Ezekiel 21

— he looked in the liver.] The practice of predicting the future by inspecting the fibres of the liver in an animal recently killed, was very common in antiquity. Grotius conjectures, that the Chaldeans communicated this superstitious custom to the Lydians, the Lydians to the Tuscans, and the Tuscans to the people of Italy. Cabinet.

— the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach;] They insulted over their brethren the Jews, for which they are often reproved very severely by the Prophets, and threatened with like judgments. See chap xxv. 2-6, Zeph. ii. 8. 10. W. Lowth.

Ezekiel 21:3

3. — the righteous and the wicked.] A plain reference to the green tree and the dry, chap. xx. 47. I will sweep every man in the common destruction; the righteous will I remove to their advantage and glory; the wicked to their confusion. Bp. Hall.

4. — that her time may come,] See chap. vii. 7. Her time of punishment and vengeance. Abp. Newcome.

Ezekiel 21:5

5. — it shall not return any more.] Into its sheath; as the sense is more fully expressed, ver. 30; till it has executed my commands. W. Lowth. The word of the king of Babylon is meant, the instrument of God’s vengeance. Colnet.

Ezekiel 21:6

6. Sigh therefore,—with the breaking of thy loins;] Sigh so deeply and so strongly as to break thy girdle from thy loins, and by this sighing intimate unto them that great sorrow which is coming unto them. Bp. Hall. See Jer. xxii. 9; Dan. vii. 28.

Ezekiel 21:10

10. — it contemeth the rod of my son, as every tree.] It makes no distinction between the sceptre and common wood; between the branches of the royal family, whom I honoured with the title of my sons, (Ps. lxxxix. 26.) and the meanest of the people. W. Lowth.

Ezekiel 21:11

11. — of the slayer.] Of the king of Babylon. W. Lowth.

Ezekiel 21:12

12. — smite therefore upon thy thigh.] An action expressive of grief; compare chap. vi. 11; Jer. xxxi. 19; where see the note.

Ezekiel 21:13

13. Because it is a trial.] A calamity. W. Lowth. The sense may be, “for the firmness of the sword has been proved; and what if it destroy not only the common branches, but even the rod of the sceptre?” Abp. Newcome.

— it shall be no more.] The diadem and throne

Ezekiel 21:14

14. — smite thine hands together.] A sign of grief, chap. vi. 11; of rage, Numb. xxiv. 10; of astonishment, chap. xxii. 13. But many think it here a gesture of encouragement to the victorious Chaldeans. Abp. Newcome.

— and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: The expression may mean no more than if the Prophet had said, “Let the stroke be repeated twice and thrice,” that is, “oftentimes.” So that phrase is used, Job xxxiii. 29, “All these things worketh God twice and thrice with man,” where our translation very fully expresses the sense “oftentimes.” A form of speech, much like those elsewhere used; “For three transgressions, and for four,” Amos i. 3. “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight,” Eccles. xi. 2. W. Lowth.

“The sword of the slain” in this verse should probably be rendered “the sword of the soldiers,” that is, of the Babylonians; and “the sword of the great men that are slain” should be “the sword of the great soldier,” that is, of the warlike king of Babylon, for thus it is expressly called in the 19th verse, “the sword of the king of Babylon.” Dr. Kennicatt.

— into their privy chambers. Whither they went to hide themselves; see 1 Kings xxii. 25. W. Lowth.

Ezekiel 21:15

15. — wrapped up] In the scabbard, but sharpened and ready for slaughter. Colnet.

Ezekiel 21:16

16. Go thee—either on the right hand, or on the left.] The words are addressed to the sword, which is directed

A sword drawn against Israel, Before CHRIST 593. thyself, take the left hand. on the right hand, † or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.

Ezekiel 21:19

19. — appoint thee two ways.] “Describe or paint two roads diverging from one.” God foreshews his Prophet, that the king of Babylon, coming with his army into Syria, and finding that the Ammonites had entered into a confederacy with Egypt as well as Zedekiah, was in doubt against which of the two people he should first make war; and committed the decision of this matter to his arts of divination, described ver. 21. W. Lowth.

Ezekiel 21:20

20. — to Rabbath] Or, Rabbah, chap. xxv. 5; the chief city of the Ammonites, 2 Sam. xii. 26; Jer. xlix. 2. 21. For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, — to use divination: he made his arrows bright.] This way of divining by arrows is thus described by St. Jerome, in his commentary upon this place: “They wrote on several arrows the names of the cities they intended to assault, and then putting them all together promiscuously in a quiver, they drew them out thence as lots are drawn; and that city whose name was written on the arrow first drawn, was the city they first made war upon.” W. Lowth. — he made his arrows bright.] Or rather, he mingled his arrows; which sense of the word agrees better with the description of this kind of divination given by St. Jerome. It is preferred by Dr. Pocock, who confirms this exposition from the Arabick use of the word, and also by Houbigant. W. Lowth, Abp. Newcome. Abp. Potter notices the practice among the Greeks, in which divination was made by arrows shaken together in a quiver. The method of divination practised by the idolatrous Arabs, but forbidden by the Koran, is too singular to be unnoticed. “Seven divining arrows were kept at the temple of Mecca; but generally in divination, the idolatrous Arabs made use of three only; on one was written ‘My lord hath commanded me,’ on another, ‘My lord hath forbidden me,’ and the third was blank. If the first was drawn, they looked upon it as an approbation of the enterprise in question; if the second, they made a contrary conclusion; but if the third happened to be drawn, they mixed them and drew over again, till a decisive answer was given by one of the others.” Abp. Newcome. — he consulted with images.] In Hebrew “teraphim,” which signifies all sorts of idols, principally of at the † parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his || arrows bright, he consulted with † images, he looked in the liver.

