Ezekiel Chapter 21
Saturday, 01/24/26 at 08:59
Solitary Man
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Eze 21:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Remember from the last chapter that the latest date given was the 7th year of captivity of Jehoiachin, which was 590 BC.
Eze 21:2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop (naw-taf – distill, ooze, prophesy) thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land (ad-aw-mah – soil) of Israel,
No surprise as to the theme. Seems as if when God finds someone who does something well, why not keep using him in that same task? I don’t know if Ezekiel ever tired of giving the same sort of word, on the same topic, but that was his deh-rek, or path of life.
The word used here is to drop, or distill the word of the Lord. Perhaps that meant to really prayerfully prepare, and ensure that you are a clean vessel that the pure word of God may flow through you clearly. This word was to be directed toward Jerusalem. Whether or not that involved actually facing that specific direction when he spoke is speculative, and probably neither here nor there.
Eze 21:3 And say to the land (ad-aw-mah) 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 (kaw-rath – cut, destroy, consume, to cut the flesh and pass through the pieces as cutting a covenant) from thee the righteous (tsad-deek – just, lawful) and the wicked (raw-shaw – morally wrong, ungodly).
Yahweh has used many metaphors and comparisons in order to attempt to get across his decree that final judgment has now arrived. He has used the whore, the cedar tree and the vine. He has his prophet cut hair, and play with toys. He has his prophet lie still, and sneak out through a hole in the wall. Now he will use a sword to yet once again try to communicate to these stubborn fools what is about to come crashing down upon them.
The mere fact that God begins with saying that he is against thee is about the worst news that anyone could possibly hear.
Notice God calls Judah the land of Israel. Wherever his people are, even if only in a fraction of the intended land, it is still primarily called Israel. The second thing is that God is said to be cutting a covenant with Israel. Not a covenant of peace, but a covenant of death. Cutting, in the bible, works both ways. You can covenant with God at the cross of Christ, or God may covenant with you for your demise, whether you agree with it or not.
The bombshell truth that God has just dropped on us here about killing the good with the bad will be dealt with fully in the next verse. The last thought I would leave you with is that perhaps there is a hint here that any nation that chooses to abandon God will end up losing all its believers, so that no gospel light will be found anymore within, thus condemning future generations as well.
Eze 21:4 Seeing then that I will cut off (kaw-rath) from thee the righteous (tsad-deek) and the wicked (raw-shaw), therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
We should see this as a continuation of the judgment given at the end of the last chapter. In verse 47 of that previous chapter, God said he would destroy the green tree and the dry tree. Here, he says he will destroy the righteous and the wicked. Same thing said a different way. From the south to the north means that the entire land shall suffer the sword to pass through it.
Did you catch what is being said in these last 2 verses? That the righteous shall be judged along with the wicked? Did not Abraham say that far be it from Yehovah to destroy the righteous with the wicked? What gives?
There are a couple factors in play here. Formulating any doctrine involves searching all the scripture to be able to come to a sound understanding of the truth of a thing. Generally speaking, God preserves the righteous:
Psa_37:17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.
Psa_75:10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.
Pro_10:30 The righteous shall never be removed: but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.
If verses such as the ones above were all you looked at, you would conclude that God will always preserve the righteous, and always destroy the wicked. But of course, reality tells you that is not the case. In fact, it is more unlikely than likely, especially when it comes to the temporal punishment of the wicked.
Digging deeper, we find that the bible does teach that at times of serious judgment, God may spare one’s life, but no more than that, as in the case of Jeremiah’s scribe Baruch:
Jer 45:5 And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.
Then there was Ebed-melech the eunuch:
Jer 39:16 Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.
Jer 39:17 But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.
Jer 39:18 For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD.
Now at the time of Ezekiel’s ministry, which was also within the time frame of Jeremiah’s, only in a tighter window right before the destruction of Jerusalem primarily, an even harsher set of rules was in place.
Eze_14:14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD.
Eze_14:20 Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.
Yahweh is saying that the 3 most righteous men known to anyone up to this point in history would only be able to save themselves. They would not be able to talk God into saving any members of their family, even though some of their family members were saved when they lived. This teaches us that different rules apply in different seasons. At least when we’re talking about what sort of prayers have a realistic shot of being answered.
During normal times, when people and their nation are in a right standing with God, all promises may be possible, should God quicken them in your heart. During the start of a time of backsliding, the promise of 2 Chr 7:14 may be turned to.
