Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 21:1
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 21:1-5. These verses, though still figurative, are plainer than the preceding, of which they furnish the explanation. The sword of the Lord is drawn finally from its sheath, to which it shall not return ( Eze 21:5); it is drawn against Jerusalem and its sanctuaries ( Eze 21:2); it shall slay indiscriminately righteous and wicked ( Eze 21:3, cf. Eze 20:47), and all flesh shall know that it is the sword of the Lord, and that it is his hand that wields it ( Eze 21:5). Even to-day the study of Israel’s history occupies men, and its lessons are not yet exhausted.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Eze 20:45 to Eze 21:32. The avenging sword of the Lord
The passage Eze 20:45-49 belongs to ch. 21 (as in Heb.). The time to which the chapter is to be assigned is the early period of Nebuchadnezzar’s movements westwards. The prophet foresees the coming desolation of Israel by the conqueror, which he expresses under the figure of a devouring fire, consuming all indiscriminately. The passage has two divisions, ch. Eze 20:45 to Eze 21:27, and Eze 21:28-32.
First division. Eze 20:45 to Eze 21:27.
(1) Eze 20:45-49. A conflagration shall be lighted in the forest of the south, which shall consume all, the green tree and the dry.
(2) Eze 21:1-5. Explanation: the sword of the Lord shall be on Jerusalem and her sanctuaries, and on the land of Israel. Righteous and wicked shall perish; and men shall know that the Lord hath drawn his sword.
(3) Eze 20:6-7. Agitation of the prophet at the thought of the coming desolation: so shall all men be agitated and confounded.
(4) Eze 20:8-17. Song of the sword the sword of the Lord whetted and furbished against Jerusalem.
(5) Eze 20:18-27. He who is the sword or wields it, the king of Babylon. The prophet returning to the point from which he started represents the king of Babylon hesitating whether to march against Ammon or Jerusalem. He consults the oracle and the lot comes out “Jerusalem.”
Eze 20:45-49. Figure of a forest in which a great conflagration is kindled. The fire is unquenchable ( Eze 20:47-48), it devours all alike, the green tree and the dry ( Eze 20:47); all faces from north to south shall be scorched by it ( Eze 20:47); and all flesh shall see that it is the hand of the Lord which has kindled so great a flame ( Eze 20:48).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The first word of judgment Eze 21:1-7. Ezekiel speaks first to the people of Israel, shows the universality of the coming destructions, and indicates by a sign (that of sighing) the sadness of the calamity.
The words and order of words are identical with Eze 20:45-46, except that for south, there are substituted:
(1) Jerusalem;
(2) the holy place, i. e., the temple and its various parts;
(3) the land of Israel.
No subterfuge is left for the people to pretend misunderstanding.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXI
The prophet goes on to denounce the fate of Jerusalem and
Judea; using signs of vehement grief, to denote the greatness
of the calamity, 2-7.
He then changes the emblem to that of a sharp and bright sword,
still denoting the same sad event, 8-17;
and, becoming yet more explicit, he represents the king of
Babylon, who was to be employed by God in this work, as setting
out to take vengeance on both the Jews and the Ammonites, for
joining with Egypt in a confederacy against him. He is
described as standing at the parting of the roads leading to
the respective capitals of the Jews and Ammonites; and doubting
which to attack first, he commits the decision of the matter to
his arts of divination, performed by mingling arrows inscribed
with the names of the different nations or cities, and then
marching against that whose name was written on the arrow first
drawn from the quiver. In this case the name Jerusalem comes
forward; and therefore he proceeds against it, 18-24.
History itself could scarcely be more explicit than this
prophecy. The profane prince Zedekiah as then declared to be
given up by God, and his kingdom devoted to utter destruction,
for that breach of oath of which the prophet foretells he
should be guilty, 25-27.
The remaining verses form a distinct prophecy relating to the
destruction of the Ammonites, which was fulfilled about five
years after the destruction of Jerusalem, 28-32.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXI
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A command or direction to speak plainly, that none might quarrel with his obscurity.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. Upon the above excuse or complaint about speaking in parables; wherefore the prophet is ordered to speak in plainer language to the people. It is very probable that the prophet delivered the prophecy recorded in the latter part of the preceding chapter in the figurative terms in which he received it; and he here is bid to explain it to the people, or to repeat it to them in clearer expressions.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Sword of the Lord and Its Disastrous Effects
Eze 21:1. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, Eze 21:2. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and trickle over the holy places, and prophesy over the land of Israel, Eze 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. Eze 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. Eze 21:5. And all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, have drawn my sword out of its scabbard: it shall not return again. Eze 21:6. And thou, son of man, sigh! so that the hips break; and with bitter pain sigh before their eyes! Eze 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 ( , see comm. on Eze 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 Eze 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 Eze 21:3 (cf. 2Sa 1:22; Isa 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 (Eze 21:6.). , with breaking of the hips, i.e., with pain sufficient to break the hips, the seat of strength in man (compare Nah 2:11; Isa 21:3). , 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. Gen 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 ( Eze 21:7). All courage and strength for offering resistance will be crippled and broken. (cf. Nah 2:11) is strengthened by , every spirit will become dull, so that no one will know what counsel to give. ‘ corresponds to (cf. Eze 7:17). The threat is strengthened by the words, “behold, it cometh, and will take place.” The subject is , the report, i.e., the substance of the report. – This threat is more fully expanded in Eze 21:8-17; Eze 21:8-13 corresponding to Eze 21:1-5, and Eze 21:14-17 to Eze 21:6, Eze 21:7.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Threatenings against Israel; Judgments Predicted. | B. C. 592. |
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.
The prophet had faithfully delivered the message he was entrusted with, in the close of the foregoing chapter, in the terms wherein he received it, not daring to add his own comment upon it; but, when he complained that the people found fault with him for speaking parables, the word of the Lord came to him again, and gave him a key to that figurative discourse, that with it he might let the people into the meaning of it and so silence that objection. For all men shall be rendered inexcusable at God’s bar and every mouth shall be stopped. Note, He that speaks with tongues should pray that he may interpret, 1 Cor. xiv. 13. When we speak to people about their souls we should study plainness, and express ourselves as we may be the best understood. Christ expounded his parables to his disciples, Mark iv. 34. 1. The prophet is here more plainly directed against whom to level the arrow of this prophecy. He must drop his word towards the holy places (v. 2), towards Canaan the holy land, Jerusalem the holy city, the temple the holy house. These were highly dignified above other places; but, when they polluted them, that word which used to drop in the holy places shall now drop against them: Prophesy against the land of Israel. It was the honour of Israel that it had prophets and prophecy; but these, being despised by them, are turned against them. And justly is Zion battered with her own artillery, which used to be employed against her adversaries, seeing she knew not how to value it. 2. He is instructed, and is to instruct the people, in the meaning of the fire that was threatened to consume the forest of the south: it signified a sword drawn, the sword of war which should make the land desolate (v. 3): Behold, I am against thee, O land of Israel! There needs no more to make a people miserable than to have God against them; for as, if he be for us, we need not fear, whoever are against us, so, if he be against us, we cannot hope, whoever are for us. And God’s professing people, when they revolt from him, set him against them, who used to be for them. Was the fire there of God’s kindling? The sword here is his sword, which he has prepared, and which he will give commission to; it is he that will draw it out of its sheath, where it had laid quiet and threatened no harm. Note, When the sword is unsheathed among the nations God’s hand must be eyed and owned in it. Did the fire devour every green tree and every dry tree? The sword in like manner shall cut off the righteous and the wicked. Good and bad were involved in the common calamities of the nation; the righteous were cut off from the land of Israel when they were sent captives in Babylon, though perhaps few or none of them were cut off from the land of the living; and it was a threatening omen to the land of Israel that in the beginning of its troubles such excellent men as Daniel and his fellows, and Ezekiel, were cut off from it and conveyed to Babylon. But though the sword cut off the righteous and the wicked (for it devours one as well as another, 2 Sam. xi. 25), yet far be it from us to think that the righteous are as the wicked, Gen. xviii. 25. No; God’s graces and comforts make a great difference when his providence seems to make none. The good figs are sent into Babylon for their good,Jer 24:5; Jer 24:6. It is only in outward appearance that there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, Eccl. ix. 2. But it speaks the greatness of God’s displeasure against the land of Israel. Well might it be said, His eye shall not spare, when it shall not spare, no, not the righteous in it. Since there are not righteous men sufficient to save the land, to make the justice of God the more illustrious the few that there are shall suffer with it, and God’s mercy shall make it up to them some other way. Did the fire burn up all faces from the south to the north? The sword shall go forth against all flesh from the south to the north, shall go forth, as God’s sword, with a commission that cannot be contested, with a force that cannot be resisted. Were all flesh made to know that God kindled the fire? They shall be made to know that he has drawn forth the sword, v. 5. And, lastly, Shall the fire that is kindled never be quenched? So when this sword of the Lord is drawn against Judah and Jerusalem the scabbard is thrown away, and it shall never be sheathed: It shall not return any more, till it has made a full end. 3. The prophet is ordered, by expressions of his own grief and concern for these calamities that were coming on, to try to make impressions of the like upon the people. When he has delivered his message he must sigh (v. 6), must fetch many deep sighs, with the breaking of his loins; he must sign as if his heart would burst, sigh with bitterness, with other expressions of bitter sorrow, and this publicly, in the sight of those to whom he delivered the foregoing message, that this might be a sermon to their eyes as that was to their ears; and it was well if both would work upon them. The prophet must sign, though it was painful to himself and made his breast sore, and though it is probable that the profane among the people would ridicule him for it and call him a whining canting preacher. But, if we be beside ourselves it is to God; and, if this be to be vile, we will be yet more so. Note, Ministers, if they would affect others with the things they speak of, must show that they are themselves in the greatest sincerity affected with them, and must submit to that which may create uneasiness to themselves, so that it will promote the ends of their ministry. The people, observing the prophet to sigh so much and seeing no visible occasion for it, would ask, “Wherefore sighest thou? These sighs have some mystical meaning; let us know what it is.” And he must answer them (v. 7): “It is for the tidings, the heavy tidings, that we shall hear shortly; the tidings come (the judgments come which we hear the tidings of), they come apace, and then you will all sigh; nay, that will not serve. every heart shall melt and every spirit fail; your courage will all be gone and you will have no animating considerations to support yourselves with. And, when heart and spirit fail, it will follow of course that all hands will be feeble and unable to fight, and all knees will be weak as water and unable to flee or to stand their ground.” Those who have God for them when flesh and heart fail have him to be the strength of their heart; but those who have God against them have no cordial for a fainting spirit, but are as Belshazzar when his thoughts troubled him, Dan. v. 6. But some people are worse frightened than hurt; may not the case be so here and the event prove better than likely? No: Behold it cometh, and shall be brought to pass. It is not a bugbear that they are frightened with, but according to the fear so is the wrath, and more grievous than is feared.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
EZEKIEL – CHAPTER 21
PARABLE OF THE SWORD AND SIGHING PROPHET
Verses 1-7:
Verses 1, 2 call upon Ezekiel to set his face toward Jerusalem, the place where the people put their confidence. The Lord then further directed him to drop his word or prophecy toward the holy place (the sanctuaries) Psa 73:17; 1Pe 4:17, and prophecy against the land of Israel. The dispersed of Israel, yet impenitent, in captivity in Babylon, still turned their hopes toward Jerusalem and their mother country. As a matter of certain delusion, “the land of Israel” corresponds with “the south field” of Eze 20:46. See also Deu 32:2; Amo 7:16; Mic 2:6; Mic 2:11.
Verse 3 announced to Israel that the Lord was to draw His sword (an instrument of judgment) out of His sheath and sever from the land both the righteous and the wicked, Job 9:22; Ecc 9:2; Jer 15:2-4. The sword of the Lord had rested in its sheath for more than 400 years. God forebear national judgment of Israel, from the days of David, where He “stayed” the suspended arm of His “destroying angel” over Jerusalem, upon David’s obediently offering burnt offerings on the place where the temple was later built, 1Ch 21:16-17; 2Ch 22:1. While the righteous and the wicked were both taken from the land by the sword, the righteous were disciplined, with future hope, but the wicked who fell were without hope, Rom 8:28; Pro 10:28; Pro 11:7.
Verse 4 asserts that the coming judgment of God would extend upon Jerusalem and all flesh in the land of Israel, “from the south to the north, of both the righteous and the wicked.” This territory is that often described as being “from Dan (in the extreme north) to Beersheba in the extreme south,” meaning the whole country of Israel, Eze 20:47.
Verse 5 declares that His unsheathed sword of judgment over all the land of Israel, with her holy city and sanctuaries, would be so thoroughly visible that “all flesh” should be made to know that it was Israel’s God who had sent the sword of judgment upon His people and His land. The statement “it shall not return any more,” emphasizes that the judgment was to be so final that He would not send it any more, or stop the fire of His wrath till His purpose was accomplished, Eze 20:48; 1Sa 3:12; Isa 45:23; Jer 23:20; Nah 1:9.
Verse 6 calls upon Ezekiel to sigh, as the son of man, with the breaking of his loins; one’s loins refers to his power or strength that may be broken by sharp pain or acute suffering, Deu 33:11. He was to groan openly, as in deep pain, holding his loins with his hands, as in near death, giving utterance to bitterness of spirit, as he presented himself to the people of Israel to bear this judgment message, Jer 30:6; Jer 4:19; Jer 9:17; Jer 9:21; Isa 22:4; Joh 11:23; Joh 11:25.
Verse 7 then instructs Ezekiel that when the people asked, “why are you sighing or groaning?” he was to respond, “because of the tidings,” the message of judgment from God on all Israel. He explained that as he was cut to the heart, in violent emotional pain, for the coming judgment of all his people back in Jerusalem and all Israel, so should they all be pained. So severe was it to be that: a) every heart would melt, b) all hands would become feeble, c) every spirit would faint, and d) all knees would become as weak as water, unstable. The announced judgment was irrevocable. Prayer and repentance were now too late, as described, Jer 11:14; Jer 14:11-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
As Calvin’s Latin Translation ends here, so the version by the Translator comes naturally to a close. It has not been thought necessary to re-translate from the original the remainder of Ezekiel, as the previously quoted labors of Newcome and Rosenmuller are sufficiently accessible and explanatory.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE FIRE AND SWORD OF DIVINE JUSTICE GO FORTH AGAINST HEATHENISED JERUSALEM. (Chap. 21).
EXEGETICAL NOTES.The people had turned all their hopes towards the mother country,the city and kingdom. The prophet shows this to be a delusion. The sword of the Lord will cut off Jerusalem and the land of Israel, both righteous and wicked. (Eze. 21:1-17). The instrument to be used is the king of Babylon, who will draw his sword against Jerusalem and the children of Ammon, first putting an end to the kingdom of Judah, and then destroying the Ammonites (Eze. 21:18-23). The design is, to withdraw the people from their delusions, and to teach them that they must trust no longer in human policy but rather in repentance towards God.
Eze. 21:1-7. The sword of the Lord is to be drawn against Jerusalem, in which the people placed all their confidence.
Eze. 21:2. The holy places. Heb. sanctuaries. These include not only the temple with its holy places, but also the other edifices appropriated in purer times to Divine worship, and afterwards called synagogues (Psa. 73:17)(Henderson). Hengstenberg refers the plural to the glory of the one sanctuary, and understands it of the spiritual abode of the people. Others account for the plural form of the word by understanding it of the individual buildings of the temple, its two or three parts.The land of Israel. Equivalent to the forest of the south field. (Eze. 20:46).
Eze. 21:3. My sword. 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.(Keil.) Out of his sheath. The sword of God had rested in its sheath for above 400 years. In the days of David it was suspended over Jerusalem; but the arm of the Destroying Angel was then stayed. David by Gods direction offered burnt-offerings on the very place where the temple was afterwards built; and the destroying sword was returned into the sheath thereof (1Ch. 21:16; 1Ch. 21:27; 1Ch. 22:1). Gods forbearance was the sheath in which it rested so long. Now Israel had become heathenized, the vile profanation of Gods altar was no longer to be endured, and the sword must again leave its scabbard. The righteous and the wicked. This is not in contradiction with Eze. 9:4, according to which the righteous, amidst the impending catastrophe, are the object of the protecting and sustaining activity of God. For if two suffer the same, yet it is not the same. To those who love God must all things be for the best (Rom. 8:28).(Hengstenberg.) There is no real contradiction between the doctrine taught in this passage, and that vindicated ch. 18. Though removed from their native land along with the wicked, inasmuch as they were nationally connected with them, yet the righteous were to be regarded only as the subjects of corrective discipline, whereas to the idolatrous Jews the sufferings were unmitigated punishment.(Henderson.)
Eze. 21:4. From the south to the north. The whole extent of the country, from Dan to Beersheba.
Eze. 21:5. It shall not return any more. It shall go on to make a full end. The same idea as in Eze. 20:48, where it is stated that the fire of Gods judgments shall not be quenched.
Eze. 21:6. Sigh, therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins. The loins are said to be broken when acute pain robs a man of all power and strength (Deu. 33:11). The more deeply to affect his countrymen with a sense of the dire calamities which were so soon to overtake them, the prophet is commanded openly to assume the appearance of a person in deep distress, clasping his loins with his hands, as sadly bruised; and, giving utterance to piteous groans in the bitterness of his spirit, he was to present himself before them.(Henderson.)
Eze. 21:7. For the tidings, because it cometh. That which to others is merely tidings, is to the prophet already coming, or it is to him a thing heard which is passing into fulfilment; therefore his pain. But they shall be compelled to experience in themselves what they perceive in him. In all, courage gives place to terror, activity to prostration, counsel to perplexity. NO one holds out any longer.(Lange.) All knees shall be weak as water. They become like water in laxity and incoherence. Their strength is, as it were, dissolved, flows away and is scattered in all directions.
HOMILETICS
(Eze. 21:6-7.)
Such fear should possess them upon the tidings of the Babylonish armyS approaching, as should make their rocky hearts melt as snow before the sun, or fat of lambs before the fire; and the hands, spirits, and knees of their stoutest man to be feeble, faint, and weak; so that they should be inept unto all services, especially military ones.
1. God will have the prophet to see what prophetical signs will do, when prophetical threats did nothing. Sigh, son of man, with the breaking of thy loins, &c. These were prophetical sighs, representing unto them the great evils which were coming upon them; that so they might consider, sigh in like manner for their sins, and prevent their destruction, or else certainly expect the same. God laid a heavy burden upon the prophet when he is called so to sigh.
2. Ill tidings sink the hearts and spirits of hypocrites and wicked ones. When they hear of wars and great forces coming against them, not only doth their mirth cease, but their hearts, hands, spirits, knees fail them. When Nebuchadnezzar came their hands were upon their loins, they knew not what to do, whither to go, where to hide themselves. But in Psa. 112:7, it is said of a godly man, He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.(Greenhill.)
(Eze. 21:1-7.)
GODS SWORD OF VENGEANCE AGAINST JERUSALEM
The parabolic character of Eze. 20:45-49 in the last chapter is continued. Then the destruction by fire was threatened; now it is the sword. Of this sword of vengeance against Israel for their sins we learn:
I. It was lifted against those things in which the people trusted most. Toward Jerusalem, the holy places, the land of Israel (Eze. 21:2). The Jews turned their faces towards Jerusalem when they prayed in war, or in a foreign land. The sword of the Lord was to be drawn against all those glories of their country in which they most prided themselves. The candlestick will be removed from unfaithful churches.
II. It was manifestly the Sword of the Lord. My sword (Eze. 21:3). Human instruments were to be used, human passions; yet behind all these, and directing them, God was working out his own purposes. The swords were His, though men bare them. This will teach us to judge rightly of war, wherein the enmities of nations are so controlled by Providence that they are made to minister to the moral and intellectual welfare of the human race. God maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of that wrath, which might work but unmixed evil, He restrains from so futile a purpose. He can punish by whatever instrument He pleases. And because this judgment coming upon Jerusalem and the land of Israel is described as the sword of God, it follows that that judgment is a reality. The prophet is to drop his word of prophecy toward Jerusalem. That word was not a mere sound; but a sword, a real calamity. With God, words stand for things which have a real existence. The threatenings against sinners, however they may be disregarded in the present, will in the future have a terribly real meaning.
III. It was long threatened before it was drawn to smite. And will draw forth My sword out of his sheath (Eze. 21:3). It had lain in the sheath for 400 years, during all their wanderings and rebellions. The sheath in which Gods sword of vengeance lies unused is His forbearance.
IV. It still hangs over unrighteous nations. It shall not return any more, but go forth against all flesh (Eze. 21:4-5). This was the sword of the Chaldeans: it was followed by the sword of the Romans. And so the sword of God will rest not until the last Antichrist and his desolation. Israel fell beneath the stroke of God for her sins, and who then can escape? Whole nations have perished for lack of righteousness.
V. The thought of it should produce the greatest terror and alarm.
1. In the prophet who utters the threat of it. Sigh therefore, thou son of man (Eze. 21:6). The sigh is the momentary failure of the heart when suddenly overcome by the thought of sorrow. It answers to the tongue dumb with silence at the tidings of some overwhelming calamity. The prophet charged with the message is to sigh, as if completely overcome. Even Gods people may well tremble when they think of His judgments (Dan. 9:4, etc.). Christ wept over Jerusalem at the thought of her doom, and as if unwilling to abandon her to her enemies. It is with reluctance that the Almighty Judge pronounces sentence. Judgment is Gods strange work. The preacher who wishes to affect the feelings of others must feel himself. The thought of Gods sword of vengeance should produce the greatest terror and alarm,
2. In the people to whom his message is delivered. If the prophet who simply announces the judgments is bidden to sigh, what must they do on whom the judgments are to fall! The prophet is to sigh for the tidings, because it cometh. He knows that they shall be fulfilled in grim reality. Therefore he announces that as concerning the people, Every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water (Eze. 21:17). They refused to hear, now they shall be made to feel. Those who were so insolent in prosperity, and defied God, become, when His judgments fall upon them, faint-hearted and desolate. Weak as water: the strength of the most daring sinners melts away before the righteous anger of God.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
III. ISRAELS IMMINENT JUDGMENT
20:45-21:32
In the Hebrew Bible Eze. 20:45 becomes the first verse of chapter 21. Clearly this is a better arrangement than that adopted by the Authorized Version and subsequent English translations. What is said in Eze. 20:45-49 has no connection with what has immediately preceded, but rather sets the stage for what follows in chapter 21. Ezekiel starts out with another parable (Eze. 20:45 to Eze. 21:7) which may be entitled The Parable of the Forest Fire. To his parable he adds a song about a sword (Eze. 21:8-17). This song becomes the springboard for two oracles dealing with the words of the king of Babylon (Eze. 21:18-27), and the sword which would one day fall upon Ammon (Eze. 21:28-32).
A. The Parable of the Forest Fire 20:45-21:7
TRANSLATION
(45) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (46) Son of man, set your face toward the South, and preach unto the South, and prophesy unto the forest of the field of the South. (47) And say to the forest of the South, Hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to kindle against you a fire, and it shall consume every green tree in you, and every dry tree, and it shall not be quenched, a flaming flame; and all faces from the south to the north shall be seared by it. (48) And all flesh shall see that I am the LORD when I burn it, and it shall not be quenched. (49) And I said, Ah Lord GOD! They are saying to me, Is he not a maker of parables? (1) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (2) Son of man, Set your face toward Jerusalem, and preach toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy unto the land of Israel; (3) and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am against you, and I will bring out My sword from its sheath, and I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked. (4) Because I will cut off from you righteous and wicked, therefore My sword shall go out from its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north. (5) And all flesh shall know that I the LORD have brought out My sword from its sheath; it shall not return any more. (6) And as for you, son of man, sigh; with the breaking of loins, and with bitterness You shall sigh before their eyes. (7) And it shall come to pass when they say unto you: Why are you sighing? Then you shall say: Because of the tidings, for it comes; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall droop and every spirit shall be faint, and all knees shall drip water; behold it comes, and it shall be done (oracle of the Lord GOD).
COMMENTS
In another revelation from the Lord (Eze. 20:45), Ezekiel was told to direct his attention, verbally and perhaps physically as well, toward the south. He was to preach[348] the word of the Lord in that direction. The whole of Judah is the forest of the south which Ezekiel was to address in this utterance (Eze. 20:46). That entire forest would be consumed by an unquenchable fire kindled by God Himself. Fire here is symbolic of the devastation wrought by the Chaldean armies. What few righteous there might have been (every green tree) as well as the hardened sinners (every dry tree) would be affected by that conflagration. From one end of the land to the other every face would be seared by the hot flames of judgment (Eze. 20:47). That destruction would be of such proportions that the entire world would recognize it as an act of divine judgment (Eze. 20:48).
[348] Preach here in the Hebrew is literally, drop your word. This was a technical expression used to designate prophetic utterances. The same word is used in Amo. 7:6 and Mic. 2:6; Mic. 2:11.
Ezekiels audience was not so spiritually perceptive as to be able to grasp the significance of this parable and others like it (cf. chaps. 1517). In fact it would appear that his auditors were holding Ezekiel up to ridicule because of his use of the parabolic method. He could hear them whispering to one another and referring to him as a maker of parables (lit., a riddler or riddles). With sorrow, exasperation and perhaps indignation, Ezekiel turned to God in a brief narrative prayer. No petition is directly stated; but Ezekiel is obliquely requesting that he be permitted to put his parable into plain language (Eze. 20:49).
After an interval of undetermined duration, God granted the unspoken request of his prophet (Eze. 20:1). He was to preach toward Jerusalem, the holy places and the land of Israel[349] (Eze. 20:2). Ezekiel was to announce that God had assumed a posture of hostility toward the land of Israel (Behold I am against you). The divine sword of judgment (the fire in the parable) was about to come out of its sheath. Both wicked and righteous were to be cut off (Eze. 20:3). Ezekiel had already taught that as regards to final judgment the righteous would not be destroyed with the wicked (chap. 18). But of necessity in temporal judgments the entire population of an area would be affected. Other peoples besides Israel would feel the effect of the sword of the Lord which at this point in time was wielded by the Chaldeans (Eze. 20:4). Even the foreign nations would realize that they had experienced a divine judgment. The sword of the Lord would not return unto its sheath until the destructive work assigned to it was complete (Eze. 20:5).
[349] In Eze. 20:46 three different Hebrew words are translated south Here in 21.2 the symbolic significance of those three words is explained.
Ezekiel was deeply moved by this revelation, and he was told not to hide his emotion. As in other instances (Eze. 4:4; Eze. 5:1-4) he was to dramatize in his own person the coming calamity. He was to assume the role of a mourner whose sighs were so deep that they seem to break his loins, i.e., he is to bend double as though smitten with great pain in the abdomen. This agonizing sigh was to be done before their eyes so as to provoke questions. When asked about his bitter sighing, he was to explain that this was but an example of what all the exiles would do when they got the message from Jerusalem that the Temple had been destroyed. The prophet, because of his special relationship to God, had already heard those tidings through revelation. Five years later all the exiles would hear that same message from some one who had barely escaped the fallen city. With the loss of the Temple all hopes of return to Jerusalem would be smashed. Four expressions set forth the physical and psychological reaction to the news of Jerusalems destruction (1) every heart shall melt; (2) all hands shall be slack; (3) every spirit shall be faint; and (4) all knees shall drip with water, i.e., kidney functions would not be able to be controlled. Nonetheless, that bad news was coming, and when it came it would prove to be a true account of what had actually happened in Jerusalem (Eze. 20:7).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
BY VIVID SYMBOL AND WITH STRONG CRIES EZEKIEL PROPHESIES THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM WITH FIRE AND SWORD, Eze 20:45-49; Eze 21:1-27.
The last five verses of chap. 20 should be regarded as belonging to the opening of chap. 21. A conflagration is prophesied in the forest of the “south field” (that is, Palestine, Eze 20:45-48). This is the Lord’s chastisement. The destruction shall be great and men shall know that it is the Lord’s sword which is made bare (Ezekiel 21:l-5). The prophet heaves bitter sighs and the hearts of all men melt before the sight of this drawn sword of the Lord (Eze 21:6-17) which is held in the hand of the king of Babylon (Eze 20:18-27).
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Riddle Explained.
‘And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, set your face towards Jerusalem, and drop your word towards the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel, and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus says Yahweh, behold I am against you and will draw out my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.’ ” ’
The explanation of the parable is now given. Note the connection between Jerusalem, the idolatrous sanctuaries and the land of Israel (Judah). All are seen as one in their degradation (contrast Eze 20:40 where in the future the mountain of Yahweh will be wholly acceptable). The fire has now become Yahweh’s sword. All therefore will suffer at Yahweh’s sword, both the totally wicked and those who were more righteous (compare 2Sa 24:16). None will be spared, for the wicked did evil and the righteous did nothing.
The drawing of the sword from its sheath is always a picture of imminent judgment. Compare the captain of Yahweh’s host in Jos 5:13 who was about to bring judgment on Jericho, and contrast Jer 47:6 where the judgment was with overflowing waters, which were also described as Yahweh’s sword which Jeremiah wanted to be sheathed, although it could not be because He still had work to do. See also Deu 32:41; Isa 31:8; Isa 34:5-8; Isa 66:16; Jer 25:31; Jer 50:35-38; Zep 2:12. The One Who was once their defender has now become responsible for the attack on them.
For ‘I will draw out my sword from its sheath’ compare ‘I will kindle a fire in you’ (Eze 20:47). Both are deliberate warlike actions whose intent is destruction.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Chapters Eze 20:45 to Eze 21:32 . The Certain Judgment of Yahweh.
In the Hebrew Bible Eze 20:45 is the commencement of chapter 21, and the passage fits better with what follows. The picture moves from the overall view of history and the future to God’s certain judgments now to come on Israel. These verses consist of a number of oracles, probably occurring over a period of time. They are connected by the theme of God’s sword of judgment.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Sword of the Lord.
v. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me, evidently in answer to his complaint, saying, v. 2. Son of man, set thy face, v. 3. and say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I am against thee, v. 4. Seeing, then, that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, v. 5. that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth My sword out of his sheath, v. 6. Sigh, therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins v. 7. And it shall be when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tiding, because it cometh, v. 8. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, v. 9. Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord, Say, A sword, a sword, is sharpened, v. 10. it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter, literally, v. 11. And he hath given it to be furbished that it may be handled, v. 12. Cry and howl, son of man, v. 13. Because it is a trial, v. 14. Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy and smite thine hands together, v. 15. I have set the point of the sword against all their gates that their heart may faint and their ruins, v. 18. Go thee one way or other, v. 17. I will also smite Mine hands together,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Eze 21:2, Eze 21:3
The opening words, reproducing those of Eze 20:46, indicate that the interpretation of that parable is coming. So the three variants of “south” are shown to mean respectively Jerusalem, the holy places, and the land of Israel. So, in Eze 20:3, the righteous and the wicked take the place of the “green” and the “dry” tree, and the fire is explained as meaning the sword of the invader. The teaching of Eze 18:1-32, had shown that Ezekiel had entered, as regards the ultimate judgment of individual men, into the spirit of Abram’s words “That be far from thee to destroy the righteous with the wicked” (Gen 18:25). But in regard to temporal judgments there would be in this case, as in the complaint of Job 9:22, no distinction. The sword went forth “against all flesh.”
