Ezekiel 21 - Introduction
_EZEKIEL PROPHESIETH AGAINST JERUSALEM WITH A SIGN OF SIGHING. THE SHARP AND BRIGHT SWORD, AGAINST JERUSALEM, AGAINST THE KINGDOM, AND AGAINST THE AMMONITES._ _Before Christ 592._... [ Continue Reading ]
_EZEKIEL PROPHESIETH AGAINST JERUSALEM WITH A SIGN OF SIGHING. THE SHARP AND BRIGHT SWORD, AGAINST JERUSALEM, AGAINST THE KINGDOM, AND AGAINST THE AMMONITES._ _Before Christ 592._... [ Continue Reading ]
SET THY FACE TOWARD JERUSALEM— As if God had said, "Since they deride thee, and call thee a speaker of parables, use not the parable of the southern forest, but speak plainly of Jerusalem and Israel by name." From this series of the discourse, appears more evidently what we have remarked on the 14th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAY TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL— The prophet addresses Jerusalem and Judaea, his face turned towards them, and speaks to them as if they were present. Instead of, _will cut off from thee,_ Houbigant reads, _will take away_ or _carry off from thee;_ and he reads the fourth verse thus; _Because thou has... [ Continue Reading ]
I—HAVE DRAWN FORTH MY SWORD— The sword of the Lord was Nebuchadrezzar; who, after having executed the Lord's judgments upon his people, lived above twenty years. The meaning is, that this sword should not return any more into the sheath, till it had executed all God's purposes. It should not return... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH THE BREAKING OF THY LOINS— _With trembling or shivering of loins._ The allusion seems to be to the pangs of a woman in child-birth. See Isaiah 21:3.Jeremiah 30:6.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE TIDINGS— _Because tidings shall come, at which every heart,_ &c. _Behold, they draw near, and it shall come to pass,_ &c. Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOULD WE THEN MAKE MIRTH— Houbigant reads, _That it may cast down the sceptre of my son, sparing no wood:_ that is, "The sword of Nebuchadnezzar shall overthrow, the power of the king of Judah, and shall neither pity nor spare." See Ezekiel 21:19, &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE HATH GIVEN IT TO BE FURBISHED— _I have given it to be furbished, that he may handle it. This is that sharpened, that furbished sword, to be delivered into the hand of the slayer._ Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE IT IS A TRIAL— _Because_ [_this sword_] _hath been approved, and the sceptre when it shall not spare it shall be no more, saith the Lord God._ God foretels that the sceptre of Israel shall be no more, after the sword of Nebuchadrezzar had smitten it; as it had happened before, when, Jeconiah... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LET THE SWORD BE DOUBLED— _Make the sword double, make threefold the sword of the slayers: it is the sword, the sword of the great slaughter, which shall turn them into fear._ Houbigant. Kennicott would render the latter part, _The sword of the soldiers,_ [that is to say, of the Babylonians] _Th... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS WRAPPED UP FOR THE SLAUGHTER— _It is sharpened for the slaughter._ Houbigant, and so the Chaldee. God addresses the sword in the next verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
APPOINT THEE TWO WAYS, &C.— _Appoint thee two roads for the king of Babylon's sword to come by: Let both go forth out of one land; and choose thou a way-mark: Choose it at the head of the road towards the city._ Ezekiel 21:20. _Point out a road for the sword to go to Rabbath,_ &c. Instead of _To Jud... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE KING OF BABYLON STOOD, &C.— _For the king of Babylon stands,_ &c.—_He casts lots by, blends_ or _mingles the arrows; he inquires by images, he pours upon_ or _pries into the liver_ or _entrails._ Ezekiel 21:22. _On his right hand is the lot against Jerusalem, to appoint captains to open the... [ Continue Reading ]
IT SHALL BE UNTO THEM AS A FALSE DIVINATION— Houbigant renders this; _But he_ [Nebuchadrezzar] _seems to them_ [the Jews] _as divining vain things, as boasting empty execrations: Nevertheless he shall call to remembrance the impiety_ [the falsehood and infidelity of their king Zedekiah], _that they... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOU, PROFANE WICKED PRINCE— _Thou therefore, pierce that wicked prince of Israel,_ &c. The address is made to the sword to destroy Zedekiah, whom the prophet calls _wicked_ chiefly with respect to the breach of his oath which he had made to Nebuchadrezzar.... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS SHALL NOT BE THE SAME— _This is not the same which it was; that which was humble hath exalted itself; thou, therefore, abase the exalted._ This alludes to ch. Ezekiel 17:14 where it is said, _That the kingdom might be base,_ Zedekiah serving under tribute.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL BE NO MORE— _Nor shall this be the same, until he come,_ &c. "After Zedekiah is deprived of his regal authority, there shall be no more kings of that a family till the coming of the Messiah; the king so often foretold and promised; who in due time shall sit upon the throne of his father... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD CONCERNING THE AMMONITES— Concerning the insults and reproaches which they delivered against the Jews in the time of their oppression and disgrace, compare ch. Ezekiel 25:6 and Zephaniah 2:8. This prophesy against the Ammonites was fulfilled about five years after the taking... [ Continue Reading ]
OF THEM THAT ARE SLAIN, &C.— _Of the wicked who were wounded, whose day,_ &c. Houbigant. See the note on Ezekiel 21:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HAND OF BRUTISH MEN— _The hand of men skilful to kindle a flame, and to bring destruction._ Houbigant. Instead of _brutish men,_ the LXX read _barbarians;_ meaning the Medes and Persians, the successors of Nebuchadrezzar. REFLECTIONS.—1st, That the people might be left without excuse, we have h... [ Continue Reading ]