Ezekielchapter 21
32 verses · Ezekiel · 593 to 571 BC · The Prophets
Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and another against Judah into fortified Jerusalem.
Introduction
Ezekiel, The Prophets, Ezekiel Overview.
Ezekiel spoke this to exiles who had begun to complain that he only told riddles. They were following the march of Babylon's army west as people follow a storm on the horizon. The chapter answers the complaint with the plainest speech in the book, a song about a blade made ready for use. It then moves to a crossroads in Syria, where a king stops to decide which city to attack. Listen for the three ways he seeks an answer, and for the crown at the end of the chapter. It asks who really chooses the road an army takes.
Context
- Who
- Exiles who had heard Ezekiel called a maker of riddles and wanted plain speech
- What
- A song of the sword drawn against Jerusalem, a scene of Nebuchadnezzar choosing his road by divination, and oracles against Zedekiah and Ammon.
- Where
- Tel Abib in Babylonia, picturing a fork in the road in Syria between Rabbah of the Ammonites and Jerusalem.
- When
- About 589 to 588 BC, as Nebuchadnezzar's army moved west.
- Why
- To show the exiles that Babylon's attack was God's judgment on Jerusalem and that the crown would be set aside until its rightful holder came.
Historical context
The chapter opens by answering the complaint at the end of chapter twenty, is he not a maker of parables?, with the least parabolic thing in the book. A sword, drawn from its sheath, against righteous and wicked alike.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The sword song describes a blade being prepared for use: sharpened to slaughter and polished to flash like lightning. Bronze and iron weapons had to be honed and burnished, and a polished blade catching sunlight was a real battlefield effect. Ezekiel is told to clap his hands and strike his thigh, gestures of grief and of grim approval, both.
Then the camera moves to a fork in the road. Nebuchadnezzar stands where the highway divides, one branch running to Rabbah of the Ammonites and the other to Jerusalem, and he uses three standard Babylonian methods to decide. He shakes marked arrows in a quiver and draws one. He consults household idols. And he examines a liver.
That third method was the most respected of all. Babylonian priests read omens from the liver of a sacrificed sheep, and clay models of livers marked with omen inscriptions have been recovered from Mesopotamian sites and used for training. It was a whole profession with a technical literature. Ezekiel's point is not that the divination worked, but that the lot fell to Jerusalem anyway, God steered the omen.
The last stroke falls on the crown: remove the turban, take off the crown, the low will be exalted and the high brought low. The Davidic monarchy is set aside, a ruin, a ruin, a ruin, until he comes whose right it is.
Significance
The exiles were tracking the army's movements the way people track a storm. This oracle tells them the road was chosen before the arrows were shaken.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And it tells them why the ordinary rules of comfort will not apply this time. The sword goes against righteous and wicked alike, because when a whole society comes down, everyone inside it is in the path. The one thread of hope is a single clause at the end about the one whose right the crown is, which Israel's hope would hang on for the next six centuries.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's table of synagogue readings ties no weekly portion and no Haftarah to this chapter. Probed for this lane, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Ezekiel 21, and no festival reading for the book. The table holds the Haftarah of each weekly portion and the six books read whole on a feast or a fast. Across chapters 1 to 24 of Ezekiel the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 20 and 22.
How it is read
Rashi is the main commentator on this chapter in the corpus. He is quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. The translation is modern, so every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer. The verse numbers in this row are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints. Hebrew 21:1 to 21:5 is English 20:45 to 20:49, and Hebrew 21:6 to 21:37 is English 21:1 to 21:32.
Rashi reads the south as the land of Israel, because "The land of Israel is south of Babylon" (Rashi on Ezekiel 21:2:1). The people complain that the prophet speaks in riddles, "such as a forest and a fire consuming [trees] moist and dry" (Rashi on Ezekiel 21:5:1). So God gives him a plain word: "Set your face toward Jerusalem" (Rashi on Ezekiel 21:6:1). The moist and the dry are the "righteous and wicked" (Rashi on Ezekiel 21:8:1).
The sword of the fourteenth verse is two swords. The first is "the sword of the king of Babylon". The second came "in the hand of Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, who will slay Gedaliah" (Rashi on Ezekiel 21:14:1).
The prophet claps his hands "in the manner of those who lament" (Rashi on Ezekiel 21:19:1). God claps His hands with him and says that He too, "like you, lament over them" (Rashi on Ezekiel 21:22:1).
