Ezekiel 21:1
in Ezekiel 21And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,
KJV
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
⋯
This verse in Ezekiel 21
Commentary
4 notes on this verseAnd 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.
This site's exposition
the word of the Lord came unto me, saying
on 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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Chapter 21, Verse 1 onwards) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel, and say to the land of Israel: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
And the word of nevuah from before Hashem was with me, saying:
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיְהִ֥י | vayhi | and it came | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| דְבַר־ | devar- | [the] word of | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֵלַ֥י | ʾelai | to me | H413 → | 5510 times |
| לֵאמֹֽר׃ | lemor | <to> saying | H559 → | 5305 times |
וַיְהִ֥יand it came
vayhiH1961 →3559 times
דְבַר־[the] word of
devar-H1697 →1440 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֵלַ֥יto me
ʾelaiH413 →5510 times
לֵאמֹֽר׃<to> saying
lemorH559 →5305 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Ezekiel

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament.