Ezekiel 21:22

22. At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem.] His divinations shew that he was to go to the right hand; that is, towards Jerusalem. Dathius. Supposing the face towards the east, the southern branch of the two roads, which was towards the right hand, led towards Jerusalem; for this city lay to the south of Rabbah. You must represent Nebuchadnezzar as coming from Dan, and marching along the Jordan. Here Rabbah was situated at the left hand, and Jerusalem at the right. Abp. Newcome, Michaelis. In coming from beyond the Euphrates into Syria and Phenicia, they commonly took their journey through Damascus. They passed the Euphrates at Thapsacus; entered into Palestine by the plain of Libanus, under mount Hermon, and crossed the Jordan above the lake Semochonites. They did not come directly from Babylon through Arabia Deserta, the shortest route, on account of the sterility of the country. Cabinet. Though the manner, which the king of Babylon chose to determine him what course to take, was such, yet God was pleased so to direct it, that he turned first against Jerusalem. God governs all things by his providence: He ever presides over such events as we imagine to depend upon mere chance; and, generally speaking, over the actions of men: so that men, without knowing it, become the instruments of executing what He has resolved to do or permit. Ostercald. — to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter.] Whose office it was to encourage the army to fall upon the enemy and destroy them. W. Lowth.

Ezekiel 21:23

23. And it shall be unto them as a false divination] But this process shall be unto the Jews, when some of their friends behold it, and report it at Jerusalem, as a deceitful lot, such as the event would not verify; it shall even appear so to the Jews, who had sworn false oaths to the Chaldeans, (2 Chron. xxxvi. 13,) and ought therefore to have expected the Divine vengeance. But he (Nebuchadnezzar) is mindful of their perjury, and Before CHRIST 593. of the way. Or, katzes. teraphim. battering rams. oaths made unto them. and against the kingdom. The destruction of the Ammonites. Before CHRIST 593.

God; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.

Ezekiel 21:25

25. And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel,] The words are addressed to king Zedekiah, whom the Prophet calls “profane” and “wicked,” chiefly with respect to his breaking that solemn oath uttered in the name of God, whereby he had engaged himself to be tributary to the king of Babylon, chap. xvii. 19. W. Lowth.

Ezekiel 21:26

26. — exalt him that is low, and abuse him that is high.] As Zedekiah shall be brought down from his kingly dignity, so another branch of that family, namely Christ, (see ver. 27.) shall be advanced from an obscure original and low condition, to the supreme degree of sovereignty. W. Lowth.

Ezekiel 21:27

27. I will overturn,—it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.] This is a threat, that the kingdom should never recover its former glory and strength, but consume, till the sceptre should be quite taken away from Judah, and may be made for the Messiah, who is He that was to come, whose was the dominion, and to whom the Father would give it: so that the final desolation of the temporal kingdom of the seed of David is here threatened, and the eternal kingdom of the Messiah is promised. The triple use of the word “overturn,” expresses the certainty of the event. Poole.

Ezekiel 21:28

28. And thou, son of man, &c.] In ver. 19, 20, Rabbath, the chief city of the Ammonites, was mentioned, as being in equal danger with Jerusalem. God here directs the Prophet to resume the subject of Rabbath, and to declare the ruin of it. Poole.

Ezekiel 21:29

29. Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie &c.] While thy wizards feed thee with false predictions to stir thee up against those already miserable and distressed Israelites, against those wicked revolters from me, whose judgment is now to be fully accomplished. Bp. Hall.

— to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain,] To add thee to the number of those who are slain in Judea, and make thy condition like theirs. W. Lowth, Calmet.

Ezekiel 21:30

30. — in the land of thy nativity.] The Ammonites were destroyed in their own country. The Jewish nation was sent into captivity. W. Lowth, Abp. Newcome.

Ezekiel 21:31

31. — blow against thee] To melt thee, as it were, in the furnace. See chap. xxii. 20, 21. Abp. Newcome.

Ezekiel 21:32

32. — thou shalt be no more remembered:] See chap. xxv. 10. The Jewish nation still subsists. The Ammonites are lost in the mass of mankind, and have been long forgotten. Abp. Newcome.

Chap. XXII. ver. 2. — wilt thou judge,] See chap. xx. 4.

— the bloody city?] See chap. xxiii. 37. 45; xxiv. 6. 9; 2 Kings xxi. 16.