The corpus carries 7 notes on this chapter without an English text, marked linked. Radak's notes stand at 21:1:1, 21:4:1, 21:10:1, 21:11:1, 21:12:1, 21:13:1 and 21:23:1. Each stands cited and unquoted, because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 9 filed under the Talmud and 31 under the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints. The locators on verses 34 and 36 stand on English 21:29 and 21:31.
On verse 2 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 44:6 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 13:22:1. On verse 3 it holds Gittin 7a:14. On verse 4 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 6:12:3. On verse 7 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 12:9:1. On verse 8 it holds Avodah Zarah 4a:16 and Bava Kamma 60a:17.
On verse 11 it holds Berakhot 58b:2 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 9:10. On verse 12 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 9:19 and Pesikta Rabbati 27:1. On verse 13 it holds Berakhot 59a:6 and Midrash Lekach Tov on Lamentations 3:65:1. On verse 14 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 20:3 and Avot DeRabbi Natan 33:2. On verse 15 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 22:32:3 and Otzar Midrashim, Chuppah of Eliyahu, Chuppat Eliyahu Rabbah 237.
On verse 17 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yoma 1:7 and Ein Yaakov, Yoma 1:10. On verse 19 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 536:1. On verse 20 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:15 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 15:15:5. On verse 21 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Gittin 1:4 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 31:21:5. On verse 22 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:34 and Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 9:22.
On verse 24 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 2:4:6. On verse 26 it holds Eikhah Rabbah, Petichta 23 and Kohelet Rabbah 12:7:1. On verse 28 it holds Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 293:2. On verse 30 it holds Berakhot 18b:3 and Ein Yaakov, Berakhot 3:3. On verse 31 it holds Ein Yaakov, Gittin 1:4 and Jerusalem Talmud Sotah 9:15:7.
On verse 32 it holds Avodah Zarah 4a:7 and Bereshit Rabbah 26:7. On verse 34 it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 9:2 and Ein Yaakov, Sotah 9:2. On verse 36 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai, Additions 8:2 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 32:5:1.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Ezekiel 21:2:1 to 21:22:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Ezekiel 21:1:1 to 21:23:1, cited by ref only: Sefaria holds no English version of the ref; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/ezekiel/21.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Ezekiel 21: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Sigh with a broken heart before their eyes
Ezekiel 21:1-5
The Lord draws forth his sword against the land of Israel and states plainly that it will cut off the righteous and the wicked together. Gill reads the righteous alongside the wicked as the ordinary judgment that falls on a besieged city, sword, famine and captivity making no exception.
Ezekiel 21:1
“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.”
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Ezekiel 21:1
“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.”
set your face against Jerusalem: The parable of the forest fire in 20:45 to 48 is now spoken plainly, with Jerusalem, the sanctuaries and the land of Israel named. Barnes set the two passages side by side word for word. Matthew Henry saw Zion battered with her own artillery.
Ezekiel 21:2
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
both the righteous and the wicked: Chapter 9 set a mark on those who grieved over the city's sins, and this verse includes the righteous in the ruin. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the mark as God's care within the disaster, with no exemption from the siege. The weight falls on the reach of the judgment.
Ezekiel 21:3
“Behold, I am against thee - Dismal news! When God is against us, who can be for us? And will draw forth my sword - War. And will cut off from thee - The land of Judea. The righteous and the wicked - All shall be removed from thee. Some shall be cut off - removed by the sword; shall be slain in battle, or by the pestilence; and some shall be cut off - die by the famine; and some shall be cut off - removed from the land by captivity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 21:3
“The righteous - It is no unusual thing, that in publick calamities, those who are indeed righteous should be involved with others.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 21:3
“The godly were sealed with a mark (Eze 9:4), not for outward exemption from the common calamity, but as marked for the secret interpositions of Providence, overruling even evil to their good. The godly were by comparison so few, that not their salvation but the universality of the judgment is brought into view here.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
from south to north: The righteous and the wicked restate the green tree and the dry tree of 20:47 in plain words. Barnes added that a national judgment brings temporal ruin on the innocent with the guilty, and that its reach ends with this life. The whole land lies open to the sword.
