Category Archives: Biblical Reflections

Military Actions as an Economic Decision in the Ancient World

Battle between Cimmerian cavalry, their war dogs, and Greek hoplites, depicted on a Pontic plate

Military Actions as an Economic Decision in the Ancient World

War is expensive. It has always been costly to raise and equip an army, supply them during their movements and sieges. War also has a high price on the productivity of the land involved. Fields may be burned or lay dormant. Farmers are removed from the fields to serve in the army. Timber and earth are removed to build siege engines and siege works. Soldiers also require pay for their time and services. Unfortunately, war often exacts a high price from those who are innocent bystanders. Property is destroyed, families are shattered, women may become victims of rape, and in ancient times one of the primary places where slaves are taken is as a prize of conquest.

In the ancient world war was both expensive to persecute and a profitable enterprise. The primary basis of wealth in the ancient world was land, and when an empire could expand the land that it occupied it could increase the wealth it acquired from that land. One option that territories could take when an army approached was to become a vassal territory, paying tribute to the empire or king to give itself the guarantee of peace. If a territory resisted then the sack of a city would bring out both the wealth of the city in gold, silver, and other precious items (often stored in temples or noble dwelling places) but also the stored agricultural products. As mentioned above the slave trade was also a part of the economic system in the ancient world, and cities like Tyre were places where slaves were sold. Certain cities, like Jerusalem or Tyre and Sidon, would give access to frequently used land or maritime trade routes which were also sources of wealth.

Although pride and egos certainly played a part in conflict in the ancient world, so did economics. The Babylonians in their siege of Tyre, which is reported to have lasted thirteen years, would have expended an excessive amount of capital and yet failed to capture the city. It is plausible that the city agreed to become a vassal of Babylon, giving access to its ports as well as tribute but it is also plausible that this was ultimately a loss of resources for Babylon. It would be in Tyre’s interest to end the siege, even if the city was in no imminent danger of falling, to have access to both overland trading routes and renewed access to their ‘daughter cities’ which provided the food and water for the city. Tyre could import food and water, perhaps from Egypt, but this would be at a much higher cost.

For most of history war was looked on as an economic decision. An empire, like Assyria or Babylon, constantly searched for more resources and revenue but also had to balance that with maintaining control over their territory they already controlled. There were always forces both external and internal who looked for weakness and attempted to weaken the hold of these large empires on their vassals. The actions of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Samaria, Tyre, or even Jerusalem in this time often have economic considerations.

Egypt’s Role in the Geopolitics of Israel/Judah During the Time of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

2 Replies

The Roman Kiosk of Trajan (left) on Agilkia island in the Nile River, near Aswān, Egypt

Egypt’s Role in the Geopolitics of Israel/Judah During the Time of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

Egypt’s connection with the story of Israel goes back to its beginning and is complex. At times the Egyptians have been allies and trading partners and at other times they are antagonists. Egypt was one of the first regional powers to emerge in history, and they would remain independent until they are brought under the Persian Empire in the sixth century BCE (roughly forty years after the siege of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile). Egypt had been a military and economic power for thousands of years at the emergence of the Assyrian and later Babylonian powers to the north and had exercised both political and commercial influence over the region throughout this time.

One of the ways Egypt continued to exercise influence was by encouraging the rulers throughout the region to resist both Assyrian and Babylonian rule. Egypt was often sought for support or protection once these ruling powers were provoked, aid that sometimes materialized and often did not. For example, 2 Kings records Samaria (Northern Israel) attempting to resist Assyria in 724 BCE:

King Shalmaneser of Assyria came up against him; Hoshea (king of Samaria) became his vassal. But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to King So of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria as he had done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria confined him and imprisoned him. Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and come to Samaria; for three years he besieged it. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria; he carried the Israelites away into Assyria. 2 Kings 17: 3-6a

Here Egypt is either unable or unwilling to march into Samaria to defend them from the Assyrians. This results in the collapse of Northern Israel (Samaria). Later Assyria would march against the Philistine city of Ekron who also appeals to Egypt for aid. In 701 BCE Egypt does march to the aid of Ekron but its forces are defeated and captured. (NIB VI: 1402) Assyria then turns towards Judah and when Rabshakeh, the commander of the Assyrian forces comes before the walls of Jerusalem he taunts the people:

The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah. Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: on what do you base this confidence of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? See, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharoah king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 1 Kings 18:19-21, Isaiah 36:4-6

Rabshakeh’s siege does not capture Jerusalem when he abruptly turns away to another fight, biblical tradition indicates it is an internal conflict among Assyrian forces, and the threat is resolved.