2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
But when rebellion has run its course, when the people of the land refuse to repent, when warning after warning is given and there is no response, then all bets are off the table. Judah had reached such a place. While there were a couple characters who had ministered to the prophet Jeremiah that God chose to spare, this verse in Ezekiel tells us this most awful truth. The righteous will perish alongside the wicked.
Note that God did not promise that they would be raptured. He did not promise to hide them from the enemy. He did not say that he would even spare a holy remnant. There are some verses in the bible that seem to promise at least some of those things. No, in this specific instance, all would suffer the same fate.
Now, he does not say in this verse that all will die, but that everyone is in the same boat. When God has run out of ways to reach people’s hearts, nothing is left but to wipe out and begin anew. We in the west are in this boat. Canada especially has reached this point of no return. I heard some preacher say that Canada must have to suffer something worse, and then they will repent. I fear he is mistaken.
In Judah’s case, even after they were utterly wiped out in 586, the remnant left still refused to repent. They still refused to listen to the word of the Lord as spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. So, too, I believe as things become more desperate in the land, the so called Christians will not become better, but they will become worse.
Remember during covid how neighbors spied on neighbours and reported them to the police for any covid infraction? If they had visitors, when we were supposed to be locked down, neighbours informed on them, as if we were living in East Germany during the communist era. And many of the informers were ‘Christians’! Can you imagine that! Of course, tribulation exposes what is really inside one’s soul. Instead of having discernment that the whole covid debacle was a carefully orchestrated hoax, most were fervent believers in the lie, as evidenced by over 98% of all churches complying by locking down their doors. Regardless that the liquor stores, cannabis stores, and big box stores were open, regardless that every mosque ignored all edicts and were never called to account, these blind, cowardly, compromised souls all eagerly and zealously complied with all of the unlawful mandates.
Do we think it is going to be any different the next time the globalists put the squeeze on us? No, it will be worse. We have now been programmed to comply. Turning in our neighbor will be easier the next time, since we’re used to it. Just like it will be easier for the remaining doctors and nurses to slaughter us the next time a fake pandemic is called.
Free will has a terrible side effect. And that is the reality that the innocent do suffer when the wicked sin. When we sin, we rarely sin in a vacuum. When someone chooses to murder, that victim is gone forever. The victim’s family and friends have to pay a permanent price. That is simply the way our sinful world works.
So, in this verse, we are given the brutal fact that the righteous will perish right alongside the wicked when our nation has gone so far into sin that total judgment has been decreed. And there is nothing one can do about it. More faith is not the answer. God already addressed that, by stating that the giants of the faith could not alter God’s mind. Some exceptions may be made, such as was spoken to the 2 friends of Jeremiah, but otherwise, most other righteous individuals that were left in Judah in 586 would have been slaughtered right alongside the apostates.
So let us have the humility to accept the truth of our situation. We are in Judah’s shoes. If we are, then this is what we can expect. Our theology needs to change accordingly. The only way anything is different is if we are not where Judah is spiritually. But I truly believe that we are even worse off. That is, I believe that we are far more wicked than Judah, who was said to be far more wicked than Samaria or Sodom. And the reason is that, we have far more light than any of them ever did, and we have rebelled all the more.
Eze 21:5 That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return (shoob – turn back, turn around, turn away, return to the starting point) any more.
God says that this terrible sword shall not repent. It shall not turn back until it has completed its assignment. Even Abraham and Moses would have no success is dissuading God from his final decree. The phrasing ‘it shall not return any more’ implies that in times past, God was sorely tempted to draw it out and use it, but had changed his mind and waited. Those days are gone.
There is some recurring theme in these chapters about God wanting to reveal himself through these terrible judgments. I think what he is trying to say is that if I am willing to do this to my own people, you heathen out there, what do you think I am willing to do with you?
1Pe_4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Eze 21:6 Sigh (aw-nakh – groan, mourn) therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking (shib-rone – rupture, bursting, pang) of thy loins (waist); and with bitterness (mer-ee-rooth – grief, only time in OT) sigh (aw-nakh) before their eyes.
The loins were known as the seat of strength. The breaking of them would be to bend over, or bend down, or be laid prostrate. Prostrate yourself, and groan with genuine grief.
Where is the sighing? Where is the groaning? Where is the display of genuine grief? Is it because the people grow weary of the ‘doom and gloom’ preacher? Have we had enough of repentance already? Is it time to turn up the volume of the loudspeaker, and shout for joy? Do we refuse to hear any more about our sin, because that’s too negative?