Eze 21:6
Sigh therefore, etc. As in other instances (Eze 4:4; Eze 5:1-4), the prophet dramatizes the coming calamity. He is to act the part of a mourner, whose sighs are so deep that they seem to “break his loins” (compare, for the gesture, Nah 2:1, Nah 2:10 Isa 21:3; Jer 30:6). The strange action was meant to lead to questions. What did it mean? And then he is to answer that he does it “for the tidings” which are to him as certain as if they had already come. He is but doing what all would do, when the messenger brought word, as in Eze 33:21, five years later, that the city was at last smitten.
Eze 21:8, Eze 21:9
A sword, a sword, etc. The new section (Eze 21:9-17) rises out of the thought of the unsheathed sword in Eze 21:3. More than most other portions of Ezekiel’s writings, it assumes a distinctly lyrical character, and might be headed, “The Lay of the Sword of Jehovah.” The opening words are probably an echo of Deu 32:41. The dazzling brightness of the sword is added to its sharpness as a fresh element of terror.
Eze 21:10
The sceptre of my son, etc. The clause is obscure, possibly corrupt, and has received many interpretations.
(1) Taking the received text, the most probable explanation is that given by Keil and Kliefoth: Shall we rejoice (saying), The sceptre of my son despiseth all woods. Here the “rod” is the “sceptre” of the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10), and the words are supposed to be spoken by those who hear of the destroying sword. They need not dread the sword, they say, because the sceptre of the house of David, whom Jehovah recognizes as his son, despises all wood, looks on every other rod that is the symbol of sovereignty, with scorn. It is urged, in favour of this interpretation, that Eze 21:27 contains an unmistakable refer, nee to the prophetic words of Gen 49:10.
(2) Ewald: It is no weak rod of my son, the softest of all wood; i.e. the sword of Jehovah is no weak weapon such as might be used for the chastisement of a child (Pro 10:13; Pro 13:24).
(3) Hengstenberg: Shall we rejoice over the rod of my son, despising every tree? There is no cause for anything but the reverse of joy in the rod, the punishment which God appoints for Israel as his son, and which surpasses all others in its severity.
(4) The Authorized Version and Revised Version (margin) make the “sword” the nominative, and the words are those of Jehovah: It contemneth the rod (i.e. the sceptre) of my son, as it contemns every other tree (i.e. as in Eze 20:4), every other national sovereignty.
(5) The Revised. Version and Authorized Version (margin): It (the sword) is the rod of my son (appointed for his chastisement), and it despiseth every tree, in same sense as in (4).
(6) Cornill, altering the text, almost rewriting it, gets the meaning: It (the sword) is for men who murder and plunder, and regard not any strength. Neither the LXX. nor the Vulgate help us, the former giving, “Slay, set at naught, reject every tree;” and the latter, “Thou who guidest the sceptre of my son, thou hast cut down.” On the whole, (1) seems to rest on better ground than the others.
Eze 21:12
Terrors by reason of the sword; better, as in the Revised Version and margin of the Authorized Version, They (the princes of Judah, corresponding to the “rod” of Eze 21:10) are delivered over to the sword with my people. At this stage, in contemplating the destruction alike of princes and of people, the prophet is bidden to make his gestures of lamentation yet more expressive, “crying, howling, smiting on his thigh” (Jer 31:19).
Eze 21:13
Because it is a trial, etc. The verse has received as many interpretations, and is just as obscure as Eze 21:10, with which it is obviously connected. I begin as before with that which seems most probable.
(1) Keil: For the trial is made, and what if the despising sceptre shall riot come? The “despising sceptre” is the kingdom of Judah, and the prophet asks, “What will happen, what extreme of misery is to be looked for, if that kingdom shall not appear, if Judah shall be left without a ruler?
(2) Ewald: For it is triedand what? Whether it is also a soft rod! That will not be. Sc. men will find on trial that the sword of Jehovah is not a soft rod, but the sharpest of all weapons.
(3) Hengstenberg: And how? Shall the despising rod that outstript all other punishments not be? i.e. shall the sword of Jehovah not do its work effectively?
(4) Cornill, in part following Hitzig, again rewrites the text, and gets the meaning: How should I judge with favour? They have not turned themselves from their pollution. They shall find no place.
(5) The Authorized Version inserts t he word “sword,” apparently with the meaning that the “trial” will show that the sword of the Lord contemns the rod, i.e. the sceptre of Judah, and that that rod shall be no more.
(6) The Authorized Version (margin): When the trial hath been, what then? Shall not they also belong to the despising rod? may have had a moaning for those who adopted it, but I fail to find it.
(7) The Revised Version relegates the Authorized Version text into the margin, and substitutes, For there is a trial, and what if even the rod that contemneth (i.e. the sceptre of Judah) shall be no more?
(8) The LXX and Vulgate connect “because there is a trial” with the preceding clause, rendering it respectively, “for it has been justified (),” and “because it has been tested (probatus),” and translate what followsthe LXX; “What if even a tribe be repulsed? It shall not be;” and the Vulgate, “And this when it (the sword!) has overturned the kingdom, and it shall not be,” etc. This will be a sufficient summary of the difficulties of the exegetical problem. At the best, we must say that it remains unsolved.
Eze 21:14
Smite thine hands together, etc. Another gesture follows, either of horror and lamentation, or perhaps, looking to Eze 21:17, of imperative command. The sword is to do its thrice-redoubled work (the words emphasize generally the intensity, and are scarcely to be taken numerically, of the repeated invasions of the Chaldeans); it is “the sword of the slain” (better, pierced ones, or, with Revised Version, the deadly wounded). The next clause should be taken, with the Revised Version, in the singularthe sword of the great one that is deadly wounded; sc. the sword should smite the king as well as the people. For entereth into their privy chambers, read, with the Revised Version (margin), Ewald, and Keil, it compasseth them about.
Eze 21:15
For their ruins shall be multiplied, read, with the Revised Version, that their stumblings; and for wrapped up, pointed, or sharpened.
Eze 21:16
Go thee one way or another, etc.; i.e. as in the following, to the right hand or the leftto the north or the south. Whichever way the prophet turned (Eze 20:47), he would see nothing but the sword and its work of slaughter. Jehovah had given that command with the gesture of supreme authority. He would not rest till he had appeased his wrath by letting it work itself out even to the end. With these words the “Lay of the Sword of Jehovah” ends, and there is again an interval of silence.
Eze 21:17-19
The new section opens in a different strain. Ezekiel sees, as in vision, Nebuchadnezzar and his army on their march. He is told to appoint a place where the road bifurcated. Both come from one land, i.e. from Babylon; but from that point onwards one road led to Rabbath, the capital of the Ammonites (Deu 3:11; 2Sa 11:1), the other to Jerusalem. Apparently, the exiles and the people of Judah flattered themselves that the former was the object of the expedition. The answer to that false hope is a vivid picture of what was passing in the council of war which Nebuchadnezzar was holding at that parting of the ways. The prophet sees, as it were, the sign post pointing, as with a hand, to each of the two cities The king consults his soothsayers, and uses divinations. Of these Ezekiel enumerates three:
(1) He shakes the arrows to and fro (Revised Version). This was known among the Greeks as the The arrows were put into a quiver, with names (in this case probably Rabbath and Jerusalem) written on them. One was then drawn, or thrown, out as by chance, and decided the direction of the campaign.
(2) He consults the images (Hebrew, teraphim). The modus operandi in this case is not known, but Jdg 18:18 and Hos 3:4 point to some such use of them.
(3) There remains the sacrifice and the inspection of the liver, familiar alike in Greek, Etrurian, and Roman divination (Cicero, ‘De Divin.,’ 6:13).
Eze 21:22
At his right hand was, etc.; better, into his right hand came, etc.; sc. the arrow marked for Jerusalem was that which came into the king’s hand as the quiver was shaken. To appoint captains; better, battering rams, in both clauses. The same Hebrew word is used in both (see note on Eze 4:2). The verse paints the engineering operations of the besiegers, following on the issue of the divination. (For the mount, comp. Isa 37:33.)
Eze 21:23
The whole verse is obscure, and has been very variously interpreted. I follow the translation of the Revised Version, and explain it by inserting words which are needed to bring out its meaning: It (what Nebuchadnezzar has done) shall be as a vain divination in their sight (sc. in that of the men of Jerusalem), which have sworn unto them (sc. have taken oaths of fealty to the Chaldeans, and are ready to take them again), but he (Nebuchadnezzar) brings iniquity to remembrance. The fact represented is that when the people of Jerusalem heard of the divination at the parting of the ways, they still lulled themselves in a false security. They and Zedekiah had sworn obedience, and that oath would protect them. “Not so,” rejoins the prophet; “the Chaldean king knows how those oaths have been kept.” The LXX. omits all reference to “oaths.” The Vulgate. taking the word for “oath” in its ether sense of “sabbath,” gives the curious rendering, Eritque quasi consulens frustra oraculum in eorum oculis, et sabbatorum otium imitans. In spite of the reports that reached them, the men of Jerusalem thought themselves as safe as if the Chaldean king were keeping a sabbath day. Ewald partly follows the Vulgate, and renders, They believe they have weeks on weeks, i.e. will not believe that the danger is close at hand. Keil and Havernick: Oaths of oaths are theirs; i.e. they count on the oath of Jehovah, on his promises of protection, but he (Jehovah) brings iniquity to remembrance. That they may be taken; i.e. be seized by the invader and either slain or made prisoners
Eze 21:24
The prophet adds words which in part explain these that precede. The iniquity of the people has forced, not the Chaldean king only, but Jehovah himself, to remember and to punish them.
Eze 21:25
And thou, profane wicked prince of Judah, etc.; better, with the Revised Version, O deadly wounded, etc; as in Eze 21:29, where the same word is translated in the Authorized Version as “slain” The Authorized Version follows the LXX. and Vulgate, apparently in order to make the word fit in with the fact that Zedekiah was not slain, but carried into exile. The word “deadly wounded,” or “sorely smitten,” may rightly be applied to one who fell, as Zedekiah did, from his high estate. From the sins of the people the prophet turns to the special guilt of Zedekiah, who had proved unfaithful alike to Jehovah and to the Chaldean king, whom he had owned as his suzerain. His day had at last come, the time of the iniquity of the end of the last transgression which was to bring down on him the final punishment.
Eze 21:26
Remove the diadem, etc. The noun is used throughout the Pentateuch (e.g. Exo 28:4; Exo 37:1-29 :39; Le Exo 8:9; Exo 16:4) for the “turban” or “mitre” of the high priest, and Keil so takes it here, as pointing to the punishment of the priest as well as of the king. This shall not be the same; literally, this shall not be this; or, as the Revised Version paraphrases, this shall be no more the same; i.e. the mitre and the crown shall alike pass awaytaken from their unworthy wearers. There was to be, as in the following words, a great upturning of all things; the high brought low, the lowly exalted.
Eze 21:27
I will overthrow. The sentence of destruction is emphasized, after the Hebrew manner, by a threefold iteration (Isa 6:3; Jer 22:29). It shall be no more. The pronoun in both clauses probably refers to the established order of the kingdom and the priesthood. “That order,” Ezekiel says, “shall be no more.” Keil, however, takes the second “it”the “this” of the Revised Versionas meaning the fact of the overthrow. That also was not final; all things were as in a state of flux till the Messianic kingdom hinted at in the next clause should restore the true order. Until he come whose right it is. The words contain a singularly suggestive allusion to Gen 49:10, where a probable interpretation of the word “Shiloh” is “he to whom it belongs;” or, as the LXX. gives it, . The passage is noticeable as being Ezekiel’s first distinct utterance of the hope of a personal Messiah. Afterwards, in Eze 34:23, it is definite enough.
Eze 21:28
Thus saith the Lord God concerning the Ammonites. Ezekiel has not forgotten that scene at the parting of the ways. The Ammonites, when they saw the issue of the divination, and the march of the Chaldean army to the west, thought themselves safe. They took up their reproach against Jerusalem, and exulted in its fall. They are warned, as in another strophe of the “Lay of the Sword of Jehovah,” that their confidence is vain (comp. Zep 2:8 for a like exultation at an earlier period).
Eze 21:29
Whiles they see, etc. The words may possibly refer to Nebuchadnezzar’s diviners in Eze 21:21, but more probably to those whom the Ammonites themselves consulted. The pronoun “thee” in both clauses refers to Ammon. The result of those who divined falsely was that the sword would be drawn against the necks of the Ammonites and threw them upon the heap of the slaughtered ones. For them, as in the words that end the verse, reproducing those of Eze 21:25, punishment is decreed, and that punishment will come.
Eze 21:30
Shall I cause it, etc.? The question of the Authorized Version suggests a negative answer, as though the speaker were Jehovah, and the sheath that of his sword. The Revised Version, which translates it, with Keil, the LXX; and the Vulgate, as an imperative, deals with it as addressed to the Ammonites. They am told to sheath their sword; it would be of no avail against the sharp, glittering weapon of Jehovah. Their judgment would soon come on them in their own land, not, as in the case of Judah, in the form of exile (comp. Eze 25:1-8 as an expansion of the prophet’s thought).
Eze 21:31
I will blow against, etc. The imagery of fire takes the place of that of the sword. The brutish men (same word as in Psa 49:10; Psa 92:6) are the Chaldean conquerors. The fact that the adjective may also mean “those that burn” may, in part, have determined Ezekiel’s choice of it.
Eze 21:32
For Ammon there is no hope of a restoration like that which Ezekiel speaks of as possible for Jerusalem, and even for Sodom and Samaria. Its doom is written in the words, it shall be no more remembered (comp. Eze 25:7).
HOMILETICS
Eze 21:4
The common fate of righteous and wicked.
Both the righteous and the wicked are to be cut off. Though not equal in moral character, they are to share in the same general calamities.
I. IT IS A FACT THAT THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER WITH THE WICKED. We see this fact in everyday experience, and it would be a falsehood to formulate a doctrine which seemed to our short-sighted judgment more just, if it did interpret events.
1. From human conduct. The bad policy of a king brings war and its attendant miseries on a whole nation. The crime of a father bequeaths poverty, shame, and misery to his whole family.
2. From natural calamities. An earthquake will shake down a church upon the heads of the most devout worshippers, with as terrible a slaughter as that which follows the overthrow of some theatre of sinful revelry.
II. THE COMMON LIFE OF MANKIND NECESSITATES THIS COMMON FATE. There is a certain solidarity of man. We are members one of another, so that if one member suffers, all the members suffer. This is one penalty we pay for the union with our fellow men which on the whole is immensely helpful Without such a union there would be no society, no organic connection between individuals. The rich, full life that grows out of the mutual ministries of man would then be impossible.
III. IT IS AN AGGRAVATION OF A CALAMITY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS SHARE THE FATE OF THE WICKED. The wicked could well be spared, and it might seem to be a good thing for the world that their places should be vacant; but every good man has his good work which suffers when he is taken away. The guilt of those who bring disaster on the innocent is all the greater on this account. No worse thing can happen to a people than that its saving elements should be taken away. They are the salt of the land.
IV. THE RIGHTEOUS WHO SUFFER WITH THE WICKED ARE NOT ULTIMATELY INJURED, The injustice is temporary.
1. The outward suffering is an inward blessing. The physical nature of the suffering may be the same in both eases; but its moral character differs entirely according as it is deserved or not. When it falls on innocent men it is not punishment; there is no curse in it; it comes as the fire that purges the silver.
2. The temporary suffering will be followed by eternal blessedness. We may say of the righteous and the sinful who were victims of a common calamity, “In their death they were not divided.” But after death there is a swift and searching separation. Then it is seen that the righteous were taken from the evil to come.
V. THE COMMON FATE OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED MAY BE A MEANS OF SAVING BOTH. It was so in the Captivity. Good men like Daniel and “The Three Children” were taken to Babylon together with the corrupt courtiers of Jerusalem, and there they maintained the flame of ancient Hebrew piety, so as to prepare for a renewed people’s restoration. Christ died the sinner’s death that he might save the sinner, after he himself had been raised up from the dead in victory over sin.
Eze 21:9
The sword of war.
I. THE SWORD OF WAR BRINGS FEARFUL TROUBLE. When the hoarded judgment bursts over the head of the guilty nation of Israel, it falls in the form of war. Those people who speak lightly of war as being “good for trade,” as “opening careers for men,” and as “developing manly virtues,” etc; would do well to consider that the fearful monster is regarded in the Bible as the worst of plagues. David was a man of war and he knew what its horrors meant. It was with no nervous fear like that of King James who shuddered at the sight of a sword, with no sentimental tremors of an effeminate nature, that the old warrior David chose the horrors of a pestilence in preference to those of war. Note some of its evils.
1. Destructiveness. It must be a fallacy to regard it as “good for trade.” Whatever temporary and artificial fillip commerce may receive during the actual campaign is paid for ten times over by the subsequent collapse. England was thrown back for generations by the Napoleonic wars. The soldiers are withdrawn from productive work; ordinary commerce is stopped; and a vast amount of property is directly destroyed.
2. Suffering. Every one who has witnessed the scenes of a battlefield turns from the recollection of them with loathing and horror. War is not a pageant of drums and trumpets and flying banners; it is a huge Inferno of groans and agonizing deaths. Thousands lie wounded on the field, some trampled on by charging steeds, some anguished for want of the drop of water which cannot be reached, sick with the blazing heat of the sun or chilled to the marrow in snow and frost. Thousands are cut off in the flower of their youth, sent prematurely to the grave before their real life work is begun. And every death means a household of bitter mourning in the old home.
3. Wickedness. War lets loose the lowest passions. Hatred and bloodthirsty vengeance are engendered, and men are brought down to the level of wild brutes. Too often savage lust follows, and the vilest outrages are committed.
II. THE SWORD OF WAR MAY BE USED AS A DIVINE CHASTISEMENT.
1. Sharpened by sin. National misconduct lays a people open to the ravages of war. The curse may be earned immediately by insolent and unrighteous dealings with other nations; or it may be brought less directly and not as we could anticipate. Yet the awful fact remainsNational sin necessitates national judgment, and the most awful and yet the most common national judgment is war.
2. Directed by God. This was the case with the wars of judgment that visited Israel. Israel’s sin sharpened the sword, but God’s hand guided it. For the providence of God cannot be excluded, even from so lawless and monstrous a thing as war.
(1) This adds to its terror. It is fearful to know that God wills us to suffer from so dire a calamity. Then there can be no escaping it.
(2) This suggests hope of final rescue. Wherever God is, love is. The God of battles is the God of Bethlehem. He who sends the war to scourge also sends the gospel to save.
Eze 21:17
The satisfaction of God’s fury.
This is a most awful subject. Gladly would we leave it alone. Oh for a fresh sight of God’s eternal love, instead of this horror of great darkness, this vision of wrath and judgment unrestrained and fully satisfied! Yet the fearful words are before us and they invite our earnest regard.
I. GOD‘S FURY IS FEARFULLY PROVOKED BY SIN. It is only against sinners that these dreadful words are written. The righteous may share the temporal calamities that smite the wicked (Eze 21:4), but they incur none of the wrath of God that lies behind those calamities. Nevertheless, as we are all sinners, there is little comfort in this thought. Consider how greatly sin provokes wrath.
1. It is committed in full daylight. The Jews possessed the land. We know Christ. We cannot plead ignorance. Even the heathen have accusing consciences.
2. It is committed against love. We sin against our Father, to whom we ewe everything, and who has been infinitely gracious to us.
3. It is committed in spite of warnings. Israel had her grand procession of minatory prophets from Elijah to Ezekiel. We have the warnings of the Bible.
4. It is committed without necessity. There is a better way and a happier. Nothing but the most wilful perversity can make us choose the evil path. A saving hand has been held out to protect us. When we sin we reject that help.
5. It is committed after God‘s long suffering has been tried. He has long refrained from punishing. Yet men have made his long suffering an excuse for greater sin. Thus they have “treasured up wrath for the day of wrath.”
II. GOD‘S FURY CANNOT BE RESISTED.
1. It cannot be opposed by men‘s powers. The sinner has to contend with the Almighty and the All-wise. The stoutest must fall in such a contest, and the most cunning must fail in the foolish attempt to outwit God.
2. It cannot be opposed by any excuses. Unhappily, there is no doubt as to the guilt of the sinner. He had opportunities of return, and he rejected them. Conscience must paralyze resistance.
3. It cannot be opposed by God‘s love. There is no schism in the nature of God. Love itself must approve of wrath directed against hardened impenitence.
III. GOD‘S FURY WILL BE SATISFIED.
1. It will not fail. Nothing that God attempts can fail. This we may infer as a conclusion from the observations under the previous head.
2. It will not endure forever. When it has accomplished its work it will rest. It may be that some of the results of it will endure forever. The slain man will not arise again on earth, but he is not being killed continuously. The ruined city may never be rebuilt, and yet the earthquake that overthrew temples and palaces has long subsided, and all is now still and calm.
3. It will be satisfied when it has accomplished its end. God’s fury is not like his love. It does not spring unprovoked from his own heart. It is roused by sin, and when it has punished sin, it is satisfied. But this is the most awful satisfaction of it. There is another satisfaction, viz.:
4. It will be satisfied when it is propitiated. This is not stated in the verse before us. But it is the burden of the gospel. Christ our Advocate propitiates the wrath of God (1Jn 2:1, 1Jn 2:2). Then if we have confessed our sin, and sought the saving help of Christ, we need fear the wrath of God no longer. It is satisfied.
Eze 21:24
Transgressions discovered.
I. TRANSGRESSIONS ARE DISCOVERED BY GOD AS SOON AS THEY ARE COMMITTED. He is present when the deeds are done; his eyes are always open to observe the conduct of his creatures; he is not negligent of sin. We start, therefore, with the position that there is no such thing as secret sin. The appearance of secrecy arises from the fact that the great Witness withholds his evidence for the present. Such a position leads to the inevitable conclusion that some day the most hidden evil may be made manifest. God holds the key, and he will unlock the door whenever he sees fit.
II. TRANSGRESSIONS WILL BE DISCOVERED TO THE UNIVERSE IN THE FUTURE JUDGMENT. This must be what the judgment really means. We have been accustomed to the picture of a vast assize, as though God needed to go through the forms of a criminal trial with souls, every secret of whom has been perfectly known to him from the first. Such a trial would be an empty form, a mere theatrical display. But God will make the justice of his action apparent to all, and in doing so the secrets of all hearts will be revealed.
III. TRANSGRESSIONS ARE LIKELY TO BE DISCOVERED ON EARTH. It is scarcely possible for a man to play the hypocrite successfully till his secret is sealed in death. At some moment of inadvertency he is almost certain to lift the mask, and then the discovery of his deceit, once made, will destroy forever the reputation of years. Sin will work its fruits in the bad man’s life. Though never confessed in words, it is expressed in tone and temper. The very features of the countenance set themselves to the character of the life within. Moreover, sudden surprises and unexpected turns of events will reveal a man to the world. The long buried secret comes to light. Achan’s Babylonish garment is brought to light (Jos 7:18-20). Ananias and Sapphira cannot conceal their lie (Act 5:9). Eugene Aram cannot hide the corpse of his victim. Dimsdale is driven to reveal the scarlet letter that burns in fire on his breast.
IV. TRANSGRESSIONS MAY BE HIDDEN BY FORGIVENESS. In the expressive Hebrew phrase, they are then said to be “covered.” The only way to have our transgression thus buried out of sight is for us first to confess it to God. Thus we need to pray that be will search us and try us, and see if there be any wicked way in us (Psa 139:23, Psa 139:24). Until our sins are brought home to our consciences, there is no hope that they will be permanently hidden. If we forget them, God will remember them. For God to forget them we must first remember them. When transgressions are thus owned to God, we are in the condition to receive his pardon, after which we may take the assurance, “Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” The sins are then banished “as far as the east is from the west.” They are “buried in the depth of the sea.” God does not goad his restored children with their old sins.
Eze 21:27
Revolution and restoration.
I. REVOLUTION. God overturns Israel and its institutions by repeated acts in the successive invasions of Nebuchadnezzar. The ruin is utter. No city has sustained so many sieges as Jerusalem, or has been so often sacked and destroyed. Now, we are reminded that these terrible disasters are elements in a Divine judgment and discipline. It is God who overturns. There is, therefore, a providential purpose in the event.
1. Revolution must precede restoration. The Divine education of mankind is not a continuous, unbroken development. The earthquake has its mission as truly as the April shower. Evil must be overthrown before good can be built up. This may mean a violent process. We are too mild in some of our methods of treating sin. Undoubtedly, God has not committed his sword of judgment to us, but he expects his servants to testify against sin, and so to pull down the strong walls of Satan. Aggressive work is absolutely necessary. While we preach the gospel of peace, we have also to fight against intemperance, commercial corruption, and all evil customs and institutions.
2. This revolution must be universal. There is a sweeping comprehensiveness in our text. Political revolutions, indeed, may not be called for, for now we have to engage in spiritual work. But there must be revolution in every region of life.
(1) In the heart. Old prejudices and habits must be thrown downevery mountain made low.
(2) In the Church. Christ cleansed the temple. The Reformation was a great overturning. Much in the Church now needs to be overturned; e.g. worldly practices, human inventions, false ideas, Christless journalism, etc.
(3) In society. The apostles were regarded as firebrand revolutionists, who “turned the world upside down.” Social injustice must be overturned, not, perhaps by “Red Republicanism,” but by Christian brotherhood. We must not suppose that God will let the monstrous evils of Christendom go on forever. He will overturn much before we can see the millennium. The new wine cannot be contained in the old bottles.
II. RESTORATION.
1. The revolution prepares for a restoration. Mere destruction perfects nothing. It is necessary only as preliminary to something constructive. Blank nihilism is the most barren philosophy. The “everlasting no” is not a gospel for hungry humanity. After the revolution there must be a new order, and after repentance there must be a new life.
2. The restoration can only be accomplished by Christ. Until Christ came the Jews were never truly restored, though they had returned to their land. In Christ Israel had its long hoped for redemption (Luk 2:29, Luk 2:30), though, alas! most of the nation rejected it, and left it to others. It is easy to demolish an ancient effete system. The difficulties begin with building up a new and better one. We cannot establish a new social order, nor can we even stir up a better life in our own breasts. The weary world waits for the full coming of Christ to restore its overturned peace and order.
3. This restoration will be fully satisfactory.
(1) Christ has a right to enjoy the headship over it: “Whose right it is.” He is not only the Son of David, and Heir to the old throne; he is the Son of God, vested with Divine rights.
(2) Christ receives his kingdom worn his Father (Php 2:9-11): “I will give it him.”
(3) This restoration will not be a return to the old position. If it were so, the whole process would be a profitless cycle. But Christ’s kingdom of heaven is infinitely better than David’s kingdom of Israel.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Eze 21:3-5
Undiscriminating infliction.
It is a pathetic spectacle, this of the prophet, in his exile away in the northeast, turning by Divine command his gaze, sorrowful and sympathizing, towards Jerusalem, the holy places, the land of Israel. The present is sad enough, but Ezekiel has to bear the oppressive anticipation of the future. He hears the assurance of the God whom his countrymen have offended by their infidelity that worse calamity, even disaster, and death are about to befall the remnant in Palestine. The sword is about to be drawn out of its sheath, and the righteous and the wicked alike are about to feel the keenness of its edge.
I. PROVIDENCE REGARDS A NATION AS HAVING A CORPORATE LIFE. Israel was a unity, and the scattered tribes were regarded by the King of nations as one people. It is the same with other communities. Every nation has its own national life, its own organic unity. Each subject or citizen is a member of the body, and his existence has meaning in this relation and all that it involves.
II. RECTORAL LAW ACCORDINGLY DEALS WITH A NATION AS A WHOLE. The inhabitants of the earth are under moral government and control, are subject to law and to the Divine Lawgiver and Judge. God is the God of nations. So much is this the case that political authority is represented in Scripture as being a Divine institution: “The powers that be are ordained of God.” As Providence designs that men should live in communities, so God determines the discipline, the moral education, through which nations must pass. God is in history; which is uninteresting and meaningless unless his hand is recognized, and the operation of his rule observed with admiring reverence.
III. THIS PRINCIPLE INVOLVES THAT THE WICKED PARTICIPATE IN THE PROSPERITY, AND THE GOOD IN THE ADVERSITY, WHICH COME UPON A NATION. Individuals are not always in sympathy with the community of which they form a part. There are other currents in a stream beside its main flow. Broadly speaking, the nation which publicly and flagrantly violates the moral law undermines its own life and prepares the way for its own dissolution. When the catastrophe comes, those who have protested against the nation’s sins, and have endeavoured to stem the torrent of unbelief and ungodliness, are carried away in the general destruction.
IV. SUCH RETRIBUTION DOES NOT, HOWEVER, AFFECT THE INDIVIDUAL MORAL PROBATION OF MEN. God deals with men upon general principlesaccording to broad, intelligible laws. We cannot see how it could be otherwise. Yet this seems to involve many cases of individual hardship, and even injustice. How can this be avoided? The Judge of all the earth will surely do right. How, then, can we explain the fact thatin the language of Ezekielthe Eternal, with his sword, cuts off the righteous and the wicked?
V. THIS ARRANGEMENT IS EXPLAINED BY, AND HARMONIZES WITH, THE JUDGMENT AND RETRIBUTION OF A FUTURE STATE. What we know not now we shall know hereafter. The anomalies of the present state of being are such as to suggest that this is only a probationary state, that we do not now and here see the unfolding of the complete purposes of the Lord and Judge of all. The Scriptures reveal a state in which retribution and compensation shall be complete, as we know they are not here. The righteous and the wicked shall not always be confused in one common category, and consigned to one common doom. The discrimination which is not exercised now shall be exercised hereafter. Prosperous sinners shall not forever elude the righteous judgment of God. The suffering and patience of the virtuous and pious shall one day be rewarded, not only by the approbation of the Judge, but by an everlasting recompense.T.
Eze 21:6, Eze 21:7
The sign of sighing.
In the case of Ezekiel, perhaps more than in any other of the prophets, actions were adopted as prophetic signs, more effective than words. The tidings conveyed to the prophet, and through him to his fellow countrymen, were of so mournful an import that such indications of mental distress as sighing and weeping were natural expressions of the feelings which he could not but experience. It was appointed for him in this way to excite the curiosity of his people, and, in response to their inquiries, to inform them of coming evils.
I. THE CAUSE OF THE PROPHET‘S SIGHING.
1. The trouble which was about to come upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the whole land of Israel, in the invasion of the country, the siege of the metropolis, and the violent death of many of the inhabitants.
2. The sinful rebelliousness of the people, by which they were bringing upon themselves these calamities and disasters.
3. Ezekiel’s deep and sincere sympathy with sufferers, and his sorrow for their evil ways, so that he felt for his fellow countrymen as he would have felt for himself.