Eventually Assyria and Egypt would change from opponents into allies at the emergence of the Babylonian empire. This becomes important for Judah’s history for several interconnected reasons. Judah under Josiah was undergoing a time of renewal according to the bible and there was even a hope for Judah to now once again rule over the lands of both Judah and what had formerly been Samaria. A part of this optimism was the alliance with Babylon. In 609 BCE when Pharoah Necho marches his army north to aid Assyria, King Josiah marches the army of Judah out to resist him. Judah’s army is conquered, King Josiah is killed, and Judah comes under Egyptian power with Pharoah Necho appointing Eliakim to rule in Jerusalem as a vassal. In 605 BCE Egyptian forces were defeated by Babylon at the Battle of Carchemish and pursued back to the Egyptian border. Even after Babylon asserted control over Judah and the surrounding region, Egypt continued to attempt to provoke Judah and other regional vassal states to resist Babylon.

When Babylon does react to Jerusalem withholding tribute by besieging the city, Egypt does march to their aid which causes Babylonian forces to briefly lift the siege of Jerusalem to deal with the Egyptian incursion. (Jeremiah 37:5-10) Yet the Egyptian forces quickly return to Egypt and Babylon resumes its siege. Egypt has once again proven to be an unreliable support for Jerusalem in its problems. This history of provocative behavior and unreliability likely informs Ezekiel’s words against Egypt.

Ezekiel 28 Against the Rulers of Tyre, Sidon and a Renewed Hope for Israel

5 Replies

Tyre, Lebanon – rectangular theatre at Al Mina excavation area By Heretiq – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=555942

Ezekiel 28: 1-10 Against the “Prince” of Tyre

¹The word of the LORD came to me: ²Mortal, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD:
Because your heart is proud
and you have said, “I am a god;
I sit in the seat of the gods,
in the heart of the seas,”
yet you are but a mortal, and no god,
though you compare your mind
with the mind of a god.
³You are indeed wiser than Daniel;
no secret is hidden from you;
⁴by your wisdom and your understanding
you have amassed wealth for yourself,
and have gathered gold and silver
into your treasuries.
⁵By your great wisdom in trade
you have increased your wealth,
and your heart has become proud in your wealth.
⁶Therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
Because you compare your mind
with the mind of a god,
⁷therefore, I will bring strangers against you,
the most terrible of the nations;
they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom
and defile your splendor.
⁸They shall thrust you down to the Pit,
and you shall die a violent death
in the heart of the seas.
⁹Will you still say, “I am a god,”
in the presence of those who kill you,
though you are but a mortal, and no god,
in the hands of those who wound you?
¹⁰You shall die the death of the uncircumcised
by the hand of foreigners;
for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.

This continuation of the oracles against Tyre, now focusing on the ‘prince’ and ‘king’ of Tyre highlight the reality that there is much we do not understand about either the worldview of the prophet Ezekiel and, assuming his audience in the exile understood his words, the worldview of the people of Judah at the time of the exile. It is clear from working through scripture that there are myths and stories that inform the text that we no longer possess that we get a hint of at various points. This pair of oracles against the ‘leaders’ of Tyre give us some interesting hints and I will do my best to make educated guesses of how to interpret these sections, but at certain points there are merely educated guesses. As Daniel Block states:

Chapter 28 is at the same time one of Ezekiel’s most intriguing artistic creations and one of the most difficult texts in the entire book. The problems, many of which defy satisfactory scholarly solution, include the identification of the limits of the unit, the relationship between vv. 1-10 and 11-19, the relationship between the oracles concerning the king of Tyre and the foregoing messages about the city, numerous textual difficulties, perplexing hapax legomena[1] and phrases, the sources of the prophet’s ideological notions, the relationship between this text and biblical traditions (esp. the narratives of Gen. 1-3, as well as the Priestly material in Exod. 28, and the wisdom writings), the message the prophet is attempting to convey to his own people. (Block, 1998, p. 87)

Structurally verses 1-10 and 11-19 are two separate oracles and the marker of “the word of the LORD came to me” indicates the separation in these related oracles. Both have a story that they are likely pulling on which give a fuller meaning to the text that we as modern readers can only attempt to reconstruct. The overall meaning of the texts is clear without fully grasping the backstory as these leaders of Tyre who are given great wisdom and abilities become foolish in their heart[2] leading to their destruction. This leader of Tyre is like Solomon, given great wisdom and turns that wisdom to trade-yet in their prosperity they begin to believe they are more than what they are created to be.

Verses 1-10 address the “prince” of Tyre. Previously Ezekiel referred to King Zedekiah of Jerusalem as ‘prince’ rather than ‘king’ and a similar usage is probably occurring here. This also provides a contrast to the following oracle where the “king” of Tyre is addressed. This proud hearted ‘prince’ whose throne is in the heart of the seas has the audacity to claim they are on par with a god. They compare their heart with the heart of a god.[3] They have been prosperous, and their heart has become proud in their wealth, and again they compare their heart to the heart of a god. Their arrogance leads to their death in the heart of the seas.

This prince is as wise as Daniel. Many scholars believe this cannot refer to the biblical Daniel since the book of Daniel most likely comes from a period much later than Ezekiel.[4] These scholars believe there must be some other Dan’el who is a figure known for his wisdom in the stories of the region (see the discussion on Ezekiel 14:12-23), yet the Book of Daniel relates the story of a younger contemporary of Ezekiel in the exile who by his wisdom ascends to a position of authority in Nebuchadrezzar’s court. I find it plausible that the stories of Daniel are known to his fellow exiles and become a point of hope for the people attempting to navigate the exile. These stories of hope probably continued to be told and would be formalized into the book of Daniel later.

This prince of Tyre who is an equal in wisdom to Daniel and perhaps even Solomon turns his wisdom to acquisition. King Solomon’s story forms an interesting parallel to this prince of Tyre. Both are stories of men given wisdom and wealth and both are viewed, by the scriptures, as failed leaders.[5] Solomon followed the ways of King Hiram of Tyre, the Pharoah of Egypt, and the Queen of Sheba in the end rather than the ways of the LORD the God of Israel and this ultimately led to the fracture of Israel in the next generation. Great wisdom in trade has filled the treasuries of the prince of Tyre but it has deceived his heart into believing that he has the heart of a god when he is merely a mortal and no god.

Marvin Pope theorizes that behind these two oracles lies the Ugaritic myths of the older god El being banished from the Mount Zaphon by the storm god Ba’al to dwell in the heart of the rivers. (NIB VI: 1387) Although this is possible, the Canaanite religions seem to be an ever-present alternative throughout the narrative of scripture and one that the people seem acquainted with. It is also likely that Tyre’s location in the ‘heart of the sea’ is merely referring to the city being an island. Ezekiel highlighted this in the previous chapter with his ship metaphor. Particularly for this first oracle the mythic background is not as necessary. This heart proud ‘prince’ who rules Tyre looks upon his prosperity and security and compares his wisdom, which is great by worldly standards, with the divine proving his foolishness. The consequence of his foolishness in the oracle is that he will “die the death of the slain” (NRSV die a violent death) and “die the death of the uncircumcised.” The residents of Tyre, like the people of Judah, practiced circumcision so this final taunt probably resonates something like Greenberg’s paraphrase. “You will die like a dog.” (NIB VI: 1389)