With sin abounding as never before, how is it business as usual in the church? Try and find a single church that consistently stirs up the desire for holiness, and teaches us that our primary duty is to get right before God. Why are we not confessing the sins of our nation before God, as Daniel did? Why do we not deny self in fasting and prayer and other forms of self denial? Why are we jumping for joy, while our nations fall into the abyss? How can we dance, when the true knowledge of the Holy One has utterly perished out of the land?
Eze 21:7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest (aw-nakh) thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings (shem-oo-aw – news, report, rumor); because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit (ruach) shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.
Of course, all those brain dead believers who fill our pews have no clue as to why anyone would continue to plead with them to repent, repent, and repent. Look, they say, our church is full. We just got new padded seats, and an awesome new audio and video system. Haven’t you seen the specialty coffee that we now have on tap in the cafeteria in the foyer? And isn’t the nursery and children’s church amazing? And our preacher, what can we say about him! He gets us shouting and jumping and all fired up, we all feel so much better when we leave than when we came in! So what is it with you and your long face? Why are you such a gloomy Gus?
Well, all you can do is give them the word. Not John 3:16, but Ex 21:3. Yehovah, you know that God whom you claim to worship, well, he is against you. He has sharpened his sword. He has polished it to a lightning sheen. He has now drawn it out, and given it to those whose job is to slaughter. And he’s coming after you. Yes, you! Whether you are righteous, or (most likely) wicked, he is going to pierce you right through and through.
That is the latest news from heaven. So put away your false prophets’ weekly magazine. Shut down your specialty coffee machine for a moment. Unplug the sound system. It is coming. Every heart shall melt. All hands shall shake. Every spirit shall faint. All knees will buckle. It is coming. The sword of the Lord. And it is coming for you.
Thus ends the first woe. More are on the way.
Eze 21:8 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
This word sounds as if it came very shortly after the previous one, since the theme of the sword is continued.
Eze 21:9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened (khaw-dad – to be made severe or fierce), and also furbished (maw-rat – polish, glitter):
Ezekiel is to make it crystal clear that the judgment of Yehovah, as symbolized by a glittering, perfectly polished and sharpened sword, is now in play.
Eze 21:10 It is sharpened (khaw-dad) to make a sore slaughter (taw-bakh teh-bakh – both mean butchery); it is furbished (mar-rat) that it may glitter (haw-yaw bar-rawk – will become like lightning): should we then make mirth (soos- cheer, joy, rejoice)? it contemneth (maw-as – despise, disdains, spurn, abhor, cast away) the rod (shay-bet – branch, sceptre) of my son (bane), as every tree.
Once again we see Yahweh engaging in wordplay. Both taw-bakh and teh-bakh mean slaughter or butchery. Using these 2 words one after another emphasizes how intense the slaughter will be. God’s sword of judgment will be most severe. By saying it is polished to a lightning sheen, that is to indicate that God has been working on perfecting this instrument of judgment for a long time. He did everything possible to prepare it to be the ultimate killing machine, even as a dedicated soldier would spend hours polishing his blade, until it was perfect in sharpness and in how it shone.
If one thinks that we can close our eyes to what is occurring all around us, verse 6 has already answered that question. Isn’t it time for the church to quit dancing and singing and telling one another how loving God is, how he is going to deliver us any moment now, and start to face the stark reality of our impending doom? Turning up the volume on the worship service is not going to change anything. Blowing shofars, or waving flags, or going on a Jericho march will avail not. This is a time to sigh and cry, and to groan with bitterness, for the sword of the Lord has been made ready, and it is not going back into its sheath.
The last sentence requires some explanation. This sword of execution despises the rank men place on themselves. That is, it does not care if you carry the sceptre of kingship, or are the lowest tree in the land. All shall be slain. This echoes the terrifying truth of verse 4. None shall escape.
Eze 21:11 And he hath given it to be furbished (maw-rat), that it may be handled (manipulated in the palm of the hand): this sword is sharpened (khaw-dad), and it is furbished (maw-rat), to give it into the hand of the slayer (haw-rag – destroyer, smiter).
God has taken special care to prepare this sword of judgment. It has been tenderly and lovingly worked upon, in order to make ready to give it into the hand of the destroyer. The destroyer can refer to Nebuchadnezzar and his army, but also to the destroying angels whom God has already described for us in chapter 9.
Eze 21:12 Cry (zaw-ak – shriek in anguish, announce publicly) and howl (yaw-lal – wail, yell), son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors (maw-gar – cast down, yield up, precipitate) by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite (saw-fak – clap the hands in grief) therefore upon thy thigh.