II. THE SEVERITY OF THE PROPHET‘S SIGHING. It was “with bitterness,” “with the breaking of the loins,” i.e. sighing shaking the whole bodily frame, and evincing the pungent distress afflicting his spirit.
III. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPHET‘S SIGHING.
1. It was an evidence of patriotism; for Ezekiel himself was far from the scene of approaching retribution, and it did not affect him personally, but through his patriotic identification of himself with all that concerned his people.
2. It was an evidence of his faith in Divine assurances. There is no reason to suppose that mere political foresight enabled the prophet to anticipate the coming, evil; yet he realized its certain approach with such intensity as to call forth the manifestation of feeling here described.
3. It was a warning to the careless and insensible. There were many for whom Ezekiel sighed who sighed not for themselves; yet theirs was the sin, and theirs the punishment now imminent.
4. It was a summons to repentance. If the prophet cried and sighed for the abominations wrought among the people, how much more did it become those who by their sins had provoked the anger of the righteous God to consider their ways, to weep because of their guilty ingratitude and persistent disobedience, and to flee from the wrath to come! how much more did it behove them to call upon the Lord that he might have mercy upon them, and upon their God who could abundantly pardon!T.
Eze 21:8-17
The sword.
Among the great powers that have affected human history must be reckoned the sword. As the emblem of physical force, of the superiority of the great of the world, it has special significance for the student of human affairs. The vision of the sword revealed to Ezekiel the impending doom of the land of Israel, and particularly of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. When he saw in imagination the glittering blade and the keen edge, his mind anticipated the awful fate which was about to overtake his afflicted and sinful fellow countrymen.
I. THE SWORD IS THE IMPLEMENT OF HUMAN AMBITION AND VENGEANCE.
II. THE SWORD IS THE WEAPON OF DIVINE RETRIBUTION UPON THE NATIONS. Whilst it is unquestionable that wars and fightings come from human lusts, it is to the religious man, to the student of Scripture, equally plain that a Divine Providence overrules all the conflicts of the nations to accomplish wise purposes, and even purposes of. benevolence. The Assyrian power directed its forces against the land of Israel, under the influence, doubtless, of human passions and purposes by which those passions were suggested. But Assyria, Egypt, Persia, and Rome were pewees which the God of Israel employed to bring about the ends fixed upon by his own wisdom and faithfulness. As an instrument by which punishment was inflicted upon the idolatrous and rebellious, the sword was not only the sword of Nebuchadnezzar, but the sword of the Lord of hosts.
III. THE SWORD IS A SUMMONS TO HUMILIATION AND REPENTANCE. Ezekiel himself evidently regarded it in this light. He was directed to cry and howl, to smite upon his thigh, to smite his bands together, when he beheld in vision the weapon which was about to chastise his rebellious countrymen. There are minds which need to face the consequences of sin in order that they may admit the awfulness of sin itself. When the displeasure of the Almighty is revealed against the iniquities of men, they are sometimes roused to reflection and inquiry, and so it may be to repentance.
IV. THE SWORD IS THE SYMBOL OF THE POWER BY WHICH SIN IS SLAIN. The sons of Israel were not alone in the practice of sin, in ingratitude, and disobedience. Men in every age and in every place are found guilty of rebellion against the holy and. righteous God. Well is it when they turn against their own sins the edge of the spiritual sword, when they attack their vices, their follies, their crimes, as the enemies of God, and, by slaying with the Divine weapon the rebellious forces, avoid the otherwise inevitable judgment and retribution which overtake the impenitent.T.
Eze 21:18-32
The impartiality of Divine justice.
Very picturesque and memorable is this portion of Ezekiel’s prophecies. The prophet in his vision beholds the King of Babylon on his way to execute the purposes of God upon the rebellious and treacherous prince of Judah, and upon his partakers in sin. He sees him at some point of this expedition, standing on the northeast of Palestine, uncertain whether in the first instance to direct his arms against Rabbath, the capitol of the Ammonites, or Jerusalem, the metropolis of Judah. He is at “the parting of the way,” and calls to his aid, to help him to a decision, not only the counsel of the politician and the commander, but that also of the diviner. The bright arrows, on which the names of the two cities are inscribed, are drawn as in a lottery, the images are consulted, the liver is inspected by the augur. The prophet sees the resolve taken to proceed against Jerusalem; yet at the same time, he predicts that the children of Ammon shall not escape the edge of the glittering sword of retribution and vengeance.
I. DIVINE JUSTICE MAKES USE OF HUMAN AGENCIES OF RETRIBUTION, OFTEN THEMSELVES UNCONSCIOUS OF THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH THEY ARE EMPLOYED. The King of Babylon was appointed as the minister of righteous avenging upon both Judah and Ammon. Unawares to himself, he, in his military operations, was carrying out the predictions of God’s prophets, and the decree of God himself. Infinite wisdom is never at a loss for means by which to bring to pass its own counsels and resolves.
II. DIVINE JUSTICE PUNISHES THE PRIVILEGED WHO ARE UNFAITHFUL TO THEIR PRIVILEGES AS WELL AS THOSE WHOSE PRIVILEGES HAVE NOT BEEN EXCEPTIONAL. Although the descendants of Abraham were selected from among the nations for a special purpose connected with God’s plans for the moral government of the world, they were not thereby released from their righteous obligations, or from liability to punishment in case those obligations were repudiated. Israel’s election did not secure exemption from the consequences of defection and rebellion. Rather was the guilt of the nation deemed to be aggravated by their neglect to use aright the many advantages with which they were favoured. On the other hand, the Ammonites were not secured against righteous retribution merely because they were less highly privileged than Israel. They had a measure of light, and they were responsible for walking in the light they enjoyed; and if they loved darkness rather than light, they secured their own condemnation.
III. DIVINE JUSTICE DECIDES WHICH GUILTY NATION SHALL BE CORRECTED, AND WHICH SHALL BE DESTROYED. Into the secret counsels of God it is not given us to enter. Facts are before us; and we see that, according to this prophecy, Ammon was committed as fuel to the fire, and was no more remembered; that the very name of the Ammonites vanished out of human history; and we see that the Jewish people survived, and were brought forth from the furnace into which they were cast. We can only apply to these facts our faith in the Divine righteousness, and hold fast by our conviction that in this, as in all his dealings with men, the Eternal Ruler has acted upon principles of unquestionable equity.
IV. DIVINE JUSTICE SUMMONS SINFUL NATIONS TO REPENTANCE AND NEWNESS OF LIFE. These predictions and their fulfilment in history have been recorded for our instruction. What we read in Scripture is fitted to deepen within our nature the conviction that this world is under the righteous government of God. And we shall be foolish indeed if we do not infer from this fact the necessity of repentance and of renewal; if we are not led to welcome the assurance that for the penitent there is mercy, and for the lowly, life. – T.
Eze 21:26, Eze 21:27
The Divine reversal.
The judgments of God are not in vain. The sword is not sheathed until the purposes of infinite righteousness are achieved. War leads to such an end, to such a place, as eternal wisdom approves. No good end would be answered by Divine interposition, did all things go on as before. A Divine reversal crowns the work.
I. THE HISTORICAL FACT. The primary reference of the prophet is doubtless to the downfall of the usurping, rebellious, treacherous, plotting prince of Judah, i.e. Zedekiah. His true policy lay in subjection to Nebuchadnezzar; instead of adopting and holding fast by this policy, he was ever endeavouring to free himself from the yoke, in the vain hope of independence. It was foreseen and predicted by Ezekiel that this should lead to his destruction.
II. THE MORAL, GOVERNMENTAL PRINCIPLE SUGGESTED BY THIS FACT. We learn that the Omnipotent Ruler is not indifferent to what happens among the nations, that he works in and through the ordinary laws of human action, and may sometimes work by extraordinary and exceptional means. Certain it is that his ways are not as men’s ways. The great are often overthrown, and the feeble exalted, by the operation of his wise and merciful providence. God confounds all human policy and defeats all human expectations, exalts the low, and at the same time abases the high. The mitre and the crown are taken from the forehead of the powerful, and are placed upon the lowliest, brows.
III. THE TYPICAL AND SPIRITUAL APPLICATIONS OF THIS PRINCIPLE. There is a grandeur in this language which seems almost to compel its reference to greater events than those which happened in Jerusalem during the Eastern captivity. The kingdom of sin is mighty, and then have often felt how utterly vain it is to expect that kingdom to yield to any human attack. Ignorance and error, vice and crime, superstition and infidelity, have through millenniums of human history acquired over humanity a power which seems irresistible and invincible. But there is One “whose right it is” to reign, and he, the Son of God, has come in the flesh, and has come in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. In his favour, and in order to secure his universal conquest, his everlasting dominion, the Most High is overturning, ever overturning. He is the High Priest, the rightful King, of the humanity whose nature he assumed, and fur whose salvation he died. The mitre and the crown are his of right, and to him they shall be given. Every usurper shall be defeated and disgraced; and Christ, whose right it is to reign, shall receive the kingdom, and his dominion shall have no end.T.
HOMILIES BY J.D. DAVIES
Eze 21:1-17
Irresistible slaughter.
The subject matter of this prophecy is substantially the same as the foregoing. The parable is now put into plainest language. There is an advantage in using the parable method. It awakens attention. It leads men to examine and reflect. There is an excitement in discovering a riddle. Yet God will speak also to men in language plain enough tot the simplest understanding. No lost man is able to cast any blame on our God. We have “line upon line, precept upon precept.”
I. THE SCENE OF DIVINE DESTRUCTION. God’s righteous anger is directed against the Holy Land, the holy places, the temple itself. Kings and priests alike are doomed. Traditional eminence and renown are impotent as a defence Against just retribution. God is no respecter of persons. Sin is equally detestable in an Israelite as in an Egyptian, and will be punished with equal severity. Oat of regard for a good man, God may employ a different methodmore patience, perhapsin dealing with his son; yet, in the end, there will not be the deviation of a hair’s breadth from righteous principle. No man can cloak himself with privilege.
II. GOD‘S VENGEANCE IRRESISTIBLE. “I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint.” As Samson lifted off the gates of Gaza from their hinges, much more can Samson’s Creator pierce with his sword gates of brass and fortresses of iron. Who can withstand his thunderbolts? Who can raise a defence against his lightning? “Every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble.” Did the antediluvians stop the rising of the Deluge? Could the families of Egypt protect their firstborn against the angel of destruction? Had the dwellers in Pompeii any power to prevent the overthrow of their city? How vain and impotent are men in league against an avenging God!
III. GOD‘S VENGEANCE IS THOROUGH IS ITS ACTION. “I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.” Man’s estimate of righteousness and God’s estimate differ widely. In a nation every variety of character will be found, and sin will exist in every shade and gradation. In comparison with the blackest characters some will appear righteous who are only less tainted with sin. These are the so called righteous. In the very nature of things God will not and cannot treat alike the righteous and the wicked. The truth, then, set before us here is thisthat the whole nation was corrupt, yea, ripe for slaughter. So few were the righteous, as to be left out in this graphic and impressive description. The scourge should sweep through the land, and penetrate every secret place.
IV. GOD‘S VENGEANCE, THOUGH APPARENTLY, NOT REALLY, INDISCRIMINATE. Outwardly the same calamity may befall the righteous and the wicked, while the real and inward effect differs widely. The same sentence of death will send the righteous to their heavenly rest, the wicked to their final doom. The sun that hardens clay, melts wax. The storm that sends a leaky ship to the bottom, drives faster home the tight and gallant hark. The scourge that kills the wicked, only chastens the righteous. The furnace that destroys the alloy, refines the silver. To the few righteous this visitation of God “is a trial” (Eze 21:13). The rod had not been severe enough, therefore the sword came. No ill can befall the righteous. Death is ours. “To die is gain.”
V. DIVINE AND HUMAN COOPERATION. This sword, which was sharpened to destroy, was no less God’s sword, though it was wielded by the captains of Babylon, The prophet had his part to take. The king and statesmen of Babylonyea, even the rank and file of the armyhad their part to take, with God, in the execution of his just fury. The prophet is directed (Eze 21:14) “to smite his hands together”a matter of fact prophecy of the coming eventthe sign to summon the great army. And (in Eze 21:17) God describes himself as about to do the same act: “I will also smite mine hands together.” Men are often called to act in God’s steadas God’s delegates.
VI. DIVINE ADMONITIONS, THROUGH MEN, MUST BE DELIVERED WITH DEEP EMOTION. “Sigh therefore, son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.” If it be possible, on our part, to impress our fellow, men with the reality and severity of God’s judgments, we must do our utmost to arouse earnest repentance, or we incur grave responsibility. God has constituted human nature so that strong emotion in the preacher, seemingly manifested, awakens strong emotion in the hearers. Men everywhere are susceptible of influence from a superior or a holier man. Nothing God allows us to omit which may serve to lead our fellows to repentance. We must make it clear that the events of coming retribution adequately impress our own minds; then, and then only, shall we arouse attention, promote inquiry, and lead to reflection, self-examination, and return to God.D.
Eze 21:18-27
The all-controlling providence of God.
We have here a striking instance of the superintending agency of God. From his invisible throne he controls all the plans, divinations, arts, and labours of kings and generals. All persons and all events are directed into the channel of his purpose, and aid in the final consummation of his righteous end.
I. GOD USES EVES WICKED MEN TO DO HIS WORK. If he employed only righteous men, he would have to reject the service of the human species. There is a class of services which men render consciously and intentionally, and for which they obtain reward. They are blessed in their deeds. There is also a class of services which men render unconsciously and without intention. These have no excellence, and bring the doer no advantage. With his infinite skill God can turn all streams to work his mill. Sin shall be overruled to bring about a greater good. The wicked are God’s hand.
II. HEATHEN DIVINATIONS ARE MADE TO CONVEY GOD‘S WILL. The choice and will of men have a certain sphere in which to move freely. Yet, after all, they are but parts, minor parts, of larger machinery. Proud and presumptuous men may choose to go either east or west: they think they have their own way; yet, in the final result, it simply contributes to bring about God’s way. The ends which some men seek, and which they often attain, are only means to an end in God’s larger plan. The responses which foolish men imagine they obtain from heathen oracles or from human diviners are decrees and edicts from the unknown God. Nebuchadnezzar flattered himself that he had gained a splendid triumph, in Judaea, while he was only doing servile work as a vassal of the King of kings.
III. ALL MILITARY INVENTIONS AND EXERTIONS SERVE THE CAUSE OF GOD. How instructive is it to perceive that all the martial preparations then about to be made by Nebuchadnezzar were all prearranged by Godall sketched in outline by his prophet! How this fact humiliates man! How it exalts God in our esteem! How small a thing, afar all, is human ambition! Men who rail against God yet serve him. And if this fact is so transparently seen in the case of the King of Babylon, may we not conclude that this is a sample of every event in human life? As every atom in the mountains occupies the place allotted to it by God, so every event in human history fills a place according to God’s purpose.
IV. WICKED MEN, ALTHOUGH EMPLOYED AS INSTRUMENTS FOR CHASTISING OTHERS, BECOME VICTIMS OF GOD‘S DISPLEASURE. “Thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, thy day is come, when iniquity shall have an end.” To unreflecting minds, the defeat of a king would seem a commonplace thinga chance of war. Yet the hand of God is in the matter. “He setteth up one, and putteth down another.” As a king has larger scope for evil or for good, so proportionately is his accountability. At the best, we see but a tiny fragment of God’s method of rule; if we could comprehend the whole, we should admire the skill and power and beneficence of his vast administration.
V. SUBVERSION OF HUMAN SYSTEMS SHALL MAKE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” There is no question but that this Coming One is “Jesus Christ the Righteous.” “Because he loveth righteousness and hateth wickedness,” therefore his throne shall be forever and ever. The only solid foundation for a throne is righteousness. The dynasty founded in might shall be demolished by a greater might. Mere power has an ephemeral tenure. The mightiest thing in heaven or earth is holiness. This is the thing that cannot be shaken: this shall remain. Today the strongest kingdom upon the earth is the most righteous. “There shall be new heavens, and a new earth!” And what shall be their distinctive principletheir special glory? In them “dwelleth righteousness.” The man of right is the man of might.D.
HOMILIES BY W. JONES
Eze 21:8-17
The sacred song of the sword.
“Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened,” etc. The passage before us is written in the form of Hebrew poetry. The poem does not present any new truths or ideas, but is chiefly an amplification of the preceding twelve verses. There are in this song some words and phrases of considerable difficulty, in the interpretation of which a wide diversity of opinion exists. The chief features of the poem may be noticed homiletically in the following order.
I. THE PREPARATION OF THE SWORD FOR SLAUGHTER.
1. It was sharpened for daughter. “A sword is sharpened, it is sharpened to make a sore slaughter.” In the providence of God, Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean forces had become ready for their dread work at Jerusalem and among its inhabitants.
2. It was furbished for terror. “And also furbished,it is furbished that it may glitter.” The sword was burnished, that by its glittering it might dismay those against whom it was drawn (cf. Deu 32:41). The truth thus taught seems to be that the actual attack of the Chaldeans would strike terror into the hearts of the people of Jerusalem. Says Greenhill, “When God is bringing judgments upon a people, he will fit instruments for accomplishing of the same, and that to purpose. He will make that which is blunt, sharp; that which is rusty, glittering; and those who are spiritless, full of spirit; he can make one to chase ten, ten a hundred, and a hundred a thousand. His works shall never fail for want of instruments.”
II. THE PRESENTATION OF THE SWORD TO THE SLAYER. “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.” The sword was not prepared for nought. It was, as it were, given by the Lord into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar to be used by him. That monarch could not have slain one of the sons of Israel unless permission had been given him by the Supreme; an that permission would not have been given to him but for the heinous and long continued sins of Israel. So also Pilate had no power against our Lord save what was given to him from above (Joh 19:11). The mightiest sovereign or government can do nothing without the permission of the great God.
III. THE VICTIMS OF THE SWORD IN SLAUGHTER.
1. It was to wage war against the chosen people. “It is upon my people.” (We have frequently noticed this point; e.g. on Eze 20:46, and Eze 20:3.)
2. It was to wage war against the most eminent of the chosen people. “It shall be upon all the princes of Israel.” These princes were strong advocates of the alliance with Egypt, and of resistance to the authority of Nebuchadnezzar. They did this in defiance of the word of the Lord by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and against the judgment of the weak minded King Zedekiah, when he was in his better moods (cf. Jer 37:1-21, and Jer 38:1-28.). By this course of action they hastened the destruction of Jerusalem. It was fitting that, when the sword came, they should not escape its terrible strokes. And King Zedekiah is probably referred to by the prophet. “It is the sword of the great one that is deadly wounded, which entereth into their chambers” (verse 14, Revised Version); or, “that pierces into them” (Hengstenberg); “that penetrates to them” (Schroder). His sons were slain before his eyes; then his eyes were put out; then, bound in fetters, he was carried to Babylon, and there in prison he died (Jer 52:8-11); surely the glittering sword pierced him. This sharp sword recognized no distinction of rank or riches, of place or power.
3. It was to destroy the national existence of the chosen people. “It contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree And what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord God.” The view of these difficult clauses which is taken by the ‘Speaker’s Commentary’ seems to us correct. “The rod is the sceptre of dominion assigned to Judah (Gen 49:10). The destroying sword of Babylon despises the sceptre of Judah; it despises every tree (comp. Eze 20:47; Eze 21:4; also Eze 17:24).” And on verse 13, “The Karlsruhe translator of the Bible gives the best explanation: ‘What horrors will not arise when the sword shall cut down without regard the ruling sceptre of Judah?'”
IV. THE EXECUTION OF THE SWORD IN SLAYING. Several things in this poem are indicative of this. The thrice-doubled sword (verse 14) points to the dread violence of the slaughter, or to “the earnestness and energy of the Divine punishment.” The sword set against all their gates, and the multiplication of their stumblings (verse 15, Revised Version), refer to the fierce conflicts by the gates of the city and the bodies of the slain there, over which the living would stumble. And two of the directions addressed to the sword in verse 16 suggest the terrible work it was commissioned to accomplish. Revised Version, “Gather thee together;” margin, “Make thyself one;” Hengstenberg, “Unite thyself.” The allusion is “to the thrice-doubled sword in verse 14. In reality, the terrible weight is designated with which the Divine judgment falls on him whom it is to strike.” Very similar in its signification is the direction, “Set thyself in array” (verse 16, Revised Version); It denotes the determination and zeal with which the Divine judgment would be executed. All these things point to the terrible sufferings and the fierce slaughter of the guilty people of Jerusalem by the Chaldean hosts.
V. THE FEELINGS EVOKED BY THE SLAUGHTER OF THE SWORD.
1. The sorrow of the prophet in anticipation of the slaughter. “Cry and howl, son of man: for it is upon my people, it is upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.” Smiting upon the thigh was a token of intense grief, corresponding to smiting upon the breast (cf. Jer 31:19; Luk 23:48). And the prophet was to do this, and to cry and howl, not simply to express his own grief, but to indicate the anguish which would wring the hearts of the people.
2. The dismay of the people because of the slaughter. “That their heart may faint,” or “melt” (verse 15; cf. verse 7, and see our remarks thereon).
CONCLUSION. This terrible judgment was the expression of the righteous anger of the Lord God, because of the persistent and aggravated sins of the people. And when it was thus expressed, it rested. It was satisfied with the vindication of the holy Law, which had been so basely set at naught.
1. Let no man, let no community, presume upon the patience and mercy of God. He is a Being of awful justice and of terrible wrath.
2. Let no one persist in sin. Such a course must meet with the stern judgment of the Most High.W.J.
Eze 21:18-27
The approaching judgment.
“The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways,” etc. The following homiletic points are suggested by this paragraph.
I. THE DESTINATION OF THE APPROACHING JUDGMENT DETERMINED BY GOD, THOUGH THE AGENTS THEREOF WERE UNCONSCIOUS OF HIS INFLUENCE. “Son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the King of Babylon may come,” etc. (Eze 21:18-22). The prophet is here summoned to make upon a tablet, or parchment, or other material, a sketch in which two ways branch out of one principal waythe one leading to Rabbath, and the other to Jerusalem; and at the head of one of the ways to make a hand, or finger post, pointing to a city; and at the head of the two ways the King of Babylon employing divination to ascertain whether he shall proceed first against Rabbath or Jerusalem, and being directed to go to Jerusalem and besiege it. Thus he was to represent symbolically the judgment that was approaching Jerusalem from Chaldea. Notice:
1. The use of superstitious means for obtaining direction in conduct. “The King of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination,” etc. (Eze 21:21). “Divination” is a general term. Three different kinds thereof are here mentioned.
(1) “He shook the arrows to and fro.” The method referred to was probably this: Three arrows were taken, on one of them was written “Jerusalem,” on another “Rabbath,” while the third was without any inscription. These arrows were placed in a helmet or in some vessel, which was shaken until one came out; if this one bore any name, to the place thus named the king must proceed; but if the arrow without an inscription first came out, they all had to be shaken again until one bearing a name came forth and indicated the course to be taken.
(2) “He consulted the teraphim.” “The teraphim were wooden images consulted as idols, from which the excited worshippers fancied that they received oracular responses” (cf. Gen 31:19, Gen 31:30, Gen 31:32, Gen 31:34; 1Sa 19:13). The mode of consulting them is unknown.
(3) “He looked in the livery of animals offered in sacrifice the liver was looked upon as the most important part; and from an inspection of it, as to its size and condition, omens were drawn amongst several ancient nations. Nebuchadnezzar is represented by the prophet as feeling his need of direction as to whether he shall proceed first against Jerusalem or against Rabbath, and as using these modes of divination to obtain such direction. This need of our nature is recognized by God, and he has graciously provided for it (cf. Jer 10:23; Pro 3:5, Pro 3:6).
2. The use of superstitious means controlled by God for the accomplishment of his own purposes. Rabhath as well as Jerusalem had incurred the resentment of the King of Babylon. The antecedent probability was that he would first attack that place, seeing that it was somewhat nearer Chaldea than was Jerusalem. But God had determined otherwise, and accordingly the divination points Nebuchadnezzar to Jerusalem. “What a sublime proof,” says Fairbairn, “of the overruling providence and controlling agency of Jehovah! The mightiest monarch of the world, travelling at the head of almost unnumbered legions, and himself consciously owning no other direction than that furnished by the instruments of his own blind superstition, yet having his path marked out to him beforehand by this servant of the living God! How strikingly did it show that the greatest potentates on earth, and even the spiritual wickedness in high places, have their bounds appointed to them by the hand of God, and that, however majestically they may seem to conduct themselves, still they cannot overstep the prescribed limits, and must be kept in all their operations subservient to the higher purposes of Heaven!” “The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.”
“There’s a divinity doth shape our ends,
Rough-hew them holy we will.”
(Shakespeare.)
II. THE DIVINELY COMMISSIONED ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE APPROACHING JUDGMENT TREATED WITH CONTEMPT BY THE FAVOURED PEOPLE. “And it shall be unto them as a vain divination in their sight, which have sworn oaths unto them: but he bring the iniquity to remembrance that they may be taken.” The meaning of part of this verse is difficult to determine. Many and various are the interpretations of the “oaths” here mentioned. Two of these, each of which seems to us probably correct, we adduce.
1. That they refer to the awful declarations of the coming judgments which the prophet had made to them, which he generally introduced by the solemn formula, “As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah” (Eze 5:11; Eze 14:16, Eze 14:18, Eze 14:20; Eze 16:48; Eze 17:16, Eze 17:19; Eze 20:3, Eze 20:33). Notwithstanding the solemnity of these assertions, they looked upon the prophet’s announcement of impending judgment “as a vain divination.”
2. That they refer to the oaths of fealty which the Jews had sworn to Nebuchadnezzar (Eze 17:18, Eze 17:19; 2Ch 36:13), and which they had so shamefully broken. Because they were his sworn vassals, they thought that he would not attack them. But he would call their iniquity to remembrance, and bring home to them their perjury by the stern punishment thereof. Whatever interpretation of the clause in question be adopted, it is clear that the Jews made light of the announcement of judgment by the prophet. While the Chaldeans accepted the directions of their divinations, and acted upon them, the favoured Jews treated the word of Divine inspiration “as a vain divination.” And these same Jews eagerly accepted as true the messages of false prophets which assured them of peace and safety. They had so trifled with the truth of God that they had almost destroyed their moral capacity for recognizing it when it was proclaimed unto them.
III. THE INFLICTION OF THE APPROACHING JUDGMENT VINDICATED BY THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SINS OF THOSE UPON WHOM IT WAS COMING. “Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered,” etc. (Eze 21:24-26).
1. Persistence in sin leads to the discovery of their sins. “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.” Their unbelief of the word of the Lord by Ezekiel, and their treachery towards Nebuchadnezzar, which led to their dread punishment, brought to light their other sins, showing the wickedness of their entire conduct. When thieves are “taken in some wicked acts,” says Greenhill, “their former villanies come to light. As one sin begets another, so one sin discovers another.”
2. Persistence in sin leads to the punishment of their sins. “Because that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand. And thou, O deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel,” etc. (verses 25, 26). The people were to “be taken with the hand.” God would deliver them into the hand of the Chaldeans, who would inflict upon them the dreadful judgments already predicted by the prophetsword, famine, pestilence, captivity. The glory of the priesthood would be taken away; for the Lord God would “remove the diadem,” or “mitre.” The king would be carried into a miserable captivity, after enduring the most terrible sufferings (2Ki 25:4-7), and the kingdom would be destroyed; for God would “take off the crown.” Their most valued institutions would be overthrown. The then existing state of things would be destroyed. “This shall be no more the same: exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.” All would be brought to one melancholy condition of misery. National ruin was to be the penalty of national sin. Persistence in sin must ever lead to its just punishment.
3. The manifestation of sin vindicates the punishment thereof. It brings to light the justice of such punishment. That the Jews brought upon themselves the terrible sufferings which they endured at the hand of the Chaldeans was made unmistakably clear. And it was also shown that the terrible fate of the king was but the harvest of which he himself had sown the seed. In due season God himself will justify all his dealings with men.
IV. REVOLUTIONS IN HUMAN HISTORY LEADING TO THE ADVENT OF THE RIGHTFUL SOVEREIGN OF MAN. “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.” Three points are suggested by this verse.
1. The completeness of the national downfall. The repetition of the “overturn” indicates the thoroughness of the destruction. No attempt to restore the kingdom to prosperity and power would fully succeed.
2. The duration of the national downfall. “This also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is.” The regal authority and the priestly dignity were not restored to the Jews. “As to the kingdom, Zerubbabel, the leader of the people after the exile, although of David’s line, was no king on David’s throne. But Herod, who becomes king over Israel, is of Edomite origin” (Schroder). There was a partial restoration of the functions of the priesthood after the return from Babylon, but it never recovered its former dignity and glory. For, as Fairbairn observes, “there was no longer the distinctive prerogative of the Urim and Thummim, nor the ark of the covenant, nor the glory overshadowing the mercy seat; all was in a depressed and mutilated condition, and even that subject to many interferences from the encroachments of foreign powers. So much only was given, both in respect to the priesthood and the kingdom, as to show that the Lord had not forsaken his people, and to serve as pledge of the coming glory.”
3. The advent of the rightful Sovereign. “Until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” Undoubtedly these words point to the Messiah. They probably contain a reference to Psa 72:1, “Give the King thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the King’s Son.” He is the great High Priest. He is the divinely anointed King. Previous to his coming into our world all revolutions in human history were overruled by God to lead on to that event. And all subsequent revolutions, and all revolutions in the present, are being overruled by him for the establishment of his gracious rule over the hearts and lives of men throughout the whole world. “Of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Thus in the declaration of dread judgments mercy was not forgotten by God. “Even now, when he is in a full career of overturning, he tells them of the coming of Christ, who should be their King, wear the crown, and raise up the kingdom again. This was a great mercy in the depth of misery; if they lost an earthly kingdom, they should have a spiritual one; if they lost a profane and temporal king, they should have a King of righteousness, an eternal King” (Greenhill). Even in wrath he remembers and exercises mercy.W.J.
Eze 21:27
Mundane revolutions.
“I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more,” etc.
I. THE CONTINUITY OF MUNDANE REVOLUTIONS. “I will overturn, overturn, overturn it.” The Lord thus declares his determination to overthrow again and again the government of the Jews, until the coming of the Messiah, their rightful Sovereign. The words may also point, as Scott remarks, to “the repeated subversions of the Jewish nation by the Chaldeans, Macedonians, Romans, and many others to the present day; which will not come to any happy termination fill they submit to their long rejected Messiah. Nay, they seem to predict all the convulsions in states and kingdoms, which shall make way for the establishment of his kingdom throughout the earth.” Revolutions in governments, in society, in science, have always been. They are rife at present. While men continue ignorant, selfishly ambitious, and wicked, they will continue. These overturnings will not cease until human character is radically altered, until it is fashioned after the Divine model. It is not one overturning, and then settled order and progress. In our world change succeeds change as wave follows after wave on the face of old ocean. Unsettledness characterizes all things here.