Ezekiel 28: 11-19 Against the “King” of Tyre

¹¹Moreover the word of the LORD came to me: ¹²Mortal, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD:
You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
¹³You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering,
carnelian, chrysolite, and moonstone,
beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, turquoise, and emerald;
and worked in gold were your settings
and your engravings.
On the day that you were created
they were prepared.
¹⁴With an anointed cherub as guardian I placed you;
you were on the holy mountain of God;
you walked among the stones of fire.
¹⁵You were blameless in your ways
from the day that you were created,
until iniquity was found in you.
¹⁶In the abundance of your trade
you were filled with violence, and you sinned;
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and the guardian cherub drove you out
from among the stones of fire.
¹⁷Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
I exposed you before kings,
to feast their eyes on you.
¹⁸By the multitude of your iniquities,
in the unrighteousness of your trade,
you profaned your sanctuaries.
So I brought out fire from within you;
it consumed you,
and I turned you to ashes on the earth
in the sight of all who saw you.
¹⁹All who know you among the peoples
are appalled at you;
you have come to a dreadful end
and shall be no more forever.

It is possible that there are mythic elements in the first oracle of the chapter, but in this second oracle for the king of Tyre they are undeniable. This chapter is a good example of the “openness, playfulness, and oddness” of the Jewish nature of the Hebrew Scriptures that Walter Brueggemann mentions in his Theology of the Old Testament. (Brueggemann, 1997, p. 111) This lamentation over the ‘king’ of Tyre which places this king in Eden and grants him the title of being an anointed cherub not only takes us back to the theophany scenes of Ezekiel 1 and 10 with the cherubim but into the stories of creation in Genesis 1-3. Yet, the presence of the ‘king’ of Tyre in this story may be playful, open, or odd to us modern readers but to Ezekiel it fit within his understanding of the world in which the LORD ruled over all creatures and the world of the divine is closer than our disenchanted world allows.

This lamentation is for the king (melek) rather than the prince of Tyre and the change in terminology is intentional. Either the king of Tyre is being looked on as a mythical figure, much like the Pharoah of Egypt was considered to either divine or connected to the gods of Egypt, or we are addressing the power behind the king of Tyre. In the ancient worlds the kings were often viewed as receiving their authority from the gods of their region and Melqart, the god of Tyre, whose name means “king of the city” may be in view here. The god of a region is sometimes addressed as representing the region itself, and although some scholars are resistant to this type of interpretation this is not uncommon in the bible where the God of Israel is portrayed as dominant over the gods of other cities or nations. If it is a god who is being addressed here, then their presence as a creation of the LORD in the garden of Eden and on the mountain of God makes more sense. This would resonate with the picture of the God of Israel taking his place at the head and judging the ‘gods’ at the divine council in Psalm 82.

Much as the prince of Tyre was wiser than Daniel, now the king of Tyre is the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. The indication of the king of Tyre as a signet of the LORD indicates that they are one who is a representative of God’s power on the earth. The precious stones listed are nine of the twelve stones listed for the breastplate of the high priest of Israel, and they may be worn as jewelry or a breastplate or in the creation of this ‘king’ they may be placed within him like in a sculpture. Ezekiel’s previous description of cherubim, particularly in Ezekiel 1, make them seem like living statues rather than normal fleshly creatures. Yet, Ezekiel insists that this ‘king’ and ‘cherub’ is a created being- a specially created being but a created being nonetheless. This anointed cherub occupies a position of privilege and power both in the garden of Eden and on the mountain of God walking among the stones of fire.[6]

Yet, like the prince in the previous oracle, this privilege and power end when iniquity is found in this king/cherub. Like humanity in the time of Noah, this king is ‘filled with violence’ and they sin. As a result they are cast out of the mountain of God to the ground and driven out by ‘guardian cherubs.’ This ‘cherub’s’ heart was proud, and their wisdom was corrupted. Their wisdom, as above, is turned to acquisition, their worship is turned towards wealth, and now the fire comes from within to consume this cherub.[7] This one who was once the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty is now an appalling sight who comes to a dreadful end.