We have no problem in displaying extreme emotion without any shame whatsoever in so many different venues. Many believers will scream and shout at sports events, or concerts, just like the heathen. Many will also make fools of themselves with total abandon in hyper charismatic settings. People will dance, yell, blow shofars, run around the church, and shout loud praises to God at the drop of a hat.
But speak to them of the judgments of the Lord, and note the stark difference. I have seen, on more than one occasion, where the minister is preaching about the people’s sin, and the goofs in the pews continue to shout ‘amen’, because that is what they do to everything that they hear, proving that they have no idea what they are doing. How many of us attend a church where the conviction of the Holy Ghost fell even once a year, so that people began to weep aloud over their sin? How about at least over the sin of the land?
Even in America, where the light yet shines albeit dimly, you are but one decision away from the Lord pulling what little protection he is still affording you, and you will quickly catch up to us here in Canada and elsewhere in oppression and misery. Are you crying out to God? Can you not see that you, America, are but hanging on by a thread? Half of your nation is as wicked and lost as the rest of the west. They are doing everything possible to destroy the other half. Shall you not cry, shriek in anguish, wail and yell for the terrors which are poised to fall? Do you not see that as in Judah, where the sword was about to fall on the commoners and the kings, that you are on the very precipice of this deadly cliff of sin and apostasy?
Eze 21:13 Because (and) it is a trial (baw-khan – test, examination), and what if the sword contemn (maw-as – despise, disdains, spurn, abhor, cast away)) even the rod (shay-bet)? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.
Here is the start of a few difficult verses. What is meant by trial, or test, or examination? Who or what is God talking about? If the sword is in view, then we might say that the sword of the king of Babylon has been well tested already in battle, and is performing admirably. Perhaps God is saying that this will be a sore trial for Judah. Reading the previous verse with this one, that might make the most sense. That is, Ezekiel is told to cry and howl, for the sword is to fall on his people. It will strike both prince and pauper. The word ‘because’ can be translated ‘and’. Thus this sword will be an examination, or a test, and this sword will despise even the sceptre of the king. It will despise it so much that it will destroy it for good.
And so it came to pass. The destruction of Jerusalem removed the kingship from Judah. It has never been restored, nor will it be till Messiah comes.
Eze 21:14 Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together, and let the sword be doubled (kaw-fal – repeated, folded together) the third time (shel-ee-shee – a third, three years old), the sword of the slain (khaw-lawl – pierced, polluted, profaned, wounded): it is the sword of the great men that are slain (khaw-lawl), which entereth into their privy chambers (khaw-dar – to enclose, to besiege, only time in OT).
The best way to understand the awkward phrasing above it is to translate it something like this: ‘You, son of man, prophesy, and clap your hands together. Bring the sword twice, nay, even three times. This is the sword that pierces, that profanes. It is the sword that brought down even the mighty men. This is the sword that pierced their enclosed city that was besieged.’
God is making an announcement. The prophet claps his hands to get everyone’s attention. This is a message to all of Judah. Whether you are a mighty man or not, there is a sword coming with your name on it. It will pierce through your enclosure, those walls of Jerusalem that you think will protect you. I will send it as often as I need to until you are pierced. Sending it twice, nay, even three times may be a reference to the three separate deportations that Judah suffered at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar in 605, 597, and 586 BC.
Eze 21:15 I have set the point (ib-khaw – brandishing, only time in OT) of the sword against all their gates (shah-ar – openings, doors), that their heart may faint (moog – melt, dissolve), and their ruins (mik-shole – stumblingblocks, enticements) be multiplied (raw-baw – increased): ah (awkh – oh, alas)! it is made bright (aw-saw baw-rawk – made like lightning), it is wrapped up (maw-ote – sharpened, only time in OT) for the slaughter (teh-bakh).
Yahweh loves to milk whatever prop he is currently using to the fullest, does he not? This sword is now said to be brandished. It will pierce every opening that they thought was secure. It will succeed in destroying any confidence they had, because they had placed their confidence in anything and everything except the one true god.
Now Yahweh says that he will increase their stumblingblocks and their enticements. This seems to indicate that God actively goads the impenitent sinner into thoughts and actions that will lead to further ruin. This is an example of God being against you. We love to sing about how God is for us. But it is also to be understood that he can just as easily turn against us, if we turn against him. That is, he will place things in our path that will cause us to stumble more and more. Just as he places circumstances in our life that deliver us if we are with him, so he can place things in our life to cause us to fall, should we turn away from him.