II. THE DIVINE AGENCY IN MUNDANE REVOLUTIONS. “Thus saith the Lord God I will overturn, overturn, overturn it.” These revolutions are not accidental; they do not occur by chance. They are brought about under Divine arrangements. God being the great “Ruler over the nations,” they cannot take place, to say the least, without his permission. Being Supreme, all things are either originated or allowed by him. The sacred Scriptures assert this. “Neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet from the south, cometh lifting up. But God is the Judge. He putteth down one, and lifteth up another;” “He bringeth princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity;” “The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will;” “His kingdom ruleth over all.” He removes the leader of a nation’s affairs, and disorder, disturbance, and immense change follow. He sends the light of truth to oppressed peoples, and they arise and claim their freedom. But what shall we say of dark and terrible changes? Let us take an examplethe carrying of the Jews captive into Babylon. Whether we look at the sacred temple, or the celebrated city, or the fertile country, or the favoured people, how dark and sad it was! But look again. It saved the people, of whom the Messiah was to come, from idolatry, and so from utter ruin. Viewed in their Divine aspect, these revolutions are benevolent. Holy beings may advance calmly and evenly towards perfection. But disordered, sinful beings need great changes and rude shocks to banish hoary superstitions, and abolish cruel despotisms, and prevent ruinous inaction. While sin is here there must be unrest and change.
III. THE END OF MUNDANE REVOLUTIONS. “This also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.” Until our Lord shall reign over the whole world, these revolutions will occur with greater or less frequency. But when he, the rightful Sovereign, shall take possession of the kingdoms of this world, these over-turnings will forever cease. The reign of the Christ precludes revolution. The character of his reign shows this. Under it the sacredness of human life will be practically recognized, and thus war will be precluded. Under his reign the universal brotherhood of man will also be practically recognized; and thus the cruel oppressions and base wrongs of man by man, which have often led to terrible revolutions, will be precluded. The reign of the “strong Son of God” is the sovereignty of his Spirit and principles in the hearts and lives of men; and these are entirely opposed to the crimes and ills which generate revolutions. His perpetual and universal sovereignty is founded upon his mercifulness and kindness, his justice and love (cf. Psa 72:11-17). Such a sovereignty is incompatible with revolution. Under it men will have neither cause nor occasion for anything of the kind. Animated and governed by his Spirit and principles, they will advance calmly and regularly towards perfection.
CONCLUSION.
1. Our subject supplies an argument for promulgating the gospel of Jesus Christ. International exhibitions, commercial interests, peace treaties, political economics, can never bring about the abolition of revolution, because they are not able to curb and conquer the strong and stormy passions of evil men. The gospel of the Lord Jesus is the only power that can abolish revolution, and bring in a state of peaceful and blessed progress. When it is heartily accepted it becomes a power in the heart, making man true and righteous, pure and loving, and so promotes peace on earth and good will toward men.
2. Our subject supplies encouragement for promulgating the gospel of Jesus Christ. We see that painful changes, wicked and cruel persecutions, and criminal and sanguinary strife, are being graciously overruled to bring in the worldwide empire of him “whose right it is.” All changes, all overturnings, are bringing his glorious universal reign nearer. Be encouraged, then, in your efforts to promote it. “Men shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed;” “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation.”W.J.
Eze 21:28-32
The judgment of Ammon.
“And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God concerning the children of Ammon,” etc. The following points are presented to our notice.
I. THE CAUSE OF THIS JUDGMENT. This was threefold.
1. They had provoked the anger of the Chaldeans by joining the coalition against them. (Cf. Eze 21:20; Jer 27:2-10.)
2. They had cast bitter reproaches upon the Jews. “Thus saith the Lord God concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach.” Reproach is injury by words; and it may be inflicted directly by reviling another, or indirectly by self-aggrandizement. The Ammonites reproached the Israelites:
(1) By words. As Kitto remarks, they were particularly loud and offensive in their exultation at the downfall, first of the kingdom of Israel, and then of Judah, with the desolation of the land and the destruction of the temple” (cf. Eze 25:3, Eze 25:6; Zep 2:8). It is probable that when Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, the Ammonites upbraided the people of Judah that Jehovah their God had not protected them from his attack, while Moloch, which they worshipped as god, had not permitted the conquering monarch to attack their city, Rabbath. Reproach is a hitter thing, and hard to bear. David found it so, and said, “Reproach hath broken my heart.” And it is a mean and cruel thing to inflict reproaches, especially upon the weak, the unfortunate, or the suffering. The Ammonites reproached the Israelites:
(2) By deeds. Rabbath, their capital city, was situated “in the country east of the Jordan, and east of the possessions of the Israelites on that side the river. David, in his war with the Ammonites, took it from them, and annexed it to the territories of the tribe of Gad On the separation of the realm into two kingdoms, this, with all the territory beyond the Jordan, went to the kingdom of Israel; and when that kingdom was dissolved by the Assyrians, or rather, probably, when the tribes beyond the Jordan were first of all led into captivity, the Ammonites quietly took possession of their ancient territories, and apparently of something more” (Kitto). This seizure of a portion of the territory of the former kingdom of Israel is sternly denounced by the prophets (cf. Jer 49:1, Jer 49:2; Amo 1:13-15; Zep 2:8). It was a practical reproach of the vanquished people.
3. They had trusted in their diviners. “Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine lies unto thee.” The Ammonites preferred false divinations to true prophets, especially as their diviners buoyed them up with vain assurances of their safety. If men will believe a lie, the lie will prove disastrous to them.
II. THE NATURE OF THIS JUDGMENT.
1. Terrible slaughter. “A sword, a sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning.” The seer beheld a sword drawn for execution, sharpened for slaughter, and glittering so as to strike terror into those against whom it was drawn. The line, “To cast thee upon the necks of them that are slain,” is rendered in the ‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ “To give thee over to the heaps of the slain,” and is thus explained: “‘The necks of them that are slain’ is simply a poetical expression for the slain, perhaps because the corpses were headless.” It seems to indicate that the slaughter of the Ammonites would be so terrible that the slain would not lie apart, but in revolting heaps. The clause, “Thy blood shall be in the midst of the land,” probably also points to the dreadful extent of the slaughter.
2. Complete overthrow. “Thou shalt be no morn remembered.” The ruin of the Ammonites was to be irreparable. Thus saith the Lord God to them, “I will cut thee off from the peoples, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries” (Eze 25:7). Not until long after the time of Ezekiel was this part of the judgment executed, but in due season it was completely accomplished. “From the times of the Maccabees, the Ammonites and Moabites have quite disappeared out of history” (Hengstenberg).
III. THE AUTHOR OF THIS JUDGMENT. “I will judge thee . 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.” God himself was the Author of this judgment. The sword was his, though it was wielded by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. By their sins the Ammonites had aroused the indignation of the Lord; and he would pour out that indignation upon them.
1. That this judgment proceeded from him was a guarantee of its irresistibleness. When he puts forth his hand to smite his obdurate foes, he breaks them as “with a rod of iron,” or dashes “them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” To attempt to resist him is utterly useless, vain, and ruinous. “Hast thou an arm like God’s?” “He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and prospered?”
2. That this judgment proceeded from him was a guarantee of its righteousness. “He loveth righteousness and judgment” “His work is perfect; For all his ways are judgment: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity. Just and right is he.”
IV. THE INSTRUMENTS OF THIS JUDGMENT. “I will deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, skilful to destroy;” margin, “burning men.” So also Hengstenberg, Schroder, “consuming men.” Thus the Chaldeans are designated. They are so called because they were to prepare “the fire,” or because they were filled with glowing anger. They were the unconscious instruments accomplishing the purpose of the Lord Jehovah. Thus he made the wrath of man to praise him. He can never lack fitting instruments for the execution of his designs; for he can employ whomsoever and whatsoever he will.
V. THE SCENE OF HIS JUDGMENT. “In the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy birth, will I judge thee.” They were not to be carried into captivity as the people of Israel and Judah were. In their own land they were to suffer the retribution of their evil doings. The scene of their sin was to be also the scene of their punishment. The Lord can find out the wicked anywhere; and no place can hide them from his judgments when the time for their infliction arrives. “Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them,” etc. (Amo 9:2, Amo 9:3).
VI. THE CERTAINTY OF THIS JUDGMENT. “I the Lord have spoken it.” The Ammonites deemed themselves quite safe when Nebuchadnezzar turned away from Rahbath, and went to besiege Jerusalem; and in their triumph they reproached the suffering people of Judah. But they had to learn that the postponement of their judgment was not its revocation; that their reprieve was not their pardon. Sentence against them here goes forth from Jehovah. Its fulfilment was rendered certain by both his power and his faithfulness. He is all-mighty. He “is not a man, that he should lie,” etc. (Num 23:19). And, according to Josephus (‘Ant.,’ 10.9. 7), in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar made war against the Ammonites, and subdued them. “God’s words of mercy and of judgment are alike sure.”W.J.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
10. The Approaching Judgment (Ezekiel 21)
1And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2Son of man, set thy face toward the right, and drop toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the field in the south; 3And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am about to kindle in thee a fire, and it will devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces shall be scorched in it 4[by it], from the south to the north. And all flesh shall see that I, Jehovah, 5have kindled it; and it shall not be quenched. And I said, Ah! Lord God, 6they say to me [of me], Doth he not speak parables? And the word of 7Jehovah came to me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop toward the holy places, and prophesy toward the land of Israel, 8and say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am against thee, and I have drawn My sword out of its scabbard, and will cut off 9from thee the righteous and the wicked. Because I cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go forth out of its 10scabbard against all flesh from south to north. And all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, have drawn My sword out of its scabbard, nor shall it return 11again. And thou, son of man, sigh with breaking of loins, and with bitterness 12shalt thou sigh before their eyes. And it shall be, when they say to thee, Wherefore dost thou sigh? that thou shalt say, For the tidings, because it cometh; and every heart melts, and all hands hang down, and every spirit faints [is dulled], and all knees are dissolved into water. Lo, it comes, and has 13happened: sentence of the Lord Jehovah. And the word of Jehovah came 14to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith Jehovah; say, A 15sword, a sword, sharpened and also furbished [is it]! To kill with slaughter it is sharpened; furbished [is it], that it may glitter as lightning! Or can 16[shall] we rejoice over the staff [sceptre] of My son, despising every tree!? And He gave it [it is given] to be furbished, that it may be taken into the hand; it is a sword sharpened and furbished, that it may be put into the hand of the 17slayer. Cry and howl, son of man, for it shall be upon [against] My people, upon all the princes of Israel; they are given up [thrown] to the sword along 18with My people, therefore smite upon the thigh. For it makes trial [trial is made]. And how?If also the despising staff [sceptre] shall not be!Sentence 19of the Lord Jehovah. And thou, son of man, prophesy, and smite hand against hand, and the sword shall be doubled to the third time; it is the sword of the pierced-through, the sword of one pierced through, of the 20mighty, that penetrates to them. In order that the heart may faint, and the stumbling-blocks be multiplied at all their gates, have I given the threatening 21of the sword. Ah! made for flashing, drawn for slaughter! Unite thyself, turn to the right; direct thyself, turn to the left, whither thy face is appointed. 22And I also will strike My hands together, and I will cause My fury to rest.23I, Jehovah, have spoken. And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 24And thou, son of man, set thee two ways for the coming of the sword of the king of Babylon; out of one land shall they both proceed; and make a finger-post 25at the head of the way of a city make [it]. Thou shalt set a way for the coming of the sword to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and to Judah in 26Jerusalem, [the] inaccessible. For the king of Babylon stands at the mother of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; shakes the arrows 27together, inquires at the teraphim, inspects the liver. In his right hand is the divination Jerusalem, to place [battering-] rams, to open the mouth in slaughter, to lift up the voice, in the war-cry, to place rams against the gates, 28to cast a mount, to build siege-towers. And it is to them as lying divination in their eyes that have sworn oaths for themselves; and [yet] he remembers iniquity, 29in order to take [them]. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because ye shall remember [bring to remembrance] your iniquity, since your transgressions are made bare, so that your sins are seen in all your doings, because ye are come 30to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand. And thou, pierced-through, wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day has come at the time of the iniquity 31of the end, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Remove the head-band, take off the crown. This [is] not this. The low is [to be] exalted, and the high [to be] 32brought low. Overturned, overturned, overturned will I make it. Yea, this [also] is not, till He comes to whom the judgment belongs, and I will give it to 33Him. And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning the sons of Ammon, and their reproach; even say, A sword, a 34sword, drawn for slaughter, furbished sufficiently to glitter! While they see vanity for thee, while they divine a lie to thee,to lay thee upon the necks of the pierced-through, of the wicked, whose day has come at the time 35of the iniquity of the end. Let it return to its sheath. In the place where 36thou wast formed, in the land of thy origin will I judge thee. And I will pour out My indignation upon thee, with the fire of My wrath will I blow upon thee, and will give thee into the hand of consuming men, forgers of 37destruction. 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.
Eze 21:7. Another reading: , ad sanctuarium eorum. Syr. Sept. et Arabs. have the suffix.
Eze 21:14. Sept.: … . , (15) , , , , .Vulg.: Qui moves sceptrum succidisti omne lignum.
Eze 21:17. … ,Vulg.: Israel qui fugerant
Eze 21:18 . ;Vulg.: quia probatus est. Et hoc cum sceptrum subverterit, et non erit
Eze 21:19. … , , . ,ac triplicetur gladius interfectorum: hic est gl. occisionis magn, qui obstupescere eos facit,There is a reading: , perterrefaciens). Another reading: .
Eze 21:20. … . . . , , .et multiplicat ruinas. In omnibus conturbationem gladii acuti et limati ad amicti ad cdem.
Eze 21:21. Another reading: , retro ito vel: mora, retarda.
Eze 21:24. Et manu capiet conjecturam, in capite conjiciet.
Eze 21:26. Sept.: … . .
Eze 21:27 . Ad dexteram ejus facta est os in cde
Eze 21:28. . , . . Eritque quasi consulens frustra oraculum in oculis corum, et sabbatorum otium imitans; ipse autem recordabitur iniquitatis ad copiendam.
Eze 21:29. For , read .
Eze 21:30. … , Vulg.: profane dies in temp, iniquitatis prfinita.
Eze 21:31. , . .Vulg.: nonne hc est, qu humilem sublevavit
Eze 21:32. , Vulg.: ponam eam; et hoc non factum est, donec
Ezekiel 21:35. ,
Ezekiel 21:36. … Vulg.: insipientium.
EXEGETICAL REMARKS
To join Eze 21:1-5 with Ezekiel 20 (as is done in the Eng. Ver.) would be against the connection; while, as the first part of Ezekiel 21, it both admirably introduces the whole, and in particular, by Eze 21:5, paves the way for the explanation in Eze 21:6 sq.
Eze 21:1-5 [ch. Eze 20:45-49].A Picture.
Eze 21:2. Comp. Eze 2:1 to Eze 6:2 (Eze 13:17); Luk 9:51. The right, according to Eze 21:7, is Jerusalem. Drop is after Deu 32:2 a very common expression for prophetic discourse. It is suggested by the rain or the dew, and points to the place of its origin,above, and also to the beneficial influence which it is intended to exert, and is used even when the discourse does not contain promises merely, but also threatening and judgment, as is the case here exclusively, and to a large extent also in Deuteronomy 32. May it not also hint at the concise, abrupt style of composition adopted in the chapter? , the bright, sunny south, in Eze 21:7 the expression is: the holy places. (either dryness, or also from brightness) defines the forest of the field, more precisely, as situated in the south, pertaining to the south country (Eze 21:3), as Judea is often described. The threefold direction symbolizes perhaps the divine element in his commission. For field, comp. Eze 17:5; land of Israel in Eze 21:7 corresponds to itthe fruitful native soil of the whole people; Hengst.: because an agricultural people are here treated of. Forest, figurative for people, on account of the density of the population, but by no means with any reference to the degeneration of the noble vine (Isaiah 5) to a wild forest (Umbr.), or the impending reduction of the land to an uncultivated and forest condition, nor yet on account of its forest stretches; just as the southern definition of the direction from the standpoint of the exiled prophet is not to be taken in a precisely geographic sense. Besides, that which is said of the north in Eze 1:4 is here confirmed.
Eze 21:3. Eze 6:3.The fire suits both the forest-figure and the idea of Jehovahs avenging wrath. Comp. Ezekiel 1. (Ezekiel 15) Comp. Eze 17:24. Green and dry become in Eze 21:8 righteous and wicked (Luk 23:31). , assonant ascending climax, to which the result corresponds. Endeavouring, in a far-fetched way, to conform to the figure, Hitzig interprets faces of the outside, as that which the fire first consumes. A similar view is maintained by Schnurrer in a special dissertation on the previous chapter,on all sidesout and out.
Eze 21:4 explains all faces by: all fleshall Israel; and so also can be understood as: seeing to their own hurt (Eze 21:9-10). Hengst. makes the faces stand for the persons, as the material which the fire is to consume. Comp. Eze 5:10. [Cocc. refers it to the judgment on Babylon, which was to follow the judgment on Israel.]All flesh, equivalent to: every man. What does not pass speedily away, but endures to completion,that which abides, makes on short-lived, fading man the impression of eternal duration.
Eze 21:5. Is it a complaint, owing to experiences following on what has just been propounded, or to his experience generally as a prophet? Perhaps an indirect petition for a less figurative message; as Hitzig, following the Chald.: accept my petition.Comp. Eze 17:2 (2Co 4:4).Transition to Eze 21:6 sq.
Eze 21:6-12 [17]. The Interpretation (through the Sword)
It is noteworthy that the foregoing figure is explained by another (Mat 13:10).
Eze 21:7. Comp. Eze 21:2.Holy places (comp. Eze 7:24). Hengst. refers the plural to the glory of the one sanctuary, and understands it of the spiritual abode of the people. Others have thought of the individual buildings of the temple, its two or three parts. [Cocc.: because many buildings were erected by men in addition to those authorized by God, or because Ezekiel prophesies not only of Solomons, but at the same time of Zerubbabels temple.]
Eze 21:8. The land of Israel, equivalent to: the forest of the south, Eze 21:3. What follows is also parallel. The explanatory figure is the well-known one (Ezekiel 5, 6) of the sword.The righteous and the wicked (comp. at Eze 3:18 sq.). According to Hengst., not in contradiction to Eze 9:4, for if two suffer the same, yet it is not the same (Rom 8:28). The contrast is to be taken like young and old, rich and poor, similarly to Mat 9:13. Those whom you call righteous and wicked,all, fall under the power of the sword. With which Eze 21:9 harmonizes; for all flesh, etc., points to the whole extent of the Jewish territory as the field for its exercise. [As is manifest from the whole nature of the representation, it is the merely external aspect of the visitation which the prophet has in his eye. The sword of the Lords judgment, he announced, was to pass through the land, and accomplish such a sweeping overthrow, that all, without exception, would be made to suffer in the fearful catastrophe. This did not prevent, however, but that there might be, in the midst of the outward calamities which were thus to burst like a mighty tempest over the land, a vigilant oversight maintained, and special interpositions of Providence exercised in behalf of the pious remnant who still continued faithful to the covenant of God. It was this distinguishing goodness to some, even amid the horrors of a general desolation, which, as we showed before, was the real object of that sealing of Gods servants on the forehead in a former vision; while here, on the other hand, it is merely the general desolation itself which is contemplated by the prophet. And the very circumstance that he should now have looked so exclusively on the outward scene of carnage and distress, which he descried in the approaching future, seemed to say that this was to be the grand feature of the time, and that the special interpositions which were to be put forth in behalf of the better portion would be so few that they scarcely required to be taken into account.Fairbairns Ezekiel, pp. 233, 234.W. F.]Others: on the ground of this certain universal destruction in Israel, a still more extensive judgment shall take place, e.g. on the Ammonites. [Cocc. thinks of all wars, etc. up to the subjugation of the nations to Christ.]
Eze 21:10 recalls, however, Eze 21:4. There: it shall not be quenched, here: nor shall it return. In other words, a full end. Some see the distinction between this and earlier judgments indicated here.
Eze 21:11. Symbolical description of intensest expression of sorrow. With breaking, etc., when the prophet sinks down like one whose loins are broken, and who is unable to stand upright (Deu 33:11). [Others: a pain which can break the seat of mans strength; or as spasmodic pains; or as in travail-pangs; or with girdle burst asunder, etc. Ewald; smiting on the thigh.] Quite conceivable, without any hypocrisy, owing to Ezekiels sympathy with his people. Comp. Rom 9:1 sq. In bitterness, the pain at the same time audibly expresses itself. They shall become aware of it (before their eyes).
Eze 21:12. Eze 7:26; Eze 7:2 sq. That which to others is merely tidings, is to the prophet already coming, or it is to him a thing heard (Umbr.: a revelation made at an earlier time), which is passing into fulfilment; therefore his pain. But they shall be compelled to experience in themselves what they perceive in him. In all, courage gives place to terror, activity to prostration, counsel to perplexity. No one holds out any longer; as to which comp. Eze 7:17.It is not merely coming, i.e. on the way, but that which the tidings bode, which they actually are (Eze 21:13 sq.), is as good as already accomplished.
Eze 21:13-22 [817]. The Sword
The prophets bitter pain (Eze 21:11) is audibly expressed in this sword-song, as it has been called.
Eze 21:14. The subject of the tidings emphatically repeated as a sword.(, perf. Hophal from ., partic, pass.)
Eze 21:15. It shall slay, and even before it proves its sharpness, terrify (, infinitive). , from its gleaming brightness. (Deu 32:41) , partic. Pual for , with the euphonic dag. forte.The close of the verse is a crux interpretum. The abrupt statement of the contrary to that which was demanded of the prophet by Jehovah in Eze 21:11 is intelligible, and all the more so as an inquiry as to the reason for his exhibition of pain of heart has been already presupposed in Eze 21:12. Or can [shall] we rejoice, etc.? In this case the prophet can associate himself with Jehovah, while crying, etc., again (Eze 21:17) remains his occupation alone. The latter is made all the more prominent by the clause: Can we rejoice? The staff, in accordance with Eze 19:11 sq., is to be understood of the sceptre, and thus of the kingdom (comp. Eze 16:13). My son must be the same as My people in Eze 21:17namely, Judah; which is all the more appropriate, as there is before us the promise of Gen 49:8 sq. (see Ezekiel 19), which was also confirmed to David, 2Sa 7:23. The sceptre of Judah, on account of this promise to bless Israel,Jehovah regarding it as His own,is perpetual. Despising every tree, conformably to Eze 17:24,every other prince and king. (May not, conformably to Eze 21:3, allusion be also made to the man-despising wickedness (Eze 21:30) of the last Jewish kings, so as to yield the very striking sense: Or could we rejoice in the reigning wickedness which the sword makes an end of!?). The construing of the masculine as a feminine (which Rosenm. calls the supreme difficulty of the passage) is sufficiently explained by the underlying idea of lordship. (See Hv. and Rosenm.) Therefore: in respect of the sword, is there room for any feeling but pain? Could there be joy over the kingdom, which shall not depart from Judah, according to the blessing which rests on it, and the promise made to David,joy that Judah still survives, while the princes of Israels kingdom have long since passed away?! Should we be able to rejoice? Even this kingdom is about to fall beneath the sword, etc. Eze 21:17 sq., 19, 30 sq. But doubtless the Messiah will also come, Eze 21:32. The connection decidedly recommends this interpretation. One must remember what the kingdom and the last remnant in Jerusalem were, even in the lament of Jeremiah (Lam 5:15). [Other interpretations: Shall we rejoice, namely, over this sword, which despises the stem (?) of My son Israel, and every tree? Or is taken as the chastening rod (?) of Israel, which this sword is, and which rod in hardness and solidity surpasses every other wood (Rashi). Hengst.: the punishment hanging over Israel exceeds in rigour all other punishments, according to the law set forth, Luk 12:46. (WeI and thouspoken from the soul of the people.) Hvern. takes ironically: or should ( = (projecting) with a play on ) the sceptre of My son be haughty (Exo 4:21; Hos 11:1; Gen 49:9; comp. therewith 1Ki 22:11; Deu 33:17), despising every tree (with reference to all other powers)? Umbr.: The rod of My Sonthat which concerns Himdespises every (feeble) tree, has transformed itself into unbending iron.1]
Eze 21:16. The most probable subject of is the son,Judah itself prepared the Chaldean sword of vengeance. Comp. Eze 19:14. Or indefinitely: it was given.
Eze 21:17. As the joy was groundless (Eze 21:15), so all the more is the emotion of Eze 21:11 enjoined, Eze 9:8; Eze 11:13.That which would say both as to the people and the princes of Israel is expressed by (part. pass. Kal of ). Others: Terrors ( from ) because of () the sword being upon () My people. Which, however, says too little in this connection.Upon the thigh, as women upon the breast; pain, terror.
Eze 21:18. For, resumes what is said in the previous verse., proving, trying; or impersonal perf. Pual, trial is made. Hv.: for there is a proving in relation to the judgments of God. Too far-fetched. Hengst.: for (it is) a trial. A brief statement of the threatening character of the impending period. Phillips.: for a purification must take place. Consequently, either of the past (as Rashi), of the sufferings whereby the people have already been tried, or with reference to the future. According to the connection, the trial, if not spoken directly of the sword, must be thought of in relation to its terrible murderous violence, as shown in Eze 21:17., briefest continuation, but rather an exclamation than a thought. What, in fine, when people and prince are doomed to the sword,when even the scornful (become inhuman in its arrogance, comp. Eze 21:15) kingdom of Judah shall now be brought to an end? [Rashi: And what will happen to My son when the sword overtakes him? He shall perish. Kimchi: The sword will be for trying. And what if that sword, despising the stem of Israel also, should not smite it? There would be no trial. Hv.: And how? if the sceptre is still so arrogant, it shall not stand. Hengst.: And how? should the despising rod (the punishment that far outstrips all other punishments) not be? Keil: When even the sceptre of Judah fails to show the might expected from it, what shall then be? Neteler And how? if also the sceptre of the despiser (Jerusalem) shall not be!]
Eze 21:19. Comp. at Eze 6:11. The gesture here is the sign of an impending energetic action (Hengst). To say that it expresses lively excitement of feeling is little; rather it arouses the sword to demand redoubled slaughter, which immediately follows. One stroke shall not be enough, but the strokes are repeated. Not that Ezekiel shall call out the following words, repeating them three times; nor yet is threefold doubling (?) nor threefold multiplying meant (as doubling is the thing in question). But once, twice, and yet a third time a double sword-stroke, to wit, with reference to the people, princes, and king, so that what is stated before (Eze 21:17-18) is compressed. [Klief.: For the third time the sword is a slayer, after it had previously come doubled (twice); the number three is symbolical.] It is called the sword of the pierced-through, from the multitudes whom it pierces. Hv.: the sword of the slain.Sword of one pierced through, of the mighty. The subject is indefinite, but becomes definite in the adjective. Among the crowd of the slain there is also one pierced through, made altogether like to them, who is the great one (Hv). As the sword-song throughout keeps the kingdom in view, the king (Eze 21:30) is undoubtedly referred to, to wit, Zedekiah. The fact that his sons were slain before his eyes, that his own eyes were put out (2Ki 25:7), that he died in bonds in Babylon (Jer 52:11), especially when one considers how the context as well as other passages point, sufficiently justifies the application of the pierced-through one to him; so that it is not to be referred to the great collectively, nor to the wicked Chaldee king (! ?), nor to the great sword of the slain which surrounds them. (Comp. Keil in opposition to Hitzig.) , from . Gesen.: to surround, to besiege, lies in wait for them. That penetrates to them, with an allusion to , the inner chamber. The old translations: which puts them in terror.
Eze 21:20. In order that; that which will abundantly come to pass is also abundantly expressed. The intention made prominent by being placed in the forefront. is found here only = threatening, or quivering, or shaking, or destroying, etc.; or a misprint for (shambles of the sword). But whatever the precise meaning of the word be, it qualifies the sword, so that by means of it the courage of the people fails, and at all their gates obstructions lie on which they stumble,either crowds of corpses hard by the gates where the besieged made their sallies, or circumstances which exposed them to slaughter. The flashing explains the fainting, etc.; the slaughter points to the stumbling-blocks.Eze 6:11. Abrupt exclamation of the prophet., . .; meaning: polished, sharpened (Gesen.); Meier: whetted; Hv.: drawn; others the very opposite: covered, still in the sheath.
Eze 21:21. Address to the sword. Up to this point no more than one sword has been spoken of, so that the one must be summoned to ally itself with all other possible swords. But the concentration of the thrice-repeated double stroke in a single stroke, which would better correspond with Eze 21:19, could be the meaning. Or it is to collect its energies for the directions which are to be presently given it. [Hitzig reads: turn thyself backwards, and completes supplying ; turn thyself forwards, in order to procure the two additional directions to right and left. Ew.: Collect thyself southwards, assail northwards, whithersoever thy points are appointed.] Hv. connects: Turn thyself with all vigour to the right, and (corresponding to this): direct (thy face, thy edge) to the left! There are, however, four words which depict the activity and rapidity of the individual sword-strokes; perhaps they are also military commands? If and correspond, then the rendering must be: attention, to your post! (Gesen., Hengst.) Besides, it is perhaps preparatively to the following paragraph as to Jerusalem and Ammon that only a twofold direction, right and left, is specified. The destination whither, etc. concludes the passage. [Cocc. is not amiss in regarding as an interrogative; Hitzig does the same.]
Eze 21:22. Comp. Eze 21:19. Jehovah makes the gesture of the prophet His own. Comp. further Eze 16:42; Eze 5:13. What a rest, and, going before it, what an agitation!
Eze 21:23-29. The King of Babylon against Jerusalem
A symbolical action, as in Eze 21:11 (17, 19). Hengst., as always, makes it belong to the internal world; but what would have been the meaning of a command of this sort, were it not to be carried out externally? The whole point lies in its external representation. It is a demonstration ad oculos (Eze 4:1 sq.). Ezekiel is to place before himself on a table or tablet a sketch of the nature mentioned, by means of cutting or engraving, as may be surmised from , Eze 21:24.The two ways already point to another reference besides that to Jerusalem.The sword of the king of Babylon is the tidings which come (Eze 21:12); into his murdering hand (Eze 21:16) this approaching sword is given.The one land (or land of one, namely, the Babylonish king) from which both ways shall proceed, owing to the manner in which it is emphasized, leads one already to suppose that both ways were originally one, which at a later point was parted into two., the finger-post which here points the way to a (still indefinite) city. At the head of the way, i.e. where the way in question begins, the hand shall be formed.