For many conservative Christians this lament for the king of Tyre has become something much different. Since the time of Origin (185-253) some Christians have equated the king of Tyre and Lucifer, and this lament becomes the tragic story of Lucifer’s fall. This interpretation comes out in Milton’s Paradise Lost and is influential. It is also not what Ezekiel was intending. Even with the mythic elements this is a part of Ezekiel’s collection of oracles against the city of Tyre and their leaders. Yet, the imagery in this section is odd portraying either the king of Tyre or the god of Tyre as a character alongside the God of creation in Eden and present with God as a figure of authority. For all its oddness, the primary intention of the lament is clear. It announces the LORD’s judgment against the city of Tyre and either its king or its god.

Ezekiel 28: 20-23 Against Sidon

²⁰The word of the LORD came to me: ²¹Mortal, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it, ²²and say, Thus says the Lord GOD:
I am against you, O Sidon,
and I will gain glory in your midst.
They shall know that I am the LORD
when I execute judgments in it,
and manifest my holiness in it;
²³for I will send pestilence into it,
and bloodshed into its streets;
and the dead shall fall in its midst,
by the sword that is against it on every side.
And they shall know that I am the LORD.

In sharp contrast to the previous oracles, the oracle against Sidon is both short and generic. As Daniel Block states compared to the earlier addresses:

this passage lacks vibrancy and luster…Except for the naming of Sidon as the addressee, the oracle could have been pronounced against any of the nations addressed earlier, as well as many that receive no attention in the book. (Block, 1998, p. 121)

Sidon, often listed together with Tyre, does not have the benefit of being an island nation. Sidon had once been the larger and more powerful of the two cities, but was conquered by Assyria’s King Sennachrib (704-681 BCE). Not much is known about any conflict with Sidon under Babylon, but Sidon’s king does appear as one of the captives at Nebuchadrezzar’s court. The oracle describes a similar fate for Sidon as Jerusalem suffered[8] which is plausible if Nebuchadrezzar’s armies came against it and laid siege to it. It is possible that this oracle against Sidon is included to bring the number of nations addressed to seven, one of the numbers of completeness in Hebrew. Sidon would have been an easier target as a land based port than the challenges of conquering an island stronghold like Tyre.

Ezekiel 28: 24-26 Hope for a Restored Israel

²⁴The house of Israel shall no longer find a pricking brier or a piercing thorn among all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. And they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
²⁵Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall settle on their own soil that I gave to my servant Jacob. ²⁶They shall live in safety in it, and shall build houses and plant vineyards. They shall live in safety, when I execute judgments upon all their neighbors who have treated them with contempt. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God.

The biblical prophets frequently use the judgment of the other nations as a transition between the messages of judgment to Israel and a future hope[9] yet here at the midpoint of the judgment of the nations Ezekiel includes this moment of hope for Israel. This moment of hope acts almost like a hinge between the equal sized judgments on the first six nations and the equivalent space spent on the condemnation of Egypt. Yet, here is a hope for the end of the exile when the people are gathered from among the nations and returned to the land. Building houses and cultivating vineyards is a risky business in a time of conflict where enemies can either possess or burn, yet it also points to the ideal vision of life for the Hebrew people where everyone can rest under their own vine or fig tree. These actions for a time of peace, actions for a hopeful future much like Jeremiah’s purchase of a field was to indicate a future where the people would return to the land.[10] The LORD has not forgotten the people and from the remnant is committed to reestablishing the nation of Israel and living as their God.

[1] A hapax legomena is a word that only occurs once and because of this is difficult to translate with any certainty.

[2] “Heart” is a key word throughout this initial oracle occurring eight times. This is obscured by the NRSV which sometimes renders “heart” as “mind” which although it captures the Hebrew sense that the heart is the seat of will, decision making, and wisdom misses the emphasis in the text.

[3] This is a place where the NRSV changes the word from “heart” to “mind.” I have kept the Hebrew terminology to help give the rhythm of the text.

[4] Daniel is believed to be one of the last books of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible written around the time of the Maccabean revolt (167-141 BCE) around four centuries after the prophet Ezekiel.

[5] See my comments on the foolishness of Solomon in 1 Kings 11: 1-13

[6] The stones of fire may relate to the fire in the middle of the cherubim in both Ezekiel 1 and 10. It is very different than the image in Exodus 24 where the elders of Israel see God and the floors are a pavement of sapphire stones.