At first, he may do this to correct us. Then, if we don’t shoob, he will continue to do this to chastise us. Then, if we continue to not shoob, then there may come a time when we become his adversary. And if we continue to obstinately refuse to heed his repeated warnings, he may place stumblingblocks in our path to utterly ruin us. God is a God of justice and righteousness. Lovingkindness and mercy to those of his own, but death and destruction to those of his enemies.
Oh, alas is right! The prophet sees and understands all this. Perhaps he was given a vision of this terrible glittering sharpened sword in the spirit. At the very least, he fully grasps what the symbolism of this perfectly sharp and lightning bright sword represents. Total judgment. A total slaughter.
Eze 21:16 Go thee one way or other (aw-khad – collect your thoughts, only time in OT), either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set (yaw-ad – is fixed upon).
Most believe that Yehovah is still addressing the sword. That is, God is telling the sword to choose whatever direction you want. It does not matter, all are appointed for the slaughter in the end.
Some think that God is addressing Ezekiel, to go and preach this message of woe to whoever will listen, whether you choose to go to the right, or the left, however you choose. I favor the former interpretation.
Eze 21:17 I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury (khay-maw – hot poisonous rage or wrath) to rest (noo-akh – settle down, stay, cease, quieten): I the LORD have said it.
Yehovah decides to do what he told his prophet to do, in expressing his anger and indignation, by aggressively clapping his hands together as a sort of trumpet sound to battle. Here the word chosen is probably the strongest word one can choose to describe the wrath of God. It has extreme emotion associated with it. Only by unleashing this deadly sword of heaven will Yehovah be able to quieten his wrath once again.
Two things here. First, God is not an accountant. That is, he feels things. And he feels things most strongly. Some would say that this is anthropomorphizing the divine. That is, assigning human attributes to God. Those who say such things believe that men wrote the bible, not the Holy Ghost who used men to do so. The bible was written in precisely the way it was supposed to be written. If it says that God experienced a hot poisonous rage, then that is what occurred.
Second, there are things that we do that will cause God to act. We love to preach about how our faith will move God to intervene on our behalf. Maybe so. But I can guarantee you that your unrepentant sin will also cause God to move. That is what it means when the bible says that we are storing up wrath for ourselves when we won’t repent.
Rom 2:5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
Rom 2:6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
Here is a verse that I had quite forgotten about that speaks about rendering to each man according to his works. We know about the one at the end of Revelation, but here is a second witness. You can actually build up evil treasure as well as good.
Do not find yourself in a position where your choices in life are causing an emotional buildup in the Father that will one day need to be released to your detriment!
Eze 21:18 The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,
This begins a third word that was most likely in quick succession, since we will continue to deal with the theme of the sword of the Lord right to the end of the chapter.
Eze 21:19 Also, thou son of man, appoint (soom – put, set up) thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon (baw-bel – confusion) may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose (baw-raw – create) thou a place (yawd – hand, place, direction), choose (baw-raw) it at the head of the way (deh-rek – road, path or course of life) to the city.
The ‘also’ suggests that God is continuing along the same theme as previously. Ezekiel is probably receiving some sort of vision of Nebuchadnezzar marching at the head of his army. As he marches, he has a decision to make. Shall I attack Jerusalem, or shall I attack Ammon? Since Ezekiel has been asked on more than one occasion to depict some symbolic action that symbolizes this impending judgment, perhaps God is asking him to display by some means the Babylonians approaching a fork in the road. In one direction is Jerusalem, the other Ammon (as we shall see in the next verse).
To choose thou a place is literally means ‘create a hand’. This would be akin to setting up a pillar, or a sign post in the road. Create this sign post at the head of the road, or path.
Eze 21:20 Appoint (soom) a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath (rab-baw – great) of the Ammonites (bane am-mone – son of inbred), and to Judah (yeh-hoo-daw – celebrated) in Jerusalem (yer-oo-shaw-lah-in – peaceful) the defenced (baw-tsar – isolated, fortified).
God continues to elaborate on his instructions for Ezekiel. Create a way for the instrument of my judgment, this polished, glittering sword that I have placed in the king of Babylon’s hands. Let it arrive at either the capital city of the Ammonites, or the capital city of Judah. One styles itself as being ‘great’, the other thinks that it is fortified. Both mistakenly believe that they are secure.
Eze 21:21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting (ame – mother) of the way (deh-rek), at the head of the two ways (deh-rek), to use divination (keh-sem – lot, oracle, witchcraft): he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images (ter-aw-feme – healer, family idol), he looked in the liver.
