Search Tools

And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,

And say to the land 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 from thee the righteous and the wicked.

Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:

That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.

Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.

Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished:

It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.

And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer.

Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.

Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord GOD.

Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands ° together, and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.

I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.

Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.

I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it.

The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,

Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.

Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.

For the king of Babylon stood 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.

At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.

And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.

Therefore thus saith the Lord 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.

And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high.

I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.

And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:

Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.

Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.

And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.

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.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

Ezekiel 21:3

21:3 draw forth my sword. The symbol of God’s unsheathed sword exercising judgment against His people is repeatedly emphasized in this chapter (Ezekiel 21:3,4,5,9,11,14,15,19,20,28,30, etc.). God’s symbolic sword is exercised physically as “the sword of the king of Babylon” (Ezekiel 21:19).

Ezekiel 21:21

21:21 divination. Those who do not have the guidance of God through His Word or by His Spirit may seek various magical devices to help them “divine” which way to go. The Babylonians apparently divined by arrows (like drawing straws), by consulting the spirits indwelling their images, or by the shape of the livers of slain animals. But such devices easily become “false divination” (Ezekiel 21:23), if their imagined results are contrary to God’s will.

Ezekiel 21:25

21:25 wicked prince. The reference is to King Zedekiah, who rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar after the latter had appointed him as nominal king of Israel.

Ezekiel 21:27

21:27 whose right it is. The right to Judah’s crown (Ezekiel 21:26) was taken away from the line of rebellious princes of Israel (Ezekiel 21:25) by the Lord, using the king of Babylon, and will be withheld until the Messiah comes, for He alone has the true right to the throne. See Jeremiah 22:28-30 and 33:15-17.

Ezekiel 21:28

21:28 concerning the Ammonites. The Ammonites (note also Ezekiel 21:20) had collaborated with Zedekiah in rebelling against the Babylonians, and were thus under the same judgment.

About the New Defender's Study Bible

More God's Design Is an Engineering Wonder

Butterfly Learning and Memory

Insects, such as the winged insects in the order Lepidoptera, continue to reveal incredible abilities with some facets that zoologists thought were...

BY: FRANK SHERWIN, D.SC. (HON.)

Giraffe Neck Evolution?

“How the giraffe's long neck evolved has long been an evolutionary mystery” said a recent article.¹ For many decades it was...

BY: FRANK SHERWIN, D.SC. (HON.)

Honeybees: How Sweet It Is, Again

After some scary population downturns and scarier rumors of bee populations crashing, honeybees are making a comeback, populationally speaking.^1,2...

BY: JAMES J. S. JOHNSON, J.D., TH.D.

More Only God Could Have Made Cells

Purposeful Genetic Changes Challenge Evolutionary Theory

Increasing numbers of evolutionists question the validity of their own theory of evolution everyone is taught in school. A recent challenge came from...

BY: RANDY J. GULIUZZA, P.E., M.D.

Hacked Genome Damages Cell, Declares Creator's Genius

Researchers have just reported a newly recoded bacterial genome in which genetic optimization was markedly reduced.¹ Optimization is a principle...

BY: JEFFREY P. TOMKINS, PH.D.

Could Space Dust Help Spark Life?

Physicists in California and Hawaii found evidence that solar wind performs curious chemistry on space dust to produce water, and they suggested that...

BY: BRIAN THOMAS, PH.D.

More Creation Science Update

Nature's Drummer

The sweet melody of songbirds fills the air as the forest wakes up. But there is another familiar voice that joins in the morning songs: woodpecker....

BY: STAFF WRITER

Bumblebee University

Entomologists, biologists who study insects, continue to uncover amazing discoveries regarding the intellect of bees^1,2 Now, biologists...

BY: FRANK SHERWIN, D.SC. (HON.)

Sauron Inhabits the Amazon

“The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on...

BY: STAFF WRITER

Search Tools

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

ICR Menu