Ezekiel 21:4
“The righteous and the wicked - take the place of “every green tree and every dry tree” Eze 20:47; “all faces” that of “all flesh:” to show the universality of the destructions. National judgment involves the innocent in the temporal ruin of the guilty. The equity of God is vindicated by the ruin being only temporal. From the south to the north - From one end of the holy land to the other; the seer is in the north, and looks at once on the whole extent of the ruin.”
The LORD draws His sword and leaves it drawn. Clarke saw that sword reach all the lands from south to north, from the Euphrates to the Nile. Gill read the verse as the sword kept out until all its slaughter was done.
Ezekiel 21:5
“That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath,.... The same with kindling a fire in Judea; see Gill on Eze 20:48, it shall not return any more; that is, into its sheath, until it has done all its work; meaning that the Chaldean army should not return to their own land until they had executed the whole will of God upon the Jews; this is the fire that should not be quenched, Eze 20:48 and here ends the explanation of the said prophecy.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:5
“It shall not return any more - That is, till all the work that I have designed for it is done. Nor did it; for Nebuchadnezzar never rested till he had subdued all the lands from the south to the north, from the Euphrates to the Nile.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 21:6-7
The prophet is himself made a sign, commanded to sigh with the breaking of thy loins and with bitterness before the eyes of the exiles. Henry reads the bodily collapse the verse then describes as Ezekiel's own body rehearsing in advance the terror Jerusalem's people would feel.
Ezekiel 21:6
“Sigh - with the breaking of thy loins - Let thy mourning for this sore calamity be like that of a woman in the pains of travail.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:6
“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.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The groaning was meant to be seen and asked about. Clarke called the prophet a sign whose mourning showed the exiles how they ought to mourn. The melting heart and the knees turned to water repeat the terror of 7:17.
Ezekiel 21:7
“The wrath of God will put an edge upon it; and, whatever instruments God shall please to make use of in executing his judgments, he will fill them with strength, courage, and fury, according to the service they are employed in. Out of the mouth of Christ goes a sharp sword, Rev. xix. It is furbished, that it may glitter, to the terror of those against whom it is drawn.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The song of the sword, sharpened and polished
Ezekiel 21:8-11
A poem of a sword follows, sharpened to make a sore slaughter and furbished that it may glitter, the weapon itself given voice. Keil reads it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree as the sword's contempt for every human defense, sceptre and timber both.
Ezekiel 21:8
“Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying. Either this is a new prophecy of another sword, distinct and different from that of the Chaldeans, even of the sword of the Romans, as Cocceius thinks or it is a further explanation of the former, and an enlargement upon it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:8
“The second word of judgment: the glittering and destroying sword. The passage may be called the “Lay of the Sword;” it is written in the form of Hebrew poetry, with its characteristic parallelism. Eze 21:10 It contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree - The rod is the scepter of dominion, assigned to Judah Gen 49:10. The destroying sword of Babylon despises the scepter of Judah; it despises every tree.”
The sword is named twice, sharpened and polished, and the whole passage to verse 17 is a song of the sword. Henry compared the repeated word to a cry of fire in a burning city. Gill read it as the sword surely coming.
Ezekiel 21:9
“Son of man, prophesy and say, thus saith the Lord,.... Deliver out the following prophecy in the name of the Lord: say, a sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished; it is not only drawn out of its sheath, as before, but is made sharp and bright, and ready for use. It is repeated, either to show the certainty of it, or to express the terror and anguish of mind on account of it; persons in distress generally repeating that which is the occasion of it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:9
“Let him not study for fine words, and a variety of quaint expressions; when the town is on fire people do not so give notice of it, but cry, with a frightful doleful voice, Fire! fire!”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the scepter of My son?: The scepter is the royal rod of Judah, the ruler's staff Barnes traced to Genesis 49:10. Henry linked it to the strong branches fit for a ruler's scepter in 19:11, and Clarke read the son as Israel. The sword despises that scepter like any stick.