Echoing back to verse 19, the head of the road is here called the mother of the path, a poetical way of describing this place and its significance. I cannot but hearken back to Saddam Hussein’s rhetoric before Gulf War Two, when he loudly proclaimed that the impending tussle with the Americans would be ‘the mother of all battles’. Even thousands of years later, this word in the middle eastern culture still retained its meaning of preeminence, or importance. Thus this was a preeminent, or important crossroad.
So what does a pagan king do when faced with a difficult choice? Why, off to the pagan priests he goes!
They used several methods of divination, which was trying to determine what the will of the gods were. Ancient Arabs and Mesopotamians placed arrows in a vessel, shook them, and see which one fell out. Teraphim were some sort of household idol. No one knows how they were used to divine with, though there were several instances in Israel’s history where they were found.
Gen 31:19 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images (teraphim) that were her father’s.
Jdg 17:5 And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.
1Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry (teraphim). Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
The above is interesting as it proves that the use of teraphim was intimately tied up with witchcraft and idolatry.
1Sa 19:13 And Michal took an image (teraphim), and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats’ hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.
Even in David’s house these things were found.
2Ki 23:24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images (teraphim), and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
Good king Josiah removed those who messed around with teraphim.
Hos 3:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
Hos 3:2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
Hos 3:3 And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
Hos 3:4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
Hos 3:5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
This is a strange passage in Hosea. Hosea buys back his wayward wife, even as Yehovah would ransom back his wayward people. Verse 4 is a statement of fact. The northern kingdom especially loved to illicitly mix true worship with the false, and Judah was guilty of this as well. So Yehovah wants to state that until I come to redeem you, you will be in exile, away from both the good (king, prince, sacrifice, ephod), and without the evil (image, teraphim).
Zec 10:2 For the idols (teraphim) have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.
Any sort of pagan idol was useless regarding the finding out the truth of any thing.
So there we have our short study on the topic of teraphim. You are now officially an expert!
And finally back to the text, we have the king looking into the liver. Now if you want to impress your friends with your immeasurable level of erudition, you can knock them off their feet by rightly defining this 3rd form of divination as haruspicy. That is the name given to one skilled in reading livers!
Eze 21:22 At his right hand was the divination (keh-sem) for Jerusalem, to appoint captains (kar – battering rams), to open the mouth in the slaughter (reh-tsakh – crushing, murder), to lift up the voice with shouting (ter-oo-ah – battle cry), to appoint battering rams (kar) against the gates, to cast (build) a mount (rampart), and to build a fort (battering tower).
The most reasonable interpretation of this awkward phrasing was that the auspices of the various methods of divination used all pointed toward the right, ie, the road to Jerusalem. The signs would have all pointed toward attacking Jerusalem first. God then goes on to describe exactly what is coming. Captains really should have been translated as battering rams, since God is detailing the various weapons at their disposal. And Babylon is coming at them with the latest in technology. Battering rams, siege mounds, battering towers, and a lot of aggressive alpha males, ready to slaughter everything in its way.
Eze 21:23 And it shall be unto them as a false (shawv – desolating evil, ruinous, useless, vain, lying) divination (kaw-sam – determine by lot, soothsayer)) in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity (aw-vone – perversity, moral evil, mischief), that they may be taken (taw-fas – seized).
This chapter seems to have one confusing verse after another does it not? At least in the King James translation it does. Who is the ‘them’ God is referring to? Well, this is where we need to read the verses before, and the verses after. And I think it is clear that this verse begins a new thought, and should be tied into what follows.
2Ch 36:13 And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD God of Israel.
‘Them’ is the Jews. Zedekiah and his princes have all sworn oaths of loyalty to Nebuchadnezzar. So when their spies reported back to them that all of Nebuchadnezzar’s portents indicated that they should attack Jerusalem, these corrupt leaders would not believe the news. They would have blindly assumed that their covenant with Babylon would protect them, even though they had been scheming behind their backs in attempting to make alliances with the Egyptians. Because Zedekiah had betrayed his covenant with Nebuchadnezzar, he was going to teach Judah a terrible lesson. Perhaps Zedekiah believed that his political treachery could not possibly have been discovered by Babylon. In any event, his desire to not want to believe the worst led him to tell himself that these so called portents must have been misinterpreted by his spies, and that there is no way that Yehovah would allow these heathens to attack God’s chosen people.
This is such a problem in the church today. Our teachers overtly, or subconsciously, leave us with the impression that God loves us too much to allow us to be totally destroyed. Either God will come to our rescue just in the nick of time, as in the movies, or he will rapture us right out of here!