Eze 21:25. More particular description of the way, according to which it appears as two ways (hence: for the coming of the sword, as in Eze 21:24), with the finger-post for guide. As to Rabbah, the capital city of the Ammonites, see Deu 3:11. The city at the head of whose way the finger-post stands can properly mean Rabbah only, from the fact of its being first mentioned; and this points it out as the place lying nearest on the way of the coming sword, so that (as Hengst. rightly remarks) the human probability was that the vengeance of the king of Babylon would begin with Ammon, which had provoked it by adhering to the same anti-Chaldean coalition (Jer 27:3). As if less exposed, behind it appears Judah, more precisely defined by Jerusalem; which supports our way of taking Judah-Jerusalem in Ezekiel 19. (See Doct. Reflec. there.) In, because Judah exists essentially in Jerusalem; and the way of the sword goes thither, so that the sword rests there. Its strength, its inaccessible elevation, shall be merely nominal (Deu 28:52).
Eze 21:26. Even the king of Babylon is uncertain which way to choose.Mother of the way, is immediately explained by: the head of two ways, to be the point whence they branch off like two daughters from the way which had previously been one. [Hv. avails himself of the Arabic idiom, according to which mother of the way means the great military road, along () which Nebuchadnezzar is about to proceed, which then divides into two ways.]The tacit contrast between: to use divination, and: to prophesy (Eze 21:19; Eze 21:14; Eze 21:7; Eze 21:2) is interesting; they are nevertheless unified by the divine will. (Comp. at Deu 18:10.) Perhaps on account of this divine element in the background, it is carried out in a threefold manner, according to the symbolism of numbers.Does the arrow-oracle refer to the significations of , light, or gleaming, so that the divination is founded on the fact of the one flying more swiftly than the other, as being the lighter, or on the fact of its shining more brightly? It is the simplest way, however, to think of two arrows, the one marked Rabbah, the other Jerusalem, being put into a vessel, perhaps a helmet, when the decision is made according as the one or the other is first drawn or shaken out; unless the quarter to which the head of the lighter arrow points on falling out, either right or left, be the ground of the decision. Comp. Hv. on the passage.It is impossible to decide as to the method of consulting the teraphim. See Winer, Realw.; Herzog, Realencycl. Eze 16:32. Israel brought them out of Chaldea, Gen 31:19; Gen 31:34. According to Hv.: gods of fortune; Hengst.: intermediate gods, serving for the investigation of the future. Hv. supposes a transference of the Hebrew popular faith to Babylonish divinities analogous to Gad and Meni. Hitzig: his household gods, private idols (). As to the inspection of the liver, see Hvernicks Commentary. Such circumstances were taken into account as its condition, size, whether large, with inwardly bent lobes, etc., whether dry, defective, ulcerated, etc.
Eze 21:27. In his light hand is the divination, requires to be understood neither as: into his right hand came, etc., nor yet, with Hitzig, of the arrow-lot in particular, which pointed to Jerusalem, if it be only stated that Jerusalem was designated by the divination ceremony as the object to be attacked,therefore, the right hand. The right hand is employed; he has the decision spiritually therein; is determined in his actions by the decision given for Jerusalem in its three forms (Hengst.). Hence there immediately follows: . Comp. at Eze 4:2. To open the mouth, etc., either: the battle-cry calling and exciting them to destroy, or (with Jun.): to open a mouth (breach) in the wall by destroying and piercing it. [Hengst.: with slaughter, which is virtually contained in the slaughter-cry. Hv.: here, the cry of the besiegers according to its intention, afterwards according to its outward expression.] As the siege is the thing in question, the expression: rams, is repeated, with special reference to the gates. As to the rest, comp. at Eze 4:2 (Eze 17:17).
Eze 21:28. While the oracle determines the Chaldeans to proceed in this way, that which the prophet proclaims on the point is, to the Jews, as a lying divination in their eyes, inasmuch as they rely on the visible fact that Jerusalem still stands before their eyes., , apposition clause: who have sworn oaths (Gesen.), and these for themselves (). And this circumstance, owing to their consciousness of infidelity towards the king of Babylon (comp. Ezekiel 17), must make the near approach of his unlingering vengeance in the highest degree probable. The latter (and he remembers) therefore assists their faithless memory in an active way (, Eze 18:30), so that they are taken and crushed by punishment (Eze 14:5). [Other interpretations:Kimchi: Because the Chaldeans had sworn oaths to them (or: the Chaldeans were to them, as the oath of oaths, the most sacred oath), they were bound by oath to them, so that Nebuchadnezzar must first remember their treachery against him. Cocc. refers in both cases to the Babylonians, to whom the oracle appeared delusive, because they remembered the strength of Jerusalem and the fate of Sennacherib; whereupon the Chaldean divines made repeated protestations, and some one then called to mind the guilt of the Jews, who, having fallen away from their God, were given into the hand of the king of Babylon. There is a whole story on the subject, as to which see Targ., Rashi,namely, that Nebuchadnezzar inquired at the oracle forty-nine times, and always received the answer, Besiege Jerusalem. (Similarly Eich., Schn.) Hv.: Oaths of oaths are to them, namely, from God; so that the Jews relied on Gods most holy promises, which were assured to them (!). To which, however, the sin of Judah stood in opposition, which Jehovah, as her husband, would bring to remembrance (Num 5:15). Hengst.s view, who translates similarly, is at all events better: that which was sworn to them by oath, so that the sworn of the oaths is the announcement of destruction, sworn to them by oath (as truly as I live) in various ways, which they repelled as a delusion, while the prophet, behind whom the Almighty stands, makes known to them anew His irrevocable decree. In this way Judah brings to remembrance (Eze 21:29) the iniquity, which it was its duty to atone for by sincere repentance. Umbr.: But the inhabitants of the city live on in blind confidence, in spite of the most sacred protestations of God, etc. Yet Jehovah brings guilt to remembrance, so that Jerusalem shall at last be overtaken by punishment. Ewald: They thought they should have weeks upon weeks, while He (as their adversaryGod) recalls the (their) guilt (faithlessness towards Him), as a sufficient cause for allowing them to be besieged and taken.]
Eze 21:29. It seems most appropriate to the previous context to regard them as brought to remembrance, and thus everything else stands in close connection with that fact.Eze 16:57.Eze 20:43.Ewald: Because ye come to remembrance, ye shall be taken by the hand. Phillips.: Because He hath brought sin to your remembrance, since, etc., because they are brought to your remembrance, ye shall be taken by His hand. Rosenm.: Because ye are rememberedbefore Me. is equivalent to: violently (Eze 12:13; Eze 19:4). Usually it is understood of the minister of divine vengeance (Hengst.).Nebuchadnezzar, with reference to Eze 21:16.
Eze 21:29 in connection with Eze 21:28 forms the transitionthe introduction to the following paragraph.
Eze 21:30-32 [2527]. The Prince of Israel
ADDITIONAL NOTE
[By a lively and energetic turn in the discourse, the prophet passes from the people at large to address himself immediately to Zedekiah, and styles him not only wicked, but also pierced through, although, it is well known, he was not actually slain in the calamities that ensued. But it is not exactly what was to be done by the external sword of the Babylonians that comes here into view; it is the execution of the Lords judgment, under the same form and aspect of severity as that which had been presented in the former part of the visionthe terrors of His drawn sword. The sword is but an image of the judgment itself, precisely as the devouring fire had been in the vision immediately preceding; and it is not the less true that Zedekiah fell under its powerful stroke, though he personally survived the catastrophe. Driven ignominiously from his throne, doomed to see his family slain before his eyes, to have these eyes themselves put out, and to be led as a miserable and helpless captive in chains to Babylon, he might with the most perfect propriety be regarded as the grand victim of the Lords swordalready, in a manner, pierced through with it; for, to the strongly idealistic spirit of the prophet, the wickedness and the sword, the sin and its punishment, appear inseparably connected together. The overthrow to which he was destined seemed to the prophets eye at once so inevitable and so near, that he could speak of it no otherwise than as a thing already in existence.
But it was to be no merely personal loss and degradation; the overthrow to be accomplished on Zedekiah was to draw along with it the complete subversion of the present state of things. Therefore, while the prophet represents the day of visitation as coming upon him, he also speaks of it as being at the time when sin generally had reached its consummation, and the completeness of the guilt was to have its parallel in the complete and terminal character of the judgment. All must now be made desolate; the mitre of the high priest (the emblem of his official dignity and honour, as the representative of a consecrated and priestly people), as well as the crown of the king, was to be put away, and everything turned upside down. Such a convulsed and disorganized state of things was approaching, that, as it is said, this should no longer be this; in other words, nothing should be allowed to remain what it had been, it should be another thing than formerly; as is presently explained in what follows: The low is exalted and the high is brought down,a general revolution, in which the outward relations of things should be made to change places, in just retaliation upon the people for having so grossly perverted the moral relations of things. Yet the agents and participators in these revolutions are warned not to expect any settled condition to come out of them; this also, it is said, shall not be, it shall not attain to permanence and security; and so, overthrow is to follow overthrow; nowhere shall there be rest, nowhere security; all things shall be in a state of fluctuation, until the appearing of the great Restorer and Prince of Peace.Fairbairns Ezekiel, pp. 242, 243.W. F.]
Eze 21:30. One is specially singled out and apostrophized (comp. Eze 21:19). is not: profane, or sacrilegious, as (we recall the contrast to in Eze 3:18) stands beside it. The Chaldee gives: worthy of death.Comp. at Eze 12:10.The day is the time of judgment, of punishment, of overthrow (1Sa 26:10; Psa 37:13; Job 18:20).The time of the iniquity of the end (Eze 7:2) is when iniquity, (breach of oaths) brings the end (generally). [Schn., Cocc.: The end-guilt as the last and utmost.] In what sense the end is to be taken, how far Zedekiahs guilt, who is therefore the subject of address, brings it about, Eze 21:31 shows.The infinitive denotes the mere action, without stating from whom it proceeds (Hengst.), more expressively than the imperative , from (Isa 22:18 : enwrap), denotes in the Pentateuch (11 times) the head-band (turban) of the high-priest. As , from (to surround), denotes the royal crown, and thus stands for the kingdom in contradistinction to the high-priesthood, so (from ) could also be taken in as absolute contradistinction to ,as Hitzig interrogatively renders it: lift, raise, or maintain in elevation. But that the kingly dignity should remain untouched, cannot, in the light of the context, be a matter of uncertainty, and even in Hitzigs opinion Jehovahs negative to such a question is undoubted. , in Isa 62:3, combines the royal and priestly, not merely in a figurative sense, but on the ground of Exo 19:6. Besides, Ezekiel is speaking of the end as a whole, not of the subversion of the kingdom merely; although it comes to pass specially by means of the iniquity of the king who is apostrophized, and the judgment (Eze 21:32) points to the priesthood as well as the royalty. Thus nothing remains but to interpret as synonymous with , even without a , which can be easily supplied from the context (Zedekiah is expressly designated Prince of Israel in Eze 21:30). Consequently, sentence of death is pronounced on the theocracy, according to its existing form, which the history of the people subsequent to the exile confirms. Comp. Keil on the passage. [Cocc. takes both as designating the kingdom as a whole, not merely Zedekiahs; and then understands the following as referring to the elevation of the Asmonans, whose crown, however, would not be the Messianic one promised. In reference to this latter, Ewald remarks: This corrupt earthly kingdom is not this Messianic kingdom which is to come.] (neuter) indicates, according to most interpreters, the complete subversion of the existing state of things (Eze 21:32), so that the low is to be elevated, and the lofty made low, as Eze 21:32 shows, by Jehovah. Israel having abased herself by sin, God thoroughly abases her by punishment. Hv. takes as: turned towards the low, a constructio prgnans, betokening the condescension of God. Compare at Eze 17:24. Then would be understood thus: This (what has just been brought low) is not this, namely, what it should be (according to its ideal), but a not this. And with this is connected elevation (ch Eze 17:24), namely, through the Messiah, as is seen in what follows; whereupon the bringing low of the high, which is more forcibly depicted in Eze 21:32, returns again to the existing condition of things under Zedekiah; and this also, merely recapitulating = Yea, this cast-down priesthood and royalty is not (namely, according to Eze 21:31) what it should be, and thus in reality is not, and this condition endures till its elevation in the Coming One (till, ideal terminus, like Gen 49:10).
Eze 21:32. The thrice-repeated overturn (found here only) accords with the well-known symbolism of the divine. Usually taken as emphatic, to denote total destruction. [According to Abarbanel, it refers to the three last kings, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah; according to others, to the three destructionsthe Babylonish, the Greek under Antiochus, and the Roman.] Comp. Isaiah 24. goes back on , or means the land (?).According to most, this also indicates an additional overthrow; it is more natural to regard it as betokening the present overthrow. , masculine, being construed with it, shows to be neuter. But this inverted state of things is not to be for ever. , according to its root-signification, includes the future, so that the Person in question brings to an end the overthrow, or the abasement to nothing, since He completes it, i.e. makes it complete in form; but at the same time, through realization of the idea in the overthrown or brought low, effects the fulfilment.The judgment is Gods, Deu 1:17, therefore here also Jehovah gives it. The expression speaks of a re-establishment of the judgment by means which include chastisement; it embraces the royal and priestly office (Exo 28:29; 1Ki 3:9 sq.). Comp. besides, Gen 49:10; Psa 72:1; Isa 9:6; Isa 42:1; Jer 23:5; Jer 33:17; Joh 5:22; Act 7:14.
ADDITIONAL NOTE ON Eze 21:32
[We can have no hesitation in understanding by this person the Messiah, whether we translate, Till he comes to whom the right is, or, Till he comes to whom the judgment belongs; and I give it to him. It is not expressly said what was to be given him, and should stand waiting for its proper possessor till he should come; but the context plainly forbids us to understand anything less than what was taken awaythe things represented by the priestly mitre and the royal crown. The true priestly dignity, and the proper regal glory, were to be gone for a time into abeyance; some partial, temporary, and fluctuating possession of them might be regained, but nothing more; the adequate and permanent realization was only to be found in the person of Messiah, because in Him alone was there to be a fitting representation of the divine righteousness. It is true there was something like a restoration of the standing and honour of the priesthood after the return from the Babylonish exile; and if the ideas currently entertained upon the subject were correct, there might appear in that a failure of the prophecy. But there was no right restoration of the priestly, any more than of the regal dignity at the time specified; it was but a shadow of the original glory. For there was no longer the distinctive prerogative of the Urim and Thummim, nor the ark of the covenant, nor the glory over-shadowing the mercy seat; all was in a depressed and mutilated condition, and even that subject to many interferences from the encroachments of foreign powers. So much only was given, both in respect to the priesthood and the kingdom, as to show that the Lord had not forsaken His people, and to serve as pledge of the coming glory. But it was to the still-prospective, rather than the present state of things, that the eye of faith was directed to look for the proper restoration. And lest any should expect otherwise, the prophet Zechariah, after the return from Babylon, took up the matter, as it were, where Ezekiel had left it, and intimated in the plainest manner, that what was then accomplished was scarcely worth taking into account; it was, at the most, but doing in a figure what could only find its real accomplishment in the person and work of Messiah. Especially at Eze 6:14 : And he (the branch) shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory; and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne. Thus the mitre and the crown were both to meet in him, and the temple in its noblest sense be built, and the glory be obtained, such as it became the Lords Anointed to possess. Meanwhile all was but preparatory and imperfect.Fairbairns Ezekiel, pp. 244, 245.W. F.]
Ezekiel 21:3337 [Eze 21:28-32]. Against Ammon
As the prince of Israel had his counterpart in the Messiah, so the declaration against Jerusalem in Eze 21:21-24 sq. finds its counterpart in this paragraph; hence also the analogous expressions.
Ezekiel 21:33. Reproach is injuring by words: directly,reviling; or indirectly,self-glorification. Thereby the mention made of the Ammonites is illustrated. When Babylon first of all inflicted punishment on Jerusalem, Ammon took occasion to boast over the besieged (Eze 25:3; Eze 25:6; Zep 2:8; Lam 1:2; Lam 3:61), and to applaud the conquerors. Ammons self-exaltation had exhibited itself practically by their seizing a portion of the trans-Jordanic territory of the former kingdom of Israel (Jer 49:1 sq.).Comp. Eze 21:14; Eze 21:19; Eze 21:15; Eze 21:20. , according to Gesen., for (from ), to cause to consume (?). Others: from , holding, containing (Eze 23:32); almost adverbially: as much as possible, or () as much as can be. Hengst.: abundantly. Hitzig: to dazzle; properly: to make the eyes dull of vision. (Oxymoron.)That it may glitter, Eze 21:15.
Ezekiel 21:34. , equivalent to: notwithstanding that, and to be taken as parenthetic. Even in Ammon, therefore, false prophets and false confidence! Eze 13:6; Eze 7:9; Jer 27:9-10. Klief.: The oracles of Nebuchadnezzar, Eze 21:26, while they pointed to Jerusalem, showed Ammon false. See Keil in opposition to this notion., Hitz.: the occasion of the swords being placed (reading ) on the necks. (Of the pierced-through? Wherefore this again?) Others: that I may lay thee; or: that one (the enemy) may lay thee; or, as Ewald (History of the People of Israel): as it is falsely prophesied to thee that thou shalt be laid on the necks of the Jews to destroy them, I will return thee to thy sheath,namely, the sword of the Ammonites which is addressed. It depends rather on the foregoing verse. The pierced-through of the wickedfrom among the Jews; comp. Eze 21:30; Eze 21:19. They have received the death-blow of the sword on their necks, which are brought into prominence for the sake of pictorial description. Thus Ammon is judged like the prostrate Judah, which it mocked. Comp. Eze 21:30.
Ezekiel 21:35. Address to Ammon. The sword, which is to be supplied, is not mentioned, because it does not come into account in contrast to the sword of Gods vengeance against Ammon. The gender (, with Patach, masc. imper.) alternates with feminines, the sword-bearing men with the nation as a feminine idea. [Ewald, infin. absol. as in Eze 21:31.] Therefore all resistance is vain. (Mat 26:52!) It receives its sentence from Jehovah,its end where it originated. Comp. Joseph. Antiq. x. 9. 7.Eze 16:3.Eze 11:10. [Should one, with Jerome, in Ezekiel 21:35 (Rashi, Ezekiel 21:34) regard the Babylonians as the persons addressed, so that with the: against Ammon, an: against Babylon is joined, but which from intelligible reasons is simply implied, then Eze 21:10 would not be opposed to this view. A separation of Jehovahs sword from that of Babylon, which as such scarcely comes still into account, especially in reference to that which follows, has nothing inconceivable in it; and since Jehovah judges Babylon, His sword would remain drawn. The scabbard does not therefore require to be understood as meaning the land, but the meaning would be, that after the completion of the judgment against both Jerusalem and Ammon, by means of war, Babylons sword should be sheathed, and should await the judgment of God in its own land. The execution of it by the Persians would be characteristically depicted in the following verses, while in relation to Ammon the statement seems rather strong; and the supposition of Hv. that Ammon represents heathenism generally, or, according to Hengst., the world-power hostile to the kingdom of God, is very suggestive of perplexity.]
Ezekiel 21:36. (Eze 14:19) makes a paronomasia with , immediately before. , outpouring; hence used of wrath as poured out. may also be translated by: blow upon, as, when fire is blown upon or against any one, the fire itself is blown on. Hitzig, however: with the fire of My fury I will breathe upon thee. In the end the subject passes over from the sword to the fire, as in the beginning, from the fire to the sword. Consuming men are those who prepare this fire; Hengst.: burning men are those who are filled with glowing anger. [In the explanation which points to the Persians, an allusion to their fire-worship!] Hv.: fierce, cruel; Gesen.: foolish, brutish, Psa 94:8. So also Hitzig, in relation to the language of the Chaldeans, which was unintelligible (stupid) to the Ammonites.
Ezekiel 21:37. Eze 15:4; Eze 15:6.Thy blood, etc., in which the figures of fire and sword are unified,in the midst of the land, as in Ezekiel 21:35: in the place, etc., in the land, etc. It will fall on them in their homes, so that weapons of defence shall be of no service. Contrast to a war of offence. Others: flowing everywhere in the land (?). Ewald: Thy blood shall remain in the midst of the earth, and thou shalt not be made mention of.Hengst.: from the times of the Maccabees, the Ammonites and the Moabites have quite disappeared from history. Their subversion is complete, while Israel has still something to look forward to.
THEOLOGICAL REMARKS
1. The bitterest and most painful plaint finds expression in poetry. A truly spiritual grief and the poetic form readily combine. This is the psychological truth of the chapter. The unusual forms of expression, the rapid transitions, and the idiomatic difficulties which this chapter presents, are accounted for by its poetic construction. This subjective-logical, abrupt-dithyrambic text has been marred by a Philistine criticism which tramples on psychology and sthetics.
2. Fire and sword are the two figures in which, divine judgment clothes itself. The latter is, however, more than a picture, if the significance of war in the history of the kingdom of God among men is not overlooked.
3. Every judgment of God keeps in view the establishment of the right on earth, and is unimaginable apart from grace and mercy.
4. It is to be noted as to the Jewish kingdom, now ripe for destruction, that it despised every tree; whether that means that which was subject to it, or mankind generally. It thus became inhuman, lost sight of Israels essential relation to humanity, and became faithless to the fundamental significance of the people of God.
5a. Justice will be done to the text by regarding the manifold Chaldaic divination as nothing more than a highly dramatic representation of the idea of Providence. Hvernick, indeed, since he makes the agreement of soothsaying and prophecybrought about, of course, by divine guidancesubservient to the carrying out of Gods will, goes still farther; so far, indeed, as to maintain that there is in Ezekiel, notwithstanding his otherwise markedly Levitical character, a decided recognition of divination. He finds the occasion in the exile-period, when Hebraism was so remarkably tinctured with the soothsaying of heathenism; as appears also in Daniel, etc.
5b. [What a sublime proof of the overruling providence and controlling agency of Jehovah! The mightiest monarch of the world, travelling at the head of almost unnumbered legions, and himself consciously owning no other direction than that furnished by the instruments of his own blind superstition, yet having his path marked out to him beforehand by this servant of the living God! How strikingly did it show that the greatest potentates on earth, and even the spiritual wickedness in high places, have their bounds appointed to them by the hand of God, and that however majestically they may seem to conduct themselves, still they cannot overstep the prescribed limits, and must be kept in all their operations subservient to the higher purposes of Heaven!P. F.W. F.]
6. In his oft-cited work, The Prophets and their Prophecies, Tholuck calls attention to the distinction between subordinate divination, which, resting upon a natural substratum, divines the future from this (interpreters of oracles, diviners, augurs, haruspices), and the higher method of the revealer of the future who is immediately impelled by God (Divination, Prophecy). Plutarch, Vita Homeri, Ezekiel 212; Cicero, De Divin. i. 18. After giving a sketch of the views of the fathers, Tholuck comes to the conclusion: Whatever we may ascribe to the agency of priestly fraud and superstitious self-deception, it is now universally acknowledged by philologists, and investigators into antiquity, that at the foundation there was a reality. He then refers more particularly to the insight gained, since the end of last century, into a middle territory between the divine and the non divine agencies of divination (the phenomena of magnetism and somnambulism, which are ranked by medical men and philosophers as physiological and psychological facts).
7. There is a natural divination, says Beck, inasmuch as the course of the world developes itself according to certain original and standing fundamental laws in exact regularity, which we are taught by our conscience to regard as the moral order of the world. As, by means of a definite consciousness of this standing divine order, conscience often gives a man, in relation to his own doing and suffering, very clear indications of his own future, so a living and vigorously aroused conscience can lead him to a perception of how the past and present must have come about in virtue of that moral order, and partly of what must farther emerge from it. Where, however, this prophetic conscience is intensified by especially profound experiences, or earnest investigation of history, the moral connection between past, present, and future may often become clear even to the smallest details. But this divination extends only to the world-bond already existing under the universal government of God, and to the historical bond regulated and limited by internal and eternal moral laws. Into new determinations of the course of the world, which first became manifest by special governmental acts of God which reveal them,the proper divine order and development of the kingdom,mere divination cannot penetrate, for it is destitute of the necessary preliminary conditions.
8. As to the relations between divination and prophecy, see Tholuck in the treatise referred to, 8, and Herzogs Realencycl. xvii. p. 641 sq. In regard to the substance of the matter, the difference proves itself to be, that while, at most, room is made for the former by the providence of God as the principle of world-government, redemption, i.e. Christs redemption, lifts the latter to its post of elevation. Then also divination must always be estimated in relation to the physical region in which it moves, and according to whose laws it is excited; while prophecy finds its sphere not only in the soul, but also in the spiritual life, and, though dealing in some measure with individual, national, human interests, ever stretches beyond to eternal truth as the object of its supreme interest.
9. It is to be observed that the Davidic king, by whose means the ruin of Israel is brought about, on the other hand also serves here as a medium for the Messiah. Not only did Davids family furnish in point of fact the last prince (king) of Israel, but the idea of an everlasting royalty in Israel was bound up by Gods promises with Davids house. The contrast between sin and grace, despair of all and hope for all, death and resurrection, is concentrated in the last representative of Davids family. It is peculiar to our prophet to have so strongly emphasized this contrast, Eze 21:30-32.
10. Israel ought to have been a kingdom of priests to Jehovah. As Israel fell away from this position with the fall of the priesthood and the kingdom, so on the other hand, with the renewed bestowal of priesthood and royalty in the Messiah, Israel is also reinstated in Him as that which it ought to be, 1Pe 2:9-10.
11. The high-priesthood, indeed, still continued after the exile. But in that period it fared with the priesthood as with the temple. Both, says Hv., bound together in the closest way by divine arrangement, fell short of that which they had been before the exile. There was only a shadow of the ancient glory, as the temple was only a provisional one for an abnormal state of things. This was outwardly apparent, for there was no ark of the covenant in the temple, and the high priest was denied the right of consulting by Urim and Thummim, Ezr 2:63. As, then, the high-priesthood was totally in abeyance so far as the exiles were concerned, and as after the exile only its shadow was provisionally set up, so in the eye of prophecy the exile and the appearance of the Messiah are closely connected facts.
12. As to the kingdom, Zerubbabel, the leader of the people after the exile, although of Davids line, was no king on Davids throne. But Herod, who becomes king over Israel, is of Edomite origin.
13. In the remarkable passage of the Tract. Sota, p. 1069, ed. Wagenseil, it is said: The Urim and Thummim, and the king from Davids stem, had ceased with the destruction, and their restoration is to be expected only when the dead are raised up, and the Messiah, Davids Son, appears (Hv.).
14. The old versions, with great unanimity, have made use of the Messianic passage here in Ezekiel for the explanation of Shiloh, Gen 49:18. Hengst. complains, in his Christology, that instead of an allusion, they have mostly assumed an explanation; to him the relation of Ezekiel to the passage in question seems unrecognisable. But while the prophet supplemens Genesis 49 from Psa 72:1-5, where righteousness and judgment are the basis of the peace introduced by the Messiah, we do not find in Ezekiel that which we might expect,to whom the peace, but to whom the judgment, belongs. In Ezekiel, however, the peace is also in the background, for the advent of Him whose is the judgment makes an end of destruction. That dangers would threaten the sceptre of Judah before the coming of Shiloh, even Jacob intimated by the stress which he put on: it shall not depart from Judah till, etc. Kurtz, however, in his History of the Old Covenant (vol. II. pp. 87, 88, Clarks Trans.), maintains too much when he asserts that the two passages are entirely different. The completion of the glory of Judah is here, as there, kept in view, and in both cases in a Messianic sense. The distinction is, that what concerns Judah as Judah is taken ideally in Genesis 49, and really in Ezekiel. Therefore, here a temporary is not, and there a (definitive) not depart.
15. Obscurity, ambiguity, and difficulty of interpretation are characteristic of the Messianic prophecies. Comp. 1Pe 1:10-11.
HOMILETIC HINTS
Eze 21:1 sq. [Eze 20:45 sq.] The sentence of burning; the Judge who pronounces it; the avenger who executes it; the judgment whereby it is accomplished.The forest in the southa picture, a history, an example.In nature descends now a gentle, now a dashing rain-shower (St.).The word of God is rightly likened to rain. Like rain, it descends from above, and not according to mans will; it is also, like it, useful and beneficial; as rain flows down from rocks upon the fields, so the word of God upon the godless, and, on the other hand, into pious hearts; and, like the rain, it is not equally acceptable to all, etc. (Fessel.)That which is bitter to the mouth is wholesome to the heart. The word of God, even when it is sharper than a two-edged sword, is like the quickening rain (Hengst.).
Eze 21:3 [Eze 20:47]. A wood bends beneath the storm of the Almighty, and rustles while it waves; but we men harden ourselves more and more.God will turn us from the instruments whom He employs against us to Himself, that we may learn whom we have sinned against, and by whom therefore we are punished (St.).The tree, which in spite of everything is unfruitful, is ripe for the fire.When the green tree does not stand, how will it go with the dry? (Stck.)The fire which is not quenched.
Eze 21:4 [Eze 20:48]. If we see that all human plans and devices, even the most promising, come to nothing, we are led to the confession that we have to do with personal Omnipotence and Righteousness, against which the battle is unavailing (Hengst.).Contemplation of the judgment of God.Gods judgments permit no malicious or even idle spectators.Knowledge of the holy and righteous God from His judgments in this world.
Eze 21:5. The godless never want for excuses: if one preaches by analogies, it is too dark; if by plain statements, it is too simple, blundering, etc., 1Ki 22:15 (Cr.).The world cries out against preachers who touch their conscience; that which is hateful to the world, many are ashamed to confess (Schm.).The sighing of preachers over their hearers.The bad style of criticism of preaching.Nothing remains but to flee to Him by whom they were sent to preach (Stck.).How do so many sermons meet such opposition?The fault is the hearers. Thus many a sermon is a judgment to many people.The disciples, Luke 8, asked, What might this parable be? (Stck.)
Eze 21:6 sq. [Eze 21:1 sq.] The sword-word over Judaha word of God, and a word of destruction.Jerusalem, the address of a sword, and what a sword!
Eze 21:7 [Eze 21:2]. Thither the Jews turned their face when they prayed in war or in a foreign land, 1Ki 8:44; 1Ki 8:48 (B. B.).
Eze 21:8 sq. [Eze 21:3 sq.] In national chastisements the pious suffer along with others (St.).But there is a difference even when the suffering is outwardly the same.All men are, besides, unrighteous of themselves, and according to their nature have deserved nothing better than the godless. But during judgments they separate from the fellowship of the wicked, from which they may not before have held themselves sufficiently aloof (L.).The sword is Gods. God is in the swords, although men bear them.Let us learn to judge rightly of war. God oversees it from beginning to end (L.).The sheath in which Gods sword is put is His forbearance (Theodoret).Mans sword we may escape, but not Gods (Stck.).The axe was even then laid unto the root of the trees. The sword of the Romans at last followed that of the Chaldeans.So it proceeds till the last Antichrist and his desolation (B. B.).