Ezekiel 21:10
“It contemneth the rod of my son - “It,” the sword of Nebuchadnezzar, “contemneth the rod,” despises the power and influence of my son - Israel, the Jewish people: “Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” As every tree - As all the stocks, kindreds, and nations, over which I have already given him commission. Can the rod of Israel be spared, when the trees of Assyria, Egypt, etc., have been cut down?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 21:10
“Of my son - To whom God saith, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Psalm ii, 9. This sword is that rod of iron, which despiseth every tree, and will bear it down.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 21:10
“The government of that people was called a rod, a strong rod; we read ( ch. xix. 11 ) of the strong rods they had for sceptres. But when the sword of God's justice is drawn it contemns this rod, makes nothing of it; though it be a strong rod, and the rod of his son, it is no more than any other tree.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the hand of the slayer: God polishes the sword, and another grips it. Gill read the slayer as the king of Babylon, and the Targum renders the verse as vengeance handed over to that king. The instrument is foreign, and the appointment is the LORD's.
Ezekiel 21:11
“And he hath given it to be furbished, that it might be handled,.... Either Nebuchadnezzar, or rather God, or the Son of God, prepared and brightened the sword, that it might be handled and made use of, either by the Chaldeans or Romans, to the destruction of the Jews. The Targum is, "he gave their vengeance to be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.'' The sword is sharpened and furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer; either the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar; or the Roman emperor, Titus Vespasian.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:11
“This sword is sharpened - It is prepared for the slaughter, it is furbished; from the French, foubir, to polish, brighten. He shall have splendid victories every where. Some complain of corruption in the original in this place; but I think without sufficient reason.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 21:12-13
The prophet is told to cry and howl and smite upon thy thigh, the gesture of grief, because the sword is coming upon my people. Fairbairn reads it is a trial as marking the invasion as a proving, testing whether the rod, the royal house itself, would stand.
Ezekiel 21:12
“Smite - upon thy thigh - See on Jer 31:19 (note). So Homer, Il. 15 ver. 113: - Ὡς εφατ’· αυταρ Αρης θαλερω πεπληγετο μηρω Χερσι καταπρηνεσσ ολοφυρομενος δε προσηυδα. “She spake; and, with expanded arms his thighs Smiting, thus sorrowful the god exclaimed.” Cowper.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Surely testing will come!: The testing is the trial the sword brings. The question asks what happens when the scepter itself falls, and Clarke answered with Zedekiah's overthrow and the end of Judah's kings. Henry added that for the faithful the same trial works like fire on gold.
Ezekiel 21:13
“Here shall its proud waves be stayed. Note, It is matter of comfort to the people of God, when his judgments are abroad, and they are ready to tremble for fear of them, that, whatever they are to others, to them they are but trials; and, when they are tried, they shall come forth as gold, and the proving of their faith shall be the improving of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:13
“Because it is a trial - This will be a trial of strength and skill between the Chaldeans and the Jews; and a trial of faith and patience to the righteous. And what if the sword, (Nebuchadnezzar), contemn even the rod? - Overthrow Zedekiah? It will do so; for the regal government of Judea shall be no more. Or, it is tried; that it the sword. Nebuchadnezzar has already shown himself strong and skillful.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ezekiel 21:14-15
The prophet is now commanded to act the sword himself, smite thine hands together, and let the sword be doubled the third time. Gill reads the point of the sword against all their gates as a city's defenses turned into the place where its own ruin multiplies.
Ezekiel 21:14
“Let the sword be doubled the third time - The sword has been doubled, and it shall come the third time. Nebuchadnezzar came against Judea Thrice. 1. Against Jehoiakim. 2. Against Jeconiah. 3. Against Zedekiah. The sword had already been doubled; it is to come now the third time, i.e., against Zedekiah. The sword of the slain - חרב חללים chereb chalalim, “the sword of the soldiers,” of the Chaldeans. So in the next clause, היא חרב חלל הגדול hi chereb chalal haggadol, “it is the sword of that great soldier,” that eminent king and conqueror.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
at all their gates: Gates were a city's first defense. Henry observed that the strongest gates give no cover against the sword God sends. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown saw the city's own walls and houses turned into stumbling blocks for those who try to fight or flee.
Ezekiel 21:15
“Note, The strongest gates, though they be gates of brass, ever so well barred, ever so well guarded, are no fence against the point of the sword of God's judgments. But when that is pointed against sinners, 1. They are ready to fear the worst; their hearts faint, so that they are not able to make any resistance.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:15
"The naked (bared) sword" [HENDERSON]. ruins--literally, "stumbling-blocks." Their own houses and walls shall be stumbling-blocks in their way, whether they wish to fight or flee. made bright--made to glitter. wrapped, &c.--namely, in the hand of him who holds the hilt, or in its scabbard, that the edge may not be blunt when it is presently drawn forth to strike.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 21:16-17
On the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set is addressed to the sword itself, given free range. The Lord then claims the action as his own, I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest.