Dream on, if you must.
This verse says that Yehovah will recall their moral perversity that had spanned many generations. You may quote the word all you want that you are Abraham’s children, but your sins have found you out, and have nullified any potential blessing and protection that you think you have.
Eze 21:24 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have made your iniquity (aw-vone) to be remembered, in that your transgressions (peh-shah – revolt, rebellion, trespass) are discovered (revealed, exposed), so that in all your doings your sins (khat-aw-aw – sin offering, sin and its penalty) do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken (taw-fas) with the hand.
Some sins are quite spectacular. Who will ever forget the antics of a Hitler, or of the cabal in unleashing the covid delusion? Some crimes are never forgotten in the annals of history. Judah’s sins were like that, in the eyes of Yahweh. Their sins were exposed to all. They were not shy in flaunting their idols, even in the temple itself. They openly burned incense to the queen of heaven. They wept for Tammuz. They prostrated themselves in front of their images, and all the host of heaven. They worshipped the sun. In short, there was nothing out of bounds for these reprobates.
Kind of sounds familiar, does it not? Just turn on the news on any given day, and watch the moral outrages being perpetrated without limit.
Being taken with the hand would be another Hebraism. The hand was used in many verses in the bible, where the physical hand was not meant. Perhaps the most straightforward understanding is that this was shorthand for saying that you will be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon.
Eze 21:25 And thou, profane (khaw-lawl – pierced, polluted, deadly wounded) wicked (raw-shaw – morally wrong, ungodly) prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity (aw-vone) shall have an end,
Yehovah turns to the leader of this troop of sinners, as well he should. The leader is always held more accountable than the people under him. King Zedekiah is called profane. It contains the idea of being polluted, and mortally wounded. Well, the Davidic line of sitting kings was mortally wounded under Zedekiah’s watch. He will be forever known as the last king to actually sit on the Davidic throne. Even though he was not appointed in the correct manner, yet he was still of the blood. Not until Messiah returns a second time will this kingship be restored upon the earth.
But the main characteristic of this man is his wickedness. His time had run out. God has run out of patience with this man, and with Judah itself. It was time to end this unending rebellion and apostasy by removing them out of God’s sight.
Eze 21:26 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem (tiara, mitre), and take off (take away) the crown: this (zothe – hereby, likewise, this deed) shall not be the same (zothe): exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.
And one more time we come across more Hebrew word fun. ‘This shall not be the same’ is zothe lo zothe. One should render it as ‘this shall not be this anymore’. In other words, the continuation of the mitre and the crown shall not continue. This represented the offices of the priest and the king. The temple and the Davidic rule shall not be this anymore. God has come to flip everything upside down. He explains his intent by exclaiming that what is base shall be exalted and what is high shall be cut down. This was fulfilled when Zedekiah was blinded and led in chains to Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar left the poorest of the people in the land to till the soil. He also appointed a puppet Gedaliah to rule, one of no royal lineage.
2Ki 25:12 But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen.
2Ki 25:22 And as for the people that remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler.
Eze 21:27 I will overturn (aw-vaw – overthrow), overturn (aw-vaw), overturn (aw-vaw, only 3 times in OT), it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right (mishpat – verdict, sentence, formal decree, divine law) it is; and I will give it him.
Once again God hints at this threefold chastisement of 3 distinct deportations that Babylon would inflict upon Judah by using the word aw-vaw 3 times. It could also be looked like stamping your foot or clapping your hands several times, in order to signify the finality of a thing.
This earthly kingship shall not rise up again, until Messiah comes. That is, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes and retakes the throne of David.
It’s a bit hard to believe that we find such a positive prophecy here in the midst of all this woe and evil madness, but there it is. And yet, is it not more negative than positive? The throne of Judah and Israel shall not have anyone in it until Messiah comes. That means Israel shall never rise again to be ruled the way God had intended for them to be always ruled until Jesus returns.
For those Jews who grasped verses such as this, no wonder Palm Sunday turned into such a spectacle that it was. Once they were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, then they were convinced that the Davidic kingship was to be imminently restored. The idea of the Messiah coming twice, with 2 distinct missions, with thousands of years between them, was something that was never conceived by anyone.
Eze 21:28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach (disgrace); even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter (teh-bakh) it is furbished (maw-rat – polished), to consume (kool – keep in, abide, feed) because of the glittering (baw-rawk):
This short insertion was meant to complete the story begun above. Babylon was going to attack either Jerusalem or Ammon, and God directed them via their pagan oracles to take care of Jerusalem first. But that did not mean that Ammon was to escape scot-free. So we have this short epilogue posted to the main theme.