[7] Perhaps again a reference to the image in Ezekiel 1 and 10.

[8] For example, Ezekiel 5.

[9] See comments at the beginning of Ezekiel 25.

[10] Jeremiah 32: 1-15.

Ezekiel 27 A Satirical Lament for Tyre

5 Replies

Tyre, Lebanon – columns of what is believed to be palaestra (athletes’ training area) at the Al Mina excavation area By Heretiq – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=555876

Ezekiel 27

¹The word of the LORD came to me: ²Now you, mortal, raise a lamentation over Tyre, ³and say to Tyre, which sits at the entrance to the sea, merchant of the peoples on many coastlands, Thus says the Lord GOD:
O Tyre, you have said,
“I am perfect in beauty.”
⁴Your borders are in the heart of the seas;
your builders made perfect your beauty.
⁵They made all your planks
of fir trees from Senir;
they took a cedar from Lebanon
to make a mast for you.
⁶From oaks of Bashan
they made your oars;
they made your deck of pines
from the coasts of Cyprus,
inlaid with ivory.
⁷Of fine embroidered linen from Egypt
was your sail,
serving as your ensign;
blue and purple from the coasts of Elishah
was your awning.
⁸The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad
were your rowers;
skilled men of Zemer were within you,
they were your pilots.
⁹The elders of Gebal and its artisans were within you,
caulking your seams;
all the ships of the sea with their mariners were within you,
to barter for your wares.
¹⁰Paras and Lud and Put
were in your army,
your mighty warriors;
they hung shield and helmet in you;
they gave you splendor.
¹¹Men of Arvad and Helech
were on your walls all around;
men of Gamad were at your towers.
They hung their quivers all around your walls;
they made perfect your beauty.
¹²Tarshish did business with you out of the abundance of your great wealth; silver, iron, tin, and lead they exchanged for your wares. ¹³Javan, Tubal, and Meshech traded with you; they exchanged human beings and vessels of bronze for your merchandise. ¹⁴Beth-togarmah exchanged for your wares horses, war horses, and mules. ¹⁵The Rhodians traded with you; many coastlands were your own special markets; they brought you in payment ivory tusks and ebony. ¹⁶Edom did business with you because of your abundant goods; they exchanged for your wares turquoise, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral, and rubies. ¹⁷Judah and the land of Israel traded with you; they exchanged for your merchandise wheat from Minnith, millet, honey, oil, and balm. ¹⁸Damascus traded with you for your abundant goods — because of your great wealth of every kind — wine of Helbon, and white wool. ¹⁹Vedan and Javan from Uzal entered into trade for your wares; wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane were bartered for your merchandise. ²⁰Dedan traded with you in saddlecloths for riding. ²¹Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your favored dealers in lambs, rams, and goats; in these they did business with you. ²²The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; they exchanged for your wares the best of all kinds of spices, and all precious stones, and gold. ²³Haran, Canneh, Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad traded with you. ²⁴These traded with you in choice garments, in clothes of blue and embroidered work, and in carpets of colored material, bound with cords and made secure; in these they traded with you. ²⁵The ships of Tarshish traveled for you in your trade.
So you were filled and heavily laden
in the heart of the seas.
²⁶Your rowers have brought you
into the high seas.
The east wind has wrecked you
in the heart of the seas.
²⁷Your riches, your wares, your merchandise,
your mariners and your pilots,
your caulkers, your dealers in merchandise,
and all your warriors within you,
with all the company
that is with you,
sink into the heart of the seas
on the day of your ruin.
²⁸At the sound of the cry of your pilots
the countryside shakes,
²⁹and down from their ships
come all that handle the oar.
The mariners and all the pilots of the sea
stand on the shore
³⁰and wail aloud over you,
and cry bitterly.
They throw dust on their heads
and wallow in ashes;
³¹they make themselves bald for you,
and put on sackcloth,
and they weep over you in bitterness of soul,
with bitter mourning.
³²In their wailing they raise a lamentation for you,
and lament over you:
“Who was ever destroyed like Tyre
in the midst of the sea?
³³When your wares came from the seas,
you satisfied many peoples;
with your abundant wealth and merchandise
you enriched the kings of the earth.
³⁴Now you are wrecked by the seas,
in the depths of the waters;
your merchandise and all your crew
have sunk with you.
³⁵All the inhabitants of the coastlands
are appalled at you;
and their kings are horribly afraid,
their faces are convulsed.
³⁶The merchants among the peoples hiss at you;
you have come to a dreadful end
and shall be no more forever.”