Ezekiel 21:16
"Unite thy forces on the right hand" [GROTIUS]. The sword is commanded to take the nearest route for Jerusalem, "whither their face was set," whether south or north ("right hand or left"), according to where the several parts of the Chaldean host may be. or other, . . . on the left--rather "set thyself on the left." The verbs are well-chosen.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
strike My hands together: God now strikes His hands together as the prophet was told to do in verse 14. Henry read it as a sign of holy wrath at the people's sin, and Gill saw the sword urged on. The poem ends in satisfied wrath.
Ezekiel 21:17
“I will also smite my hands together,.... As well as the prophet was bid to do, Eze 21:14, either expressing a concern for the calamity of the people, or indignation at their sins: or rather as encouraging their enemies to make use of the sword pointed at them, and, as it were, rejoicing at their destruction for the honour of his justice.”
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:17
“God is in earnest in pronouncing this sentence upon them, and therefore the prophet must show himself in earnest in publishing it. God's smiting his hands together, as well as the prophet's smiting, is in token of a holy indignation at their wickedness, which was really very astonishing.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Babylon's king casting lots at the fork in the road
Ezekiel 21:18-20
A new oracle instructs the prophet to appoint thee two ways, one way to Rabbath of the Ammonites and the other to Jerusalem the defenced. Clarke reads the head of the way to the city as the crossroads itself, staged so exiles would see the decision made in miniature.
Ezekiel 21:18
“The third word of judgment. The king of Babylon’s march upon Judaea and upon the Ammonites. Destruction is to go forth not on Judah only, but also on such neighboring tribes as the Ammonites (compare Jer 27:2-3). Eze 21:19 Appoint thee - Set before thee. Choose thou a place, choose it - Rather, “mark a spot, mark it,” as upon a map, at the head of the two roads, one leading to Jerusalem, the other to Ammon. These were the two roads by one or other of which an invading army must march from Babylon to Egypt.”
mark out two roads: Wesley pictured the map drawn on a tile, with both roads leaving Babylon and parting at one fork. Clarke explained the second road: Ammon had joined Zedekiah against the Chaldeans, as Jeremiah 27:3 records. The prophet draws the campaign before it happens.
Ezekiel 21:19
“Appoint thee two ways - Set off from Babylon, and lay down two ways, either of which thou mayest take; that to the right, which leads to Jerusalem; or that to the left which leads to Rabbath of the Ammonites, Eze 21:20. But why against the Ammonites? Because both they and the Moabites were united with Zedekiah against the Chaldeans, (see Jer 27:3), though they afterwards fought against Judea, Eze 12:6.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 21:19
“Appoint - Paint, or describe them on a tile. One land - That is, Babylon. Chuse - Pitch on some convenient place, where thou mayest place Nebuchadnezzar's army, consulting where this one way divides into two, which was on the edge of the desert of Arabia.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ezekiel 21:19
“The sword must go either to Rabbath or to Judah in Jerusalem. Many of the inhabitants of Judah had now taken shelter in Jerusalem, and all the interests of the country were bound up in the safety of the city, and therefore it is called Judah in Jerusalem the defenced; so strongly fortified was it, both by nature and art, that it was thought impregnable, Lam. iv.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Rabbah of the Ammonites: Rabbah was the capital of Ammon, east of the Jordan. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown noted that Ammon comes first on the map, and that Judah is placed inside fortified Jerusalem. The walls Judah trusted mark the end of the second road.
Ezekiel 21:20
“Rabbath is put first, as it was from her that Jerusalem, that doomed city, had borrowed many of her idols. to Judah in Jerusalem--instead of simply putting "Jerusalem," to imply the sword was to come not merely to Judah, but to its people within Jerusalem, defended though it was; its defenses on which the Jews relied so much would not keep the foe out.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 21:21-23
The king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way to use divination, arrows shaken, images consulted, and the liver examined. At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem. Fairbairn reads it shall be unto them as a false divination as the irony the chapter intends.