It is a bit out of place, because Ezekiel does prophesy to the surrounding nations in chapters 25 through 32, including a short bit towards Ammon. But this is inserted here, to complete the current prophecy.
I think it does us no harm to see what Ellicott’s commentary has to say about this. He nicely summarizes some important thoughts concerning this passage.
At the opening of this prophecy (Ez 21:19-20) the king of Babylon was represented as hesitating whether to attack Jerusalem or Rabbah, and as being led to the determination of attacking the former. This would leave the inference that the Ammonites might escape altogether; and from the destruction of God’s peculiar people, along with the immunity of their ancient enemies, the heathen would be likely to draw conclusions inconsistent with the power and majesty of God. Hence this prophecy is added to show that His judgments shall certainly fall on them also, and in this case the ruin foretold is final and hopeless, without the promise given to Israel in Ezekiel 21:27. Another prophecy against Ammon is given in Ezekiel 25:1-7. As a matter of history, the Ammonites were conquered, and their country desolated, by Nebuchadnezzar a few years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and they gradually dwindled away until their name and place among the nations finally disappeared. [end]
That scary sword is still swinging. Now that it is finished with Judah, it turns to Ammon. It is still drawn, it is still polished, it will continue to strike as lightning strikes.
Eze 21:29 Whiles they see vanity (shawv) unto thee, whiles they divine (kaw-sam) a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain (khaw-lawl), of the wicked (raw-shaw), whose day is come, when their iniquity (aw-vone) shall have an end.
Just like Judah, Ammon had its share of these false prophets who saw nothing but victory. All those signs and omens that their diviners conjured that predicted nothing but success was nothing but vanity and hot air.
Judah was to fall first, then the corpses of the Ammonites would pile up on top of those that were already slain in Judah. This does not have to mean that they were slaughtered in the same place, but in sequence.
Iniquity will have an end. God’s way is for man to repent. Failing that, his sword will ensure that sin stops. One way of another, sin will cease out of the land.
You can do it the easy way. Or you can do it the hard way.
Eze 21:30 Shall I cause it to return (shoob) into his sheath? I will judge (shaw-fat – pronounce sentence) thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity (birth).
Shall I repent? Of course not. Far too late for that. That is the logical interpretation, according to the English rendering of the first part of this verse. But the Hebrew is shoob ale tah-ar. This means return (repent, turn back) toward (within) the scabbard. If this is what is meant, then it could be a command to the Ammonites to put their sword back into its scabbard, as resistance to my divine judgment is futile. Or, sword of the Lord, return to your scabbard. I have now completed my work even in Ammon. Thus, it would be implied that Ammon has also experienced the slaughter of the Lord. And this slaughter will take place on their own home turf.
Since Ammon would also be slaughtered with the sword of the Lord’s wrath, I think that is why the King James translators chose to translate the first part of the verse as they did. Changing the sense of the literal words from a mere imperative to a rhetorical question captures both the sense that this divine sword still had one more task to execute (the slaughter of the Ammonites), as well as once that was done, it was time to sheathe this weapon of divine mass destruction. Yehovah is finally finished with the image of the devouring sword, and turns to a new image of a consuming fire, in order to paint another picture of the wrath that he will unleash on this heathen land.
Eze 21:31 And I will pour out mine indignation (zah-am – froth at the mouth in furious displeasure) upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath (eb-raw – outburst of passion), and deliver thee into the hand of brutish (baw-ar – kindle, consume by fire) men, and skilful to destroy.
Fire can be an even more terrifying portrayal of the wrath of God. Nothing speaks of wrath like fire. Images of the eternal fires of hell immediately come to mind. Thus it is fitting in this story, in this chapter, and this book of the judgments of the Lord, to end this chapter with the illustration of the fire of the Lord. One who is deeply aroused in furious displeasure, who in an outburst of passion, decides to deliver these sinners into the hands of his brutish instrument that destroys skilfully, the Babylonians.
Eze 21:32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the LORD have spoken it.
All these Ammonites are good for is kindling. Fit to be burned, and nothing more. No one will miss them. No one will remember that they even existed. If it was not for the bible, would anyone even know that there was such a people at one time? Born in drunken incest, the odds were not good to begin with that they would have a noble end. They were always thorns in Israel’s side. At least Moab was the place where Ruth came from. I don’t think we can say anything positive about Ammon.
Solitary Man