This lament or dirge that Ezekiel is commanded to compose has been viewed in several manners. Historians have looked upon the list of goods and locations as a witness to the trade networks of the Tyrians of this time. Like many lists of goods and locations it contains many words rarely used in the Hebrew Bible and scholars have attempted to designate which type of wood or which city or nation is being referenced. Yet, for all the detail in portraying Tyre metaphorically as a trading ship filled with agricultural and luxury goods from across the known world its accumulated wealth and beauty are wrecked in a simple line, the east wind has wrecked you in the heart of the sea. Tyre, wealthy city of traders, is lamented by those who participated in trade with her.

Extracted from its placement in Ezekiel it would be easy to read this passage as a genuine lament from the author’s point of view because Tyre was a city of great resources and was a trading hub for the Mediterranean. Yet, within its placement in Ezekiel it is in the middle of a set of oracles against Tyre it is clear the author’s intent is satirical. Even so, with the detailed list of trade and trading partners, there may be a sense of envy for the wealth of the city. If this is written close to the oracles of the previous chapter, it also would share the bitterness of Tyre still standing after the fall of Jerusalem.

The initial imagery of Tyre as a ship is bracketed by the statements, “I am perfect in beauty” and “they have made perfect your beauty.” Between these two statements is a list of the materials used to construct this metaphorical ship, the crew of the ship and the soldiers who protect this vessel. Without getting into the weeds of types of wood, these are high quality timbers used for purposes appropriate to their strengths. For example, the mast made of a tall cedar tree from Lebanon, oars made of hard wood. The practical use of these fine materials is also combined with luxury when the deck is also inlaid with ivory, the sail which also serves to identify the ship comes from finely embroidered material and the coverings for the deck are made with royal colors. The crew come from Phoenicia: Sidon, Arvad, Gebul (Byblos) all cities along the coast and allies with Tyre. The defense of the ship comes from across the world: soldiers from Paras (Persia?), Lud and Put (Asia Minor and Libya) as well as archers from Arvad, Helech and Gamad.[1]

The poetic metaphor of the beautiful ship is temporarily interrupted by a list of nations and their resources which are filling the ship. Perhaps Ezekiel viewed the ship as in port taking on goods and it is surprising that Ezekiel would have the knowledge of trade that a list like this would require. Yet, Ezekiel has in other places shown an eclectic array of knowledge. Tarshish, Jonah’s hoped destination in Jonah 1:3, is probably a Phoenician port in southern Spain at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.[2]Juvan, Tubal and Meshech are listed as traders in both vessels of bronze but also slave trafficking. Slave trafficking was an accepted part of the commerce of the ancient world and there is no indication that Ezekiel is highlighting these three trading partners or Tyre for their participation in this trade. However, Joel 3:6 accuses the people of Tyre and Sidon of selling the people of Judah and Jerusalem as slaves to the people of Juvan.[3] Judah and Israel are in the middle of the list as vendors of agricultural goods, and the rest of the list comprises a mixture of luxury and agricultural goods from across the region. As the list concludes the metaphor resumes with the ship weighed down from goods brought in by land and sea and stored in the ship holds.