Ezekiel 21:21
“For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way - He was in doubt which way he should first take; whether to humble the Ammonites by taking their metropolis, Riblath, or go at once against Jerusalem. In this case of uncertainty, he made use of divination. And this was of three kinds: 1. By arrows. 2. By images or talismans. 3. By inspecting the entrails of a sacrifice offered on the occasion. 1. He made bright his arrows. This might be after the manner in which the divination is still practiced among the Arabs.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 21:21
“Though he was a prince of great foresight and great resolution, yet, it seems, he knew neither his own interest nor his own mind. Let not the wise man then glory in his wisdom nor the mighty man in his arbitrary power, for even those that may do what they will seldom know what to do for the best.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 21:21
“In the Nineveh sculptures the king is represented with a cup in his right hand, his left resting on a bow; also with two arrows in the right, and the bow in the left, probably practising divination. images--Hebrew, "teraphim"; household gods, worshipped as family talismans, to obtain direction as to the future and other blessings.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the portent for Jerusalem: The king's right hand draws Jerusalem's lot. Clarke pictured city names written on the arrows, with the one marked Jerusalem drawn out first. Henry noted the cost and labour of the siege works that follow, from battering rams to the siege wall.
Ezekiel 21:22
“At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem - He had probably written on two arrows; one, Jerusalem; the other, Riblath; the third, left blank. He drew, and that on which Jerusalem was written came to his hand; in consequence of which he marched immediately against that city. It was ripe for destruction; and had he marched before or after, it would have fallen; but he never considered himself as sure of the conquest till now.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:22
“Orders are given to provide every thing necessary for carrying on the siege with vigour; battering rams must be prepared and forts built. O what pains, what cost, are men at to destroy one another! He must show both the people and the prince that they bring this destruction upon themselves by their own sin.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
a false omen: The men of Jerusalem dismiss the omen as heathen guesswork. Clarke named them as Zedekiah and his ministers, who had sworn by the LORD to serve Babylon and then rebelled. The omen they scorned becomes the charge that takes them captive.
Ezekiel 21:23
“To them that have sworn oaths - To Zedekiah and his ministers, who had bound themselves by the oath of the Lord to be faithful to the Chaldeans, and to pay them the promised tribute. The oaths may refer, farther, to the alliances formed with the Egyptians, Ammonites, and others. They will not believe that Nebuchadnezzar shall succeed against them, while they expect the powerful assistance of the Egyptians.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The reason the omen lands on Jerusalem rather than Rabbath is stated without ambiguity, because your iniquity is to be remembered. The verse insists the captivity is the exposure of guilt already plain. Henry reads the phrase come to remembrance as the moment a settled account is finally called due.
Ezekiel 21:24
“Your transgressions - Against God, and against the king of Babylon. Discovered - To all in court, city, and country. With the hand - As birds, or beasts in the net, are taken with the hands, so shall you, and be carried into Babylon.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Ezekiel 21:24
“Their unfaithfulness to Nebuchadnezzar was a type of their general unfaithfulness to their covenant God. with the hand--namely, of the king of Babylon.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Ezekiel 21:25-27
The oracle turns to name its target, thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, identified as Zedekiah. The clause, until he come whose right it is, is read by many of the older commentators as a promise of the rightful heir. A minority reading confines the verse to the near future.
Ezekiel 21:25
“And thou profane wicked prince of Israel - Zedekiah, called here profane, because he had broken his oath; and wicked, because of his opposition to God and his prophet. Whose day is come - Who in a short time shalt be delivered into the hands of thy enemies.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 21:25
“He was not so bad as some of his predecessors, and yet bad enough to merit his character. He was himself profane, lost to every thing that is virtuous and sacred. And he was wicked, as he promoted sin among his people; he sinned, and made Israel to sin.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 21:25
“HAVERNICK translates, as in Eze 21:14, "slain," that is, not literally, but virtually; to Ezekiel's idealizing view Zedekiah was the grand victim "pierced through" by God's sword of judgment, as his sons were slain before his eyes, which were then put out, and he was led a captive in chains to Babylon.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The turban and the crown come off together, and the royal house loses its rule. Wesley and Clarke read the raising and lowering as Zedekiah's fall, with Wesley naming Jeconiah and Clarke naming Gedaliah as the one raised. The order of Judah's kings is overturned.
