27 to the kingdom of Judah or the people of Israel.