Eze 21:11 sq. [Eze 21:6 sq.] The judgments which hang over the wicked world are so dreadful, that a believer may well sigh over them, Dan 9:4 sq. (St.)A preacher who wishes to move and teach others must himself feel similar emotions (Cr.).The sighing of the servant of God over that which men can and yet will not hear, and over that which they will require to hear and see.He who will not hear must feel.Just as we, when we read that the Saviour wept over Jerusalem, lightly ask why He wept (Richt.).How insolent and confident the godless are in prosperity; in adversity they are equally fainthearted and desolate! Then they are in terror of a falling leaf; much more of a destroying sword (L.).Ah, it is not good when Gods witnesses merely weep in secret (Jer 13:17); much more when Gods messengers and angels of peace weep bitterly (Isa 33:7), and are obliged to fulfil their office with sighing (Heb 13:7), because it is too much for them; and usually there follows thereupon a mighty outpouring of wrath (B. B.).
Eze 21:13 sq. [Eze 21:8 sq.] The sacred, terrible sword-song. See Krners Song of the Sword.The prophets doubtless treated politics both on their outward and inward side, but only the politics of the kingdom of God.
Eze 21:14 [Eze 21:9]. God shows us the sword, and waves it over our heads, so that we should be timeously and profitably alarmed (Stck.).God can use every creature as His sword; it is always prepared to execute His command (St.).War as a divine judgment, therefore for the punishment of evil-doers; but it is also a preaching of repentance, when God sharpens the sword and makes it glitter (L.).He who will not submit to the sword of Gods word (Heb 4:12) will be overtaken by the sword of the enemy (Stck.).
Eze 21:15 [Eze 21:10]. God Himself takes the offering which men will not give Him voluntarily. The personal offeringthe free and the constrained.He fares as a brute who lives brutishly, Psalms 49. Wickedly have I lived, wickedly died, shall be the epitaph of the godless (Stck.).There can be joy amid the deepest suffering, but not over anothers suffering, especially when it is punishment for sin.But they obey God only who are obliged to slay such offerings for Him (L.).
Eze 21:16 [Eze 21:11]. The executioner with whole armies (B. B.).The sin of the people presses the sword into the hand for war.Sin was also interwoven with the conquering chaplets of the victors, as the dew upon these chaplets was innumerable tears and drops of blood.Which is ever to be remembered amid songs of triumph!Fortune of war, as men call it, what a sad fortune!God is the judge, behind and in the conqueror.
Eze 21:17 [Eze 21:12]. Like people, like prince, the sorrow of the prophets.Even the great have no privilege to sin (B. B.).Pain, but not murmuring (Stck.).
Eze 21:18 [Eze 21:13]. Trial is a terrible word to a people that suffers the deepest calamities. When the trial comes, nothing remains undisclosed, nothing unrequited; every varnish disappears, and all glitter vanishes (Hengst.).A tried sword is a dreadful thing when it turns against a people whom God has given up to judgment.If a king or a people should never have regarded men, they must regard the man who bears Gods sword.One day an end will be made of all despisers of God and man.A kingdoms inhumanity its death-sentence. God relieves men from the sceptre of tyrants. Rehoboam had formerly despised Israel, 1 Kings 12; Zedekiah regarded neither God nor Nebuchadnezzar in his perjury; Judah had long lightly esteemed Gods prophets.
Eze 21:19 [Eze 21:14]. The history of the world as the fulfilment of prophecy.Symbolical prophecy.The emblems of punishment.Some must prophesy judgment who would so willingly speak of redemption, and redemption alone; men will not have the blessing, and therefore the curse must be exhibited.Where sin is doubled, there also is punishment doubled (Stck.).Gods sword draws not back from human elevation; it reaches the dwellers in the valley, and those also who sit on lofty seats.No earthly throne is a protection from the sword of God; the history of the world is filled with proofs of this.The last mighty pierced-through one is Antichrist.Alas, who can hide from the wrath of God! (B. B.)
Eze 21:20 sq. [15 sq.] Every heart melts under judgment, why not under Gods mercy?God is always as a stumbling-block to the ungodly. How terrible is judgment in times of peace, but how much worse in times of war! With the severer judgments of God, the ungodliness of the sinner comes wholly to light.Walls are no defence to sinners, when God is not their defence.The terror of a servant at the judgment which will certainly overtake the world.The troubled heart of those who proclaim peace, and say, Be ye reconciled to God!Those whom nothing amazes will at last be amazed by Gods judgment.Gods sword on all sides.Mountains fall on us, etc., Luk 23:30; Rev 6:15 sq.God has still a king of Babylon, who shall destroy the false Jerusalem (B. B.).
Eze 21:22. The fearful hands of God, Heb 10:31.
Eze 21:23 sq. [Eze 21:18 sq.] The ways of the sword of God. Its manifestation.God knows how to find sinners.Just as Ezekiel sketched to the Jews, as if with chalk on the table, that which was to happen to them.Everything proceeds according to the divine will, whether we will it or not. When God judges, everything becomes a finger-post to the avengers whom He sends. On many a life-way the finger-post which will direct punishment is already erected.
Eze 21:25 [Eze 21:20]. By Gods arrangement, judgment shall begin at the house of God (Hengst.).Let us not reckon ourselves guiltless when others are found guilty! God spares us still in His long-suffering (Stck.).Sins scale the best fortified cities.
Eze 21:26 [Eze 21:21]. Prophecy and divination in their resemblance and difference.Divination under the omnipotence and wisdom of God, as to which comp. Matthew 2.The Egyptian enchanters and the Chaldean magi in their significance for the kingdom of God.
Eze 21:27 [Eze 21:22]. To-day, Jerusalem; to-morrow, thou!God makes use even of divination for prophesying, but in doubtful circumstances we should apply to Him; His word will direct us and divine for us (Stck., St.).Unbelief is punished in the Ammonites, Ezekiel 21:34 (Richt.).
Eze 21:28 [Eze 21:23]. Unbelievers always believe that they are far from judgment (Stck.).His own evil conscience, and not merely the judgment of God which bursts upon him, ought to lead the unbeliever to belief,at least that a righteous God lives, and will not be mocked.The nearer Gods judgments, the more callous the ungodly are wont to become (Stck.).
Eze 21:29 [Eze 21:24]. Their own sins cry out against the ungodly, and call for Gods vengeance, Gen 4:10 (St.).
Eze 21:30 [Eze 21:25]. Thus God gives various titles; comp. Psa 82:6 (W.).The ungodly is already judged; a couple of years respite, which are still left to him, are not accounted of. Before the eye of faith, the sinner, who is still in reality set on high, lies already in his blood (Hengst.).From whom He will, God can take away, and on whom He will, bestow kingdoms, Dan 4:29. Therefore stand in awe of this great Lord, ye princes of the people, and serve Him with trembling in the presence of His holy majesty, Psa 2:10-11 (Tb. Bib.).Unrepentant wickedness, which has been often warned and chastised, which has witnessed many examples of judgment, and been long borne with, is the iniquity of the end (B. B.).
Eze 21:31 [Eze 21:26]. In the kingdom of God there are no promises, but such as resemble those streams which alternately flow above and under ground, as surely as all the bearers of the promises are infected with sin (Hengst.).The lifting up of Jehoiachin, the casting down of Zedekiah.Of this Mary also sang, Luk 1:52 (Stck.).Davids line proceeds through Zerubbabel to Christ (L.).
Eze 21:32 [Eze 21:27]. The royal sinner, and the royal Saviour.Since royalty and priesthood shall both be given to Him (Psalms 110), these can only be spoken of spiritually, as in this sense they pertained to the Anointed with the Spirit. His kingdom was not of this world, and the Epistle to the Hebrews is to be read in reference to His high-priesthood.
Ezekiel 21:33 sq. [Eze 21:28 sq.] There are doubtless race-types, prophetic national physiognomies.In Ammon there are the manner of Edom and the mocking of Ishmael.To defer is not to revoke.Ammons mocking of Israel was at the same time a deriding of its true and future King; in other words, of Jehovah and His Anointed, Psalms 2.Jerusalems punishment should be traced back, not to Gods impotence to defend them, but to His righteousness, which Ammon also is to experience.The judgment of sinners never happens for the self-justification of other sinners.
Ezekiel 21:34 [Eze 21:29]. Divination, looking beyond sin and the righteousness of God, is at all times false and deceptive.But men prefer lies to truth; for the lie flatters, while truth does not spare. We love the joys of the present, and therefore we hate the painfulness of truth.Divine punishment has a day, which is not deferred when the measure is full (W.).False doctrine is punished as well as an evil life.
Ezekiel 21:35 [Eze 21:30]. The place of the sin is often also the place of punishment; but God knows how to find the guilty everywhere. How can our sweet home become so bitter? Thy own heart is thy judgment.We all have our sentence of death in Adam.Besides, it also comes to Babylons turn. For the sword continues to be Gods, although it glittered for a while in Babylons hand.
Ezekiel 21:36 [Eze 21:31]. How consoling to die in the Lord! How dreadful to be destroyed by God!The world, men, ones own heart, can become a hell.Let me not fall into the hands of men!The wicked the executioners of the wicked.
Ezekiel 21:37. The memory of the righteous is blessed, and endures, but the name of the ungodly perishes. Well for him who obtains a new name from God, Pro 10:7; Rev 3:12 (St.).Gods words of mercy and of judgment are alike sure.
Footnotes:
[1]The greater number of Schroeders bracketed other interpretations have been omitted, as being destitute of probability, and quite unworthy of notice. Dr. Fairbairns rendering: perchance the sceptre of My son rejoiceth, is grammatically inadmissible, for is not a participle, but the 1st plur. imperf. But could we not adopt his translation of the last clause and render the passage: Or shall we rejoice over the rod [sceptre] of My son? as if it at least were safe, come what will? Nay, that cannot be, for it (the sword) despiseth every tree [all wood], the sceptre of Judah not excepted.W. F.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Prophet is still going on with his commission of preaching to the people. In this chapter he prophesieth against Jerusalem, under the image of a sword.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
It should seem that this was but a continuation of the preceding chapter, where the Lord had commanded the Prophet to set his face toward the south, and prophecy. For, as the Prophet complained that the people would only deride him, and say it was but a parable, the Lord bids him to show that it would be a dreadful reality, in which the very loins of the hearer would tremble and be loosened, like a woman in travail. So awful would be the visitation, that the sword of the Lord would slay both the righteous and the wicked. And though the eternal safety of all His redeemed ones in Christ could not be affected by this visitation, yet in temporal things the inhabitants of Jerusalem would all partake alike in the dreadful slaughter, like mariners in the same vessel, which, if it founders at sea, all the crew are drowned. And the Prophet is commanded to tell the reason, Behold I am against thee, saith the Lord; as if the Lord had said, You are groaning because the King of Babylon is against you, but what will ye do when the Lord of Hosts is against you? Reader! pause and consider the awfulness of such a state! The Apostle saith, If God be for us, who can be against us? But we may add, if the Lord be against us, of what avail is it who is for us? Rom 8:31 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 21:9-10
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of reason.
Blake.
Reference. XXI. 9, 10. R. A. Suckling, Sermons Plain and Practical, p. 215.
Eze 21:26-27
After quoting these words, John Owen adds: ‘One dissolution shall come upon the neck of another, until it all issue in Jesus Christ. “I will overturn it,” saith God. “But men will set it up again.” “I will overturn it again,” saith God, “perfectly overturn it.” All men’s endeavours shall but turn things from one destructive issue to another, till “all issue in one whose right it is “.’
Cromwell used this verse in his second speech to the First Parliament in 1654. ‘Whilst these things were in the midst of us; and whilst the nation was rent and torn in spirit and principle from one end to the other, after this sort and manner I have now told you; family against family, husband against; wife, parents against children; and nothing in the hearts and minds of men but “overturn, overturn, overturn!” (a Scripture phrase very much abused, and applied to justify unpeaceable practices by all men of discontented spirits) the common enemy sleeps not’.
Easy Work
Eze 21:31
I. Nothing is so easy as to destroy. This is a truth which is often forgotten. A man is not a genius simply because he can destroy something.
1. We are entranced and fascinated by men who have immense destructive power. This is peculiarly easy work, this work of destruction in religious subjects and religious spheres. Let me tell you why. The heart wants to get rid of God. The enemy has an infinite advantage in the preparedness of the heart.
2. The very greatness of religion is a temptation towards denial. It makes denial easy, invites destructive criticism: there is so much of it; it begins with the unbeginning; it endures to the endless end; it takes a higher range than the high firmament. Nothing is so easy as contradiction. A child can contradict a father.
II. We must be a little clearer and plainer about this genius of contradiction, and this skill of destructiveness. Suppose I say, ‘You have no mind; now prove the contrary, where is your mind?’ You never thought of that. ‘Have you ever seen it?’ Never. ‘Touched it?’ No. ‘Where do you keep it?’ You don’t know. You see the preacher can contradict as well as the critic and the hearer. Do not suppose that all the intellectual vigour and mental freshness and mighty transcendental genius is on the side of contradiction; it is on the side of constructiveness, elevation, moral fruition; it is on the side of practical, beneficent holiness.
III. There is no mystery in religion that has not its counterpart in human nature. The mischief is that so many people imagine that mystery begins with the Bible. If you close the Bible you will have greater mystery without it than you have with it; you would be a greater mystery to yourself. What little knowledge you have of yourself you owe directly or indirectly to such influences as constitute the Bible. It is because man is made in God’s image that he represents a thousand religious mysteries, that he is often a supreme mystery to himself.
IV. Christianity has a destructive mission as well as infidelity. Christianity wields tremendous weapons. Christianity does not come to destroy the sinner, but sin. Nothing would be so easy as to destroy the sinner, but that would have no effect upon the sin; the spirit of sin would still be the unconquered spirit of the universe. Jesus Christ therefore undertakes this work to bear away the sin of the world; not to crush the sinner, but to bear away, away a word without an end the sin of the world.
J. Parker, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 42.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
XVI
PROPHECIES ON THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM (CONTINUED)
Ezekiel 15-24
We may ask ourselves at the outset, What purpose did Jeremiah serve in preaching forty years the downfall of the city, warning the people of their sins, though he knew that downfall was absolutely certain, yet all the time seeking to save the city? Why should God require a man to give forty years of his life to guard the people against the inevitable? Why should he require of a man like Ezekiel so many years of preaching to those already in exile concerning the fall of the city of Jerusalem? Why should he exert himself in the manner in which he did, to warn those in Babylon of the fall of Jerusalem?
Jeremiah’s preaching had this effect: It prepared the people in a measure for the downfall of their Temple and their capital and thus helped them to keep faith in God. Whereas, the fall of their capital and city without such a warning would have inevitably shattered their faith in God. Jeremiah’s prophecies of the restoration and the glorious future also helped the earnest heart to prepare for that future and for that restoration. Ezekiel’s preaching to the exiles in Babylon also prepared them for the fall of Jerusalem and also preserved their faith in God. It furnished them with truth to keep alive their faith during the period when their Temple was gone; it also served as a stay during the period of the exile and prepared them for the return. Though it seems that Jeremiah’s and Ezekiel’s long ministries were temporarily fruitless, yet they were the means of preparing the people for a possible future and their work abides.
Why did Ezekiel use all these symbols, figures and metaphors to those people who were already in exile in Babylon? It was to prepare their faith, so that when the shock came they might withstand it and be ready to return when God called them. As a result of Jeremiah’s and Ezekiel’s preaching, nearly 50,000 people were prepared to return as soon as the decree of Cyrus was sent forth. One may see no immediate result of his preaching, yet when he is preaching what God wants him to preach, the fruits may be all the greater because they are delayed.
In Eze 15 we have the parable of the vine tree and its interpretation. This is a parable in which Israel is likened to a vine tree among the trees of the forest. The vine tree is a very lowly tree. It is of comparatively little use. The wood thereof is not taken for fire, nor do people make pins or pegs from it. It is simply cast forth to be burned as rubbish. It is not profitable for anything. Then what does he mean? The Kingdom of Judah was among the great kingdoms of the world as the lowly vine tree was among the trees of the forest. It was of little use; it would not do for wood to burn; it would not do to make furniture or anything useful. It was simply cast off. All this we readily see would have its effect upon the people. It is a blow at their national pride. It goes to show that a mere vine of the forest that is cast away and burned as rubbish may be destroyed, while the lordly trees of the forest are still preserved. Judah is a lowly, contemptible kingdom beside the other kingdoms, and it is no great thing if she does perish. Notice, he makes no mention of the fruit of the vine. There was no fruit to this vine. In the case of the grape the vine is useless when there is no fruit; the vine is utterly valueless and fit only to be cast off. Thus he prophesied that Jerusalem should be burned with fire and its inhabitants destroyed.
In Eze 16 we have an allegory of the foundling child and its interpretation. This whole chapter is an allegory. Judah is described as a wretched outcast infant on the very day of its birth, thrown out into the field, a thing all too frequently done among Semitic and other Oriental peoples. There the infant lay, ready to perish. Jehovah comes along and sees the child thus in its neglected, wretched, forsaken condition; takes pity upon it; cares for it in the best way possible; rears it up until the child, a female child, becomes a young woman. She becomes of marriageable age, and then she is espoused to her husband, Jehovah. He adorns her with all the beauties with which a bride can possibly be adorned, and crowns her with a beautiful crown, and as Eze 16:14 says, “Thy renown went forth among the nations for thy beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put upon thee.” All went well for a time, but the foundling child which had the disposition of the Amorite and of the Hittite, very soon became the faithless bride and then rapidly degenerated into a shameless and abandoned prostitute. She prostituted herself with Egypt, with Assyria, and with Babylonia and their gods; then went into the very extreme of wickedness and sank to the very lowest depths of shame.
As a result of this absolute abandonment to wickedness, this prostitution of herself to idol worship, the nation is doomed to destruction at the hands of the very people after whom she had gone, and whose gods she had sought and worshiped. They were to gather around her from every side and were to destroy and lay waste the very bride of Jehovah. This passage is doubtless the analogue of that famous passage in Rev 17 , where the apostate church is compared to the harlot sitting upon the beast. He goes on and compares Jerusalem with Samaria and with Sodom. Notice verse Eze 16:46 : “Thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, that dwelleth at thy left hand; and thy younger sister that dwelleth at thy right hand is Sodom and her daughters.”
In Eze 16:48 he says that Jerusalem is worse and more shameless than even Sodom: “As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.” In Eze 16:49 he gives the sin of Sodom: “Pride, fulness of bread, and prosperous ease,” the besetting sins of the society women of every city of the land. Eze 16:51 says, “Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations,” and Eze 16:53 says, “I will turn again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them.”
What does he mean by saying that Sodom shall return from her captivity? No Sodomite was preserved; everyone perished. I think it means that in a future age all the land shall be reclaimed and even the place of Sodom shall be repeopled and, when restored and repeopled, will be like unto the inhabitants of Samaria and Jerusalem; that they will be loyal and true with new hearts and right spirits. It cannot be taken literally, for it is impossible that a Sodomite could return from captivity. It is necessary to read carefully all this allegory at one sitting to get its effect, to see and feel its force. It is powerful. Israel was not the descendant of an Amorite nor a Hittite. She had the blood of Chaldea and of Aram, but what he means is that there was in Israel from the very first the seeds of idolatry that existed in those Amorites among whom she lived. Thus Ezekiel prophesies the return of Samaria, the return and restoration of Jerusalem as well as Sodom, the last no doubt in a figurative sense.
We have had symbols, symbolic actions, and parables; now we have a riddle. The riddle is this, Eze 17:3 f: “A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the top of the cedar; he cropped off the topmost of the young twigs thereof, and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.” And in Eze 17:5 it says, “He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful soil; he placed it beside many waters; he set it as a willow tree.” Verse Eze 17:6 : “And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.” Then it began to send its roots in another direction as we see from verse Eze 17:7 : “There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him, that he might water it.”
What is the meaning of it? The first great eagle was Nebuchadnezzar who came from Babylon and lopped off the top of the cedar, Jehoiachin, the son of Josiah, and carried him away to Babylon with seven thousand of the best people. He then set Zedekiah upon the throne and made him a feeble, weak vassal, with the hope that Zedekiah would depend upon him, pay him tribute, seek strength and power from Babylon, i.e., send out his roots to Babylon. But instead of that, Zedekiah begins to plot with Pharaoh-Necho of Egypt and instead of sending roots toward Babylon, he sent them toward Egypt. This is the riddle and the explanation. The riddle found in Eze 17:1-10 and the explanation in Eze 17:11-21 .
In Eze 17:22-23 we have the promise of a universal kingdom. He uses the same figure, that of the lofty top of the cedar, the symbol of the lawful descendant, the legitimate heir to the throne of Israel. After the return, God is going to take the lofty top of the cedar and crop off a twig from the topmost limb and plant it in the top of a high mountain in Israel. The latter part of Eze 17:23 says, “And under it shall dwell all birds of every wing; in the shade of the branches thereof shall they dwell.” Here he means that from the royal family of David, a twig, the topmost twig, shall be taken by Almighty God, and shall be set upon a high and lofty throne and his kingdom shall become so large, so wide, so broad, that its dominion will be universal, and all the peoples of the world will come to lodge under its branches and enjoy its protection. This, of course, is the messianic kingdom.
In Eze 18 we have Ezekiel’s discussion on the moral freedom and responsibility of the individual before God. This is the most important theological contribution which Ezekiel made to the thought of his age. In this chapter he meets one of the most perplexing problems that ever troubled men. It was the great religious problem of his age. When Jeremiah prophesied the restoration of the people to their land, he said that the time would come when they would no longer say, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” but each one should bear and suffer for his own sins and sustain an individual, personal relationship to God. Individualism, liberty in religion, was a messianic principle with Jeremiah, but Ezekiel is already living in the new order of things, and he takes up the problem that confronted Jeremiah: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are on edge.”
What does he mean? It was a proverbial saying and there is implied in it a reproach against divine providence; a suggestion that God is unjust in his administration of the laws of the world; that the children are suffering wrongfully for sins they never committed, but which their fathers committed. All that is implied in it, but the real significance of the proverb is this: “The sins of which you accuse us were born in us; we can’t help them; we must sin; our fathers sinned and the evil has been transmitted to us; we can’t help ourselves.”
The proverb rose out of the fact that God dealt with nations as units, and the individual shared the effects of that dealing. That was the case with Israel all down through the ages until this period. But now when the greatest crisis in the history of the nation had come, the nation destroyed, the city burned, the Temple gone, the ceremonial and ritual at an end, the national religious life collapsed, what would be the effect? The only way in which religion could be preserved was for them to realize that each individual soul had an individual and personal relationship to God. This was something new in the history of religion, this idea of individual responsibility to and relationship with God.
Ezekiel meets this great problem and deals with it fairly and squarely. There are two principles brought out in this chapter, which are these:
1. “All souls [individual personalities] are mine, saith the Lord.”
2. “I have no pleasure in the death of any one of these persons. I do not wish any one of them to perish. It grieves me that they do. I have no pleasure in it.”
And then, arising from these two principles are two conclusions:
1. Each soul’s destiny depends upon its relation to God.
2. It is their privilege to repent and turn from sin.
The following is an analysis of the chapter:
1. The individual man is not involved in the sins and fate of his people or his forefathers (Eze 18:1-20 ). He says in Eze 18:5 , “If a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,” and the latter part of Eze 18:9 , “he is just, he shall surely live.” Verse Eze 18:10 : “And if he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of blood he [the robber] shall surely die.” Verse Eze 18:13 : “But hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase shall he then live? He shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him.” In the latter part of Eze 18:17 , he says, “The righteous man shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live.” In other words, no man shall die because of his father’s sins, but because of his own, and no man shall be responsible for his son’s sins, but for his own. Each individual shall bear his own personal relationship to God and that alone.
2. The individual soul does not lie under the ban of its own past (Eze 18:21-23 ). Ezekiel means to say this: “If any man going on in sin, should turn from his sin and should repent and get right with God, he shall live. He is no slave to his moral environment, no victim of the sins of his ancestors, he is not compelled to go on in sin. He means to say also that if a man going on and doing right should fall into sin and do unrighteousness, then he shall die in his iniquity; he shall suffer its consequences; he shall not have attributed to him anything of his past righteousness; that would be completely nullified. He shall not have an average made of his righteousness and wickedness, but according to the condition of his heart at that time he shall either live or die. Now, that does not abrogate the law of heredity; it does not say that we do not inherit evil tendencies; it does not say that the result of our past lives will not continue with us, but it does say that everything depends upon the man’s personal and individual relationship to his sins and to his God; that the trend of his mind, the bent of his character, is that which fixes his destiny.
In other words, it is the doctrine of moral freedom which implies individual responsibility, with a possibility of repentance, a possibility of sin, a possibility of individual relationship to God, a possibility of life or death. This chapter is worthy of long and careful study.
There is a lamentation in Eze 19 , set forth in two parables. Here Ezekiel represents Jerusalem as a lioness. She brought up one of her cubs, or whelps, and he became a young lion; the nations came, caught him, bound him, and he was carried away to Egypt. That was Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah. When he was gone, the lioness brought up another one of her whelps and he grew up to be a young lion. The nations came against him and he was caught and carried away to Babylon that his voice should be no more heard on the mountains of Judah. That was Jehoiachin. He makes no mention of Jehoiakim for he was only a vassal set upon the throne by Pharaoh, not the chosen heir to the throne. He makes no mention of Zedekiah for he also was a vassal placed upon the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, not by the choice of the people, and he was not one of the lioness’s whelps.
Then, Eze 19:10-14 , he describes the mother as a vine, and shows how the vine is to be plucked up, burned, and destroyed, signifying the end of the reign of Zedekiah with the destruction of his capital.
The prophet reviews the past history of Israel in Eze 20:20 and emphasizes the principle that has saved Israel, viz: Jehovah’s regard for his own name. The elders came to inquire of Ezekiel about the law, or about the fate of the city. Ezekiel said that God would not be inquired of by them. He then goes on to review the history of Israel, and shows them the principle which actuated Jehovah in the saving of that nation. It is this: In Eze 20:9 he says, “I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt.” And in Eze 20:14 he refers to their salvation in the wilderness: “I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations” and in Eze 20:22 , referring to his dealing with them while in the wilderness, he says, “Nevertheless I withdrew my hand, and wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations.” And from Eze 20:30-44 Ezekiel, in prophetic vision, sees that the return from captivity, the restoration from Babylon, the setting up of the glorious messianic kingdom in Jerusalem and Judah, will be done on this very same principle, viz: Jehovah’s regard for his own name.
The following is a summary of the contents of Eze 20:45-21:32 :
1. The fire in the forest of the South (Eze 20:35-49 ). The South refers to Judah and Jerusalem. Ezekiel sees from his situation in Babylon a fire raging in the South and burning the nation. It is a fire that shall not be quenched.
2. The sword of Jehovah shall be on Jerusalem (Eze 21:1-27 ). In substance, it is this: The sword of Jehovah is the sword of Nebuchadnezzar. It is coming against the city. When it is drawn it shall be sheathed no more. From Eze 21:8-17 we have Ezekiel’s “Song of the Sword,” a peculiar dirge picturing the sharpness of the sword and the anguish of the people. From Eze 21:18-27 the prophet represents the king of Babylon as undecided whether he should attack Ammon or Jerusalem first. He stands at the parting of the ways, and uses divination; he shook the arrows to and fro, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver. He drew forth the arrow marked, “Jerusalem.” Hence he marches there first.
3. Threatening prophecy against Ammon (Eze 21:28-32 ). This contains very little that is different from the prophecy against Jerusalem and from what shall follow. The prophet repeats in Eze 21:22 , in new form, the same charge he has been making over and over again; the same that Jeremiah had made so repeatedly: the sins of Jerusalem are idolatry, bloodshed, open licentiousness, incest, and almost every other conceivable form of evil. Because of all this her destruction was certain and necessary, and all nations were involved in it.
We have the symbolism of two harlot women in Eze 23 . This is a history of two harlot women, Samaria and Jerusalem, under the names of Aholah and Aholibah. This is largely a repetition of Eze 16 . The chief thoughts are as follows:
1. The infidelities of Samaria with Assyria and Egypt (Eze 23:1-10 ).
2. The infidelities of Jerusalem with Assyria, Babylon and Egypt (Eze 23:11-21 ).
3. Therefore, her fate shall be like that of Samaria (Eze 23:22-35 ).
4. A new description of their immoralities and another that of punishment (Eze 23:36-49 ).
The date of the prophecy in Eze 24 is the very day upon which Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem, August 10, 588 B.C. The prophet here performs a symbolic action just as the siege begins. He takes a caldron, a great iron pot. The Lord tells him to pour water into it, to gather pieces of flesh, good pieces, the thigh and shoulder and choice bones; to take from the choicest of the flock, and to pile the wood up under it and to make it boil well. “Let the bones thereof be boiled in the midst of it.” Thus the symbolic action is carried on by Ezekiel.
What does it mean? At the moment Nebuchadnezzar began to surround Jerusalem the prophet performs this action. Jerusalem was the caldron; the inhabitants were the flesh therein, Jehovah was kindling the fire; he was piling up the wood and setting it ablaze, so that the unfortunate city would be seething and boiling and roasting as the flesh in a caldron. It was made so hot that the very rust of the iron was purged out and left it clean. In other words, Jerusalem should be so cleansed by the captivity and destruction of its city, that there would be left only the pure and clean (Eze 24:1-14 ). (See the author’s sermon on this paragraph in The River of Life.)
Another symbolic action occurs on the death of Ezekiel’s wife (Eze 24:15-27 ). The prophet mourns not. There is a very remarkable statement in the Eze 24:16 . God says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet thou shalt neither mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind thy headtire upon thee, and put thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.” Then he says, “So I spake unto the people in the morning; at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.” This symbolic action actually happened.
He says in Eze 24:18 , “I spake unto the people in the morn under the overwhelming grief that had fallen upon him so suddenly, he showed no signs of grief, he shed no tears, and heaved not an audible sigh. The people were unable to understand his actions, verse Eze 24:19 : “And the people said unto me, Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?” He tells them: “And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.” He means that very soon, as by a single stroke, a swift and inevitable stroke of justice, their fair and beloved city, Jerusalem, shall be destroyed, and they will be so stunned, so bewildered, so dumbfounded, so paralyzed that they will be unable to eat bread or even to sigh. In that stunned and dazed condition they shall bear their almost unbearable burden. It was a striking symbol, very touching, and it must have bad great effect.
QUESTIONS
1. To what end were the ministries of Jeremiah and Ezekiel?
2. What the parable of the vine tree and its interpretation? (Eze 15 .)
3. Give the allegory of the foundling child and its interpretation (Eze 16 ).
4. What the riddle of Eze 17 , what is its explanation, and what is the great promise in the latter part of this chapter?
5. What is Ezekiel’s discussion on the moral freedom and responsibility of the individual before God? (Eze 18 .)
6. What the lamentation in Eze 19 , and bow is it act forth in two parables? Give their interpretation.
7. What the principle upon which Jehovah acted toward Israel discussed in Eze 20 , and what the details of the discussion?
