Ezekiel 21: 1-7 The LORD’s Challenge of Israel

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² Mortal, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries; prophesy against the land of Israel ³ and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the LORD: I am coming against you, and will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked. ⁴ Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north; ⁵ and all flesh shall know that I the LORD have drawn my sword out of its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again. ⁶ Moan therefore, mortal; moan with breaking heart and bitter grief before their eyes. ⁷ And when they say to you, “Why do you moan?” you shall say, “Because of the news that has come. Every heart will melt and all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint and all knees will turn to water. See, it comes and it will be fulfilled,” says the Lord GOD.

At the end of the previous chapter the prophet is told to set his face towards the south (Teman, Darom, and Negev)[1] but then is accused by the people of being a maker of allegories. The previous section and this one belong together. The references to south are made clear when the prophet is instructed to set his face toward Jerusalem, the sanctuaries, and the land of Israel. The previous three different word for south is now decoded as Jerusalem, the sanctuaries and the land of Israel. The forests of the Negev may allegorically refer to the House of the Forest of Lebanon, a part of the royal buildings built by Solomon. (1 Kings 7: 2-5) Yet, now that the allegories are stripped away it is clear that the focus is on the city of Jerusalem, the temple, and the land of Israel itself. The upcoming judgment of the LORD will focus on the city but encompass the entire region.

The figure of God as a divine warrior is a common one in scripture, but now the divine warrior which has protected Israel in the past challenges the people of Israel to a duel. The LORD is coming against them and will draw out the sword, and yet this is not a fight that Israel can win. The image of the LORD drawing his sword was probably expected by the people to be a positive image, an image that the LORD was ready to fight for the people. Ezekiel inverts this image to where God is no longer their protector but their adversary.

The threat to cut off both the righteous and the wicked again illustrates that the prophecies in Ezekiel are not always consistent but are meant to evoke a hearing. At several points Ezekiel has been careful to allow for a distinction between the righteous and the unrighteous before God’s judgment.[2] There is an echo of Abraham’s challenge to the LORD on the LORD’s journey to Sodom, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” (Genesis 18:23) Yet, as in Ezekiel 16: 44-58 it is clear that the LORD views the transgressions of Judah as greater than Sodom. This may just be a shocking rhetorical device to encompass the totality of the people and shake them out of their stupor. Yet, Ezekiel’s prophecy has been less about the expectance of repentance than describing the upcoming horror in a way that people can look back upon his words and see that Ezekiel was a true prophet among them. A sword once it is swung is likely to cause collateral damage and war once unleashed is impossible to restrain where only the wicked are punished. Yet, this sword now taken out to the scabbard will become the central image for the remainder of the chapter.

Ezekiel is called to moan publicly, and this becomes another sign-act to cause people to question what the prophet is doing. The prophet is informed about the coming disaster but has no power to avert the catastrophe. He can look ahead to the time when hearts melt, hands are feeble, and the loss of bowel control causes people to wet themselves.[3] The disaster will physically and psychologically overwhelm the people. The God who has delivered them in the only offers challenge. The sword is drawn, and now Ezekiel will continue to develop this image throughout the chapter.

Ezekiel 21: 8-17 The Song of the Sword

⁸ And the word of the LORD came to me: ⁹ Mortal, prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord; Say: A sword, a sword is sharpened, it is also polished;

¹⁰ it is sharpened for slaughter, honed to flash like lightning! How can we make merry? You have despised the rod, and all discipline.

 ¹¹ The sword is given to be polished, to be grasped in the hand; it is sharpened, the sword is polished, to be placed in the slayer’s hand.

 ¹² Cry and wail, O mortal, for it is against my people; it is against all Israel’s princes; they are thrown to the sword, together with my people. Ah! Strike the thigh!

 ¹³ For consider: What! If you despise the rod, will it not happen? says the Lord GOD.

¹⁴ And you, mortal, prophesy; strike hand to hand. Let the sword fall twice, thrice; it is a sword for killing. A sword for great slaughter — it surrounds them;

 ¹⁵ therefore hearts melt and many stumble. At all their gates I have set the point of the sword. Ah! It is made for flashing, it is polished for slaughter.