Ezekiel 21:26
“Exalt him that is low - Give Gedaliah the government of Judea. Abase him that is high - Depose Zedekiah - remove his diadem, and take off his crown.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 21:26
“This is mentioned here for the comfort of those who feared that the promise made in David would fail for evermore. "No," says God, "that promise is sure, for the Messiah's kingdom shall last for ever." The Destruction of the Ammonites.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 21:26
“The diadem - The royal attire of the head, which the king daily wore. Shall not be the same - The kingdom shall never be what it hath been. Him that is low - Jeconiah.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
A ruin, a ruin: Clarke noted that the Hebrew word is given three times, a total overthrow. He and Wesley read the one to whom it belongs as the Messiah, the son of David, with an echo of Genesis 49:10. The throne waits for its rightful king.
Ezekiel 21:27
“Shall be no more - Never recover its former glory, 'till the scepter be quite taken away from Judah, and way be made for the Messiah. He hath an incontestable right to the dominion both in the church and in the world.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
A sword drawn against the Ammonites too
Ezekiel 21:28-29
The two ways from verses eighteen through twenty have their second half addressed directly, prophesy concerning the Ammonites, whose day of judgment lags behind Jerusalem's. Gill reads the reprieve as only postponement, the chapter having already promised that Ammon's own reckoning still waits at its own appointed time.
Ezekiel 21:28
“Concerning the Ammonites - They had reproached and insulted Judea in its low estate, see Ezekiel 25. This prophecy against them was fulfilled about five years after the taking of Jerusalem. See Joseph. Ant. lib. 10 c. 11; and Jeremiah 27, 48, 49; Ezekiel 25.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 21:28
“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. The prophet is here more plainly directed against whom to level the arrow of this prophecy.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 21:28
“Lest Ammon should think to escape because Nebuchadnezzar had taken the route to Jerusalem, Ezekiel denounces judgment against Ammon, without the prospect of a restoration such as awaited Israel.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
false visions for you: Ammon's diviners promised safety while the sword was already drawn against them. Henry saw a people ripe for judgment after mocking Israel in its distress, a charge chapter 25 sets out. Their day comes with Judah's.
Ezekiel 21:29
“We shall meet with this again, ch. xxv. Note, Those are ripening apace for misery who trample upon the people of God in their distress, whereas they ought to tremble when judgment begins at the house of God. The utter destruction of the Ammonites is threatened.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 21:30-32
Shall I cause it to return into his sheath answers its own question, the sword will not be sheathed until it has done its work. The Lord promises to judge Ammon in the place where thou wast created. Thou shalt be no more remembered closes the oracle.
Ezekiel 21:30
“Shall I cause it to return into his sheath--namely, without first destroying Ammon. Certainly not (Jer 47:6, 7). Others, as the Margin, less suitably read it imperatively, "Cause it to return," that is, after it has done the work appointed to it. in the land of thy nativity--Ammon was not to be carried away captive as Judah, but to perish in his own land.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Ezekiel 21:30
“Thy blood shall be shed not only in thy borders, but in the midst of thy land. Lastly, I shall be an irreparable ruin: "Though thou mayest think to recover thyself, it is in vain to think of it; thou shalt be no more remembered with any respect," Ps. ix. Justly is their name blotted out who would have Israel's name for ever lost.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ezekiel 21:30
“I will judge thee - This seems to refer to Nebuchadnezzar, who, after his return from Jerusalem, became insane, and lived like a beast for seven years; but was afterwards restored, and acknowledged the Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
brutal men, skilled in destruction: The fire of fury is fanned by God's own breath. Henry wrote that one drop of divine wrath brings anguish enough, and here it is poured out in full. Clarke dated the fall of Ammon to about five years after Jerusalem was taken.
fuel for the fire: Judah's ruin in verse 27 has a limit, the coming of the rightful king. Ammon's has none, and its name will fade from memory. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set this against the restoration promised to Israel, and Henry saw a fitting end for a people who wanted Israel forgotten.
Ezekiel 21:32
“Thou shalt be no more remembered - The empire of the Chaldeans was destroyed, and the power transferred to the Persians; the Persian empire was destroyed, and given to the Greeks; the Grecian empire was destroyed, and given to the Mohammedans; and the destruction of the Mohammedans is at no great distance.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
People and groups1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Ezekiel; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Patrick Fairbairn, An Exposition of Ezekiel.