8. Give a summary of the contents of Eze 20:45-21:32 .
9. What the renewed charge against Jerusalem? (Eze 22 )
10. Who the two harlot women of Eze 23 and what the chief thoughts of this chapter?
11. What the meaning and application of the boiling pot and the blood on a rock? (Eze 24:1-14 .)
12. Explain the prophet’s action at the death, of his wife.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Eze 21:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord. ] See Eze 18:1 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ezekiel Chapter 21
What appears in our ordinary Bibles as the end of chapter 20 (ver. 45-49) goes rather with chapter 21 in the Hebrew and in some ancient versions. It is the conquest of Judea under the image of a forest on fire. The prophet is directed to set his face and prophesy about the south, which is expressed in three forms with great emphasis. “Moreover the word of Jehovah came unto me saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop [thy word] toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field. And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of Jehovah; thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree.” Judgment was going forth against all, be they vigorous or withered. “The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burnt therein. And all flesh shall see that I Jehovah have kindled it: it shall not be quenched.” The completeness of the judgment would prove the hand of Jehovah, “Then said I, Ah! Lord Jehovah! they say of me. Doth he not speak parables?” The word was plain enough; but man finds difficulties in understanding what he does not like.
The next communication however is much more distinct and complete. (Chap. 21) “And the word of Jehovah came unto me saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop [thy word] toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel, 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.” Here figures are dropped and plain language spoken. The slaughter would be indiscriminate, not chastening but vengeance. It is no longer a conflagration, but the sword. “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; that all flesh may know that I Jehovah have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath: it shall not return any more” (Ver. 1-5) Sentence was gone forth irrevocably against Judea. “Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.” All were to take heed. It was no light matter nor affectation on Ezekiel’s part. God meant it to be felt deeply – by the prophet first that others also might fear. “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 Jehovah.” (Ver. 6, 7) The certainty of judgment, though only a national one, was intended to fill the heart of the prophet with anguish to the uttermost.
“Again the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith Jehovah; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished; 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. 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. 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. Because it is a trial, and what if the sword condemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord Jehovah.” (Ver. 8-13) Then comes the direction: “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. 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. Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set. I will also smite my hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I Jehovah have said it.” They are now spoken of as great men, not figuratively as trees, dry or green. Jehovah would smite His hands together and cause His fury to rest. (Ver. 14-17)
Then, with a strikingly vivid picture of the Chaldean and his auguries, we have a fresh message of that which drew out His anger against Jerusalem. “The word of Jehovah came unto me again, saying, 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. Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced. [Neither king nor people had confidence in Jehovah.] 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. 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. 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. Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah; 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.” (Ver. 18-24) The king of Jerusalem would be more false even to Jehovah than the idolatrous king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had counted upon his respect for the oath of Jehovah; but he had none.
Hence Zedekiah is called a profane prince of Israel whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end. “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah; 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. 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.” (Ver. 26, 27) Messiah shall come and reign: subversion and only subversion till then. His is the right.
The chapter closes with a message concerning the Ammonites. “And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah 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: while they see vanity unto thee, while 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. Shall I cause it to return into its sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity. 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. 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.” (Ver. 28-32) It was not a question of one only but of both. Jerusalem was the prime object of destructive vengeance, yet the Ammonites should not escape but fall in their turn. The rejection of God’s government by law would issue in the utter blotting out of Israel; but grace would take up the matter and reserve for God in mercy to restore what was hopeless as long as the promises were tied to conditions, for the people had broken all instead of fulfilling any. They were to be carried captive, and the kingdom overturned till Messiah come; but the Ammonites should be judged in their own land. Yet is it a mistake to deny either their captivity or their restoration another day. (Compare Jer 49:6 )
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 21:1-7
1And the word of the LORD came to me saying, 2Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and speak against the sanctuaries and prophesy against the land of Israel; 3and 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 from you the righteous and the wicked. 4Because I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore My sword will go forth from its sheath against all flesh from south to north. 5Thus all flesh will know that I, the LORD, have drawn My sword out of its sheath. It will not return to its sheath again.’ 6As for you, son of man, groan with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan in their sight. 7And when they say to you, ‘Why do you groan?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that is coming; and every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes and it will happen,’ declares the Lord GOD.
Eze 21:1 The context starts in Eze 20:45, which marks off a new vision (the MT starts chapter 21 here) by the characteristic phrase the word of the LORD came to me saying (cf. Eze 3:16; Eze 6:1; Eze 7:1; Eze 11:14; Eze 12:1; Eze 12:8; Eze 12:17; Eze 12:21; Eze 12:26; Eze 13:1; Eze 14:2; Eze 14:12; Eze 15:1; Eze 16:1; Eze 17:1; Eze 17:11; Eze 18:1; Eze 20:2; Eze 20:45; Eze 21:1; Eze 21:8; Eze 21:18; Eze 22:1; Eze 22:17; Eze 22:23; Eze 23:1; Eze 24:1; Eze 24:15; Eze 24:20; Eze 25:1; Eze 26:1; Eze 27:1; Eze 28:1; Eze 28:7; Eze 30:1; Eze 30:20; Eze 31:1; Eze 32:1; Eze 32:17; Eze 33:1; Eze 33:23; Eze 34:1; Eze 35:1; Eze 36:16; Eze 38:1). Remember that the original manuscripts had no chapters, paragraphs, or verse divisions in the ancient Hebrew scrolls. This repeated phrase helped scroll readers find the place to begin reading. It also helped to show (1) new contexts and (2) related contexts.
saying This VERB (BDB 55, KB 65) occurs twenty-two times in this chapter. YHWH wants His wayward people to hear Him clearly!
Eze 21:2 Son of man See note at Eze 2:1.
set your face toward Jerusalem See note at Eze 20:41.
Notice the negative parallelism.
1. Set your face toward (BDB 962, KB 1321, Qal IMPERATIVE)
2. Speak against (lit. preach, BDB 642, KB 694, Hiphil IMPERATIVE)
3. Prophesy against (BDB 612, KB 659, Niphal IMPERATIVE)
This exactly matches Eze 20:46. YHWH’s judgment against His own disobedient people is described by the personification of His sharp (BDB 292) and polished (BDB 598) sword.
His sword will strike
1. the capital with its political leaders
2. the mountain/hilltop sanctuaries of Ba’al and Asherah
3. the entire Promised Land
Eze 21:3 sword This is one of the most graphic chapters in all of the Bible on the judgment of God. YHWH’s sword (BDB 352, cf. Eze 21:3-5; Eze 21:9; Eze 21:12; Eze 21:14-15; Eze 21:19) is personified and God’s attitude of judgment is heightened. In Eze 20:49 (Mat 21:5) the leadership in exile said, Don’t speak to us in parables anymore, so Ezekiel graphically described the judgment of God on Jerusalem and Judah (cf. Jer 12:12).
Eze 21:3-4 cut off from you the righteous and the wicked In Eze 20:47 the same groups are described as green and dry trees. The Septuagint changes the term righteous to the term unrighteous because they think this verse violates the truth presented in Eze 14:20; Ezekiel 18 :lff; 33:lff (see Hard Sayings of the Bible, pp. 315-316). Isa 57:1-2 struggles with this issue and gives an after-life answer.
Eze 21:5 Thus all flesh will know that I, the LORD This all flesh (cf. Eze 20:48; Eze 21:4-5) emphasis can be seen in two aspects.
1. all humans, Num 16:22; Num 27:16; Eze 20:48 (i.e., Gen 1:26-27)
2. Israel, Eze 21:4-5; Jer 12:12
YHWH cares about His namesake among the nations (cf. Eze 36:22-38). Israel was YHWH’s instrument to reach the nations (e.g., Isaiah, Jonah, Micah). See Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan .
It will not return to its sheath again This is an idiom for YHWH’s judgment that cannot be stopped (cf. Jer 23:20). It seems to contrast Eze 21:30. This is literary hyperbole. Judgment was sure (cf. Eze 21:7)! Those left in Jerusalem did not believe judgment was truly coming, not to Jerusalem, not to the temple, not to them! They misunderstood YHWH’s longsuffering, patient endurance.
Eze 21:6 groan with breaking heart This VERB (BDB 58, KB 70) is used twice.
1. Niphal IMPERATIVE (command)
2. Niphal IMPERFECT (continuing action)
This VERB denotes a deep distress caused by physical or emotional pain (i.e., Lam 1:8; Lam 1:22). In Eze 9:4 it is used to describe the guilt feelings connected to true repentance (note Jer 13:17).
Heart is literally loins (BDB 608). This was the seat of strength (i.e. the largest muscle in the body is the thigh). It is a Hebrew idiom (cf. Eze 21:12; Job 40:16; Psa 66:11; Isa 21:3; Nah 2:10). Eze 21:6 describes another symbolic drama dictated by YHWH for the purpose of reaching exiled Judah.
Eze 21:7 Note the reason for groaning was the arrival of YHWH’s sword.
1. every hand will be feeble, Isa 13:7
2. all hands will be feeble, Isa 13:7
3. every spirit will faint
4. all knees will be weak as water
This description of utter fear and desperation is used to describe YHWH’s judgment on the pagan nations.
1. Canaan, Jos 2:11; Jos 5:1
2. Babylon, Isa 13:7; Jer 50:43
3. Egypt, Isa 19:1
4. Assyria, Nah 2:10
5. Syria, Jer 49:24
6. on the wicked, Eze 7:17
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Eze 21:1-32 , the twenty-first chapter of Ezekiel.
Now the prophets of God were often very colorful persons. And because people would not always listen to the Word of God, they would often do things to draw the people’s attention to create a question in their mind, curiosity, “What in the world is he doing now?” And when these questions would arise or when they would draw the people’s attention, then they would preach the message of God to them. And so, oftentimes their ministry was extremely colorful, as they were attracting attention, creating the questions in order that they might deliver their message to the people. And as we come in to chapter 21, Ezekiel is getting a lot of attention grabbers here from the Lord and his ministry to the people.
The word of the LORD came unto me saying, Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel ( Eze 21:1-2 ),
So we see what the background is. The prophecies are to be against Jerusalem the land of Israel.
Say unto 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. 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: That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more. Now sigh, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes ( Eze 21:2-6 ).
So, at this point having uttered these words, “God has stretched out His sword against Jerusalem,” he would have said, “Just hold his loins, bend over and start just sighing.” And just really wailing in a sense, just sighing and all.
And it shall be, when they say unto you, Why are you sighing? that you shall answer, For the tidings, because it is coming: every heart shall melt, and all of the hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all of the knees shall be weak as water: behold, it is coming, it shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord ( Eze 21:7 ).
So he is to go into this little scene of this heavy sighing as he holds his loins and bends. Until they say, “What are you sighing about?” He said, “I’m sighing because of the tidings that are going to be coming. And, of course, when they come, all of you will be sighing and mourning when you hear that Jerusalem has been destroyed, the cities have been murdered.” Many of them had families back in Jerusalem still. They are soon to be receiving word that their families had been wiped out.
And again the word of the LORD came unto me saying, Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished [or polished]: It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? ( Eze 21:8-10 )
Is it time for joy? Is it time for a hilarity?
it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree. 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. Cry and howl, son of man; for it shall be upon my people ( Eze 21:10-12 ),
Now from sighing he goes to crying and howling. And as he cries and howls and draws the attention of the people, then he speaks to them about this sword of the Lord that is to be stretched out against Jerusalem. How God is coming with His sword to judge the people. And, of course, it will be wielded at the hand of the Babylonians.
Verse Eze 21:14 :
Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite your hands together ( Eze 21:14 ),
So he’s doing a lot of things to get attention. So now he’s just clapping his hands.
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 enter into their private chambers. For 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. Go thee one way or the other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set. I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it. The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying, 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. Now appoint a way, that the sword [literally, the arrow] may come to Rabbath ( Eze 21:14-20 )
Which was the capitol of the Ammonites.
and to Judah in Jerusalem the defensed. For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: and he shook his arrows [literally], and consulted with images, and looked in the liver ( Eze 21:20-21 ).
Now these were methods by which they sought to divine the purposes of their god. And when Nebuchadnezzar came to the parting of the ways, one road led to the capitol of the Ammonites, to the city of Rabbath, the other road led to Jerusalem. He has his troops; they are going to march. “Against whom shall we march? Let’s consult the gods.” And so they would take these arrows, and on one arrow they would write the name Rabbath; on the other arrow they would write the name Jerusalem. They would put the arrows into a sack and shake them up and then they reach in and pull out an arrow and whatever name is on the arrow they have discerned as the purpose of god that that is what we will smite.
And then they would cut a lamb and lay out its liver and then they would watch these lines on the liver. Again, to determine the direction that they were to go. And so they would divine by liver or by this shaking of the arrows. And so he is to speak to the people about how that Nebuchadnezzar was standing at the fork of the road. One road leading to Rabbath, the other to Jerusalem to divine, to seek, to get guidance from his god as to where he was to strike.
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. 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. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins to appear; because, I say, that you are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand. And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, 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. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it to him ( Eze 21:22-27 ).
Here is a marvelous prophecy in Ezekiel that actually comes out to our present day and into the future. As the Lord said, “And thou profane and wicked prince of Israel.” Now the direct prophecy is against Zedekiah, who was to be the last of the kings of Israel until the king whose right it is shall come to reign. But this prophecy also has a double interpretation in that the profane king referred to here, “Thou profane wicked prince of Israel,” is actually the antichrist in the last days. The words, “when iniquity shall have an end,” literally is, “at the end of the days of iniquity.” So it is in the last days when the antichrist arises and is accepted by the Jews as their Messiah, worshipped by them in a sense, acclaimed by them as their deliverer.
Now, Jesus said to the Jews, “I came in My Father’s name but you did not receive Me. Another is going to come in his own name and him you will receive” ( Joh 5:43 ). Daniel tells us that the prince of the people that shall come, the antichrist, will make a covenant with the nation Israel and in the midst of the final seven-year period he’ll break that covenant as he sets up the abomination that causes desolation. Now this world ruler that will arise soon upon the scene, known in the scripture as the son of perdition, the beast, commonly called the antichrist, is going to arise with great power, blasphemies and all, going to take over this European confederation of nations. Going to make a covenant with the nation Israel, going to be hailed by them in the beginning as their Messiah.
If you go to Israel today, you will hear that there is much talk about the Messiah. They are really expecting the Messiah to come very soon. In fact, a couple of respected rabbis have been making some predictions that the Messiah is coming very soon and the people are all excited about it. Incidentally, there is some fellow here in the United States going around declaring that the man who has the answers for all of the world’s problems is going to appear in the first part of 1982. And he is featured on so many of the television talk shows and all, and he is lecturing all over the United States on this man that the world is waiting for and has been looking for. The man who has the solutions and the answers and is gonna bring peace and all. And he’s sort of a forerunner, he declares, of this man who will make himself known in the early part of 1982, will take over the governments, and will bring peace to mankind. The answers to your prayers are about upon us, he is telling people. And he’s going around lecturing. Interesting, only inasmuch as people are looking for some kind of a leader to lead us into sanity from the insanity that seems to prevail in the world diplomacy.
But if you go to Israel today, they’ll tell you they’re expecting Messiah very soon. They will tell you that they do not look for the Son of God. They do not believe the Messiah will be the Son of God, that he will be a man just like Moses was a man. Moses said, “And there shall come another prophet like unto myself. Unto him shall ye give heed.” He was prophesying concerning the Messiah. So they say he’ll be a man just like Moses. He’ll not be the Son of God. So then you must question them, well then how will you know he’s your Messiah? And immediately their answer will come back, “Because he will help us to rebuild our temple.” Just, that’s where it is. And so in Israel today, they are looking for some man who will come and help them to rebuild their temple. Of course, Daniel tells us he’ll make a covenant with them. Surely this covenant is to rebuild their temple. He will make the covenant whereby they will be able to rebuild their temple.
We will get in a couple of weeks, three or four weeks, to a fascinating prophecy here in Ezekiel. In fact, Ezekiel starts getting more exciting all the while now as we move on into this latter portion. You see, it sort of starts with Israel’s history, but then it keeps coming chronologically and it goes right on out to what’s happening today, yesterday, last year, the last few years. And it goes right in to what is going to happen next year, and the next few years in Israel. And it goes into the rebuilding of the temple which is coming very soon. And he gives you dimensions of the temple. And then he makes one very interesting comment concerning the temple, which I think is an extremely significant prophecy, and we will point that out to you when we get to… stay tuned.
Now, here he is predicting this profane wicked person who will arise in the end of the days of iniquity. “Thus saith the Lord God, ‘Remove the diadem.'” And the word diadem there is miter. It is the little head thing that priest wore, not the crown of the king. But also the crown. Now Satan gives unto this man his authority and his power. He comes as a spiritual leader to Israel. That is, in the making of the covenant which is related and associated to the rebuilding of the temple. People are excited. They acclaim him as their Messiah. He has the answers; he has the solutions. He has the most simple solution for the rebuilding of the temple, one that doesn’t upset the Muslims, the great Moslem world. They’re not upset by his solution. He’s just a genius and the whole world wonders after the genius of this man, as he comes up with this solution that is so simple yet so practical and so easy to fulfill and everybody is happy.
Now, take from him this miter, for he is a false Messiah; he is not the true Messiah. He is not the true priest that shall come. He’s not the true king.
take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. [For God said,] I will overturn, I will overturn, will overturn: and it shall be no more, until he comes [that is Jesus Christ] whose right it is; and I will give it to him ( Eze 21:26-27 ).
So when Jesus Christ returns, He will destroy this man of sin with the brightness of His coming, with a sharp sword that goes forth out of His mouth. And He shall sit upon the throne of David and will be acclaimed King of kings and Lord of lords. And He will bring in the glorious Kingdom Age.
So there is this false hope that they will hold on to at the beginning. In the scriptures we read, “Because they would not believe the truth of God, God gave them over to a strong delusion that they would believe a lie” ( 2Th 2:10-11 ). He will come with such power, such exciting miracles, such charisma that the whole world, except for the elect, will be deceived and were if possible even deceive the elect. Now, that word elect there does not refer to the church, but to Israel. Those elect of Israel who have been elected of God, the 144,000 elected of God to be sealed and preserved in the Great Tribulation period. Coming with lying wonders, but God is going to overturn, and he who is exalted himself will be abased, and he who was abased will be exalted and will come and sit upon the throne whose right it is.
When we get into the book of Revelation chapter 5 we see a scroll in the right hand of Him who was sitting upon the throne, God. The scroll is sealed with seven seals; it has writing both within and without. And an angel proclaims with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to take the scroll and loose the seals thereof?” The scroll is the title deed to the earth. Who is worthy to redeem the earth back to God? is the whole idea.
The earth originally was God’s. God gave it to man; man turned it over to Satan. Satan governs and rules the world today. Jesus came to redeem the world back to God, not by force, but by the price of His blood. The just for the unjust. “For by one man’s sin entered the world, and death by sin so that death passed unto all men because all sin. Even so, by one man’s righteousness shall many be made righteous.” And so in heaven, the day is come, the transaction, the time of redemption.
There is the scroll, the instrument that was drawn up. “‘Who is worthy to take the scroll and loose the seals?’ John began to sob convulsively because no man was found worthy in heaven and earth or under the sea to take the scroll or even to look upon it. But the elder said, ‘Don’t weep, John. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to take the scroll and loose the seals.’ And I turned and I saw Him as He stepped forth and He took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne. And when He did, the twenty-four elders came forward with their vials, golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints and they offered them before God. And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Thou art worthy to take the scroll and loose the seals. For Thou was slain and hath redeemed us by Thy blood'” ( Rev 5:2-5 , Rev 5:7-9 ).
Now, “whose right it is.” You see, He is going to come and reign. Satan’s kingdom is going to be overthrown. Satan will no longer rule over the earth. In fact, Satan will be bound and cast into the abyss. And He will rule whose right it is, and then we will see the world that God intended when He made Adam and placed him upon the earth. You’ll see the earth renewed and restored to the beauty and glory of the Garden of Eden. You’ll see and earth in which righteousness will reign. You will see an earth in which there is no sickness, no blindness, no lameness, no deformities. You’ll see an earth that is covered with righteousness, even as the waters do cover the sea. An earth without deserts, an earth without hurricanes, an earth that is lush and beautiful and glorious and doesn’t have polluted skies. You’ll see the earth that God intended. And you’ll live and dwell with Him upon this earth for a thousand years. Glorious day, and we look forward to it.
But it’s interesting. Here is the prophecy, “There will be no king in Israel until He comes whose right it is.” There’s not going to be any diadem, not going to be any royal crown until Jesus comes. It’s interesting that when the Jews return from their Babylonian captivity, they didn’t reestablish monarchy. They didn’t anoint a king to rule over them. The monarchy ended with Zedekiah. It is interesting that when the Jews returned to Israel again in 1948 they did not establish a monarchy which was their traditional form of government. And there will not be a monarchy or a king until He comes whose right it is. And Jesus Christ will be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. So beautiful prophecy here concerning Jesus Christ in this twenty-first chapter.
Now thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites ( Eze 21:28 ).
Now you remember one of the arrows was marked with the Ammonites on it.
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: While they see vanity unto thee, while 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. 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 ( Eze 21:28-30 ).
So the Ammonites will not escape, but then God said, “Don’t think that you’re going to be delivered. I will judge thee, the nation Israel, in the place where you were created. Right in the land. And the land of your nativity.”
And I will pour out my indignation upon thee; I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, those who are skilful to destroy. 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 ( Eze 21:31-32 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Eze 21:1-7
THE SONG OF THE SWORD
This chapter is called by many “The Song of the Sword.” Why? The word “sword” occurs no less than thirteen times in 32 verses, being repeated over and over again, doubled and thrice doubled in its significance. It is God’s explanation of the parable of the great forest fire just presented in Ezekiel 20, which the stubborn sinners who heard it pretended not to understand. They certainly could not have missed the point of this explanation. It was the sword, the sword, the sword, the sword, etc. the sword sharpened, the sword polished, the sword swift as lightning, the sword of the Lord, but particularly the sword of Babylon the agent of God in his punishment of Israel.
Eze 21:1-7
“And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel; 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. 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. And all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more. Sigh therefore, thou son of man; with the breaking of thy loins and with bitterness shalt thou sigh before their eyes. 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 shalt melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and it shall be done, saith the Lord Jehovah.”
The parable of the great fire is fully explained here. The South is Jerusalem; the field of the South is Palestine; the forest of the field of the South is the people; every green tree and every dry tree are references to the wicked and the righteous, both of whom are marked for destruction. The great fire stands for war, symbolized here as “the sword.”
“Sigh, therefore, thou son of man …” (Eze 21:6). We have frequently noted the behavior of God’s prophets who actually confirmed the predictive nature of their prophecies by their bizarre behavior at the time of giving the prophecy. Isaiah went barefoot for two years; Jeremiah wore an ox yoke to the king’s court; Micah screamed like a jackal and wallowed in the dirt; here Ezekiel sighed and manifested great grief as a man with a broken heart, provoking an inquiry from the people, as to what it all meant. This behavior is the complete and irrevocable refutation of nonsense that Ezekiel “might not have written this chapter.” No man would possibly have behaved in the manner indicated here concerning an event that had already happened.
“With the breaking of thy loins …” (Eze 21:5). The KJV and the Revised Standard Version are better here, reading “breaking of thy heart.” In ancient times the loins (kidneys) were thought to be the seat of the emotions, now said to be “in the heart,” not the physical heart, of course, but the brain, which is the seat of intelligence and the emotions.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The commission was then repeated in terms of explanation. Ezekiel was to set his face against Jerusalem, and prophesy against the land of Israel, declaring that Jehovah would draw His sword out of its sheath in order to proceed in ultimate judgment against the sinning people.
Moreover, Ezekiel was charged that his message was to be delivered with all the tokens of overwhelming anguish, which tokens should in themselves constitute a sign which he was to interpret to the people as the anguish which must inevitably overtake them in the day of calamity.
All this had prepared the way for the song of the sword. First, in graphic language the prophet described the sword itself, sharpened and furbished, and ready to the hand of the slayer. This song was immediately followed by an interpretation. The king of Babylon was seen approaching. He came to a place where the ways parted, one leading to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, ,the other to Jerusalem. There he used divination with arrows, and consulted the teraphim. The lot fell on ,Jerusalem, and toward that he proceeded with all the instruments of siege.
Then the prince of Israel was addressed. Charged with sin, his judgment was announced, and the fact that Jehovah would continue to overturn until the coming of the rightful King. When at the parting of the ways the king of Babylon turned toward Jerusalem it would seem as though Ammon had drawn a sword, in all likelihood with the intention of taking part in the vengeance about to fall on Jerusalem. The prophet uttered the word which commanded Ammon to sheathe that sword, and declared that the judgment of Jehovah was against it.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Chapter Twenty-one
The Parting Of The Ways
In Gods dealings, both with individuals and with nations, He first instructs, then admonishes if they turn away from His word. Where repentance is manifested He delights to pour out blessing, but where instructions and pleadings are met with determined and wilful rejection, He deals finally in judgment. This comes out very clearly in the present chapter, where we see that all His pleadings with Judah had availed nothing so far as bringing them to repentance was concerned. Consequently, the destroyer of the Gentiles was permitted to come down upon the land, taking vengeance on those who had so utterly disregarded the covenant made between Jehovah and Israel at Sinai.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel; 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. 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: and all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, have drawn forth My sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more. Sigh therefore, thou son of man; with the breaking of thy loins and with bitterness shalt thou sigh before their eyes. 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-vers. 1-7.
The term son of man used here in ver. 2, and elsewhere in this book, seems to designate Ezekiel as the representative man standing for God among His people in a day of apostasy. He who had pleaded on their behalf was now called upon to set his face against Jerusalem and to declare the judgments that were destined to fall upon the land of Israel which was covered with heathen sanctuaries, all of which were an offense to Jehovah who had declared Himself to be the one true and living God. Because of their many sins He arrayed Himself against them and was about to draw His sword out of its sheath and cut them off as a people. This would involve the destruction of the righteous with the wicked; it could not be otherwise when an invading army swept over the land. But though the righteous may have to suffer in a temporal way, their souls will be gathered with all those in whom God had found faith throughout the centuries.
The sword of the Lord in this instance was really the sword wielded by Nebuchadnezzar. In other words, God had put that sword into his hands and instructed him to use it against all flesh from the south to the north, that all in those nations might know that it was a divine judgment which was falling upon them.
Though it was given to Ezekiel to declare this, there was not to be on his part any hardness of spirit or inward satisfaction when he saw his prophecies being fulfilled; rather he was to deliver the word of Jehovah in bitterness of soul as he realized what his people were to suffer because of their many offenses. He could not but sigh even as he proclaimed the word. When his hearers should look on and ask the reason for this perturbation of spirit, he was to reply that it was on account of the invading armies, before which every heart should melt, and their own hands should be feeble, and the spirit of every man in Israel should faint, and all knees should be weak as water. Nothing could now restrain the judgment so long deserved, but which God held in check ever since the days of the godly king Josiah.
The prophet has more to tell us about the sword of the Lord in verses 8 to 17.
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith Jehovah: Say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished; 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. 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. 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. For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that contemneth shall be no more? saith the Lord Jehovah. 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. 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. Gather thee together, go to the right, set thyself in array, go to the left, whithersoever thy face is set. I will also smite My hands together, and I will cause My wrath to rest: I, Jehovah, have spoken it-vers. 8-17.
Jehovah commanded Ezekiel to cry, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished; that is, scoured in order that it might gleam brightly as it flashed in the hands of the warrior, like lightning striking down all who came in its way.
In view of the terrible conditions which this implied, the question is asked, Shall we then make mirth? The human heart is ever ready to minimize and make light of the judgments of God, and men, instead of being sobered by divine visitations and brought to repentance, often try to forget unpleasant conditions, and in order to keep their morale, join in all kinds of folly and sin-like those of whom we read in the book of Revelation, who will be making merry in the day of wrath, sending presents one to another. Times such as those that Israel was called to pass through and which many nations have endured in the last half century, call for sobriety and seriousness of purpose rather than for careless joviality and merriment.
No room for mirth or trifling here
For worldly hope or worldly fear,
If life so soon is gone,
If now the Judge is at the door,
And all mankind must stand before
The inexorable throne.
It is far better, in such solemn times, to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, as the preacher tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes; but men in their folly try to forget reality by frivolous behavior and incitement to joviality. If ever there was a time when people ought to be serious, it is when the judgments of God are abroad in the land and when the rod of chastisement is falling upon His people.
This furbished sword of the Lord is sharpened that it might deal out death to everyone who dared to stand against it. It was to be given into the hand of the slayer; namely, the King of Babylon and his armies. To stand against these would be useless, for God had forsaken His people because of their sins. Therefore. Ezekiel was to cry and wail because of the judgments that were to fall on his people and upon all the princes of Israel, who were to be delivered over to the sword and smitten upon the thigh-that is, in the place of strength-they were to be cut down in weakness. Nothing could turn back the invader now: the day for repentance is past. The sword which had already been unsheathed in the hand of Pharaoh-necho, and earlier by Nebuchadnezzar, was now to be used the third time, and is designated as the sword of the deadly wounded. Against all the gates of the cities of Judah this glittering sword was to be seen until the hearts of the people should melt and they would stumble in their blindness and wickedness as the Chaldean armies, like lightning, came down upon the land. It made no difference where the people should turn, whether they went to the right or to the left, Gods wrath would find them out and they would fall before the invader, for Jehovah had spoken it.
In verses 18 to 23 we see the King of Babylon standing at the parting of the ways, where the slightest thing might have turned him northward rather than southward to invade the land of Palestine, but inasmuch as God Himself had decreed the latter, the kings own diviners advised him to take that course.
The word of Jehovah, came unto me again, saying, 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. Thou shalt appoint a way for the sword to come to Kabbah of the children of Amnion, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified. 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. 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. 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-vers. 18-23.
Two ways were marked out for the Chaldean armies: a road leading toward the north, up into Ammon; another toward the land of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar is represented as pausing at the intersection of the roads, not fully decided whether to besiege Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites, or to go on to Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. He called his soothsayers to advise him as to which city he should first seek to subdue. Using various means of divination, such as shaking of arrows, consulting with teraphim, or luck-pieces as we say, and slaughtering of victims and looking into the liver in order to assist in these prognostications, they pointed out that everything indicated that he should go to Jerusalem. Little did they know, and little did he understand that, after all, it was the very God of Israel who Himself was overruling in all this and leading the haughty king from the land of Shinar, to move upon the Holy City which had become so defiled by Israels sin. It was God Himself who had brought the iniquity to remembrance that they might be destroyed and taken captive by this heathen prince.
The king of Judah is addressed directly in the verses that follow:
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. And thou, O deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end, 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. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall l)e no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it Him-vers. 24-27.
This is one of the most striking prophecies in the Old Testament. It tells of the complete setting aside of the royal house of David because of the wickedness of its princes until the day in which Messiah should come and set up the kingdom so long predicted. In spite of all the warnings they had received, the kings who sat upon Davids throne had gone farther and farther from God until their iniquity and transgressions had become so flagrant that He could no longer condone them and consent to dwell among His people; therefore, He declared, O deadly-wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come in the time of the iniquity of the end. There was to be no further respite. The warnings that had fallen from the lips of all the prophets must now culminate in condign judgment, and so the decree went forth, Remove the mitre, and take off the crown; this shall be no more the same. That is, there shall be no more a man of Davids line sitting on the throne of David until great Davids greater Son should appear in power and glory.