 ¹⁶ Attack to the right! Engage to the left! — wherever your edge is directed.

 ¹⁷ I too will strike hand to hand, I will satisfy my fury; I the LORD have spoken.

Although the overall intent of this section is clear, the individual phrases are difficult to translate. Daniel Block suggests that the problems reflect the “heightened emotions of the prophet, who appears mesmerized by the image of the flashing weapon.” (Block, 1997, p. 675) Block’s suggestion is plausible, but it is also plausible that Ezekiel is adapting an existing poem, song, or invocation over a weapon and adapting it to the current image. This deadly sword which is drawn from the divine scabbard becomes a deadly image of destruction for the people and a lament of the prophet.

The repetitive references to the sword being sharpened and polished give the section a lyrical quality and this has led some to speculate that it derives from a sword dance or invocation over a weapon to prepare it for battle. (NIB VI: 1298) Armies both ancient and modern have rituals to prepare mentally for the upcoming battle that involve chants, movement, dance, and the focus on the weapons used in conflict. Psalm 144 is a biblical example of a prayer or song of a warrior preparing for combat as seen in its opening lines:

Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle, my rock and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whom I take refuge, who subdues the peoples under me. Psalm 144: 1-3

Yet, the focus in this image is exclusively on the sword. The wielder of this weapon will be revealed in the coming section, but now the sword itself is sharpened for slaughter and honed to flash like lightning. The princes of Israel are the ones sword is directed against, and they and the people are unable to stand against it. The sword, even without a wielder strikes multiple times and appears at every gate. The gates of the city are where the people can flee for safety but throughout the bible the city gates are also where public business was transacted, and cases brought for judgment. The sword at the gates also precludes the possibility of escape from the surrounded city.

The sword is a metaphor for war, and as we will see in the following section it is the war of Babylon against Judah. The siege of Jerusalem, often prophesied in the first twenty chapters, cuts off the possibility of escape. To echo a line from the Battle Hymn of the Republic, God “has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword,” but the sword is not loosed against the enemies of Judah but upon Judah herself.

I was a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army prior to going to seminary and becoming a pastor. On the wall of my office, I have two swords from my time in the military. One is a ceremonial saber which is light and would not endure in a fight, but the other is a replica 1860 cavalry saber known sometimes called a wrist breaker because of its weight. This saber comes from a different era and is different technology than swords in the ancient world (which are shorter and thicker). Swords are shaped for the type of combat they will be used in. A saber is used on horseback for swinging downward, a rapier is a thrusting weapon, etc. Swords are not the primary implement used in slaughter[4] because both their value in the culture (they are costly to make and own) and the fact that they dull quickly. Ancient swords had to be heavy to be effective in combat, and they didn’t have the focused weight of an axe.[5] Yet, swords were the weapon of kings and great warriors and metaphorically they are often used to talk of war and battle.

Ezekiel 21: 18-27 Nebuchadrezzar Wielder of the Sword

¹⁸ The word of the LORD came to me: ¹⁹ Mortal, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them shall issue from the same land. And make a signpost, make it for a fork in the road leading to a city; ²⁰ mark out the road for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites or to Judah and to Jerusalem the fortified. ²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the fork in the two roads, to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the teraphim, he inspects the liver. ²² Into his right hand comes the lot for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to call out for slaughter, for raising the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up ramps, to build siege towers. ²³ But to them it will seem like a false divination; they have sworn solemn oaths; but he brings their guilt to remembrance, bringing about their capture.

²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have brought your guilt to remembrance, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins appear — because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.

 ²⁵ As for you, vile, wicked prince of Israel, you whose day has come, the time of final punishment,

 ²⁶ thus says the Lord GOD: Remove the turban, take off the crown; things shall not remain as they are. Exalt that which is low, abase that which is high.

 ²⁷ A ruin, a ruin, a ruin — I will make it! (Such has never occurred.) Until he comes whose right it is; to him I will give it.