God says, 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. Since the carrying away of the people to Babylon, following the destruction of Jerusalem, there has never been a king recognized by God as sitting upon the throne of Israel. Hoseas prophecy, found in the third chapter of his remarkable book, has had its fulfilment. Israel still abides without a king, without a prince, without a priest, and so shall it abide until Messiah Himself appears the second, time to take His great power and reign.
And thou, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning the children of Amnion, 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; 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. Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy birth, will I judge thee. 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. 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-vers. 28-32.
In these last verses of the chapter we learn that even though Ammon had escaped the sword of judgment for the moment because of Nebuchadnezzars turning toward Jerusalem, nevertheless they, too, were to feel the sharpness of that sword when a little later Nebuchadnezzar would turn against them also. While they had not been in covenant relation with God as Israel was, nevertheless their wickedness and corruption had so offended the Holy One of Israel that He was about to judge them and pour out His indignation upon them, blowing upon them in the fire of His wrath, even as upon His own people whom the Ammonites had often persecuted in the past.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Eze 21:1-32. A solemn message is given to the prophet: 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. It was to be a widespread judgment, against all flesh. Ezekiel was commanded to sigh with bitterness before their eyes and was to tell them the cause of his grief (Eze 21:1-7). The sharpening of the sword of judgment is given in Eze 21:8-17. It was hanging over their heads, ready to strike at any moment. The question is asked, Should we then make mirth? is this the time of mirth, worldly pleasures and enjoyment? Not for the faithful in Israel. Nor is the present solemn time a time of mirth for those who know the signs of the times and what God has revealed concerning things to come.
The king of Babylon and his divination is vividly pictured in Eze 21:18-24. The Babylonians used different kinds of enchantments, etc., to ascertain what they should do. The king stands at the cross-roads. Shall he go to Rabbath or against Jerusalem? He used arrows and put on one the name of Rabbath of the Ammonites; on the other Jerusalem. Then he shook them to and fro (correct rendering–he made his arrows bright). In Eze 21:22, we see the result of this divination. He has in his hands the arrow with Jerusalem on it.
The wicked prince and the Coming One are seen in Eze 21:25-27. Here Christ and Antichrist are contrasted. There can be no question that Zedekiah is first of all in view as the profane wicked prince of Israel. But the prophecy looks far beyond Zedekiah. It is the coming wicked prince, the one who comes in his own name, the final Antichrist, the false messiah, or, as he is also called in Revelation, the false prophet. That Eze 21:25 refers to the time of the end, is seen by the words, in the time of the iniquity of the end (correct translation). The same phrase appears in Dan 11:35-39, the time of the end, and the person described in that passage is the Antichrist, the wicked prince. It is the time of the future great tribulation when the transgressors are come to the full Dan 8:23. This false Christ will claim priestly and kingly honors. He is the beast out of the earth, Rev 13:1-18) having two horns like a lamb, but speaking as a dragon. The two horns represent the priesthood and the kingship he assumes. And this, we learn from Eze 21:26, is the character of the wicked prince of Israel of whom Ezekiel speaks. Again, we must correct the faulty translation of the Authorized Version: Remove the mitre and take off the crown; the word diadem is mitre, the head-dress of the high-priest Exo 28:4. He wears the mitre of the priest and the crown of the king. He is Satans final counterfeit (like the pope) of the Priest-King. In Eze 21:27, the overturning times are mentioned. Thrice it is stated, I will overturn. Even so will it be at the time of the end until He comes whose right it is.
Eze 21:28-32 give the announcement of judgment upon the Ammonites.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Reciprocal: Deu 4:14 – General Eze 35:1 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 21:1-2. The words set thy face toward Jerusalem wilt be understood by remembering that Ezekiel was in Babylon all the time he was writing, having been taken there at the time of Jehoiachtns captivity. But the 3rd and final stage of the 70-year captivity had not taken place, hence Jerusalem was still standing and the last of its kings, Zedekiah, was yet on the throne as a subject king under the Babylonians. Because of all this, much of Ezekiels writings was prophecy though its fulfillment was about due and the remaining Jews were being warned to be prepared.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 21:1-5. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem Here God directs the prophet to declare in plain language, what he had ordered him to speak allegorically, from the 46th to the 48th verses of the foregoing chapter. And say to the land of Israel The prophets face being turned toward Judea and Jerusalem, he addresses them as if they were present before him. Behold, I am against thee I am become thine enemy because of thy sins; I hate thy practices, and will punish thee for them. And will draw forth my sword out of his sheath By the sword here is meant the same as by the fire in the foregoing chapter, namely, every thing which destroys. It may, however, be taken in a rather more literal sense than the fire is there to be understood, as the calamities of Judea were chiefly to arise from the sword of the king of Babylon, who was Gods instrument to execute his purpose on Judea. And will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked I will take away from thee the righteous by sending them into captivity; and the wicked by destroying them, either by the sword, or famine, or pestilence. My sword shall go forth against all flesh Against all the Jews that dwell in the land. It shall not return any more That is, into its sheath, till it hath executed all my purposes.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 21:2. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places. In the Latin bibles, this chapter begins at 21:45 of the preseding, which preserves unity in the subject. The prophecy is against the land of the southagainst Israel, which was southward of Mesopotamia, where Ezekiel then exercised his ministry. He must preach against the woods and groves, the seats of idolatry, and of utter ruin to the nation.
Eze 21:3. I will cut off. Hebrews I will slay in thee, the righteous and the wicked. The LXX read, I will destroy from thee, the righteous and the wicked. How is this reconciled with the divine declaration to Abraham, that he would not destroy the righteous with the wicked. Gen 18:23. Answer: in the unsearchable visitations of providence good men may sometimes be involved in temporal deaths with the wicked; yet he watches over his saints. When the Romans burned Jerusalem, the christians, when their army was called away to Egypt, fled beyond the Jordan. Also when Alaric, king of the Goths stormed the city of Rome, the followers of Christ were spared, being found at prayer in their churches. Anno 412, and eleven hundred and ten years after the building of Rome.
Eze 21:5. I the Lord have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath. The Assyrian power is called the rod of Gods anger; but here it is his sword. This whole passage is a sublime description of the terrors of the invading army, of the sword unsheathed against every green tree and pleasant abode. It was drunk with the fury of the Lord.
Eze 21:8-11. The word of the Lord came unto me saying, a sword, a sword is sharpened. Should we then make mirth? Nay, on the contrary, should we not howl and cry? A rebel nation exposed to fury: slaughter is diversion. Silent leges inter arma. The laws are silent in war. It contemneth the rod of my Son as wood, or as every green tree. By this highest title, my Son, the king of Judah cannot well be understood here, he being impeached and utterly condemned in the strongest language. The question is difficult; quomodo gaudebimus? How shall we rejoice at the intoxicated fury of a bloody sword? Yet some do make it an apostrophe, And thou, oh sword of Nebuchadnezzar, that takest the sceptre from Judah, my son. Be it so; but who commissioned and sent the Assyrians? It was the Christ, the Son of God. Isa 10:5-6. Therefore, nothing can obstruct our belief of the generally received opinion of christian doctors, that the Father speaks here to the Son, as in the second psalm, when he placed him over the nations, with a rod of iron in his hand. This is the rod which despises every other sceptre, as a sceptre of wood. The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son, and seated him in Zion at his own right hand.
Eze 21:12. Smite therefore upon thy thigh. Homer makes Achilles to smite on his thigh, when he saw the city of Troy in flames, because he was attached to Polixena, daughter of Priam. It is a custom mentioned by Cicero, and seems much the same as smiting on the breast. It was a somewhat stronger expression of anguish than locking of the hands, mentioned at the fourteenth verse.
Eze 21:14. Let the sword be doubled the third time. The people were carried to Babylon at three different times. First, when Jehoiakim was taken; secondly, when Jeconiah was taken; but the third time was doubly severe when the city was burnt, and all the poor carried to Babylon.
Eze 21:21. To use divination. According to Jerome, it was the custom of the heathen, when an attack was proposed on several nations, to write the name of each nation on an arrow. Then they put them in a quiver, and the nation first drawn was the first object of attack. So Nebuchadnezzar, when he came to a place where the road divided, being undecided whether to go against Jerusalem or Rabbah, is here said to do. The second kind of divination here mentioned, was universal among the heathen. He looked in the liver, he inspected the liver of the victims for the altar. These were slain to render the gods propitious to the expedition. If the liver, says Dr. Potter, had a pleasing and natural redness; if it was sound, without spot or blemish; if its head was large; if it had two heads, or there were two livers; then prosperity and success were expected. On the other hand, if there appeared on it any blisters, wheals or ulcers; if there was too much dryness, or a ligament between the parts; if any part was misplaced, or the liver itself altogether wanting, nothing but dangers and disappointments were expected. The druids were far-famed for inspecting the liver of victims. Thank God, christianity has delivered us from these follies.
Eze 21:25. Thou profane and wicked prince of Israel. The name of the king is omitted; some respect is due to the diadem, though in gross error. He had patronized the worship of Moloch, attended with infant victims, and had violated the oath he had sworn to Nebuchadnezzar. He had persecuted Jeremiah, and refused to hear him when speaking from the mouth of the Lord. Therefore he lost his crown; and with his crown he lost his kingdom. The Lord, as David said to Solomon, cast him off for ever. 2Ch 28:10.
Eze 21:26-27. Remove the diadem. Let it never more be worn, either by son or brother. Let it revert into his hands, who gave it to David when keeping his fathers sheep. Let him be crowned, WHOSE RIGHT IT IS.
My servant David shall again feed my sheep, and be a prince among them: chap. 34. Yea, Israel in the latter day shall remember and turn unto the Lord. I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen. I will raise up his ruins, and build it as in the days of old. Amo 9:11. Messiah is the horn of salvation in the house of David.
We must remark here, that Ezekiel saw the humble and abject state of the Saviour before his elevation. Exalt him that is low; give him a name above every creature in heaven and earth. We remark also, that Messiah the prince is constituted the judge and ruler of all the nations of the earth. Give the king thy judgments, oh Lord; and thy righteousness to the kings son. Psa 72:1. All judgment is committed to the Son, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Joh 5:22. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of his government there shall be no end. Oh Zion, this is thy Messiah, without beginning of days or end of life.
REFLECTIONS.
The awful subject is here continued. It presents us with a glittering sword brandishing over Jerusalem. It presents the Lord as so indignant with an incorrigible nation, that he utters all the terrors of his secret counsel, and so abhors his polluted sanctuary that he would allow no sinner to remain, and no saint to pray on a spot accursed, for a time, because of its pollutions. The wicked were therefore numbered for the sword, the pestilence, and the captivity, while an interior providence guarded the lives of the faithful few, to instruct their brethren in exile.
It was equally horrible that the wicked should be so far infatuated as to indulge in sports and pleasures, vainly puffed up with the hope that the evil day would never come. To counteract this preposterous joy, the prophet was directed by sighs and gestures to represent the wailings which the survivors of the calamities should be compelled to assume. Let us hence learn, never to give our countenance to the wanton joys of the wicked; on the contrary, let us awe them by our seriousness and recollection.
But the most serious part of the chapter, is the apostrophe to Zedekiah: Thou profane and wicked prince! Here we are told that the diadem should be taken from him, and never more worn temporally by any of Davids house. On the contrary, whether they were governed by Zerubbabel, or any of Davids line, for the Persians; whether they were governed by the highpriest, or by a heathen, God would overturn, overturn, overturn it, by three successive revolutions, till no government remained, that all hope might henceforth be placed in the Messiah, and in him alone. Thus the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess it for ever, yea for ever and ever. Thus joy is reserved for the righteous, while the wicked are covered with eternal gloom.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eze 20:45 to Eze 21:32. The Terrible Sword of Nebuchadrezzar.Here again, as shortly before (chs. 18f.), a piece of theological oratory is followed by a poemthis time a wild irregular dithyramb (esp. Eze 21:8-17), the text of which is, unhappily, corrupt in places to the point of desperation. But perhaps its very perplexities reflect the tumult of the prophets soul. The nearer the doom approaches, the more vividly does he conceive it.
Eze 20:5-49. He begins by announcing a supernatural conflagration in the south, which is to scorch the land bare. On Ezekiels audience objecting to his allegorical description, he then speaks his mind with deadly plainness.
Eze 21:1-7. The south land is Judah, and in particular Jerusalem, and the conflagration is the fire of war, or rather the sword; and the whole chapter has been well called The Song of the Sword. It is Nebuchadrezzars sword, but it is even more truly Yahwehs, for He has drawn it, and it is destined to slay righteous and wicked alike. (Ezekiel sees that the fall of Jerusalem will involve this indiscriminate destruction, though this rather conflicts with his theory of strict individual retribution which he had so fully expounded in ch. 18.) The thought of this inexorable issue makes Ezekiels heart faint and sore.
Eze 21:8-17. This awful sword will do its work well. It is sharp and shining, ready for the slaughter of Israels princes and people, a great murderous sword to be brandished again and yet again. It will strike terror into every heart, whirling to the rear, to the right, to the front, to the left, wherever its edge has been appointed by the indignant Yahweh for slaughter. (Eze 20:10 and Eze 20:13 defy translation.)
Eze 21:18-23. This deadly sword is making straight for Jerusalem. In an unusually interesting passage, Nebuchadrezzar is represented as reaching a point in his westward march from which two roads diverge, one leading to the capital of Ammon, the other to Jerusalem. Along which shall he move? In various ways he seeks to ascertain the will of his godsby shaking two arrows, one marked Rabbah (Jer 49:2*), the other Jerusalem, and drawing one out, by consulting his images, by inspecting the liver of an animal. These superstitions of Nebuchadrezzar were all overruled to advance Yahwehs purpose. The lot decided for a march upon Jerusalem, and though the infatuated inhabitants are represented as not greatly perturbed, the Babylonian advance is a stern reminder of Zedekiahs perfidy (Eze 17:19), which they are coming to avenge.
Eze 21:24-27. At this point Ezekiels emotion flames into white heat. He apostrophises the wicked Zedekiah, sees him stripped of his regalia, and announces for his kingdom utter ruin, until some worthy successor shall ariseeven the Messianic kingto whom it will be given back.
Eze 21:28-32. Ammon, though spared for the moment (Eze 20:22), shall not escape. Despite plausible oracles to the contrary, the sword that cut so deep into Judah will cleave Ammon too (in Eze 20:29 for thee read it). The Divine fury would be wreaked upon her through the brutish Babylonians; but unlike Judah (Eze 20:27) she would never rise again.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
The interpretation of the parable 21:1-7
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Again the Lord told His prophet to speak a message of judgment against Jerusalem, the pagan sanctuaries, and the whole land of Israel (i.e., Judah). This would be a clarification of the figures used in the previous parable.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE SWORD UNSHEATHED
Eze 21:1-32
THE date at the beginning of chapter 20 introduces the fourth and last section of the prophecies delivered before the destruction of Jerusalem. It also divides the first period of Ezekiels ministry into two equal parts. The time is the month of August, 590 B.C., two years after his prophetic inauguration and two years before the investment of Jerusalem. It follows that if the Book of Ezekiel presents anything like a faithful picture of his actual work, by far his most productive year was that which had just closed. It embraces the long and varied series of discourses from chapter 8 to chapter 19; whereas five chapters are all that remain as a record of his activity during the next two years. This result is not so improbable as at first sight it might appear. From the character of Ezekiels prophecy, which consists largely of homiletic amplifications of one great theme, it is quite intelligible that the main lines of his teaching should have taken shape in his mind at an early period of his ministry. The discourses in the earlier part of the book may have been expanded in the act of committing them to writing; but there is no reason to doubt that the ideas they contain were present to the prophets mind and were actually delivered by him within the period to which they are assigned. We may therefore suppose that Ezekiels public exhortations became less frequent during the two years that preceded the siege, just as we know that for two years after that event they were altogether discontinued.
In this last division of the prophecies relating to the destruction of Jerusalem we can easily distinguish two different classes of oracles. On the one hand we have two chapters dealing with contemporary incidents-the march of Nebuchadnezzars army against Jerusalem (chapter 21), and the commencement of the siege of the city (chapter 24). In spite of the confident opinion of some critics that these prophecies could not have been composed till after the fall of Jerusalem, they seem to me to bear the marks of having been written under the immediate influence of the events they describe. It is difficult otherwise to account for the excitement under which the prophet labours, especially in chapter 21, which stands by the side of chapter 7 as the most agitated utterance in the whole book. On the other hand, we have three discourses of the nature of formal indictments-one directed against the exiles (chapter 20), one against Jerusalem (chapter 22), and one against the whole nation of Israel (chapter 23). It is impossible in these chapters to discover any advance in thought upon similar passages that have already been before us. Two of them (chapters 20 and 23) are historical retrospects after the manner of chapter 16, and there is no obvious reason why they should be placed in a different section of the book. The key to the unity of the section must therefore be sought in the two historical prophecies and in the situation created by the events they describe. It will therefore help to clear the ground if we commence with the oracle which throws most light on the historical background of this group of prophecies-the oracle of Jehovahs sword against Jerusalem in chapter 21.
The long-projected rebellion has at length broken out. Zedekiah has renounced his allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the army of the Chaldeans is on its way to suppress the insurrection. The precise date of these events is not known. For some reason the conspiracy of the Palestinian states had hung fire; many years had been allowed to slip away since the time when their envoys had met in Jerusalem to concert measures of united resistance. {Jer 27:1-22} This procrastination was, as usual, a sure presage of disaster. In the interval the league had dissolved. Some of its members had made terms with Nebuchadnezzar; and it would appear that only Tyre, Judah, and Ammon ventured on open defiance of his power. The hope was cherished in Jerusalem, and probably also among the Jews in Babylon, that the first assault of the Chaldeans would be directed against the Ammonites, and that time would thus be gained to complete the defences of Jerusalem. To dispel this illusion is one obvious purpose of the prophecy before us. The movements of Nebuchadnezzars army are directed by a wisdom higher than his own; he is the unconscious instrument by which Jehovah is executing His own purpose. The real object of his expedition is not to punish a few refractory tribes for an act of disloyalty, but to vindicate the righteousness of Jehovah in the destruction of the city which had profaned his holiness. No human calculations will be allowed even for a moment to turn aside the blow which is aimed directly at Jerusalems sins or to obscure the lesson taught by its sure and unerring aim.
We can imagine the restless suspense and anxiety with which the final struggle for the national cause was watched by the exiles in Babylon. In imagination they would follow the long march of the Chaldean hosts by the Euphrates and their descent by the valleys of the Orontes and Leontes upon the city. Eagerly would they wait for some tidings of a reverse which would revive their drooping hope of a speedy collapse of the great world-empire and a restoration of Israel to its ancient freedom. And when at length they heard that Jerusalem was enclosed in the iron grip of these victorious legions, from which no human deliverance was possible, their mood would harden into one in which fanatical hope and sullen despair contended for the mastery. Into an atmosphere charged with such excitement Ezekiel hurls the series of predictions comprised in chapters 21 and 24. With far other feelings than his fellows, but with as keen an interest as theirs, he follows the development of what he knows to be the last act in the long controversy between Jehovah and Israel. It is his duty to repeat once more the irrevocable decree-the Divine delenda est against the guilty Jerusalem. But he does so in this instance in language whose vehemence betrays the agitation of his mind, and perhaps also the restlessness of the society in which he lived. The twenty-first chapter is a series of rhapsodies, the product of a state bordering on ecstasy, where different aspects of the impending judgment are set forth by the help of vivid images which pass in quick succession through the prophets mind.
I.
The first vision which the prophet sees of the approaching catastrophe (Eze 21:1-4) is that of a forest conflagration, an occurrence which must have been as frequent in Palestine as a prairie fire in America. He sees a fire break out in the “forest of the south,” and rage with such fierceness that “every green tree and every dry tree” is burned up; the faces of all who are near it are scorched, and all men are convinced that so terrible a calamity must be the work of Jehovah Himself. This we may suppose to have been the form in which the truth first laid hold of Ezekiels imagination; but he appears to have hesitated to proclaim his message in this form. His figurative manner of speech had become notorious among the exiles (Eze 21:5), and he was conscious that a “parable” so vague and general as this would be dismissed as an ingenious riddle which might mean anything or nothing. What follows (Eze 21:7-10) gives the key to the original vision. Although it is in form an independent oracle, it is closely parallel to the preceding and elucidates each feature in detail. The “forest of the south” is explained to mean the land of Israel, and the mention of the sword of Jehovah instead of the fire intimates less obscurely that the instrument of the threatened calamity is the Babylonian army. It is interesting to observe that Ezekiel expressly admits that there were righteous men even in the doomed Israel. Contrary to his conception of the normal methods of the Divine righteousness, he conceives of this judgment as one which involves righteous and wicked in a common ruin. Not that God is less than righteous in this crowning act of vengeance, but His justice is not brought to bear on the fate of individuals. He is dealing with the nation as a whole, and in the exterminating judgment of the nation good men will no more be spared than the green tree of the forest escapes the fate of the dry. It was the fact that righteous men perished in the fall of Jerusalem; and Ezekiel does not shut his eyes to it, firmly as he believed that the time was come when God would reward every man according to his own character. The indiscriminateness of the judgment in its bearing on different classes of persons is obviously a feature which Ezekiel here seeks to emphasise.
But the idea of the sword of Jehovah drawn from its scabbard, to return no more till it has accomplished its mission, is the one that has fixed itself most deeply in the prophets imagination, and forms the connecting link between this vision and the other amplifications of the same theme which follow.
II.
Passing over the symbolic action of Eze 21:11-13, representing the horror and astonishment with which the dire tidings of Jerusalems fall will be received, we come to the point where the prophet breaks into the wild strain of dithyrambic poetry, which has been called the “Song of the Sword” (Eze 21:14-22). The following translation, although necessarily imperfect and in some places uncertain, may convey some idea both of the structure and the rugged vigour of the original. It will be seen that there is a clear division into four stanzas:-
(1) Eze 21:14-16.
“A sword, a sword!
It is sharpened and burnished withal.
For a work of slaughter is it sharpened!
To gleam like lightning burnished!
And twas given to be smoothed for the grip of the hand, –
Sharpened is it, and furbished-
To put in the hand of the slayer.”
(2) Eze 21:17-18.
“Cry and howl, son of man!
For it has come among my people;
Come among all the princes of Israel!
Victims of the sword are they, they and my people
Therefore smite upon thy thigh!
It shall not be, saith Jehovah the Lord.”
(3) Eze 21:19-20.
“But, thou son of man, prophesy, and smite hand on hand;
Let the sword he doubled and tripled(?).
A sword of the slain is it, the great sword of the slain whirling around them, –
That hearts may fail, and many be the fallen in all their gates.
It is made like lightning, furbished for slaughter!”
(4) Eze 21:21-22.
“Gather thee together!
Smite to the right, to the left,
Whithersoever thine edge is appointed!
And I also will smite hand on hand,
And appease My wrath:
I Jehovah have spoken it.”
In spite of its obscurity, its abrupt transitions, and its strange blending of the divine with the human personality, the ode exhibits a definite poetic form and a real progress of thought from the beginning to the close. Throughout the passage we observe that the prophets gaze is fascinated by the glittering sword which symbolised the instrument of Jehovahs vengeance. In the opening stanza (1) he describes the preparation of the sword; he notes the keenness of its edge and its glittering sheen with an awful presentiment that an implement so elaborately fashioned is destined for some terrible day of slaughter. Then (2) he announces the purpose for which the sword is prepared, and breaks into loud lamentation as he realises that its doomed victims are his own people and the princes of Israel. In the next stanza (3) he sees the sword in action; wielded by an invisible hand, it flashes hither and thither, circling round its hapless victims as if two or three swords were at work instead of one. All hearts are paralysed with fear, but the sword does not cease its ravages until it has filled the ground with slain. Then at length the sword is at rest (4), having accomplished its work. The divine Speaker calls on it in a closing apostrophe “to gather itself together” as if for a final sweep to right and left, indicating the thoroughness with which the judgment has been executed. In the last verse the vision of the sword fades away, and the poem closes with an announcement, in the usual prophetic manner, of Jehovahs fixed purpose to “assuage” His wrath against Israel by the crowning act of retribution.
III.
If any doubt still remained as to what the sword of Jehovah meant, it is removed in the next section (Eze 21:23-32), where the prophet indicates the way by which the sword is to come on the kingdom of Judah. The Chaldaean monarch is represented as pausing on his march, perhaps at Riblah or some place to the north of Palestine, and deliberating whether he shall advance first against Judah or the Ammonites. He stands at the parting of the ways-on the left hand is the road to Rabbath-ammon, on the right that to Jerusalem. In his perplexity he invokes supernatural guidance, resorting to various expedients then in use for ascertaining the will of the gods and the path of good fortune. He “rattles the arrows” (two of them in some kind of vessel, one for Jerusalem and the other for Riblah); he consults the teraphim and inspects the entrails of a sacrificial victim. This consulting of the omens was no doubt an invariable preliminary to every campaign, and was resorted to whenever an important military decision had to be made. It might seem a matter of indifference to a powerful monarch like Nebuchadnezzar which of two petty opponents he determined to crush first. But the kings of Babylon were religious men in their way, and never doubted that success depended on their following the indications that were given by the higher powers. In this case Nebuchadnezzar gets a true answer, but not from the deities whose aid he had invoked. In his right hand he finds the arrow marked “Jerusalem.” The die is cast, his resolution is taken, but it is Jehovahs sentence sealing the fate of Jerusalem that has been uttered.
Such is the situation which Ezekiel in Babylon is directed to represent through a piece of obvious symbolism. A road diverging into two is drawn on the ground, and at the meeting-point a sign-post is erected, indicating that the one leads to Ammon and the other to Judah. It is of course not necessary to suppose that the incident so graphically described actually occurred. The divination scene may only be imaginary, although it is certainly a true reflection of Babylonian ideas and customs. The truth conveyed is that the Babylonian army is moving under the immediate guidance of Jehovah, and that not only the political projects of the king, but his secret thoughts and even his superstitious reliance on signs and omens, are all overruled for the furtherance of the one purpose for which Jehovah has raised him up.
Meanwhile Ezekiel is well aware that in Jerusalem a very different interpretation is put on the course of events. When the news of the great kings decision reaches the men at the head of affairs they are not dismayed. They view the decision as the result of “false divination”; they laugh to scorn the superstitious rites which have determined the course of the campaign, not that they suppose the king will not act on his omens, but they do not believe they are an augury of success. They had hoped for a short breathing space while Nebuchadnezzar was engaged on the east of the Jordan, but they will not shrink from the conflict whether it be today or tomorrow. Addressing himself to this state of mind, Ezekiel once more (Cf. chapter 17) reminds those who hear him that these men are fighting against the moral laws of the universe. The existing kingdom of Judah occupies a false position before God and in the eyes of just men. It has no religious foundation; for the hope of the Messiah does not lie with that wearer of a dishonoured crown, the king Zedekiah, but with the legitimate heir of David now in exile. The state has no right to be except as part of the Chaldaean empire, and this right it has forfeited by renouncing its allegiance to its earthly superior. These men forget that in this quarrel the just cause is that of Nebuchadnezzar, whose enterprise only seems to “call to mind their iniquity” (Eze 21:28)-i.e., their political crime. In provoking this conflict, therefore, they have put themselves in the wrong; they shall be caught in the toils of their own villainy.
The heaviest censure is reserved for Zedekiah, the “wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is coming in the time of final retribution.” This part of the prophecy has a close resemblance to the latter part of chapter 17. The prophets sympathies are still with the exiled king, or at least with that branch of the royal family which he represents. And the sentence of rejection on Zedekiah is again accompanied by a promise of the restoration of the kingdom in the person of the Messiah. The crown which has been dishonoured by the last king of Judah shall be taken from his head; that which is low shall be exalted (the exiled branch of the Davidic house), and that which is high shall be abased (the reigning king); the whole existing order of things shall be overturned “until He comes who has the right.”
IV.
The last oracle is directed against the children of Ammon. By Nebuchadnezzars decision to subdue Jerusalem first the Ammonites had gained a short respite. They even exulted in the humiliation of their former ally, and had apparently drawn the sword in order to seize part of the land of Judah. Misled by false diviners, they had dared to seek their own advantage in the calamities which Jehovah had brought on His own people.
The prophet threatens the complete annihilation of Ammon, even in its own land, and the blotting out of its remembrance among the nations. That is the substance of the prophecy; but its form presents several points of difficulty. It begins with what appears to be an echo of the “Song of the Sword” in the earlier part of the chapter:-
“A sword! a sword! It is drawn for slaughter; it is furbished to shine like lightning” (Eze 21:28).
But as we proceed we find that it is the sword of the Ammonites that is meant, and they are ordered to return it to its sheath. If this be so, the tone of the passage must be ironical. It is in mockery that the prophet uses such magnificent language of the puny pretensions of Ammon to take a share in the work for which Jehovah has fashioned the mighty weapon of the Chaldaean army. There are other reminiscences of the earlier part of the chapter, such as the “lying divination” of ver. 34, and the “time of final retribution” in the same verse. The allusion to the “reproach” of Ammon and its aggressive attitude seems to point to the time after the destruction of Jerusalem and the withdrawal of the army of Nebuchadnezzar. Whether the Ammonites had previously made their submission or not we cannot tell; but the fortieth and forty-first chapters of Jeremiah show that Ammon was still a hotbed of conspiracy against the Babylonian interest in the days after the fall of Jerusalem. These appearances make it probable that this part of the chapter is an appendix, added at a later time, and dealing with a situation which was developed after the destruction of the city. Its insertion in its present place is easily accounted for by the circumstance that the fate of Ammon had been linked with that of Jerusalem in the previous part of the chapter. The vindictive little nationality had used its respite to gratify its hereditary hatred of Israel, and now the judgment, suspended for a time, shall return with redoubled fury and sweep it from the earth.
Looking back over this series of prophecies, there seems reason to believe that, with the exception of the last, they are really contemporaneous with the events they deal with. It is true that they do not illuminate the historical situation to the same degree as those in which Isaiah depicts the advance of another invader and the development of another crisis in the peoples history. This is due partly to the bent of Ezekiels genius, but partly also to the very peculiar circumstances in which he was placed. The events which form the theme of his prophecy were transacted on a distant stage; neither he nor his immediate hearers were actors in the drama. He addresses himself to an audience wrought to the highest pitch of excitement, but swayed by hopes and rumours and vague surmises as to the probable issue of events. It was inevitable in these circumstances that his prophecy, even in those passages which deal with contemporary facts, should present but a pale reflection of the actual situation. In the case before us the one historical event which stands out clearly is the departure of Nebuchadnezzar with his army to Jerusalem. But what we read is genuine prophecy; not the artifice of a man using prophetic speech as a literary form, but the utterance of one who discerns the finger of God in the present, and interprets His purpose beforehand to the men of his day.