The wielder of this divine sword is now revealed as the king of Babylon, Nebuchadrezzar II. The imagery fits the geopolitics of the time leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.  King Zedekiah (referred to as prince throughout Ezekiel) along with Tyre, Ammon, Edom and Moab rebelled against the Babylonians in 587 BCE and Babylon responds by placing Jerusalem under siege. This image envisions the king of Babylon at a crossroads with his servants divining the path they are to take in the battle ahead, do they take the eastern road heading to Ammon and a western road going to Jerusalem. Three divinations are conducted, the first using belomancy or rhabdomancy which draws inscribed arrows like a lot, the second consulting the household gods (teraphim), and the third being hepatoscopy which involves examining the irregularities of the liver of a sacrificed animal. Hepatoscopy is well attested in the historical record, but less is known about the other two practices. (Block, 1997, pp. 686-687)  The three divinations all reveal the western road to Jerusalem, even though the king and his servants suspect it is a false divination since Zedekiah had previously sworn allegiance to the king of Babylon. Yet, this foreign leader using divination, practices forbidden among the Jewish people, is shown the will of the LORD through these practices and comes in force to Jerusalem.

Geographically the image fits Damascus as the crossroads, and once the armies of Babylon are in motion there is no choice for the Judeans except to retreat behind the walls of Jerusalem. Battles in the ancient world between equal armies could take place along the roads and away from cities, but in an unequal fight the only hope for the smaller force was to utilize the strategic advantages of a walled city and force the larger force into a costly and timely siege. That is what Nebuchadrezzar does with Jerusalem and the siege becomes a traumatic event for the people trapped in the city. King Zedekiah (here the vile prince of Israel) will be forced to remove the marks of his reign because things will not remain as they are.

The LORD is turning the world of the Judeans upside down. The word translated in the NRSV as ruin (‘awwa) is rendered by Daniel Block as topsy-turvy. (Block, 1997, p. 691) This triple repetition of topsy-turvy in combination with the low being made exalted and the high being abased is God’s action of inverting the order among Jerusalem. The God who had been the divine warrior protecting Israel has now become the adversary of the people. The sword of the LORD has been placed in the hands of the king of Babylon. The city, the Davidic line of kings, the temple, the land, and the alliances formed to resist the Babylonians will all fail. Ezekiel’s visions, which will prove to be accurate, undermine the foundations upon which people had built their lives. It is a topsy-turvy world that will remake the people. Yet, there is a future under one whose right it is to rule.

Ezekiel 21: 28-32 The Future Judgment of Ammon

 ²⁸ As for you, mortal, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; say: A sword, a sword! Drawn for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning.

 ²⁹ Offering false visions for you, divining lies for you, they place you over the necks of the vile, wicked ones — those whose day has come, the time of final punishment.

 ³⁰ Return it to its sheath! In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.

 ³¹ I will pour out my indignation upon you, with the fire of my wrath I will blow upon you. I will deliver you into brutish hands, those skillful to destroy.

 ³² You shall be fuel for the fire, your blood shall enter the earth; you shall be remembered no more, for I the LORD have spoken.

Ezekiel has an entire section of the book devoted to the proclamations against the nations surrounding Judea which begins with the proclamation against Ammon in chapter twenty-five. Because of this section of oracles against the nations later in the book some have believed this continuation of the sword imagery against Ammon to be out of place, but a Tova Ganzel reminds us, “Jerusalem preceded Ammon, it did not replace it.” (Ganzel, 2020, p. 162) The initial divination by Babylon to take the western road to Jerusalem does not mean that they will not also punish the actions of the Ammonite leaders to align themselves with Jerusalem against the Babylonians. The LORD is not only the God of Israel but is also the God of all the nations and his actions through the Babylonians judge also the Ammonites here. The sword will only return to its scabbard when its actions are completed.

[1] These are the three Hebrew words in 20:46. In the NRSV they are rendered south, south, and Negev, in the NIV they are all translated as south.

[2] Ezekiel 9:4-6, 14:12-20, 18

[3] This is the meaning of all knees will turn to water. See note on Ezekiel 7:17.

[4] The Hebrew word tabah translated slaughter in verse 10 often means the slaughter of domestic animals but can also refer to a massacre.

[5] Which is why axes and later the guillotines were used for executions. Swords dull quickly when they are used to cut through flesh and bone.