The east wind in the Mediterranean Sea has a reputation for destruction in the bible. Psalm 48:7 has the east winds shattering the ships of Tarshish, and we have seen Ezekiel use the east wind twice previously in metaphors to dry up the vine of Israel.[4] Now this wind proves disastrous for the ship of Tyre heavily laden with both crew and the wealth of the nations. All Tyre has accumulated in the metaphor are gone in an instant and the people who traded with her mourn. Tyre had been a central hub in the trading of the region, and many had made their profits in her harbors, and in the metaphor those who were once her patrons are now appalled by the fate of this city. The metaphorical destruction of Tyre upsets not only the merchants and people of the coastlands, but even kings are horribly afraid. The fear of kings may relate to the perceived impregnability of Tyre, and if this island fortress can fall to Babylon what hope do they have before this unstoppable force.

Tyre functioned like New York or Los Angeles, bringing goods into port for distribution throughout the region and as a location where the goods of the region were sent to the Mediterranean. The trading network of this time is smaller than modern cross ocean trade, but Tyre’s trade network spread across North Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Europe as far a Spain. The city would be a rich treasure if captured by any army, but being an island nation, it also proved a difficult city to conquer. Historically we know that Babylon was easily able to capture the sister cities on land who provided the food that normally fed the city, but without a blockade Tyre was able to sustain itself during the siege. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Babylon never captures Tyre. They are reported to have the city under siege for thirteen years and at the end they take the king of Tyre into captivity, but the city remains, in terms of the metaphor, seaworthy. Ironically the lament for Tyre here, and the briefer lament in the previous chapter, provide a pattern for Revelation’s lament over Babylon in Revelation 18.[5]

[1] Arvad is mentioned above. Helech may be Cilicia and the location of Gamad is uncertain.

[2] Jeremiah 10:9 refers to beaten silver brought from Tarshish. (NIB VI:1378)

[3] NRSV translates this are Greeks in Joel 3:6. The Juvans were the Ionians, the Greeks of western Asia Minor.

[4] Ezekiel 17:10; 19:12.

[5] Babylon in Revelation is a cypher for Rome, but the irony of using a lament for a city besieged by Babylon as a model for the lament of Babylon remains.

Ezekiel 26 Against Tyre

3 Replies

Prophesied Destruction of Tyre By John Martin – -gF2vHlFlZ8p2A at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21880083

Ezekiel 26

¹In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: ²Mortal, because Tyre said concerning Jerusalem,
“Aha, broken is the gateway of the peoples;
it has swung open to me;
I shall be replenished,
now that it is wasted,”
³therefore, thus says the Lord GOD:
See, I am against you, O Tyre!
I will hurl many nations against you,
as the sea hurls its waves.
⁴They shall destroy the walls of Tyre
and break down its towers.
I will scrape its soil from it
and make it a bare rock.
⁵It shall become, in the midst of the sea,
a place for spreading nets.
I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.
It shall become plunder for the nations,
⁶and its daughter-towns in the country
shall be killed by the sword.
Then they shall know that I am the LORD.
⁷For thus says the Lord GOD: I will bring against Tyre from the north King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, king of kings, together with horses, chariots, cavalry, and a great and powerful army.
⁸Your daughter-towns in the country
he shall put to the sword.
He shall set up a siege wall against you,
cast up a ramp against you,
and raise a roof of shields against you.
⁹He shall direct the shock of his battering rams against your walls
and break down your towers with his axes.
¹⁰His horses shall be so many
that their dust shall cover you.
At the noise of cavalry, wheels, and chariots
your very walls shall shake,
when he enters your gates
like those entering a breached city.
¹¹With the hoofs of his horses
he shall trample all your streets.
He shall put your people to the sword,
and your strong pillars shall fall to the ground.
¹²They will plunder your riches
and loot your merchandise;
they shall break down your walls
and destroy your fine houses.
Your stones and timber and soil
they shall cast into the water.
¹³I will silence the music of your songs;
the sound of your lyres shall be heard no more.
¹⁴I will make you a bare rock;
you shall be a place for spreading nets.
You shall never again be rebuilt,
for I the LORD have spoken,
says the Lord GOD.
¹⁵Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre: Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when slaughter goes on within you? ¹⁶Then all the princes of the sea shall step down from their thrones; they shall remove their robes and strip off their embroidered garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling, and shall sit on the ground; they shall tremble every moment, and be appalled at you. ¹⁷And they shall raise a lamentation over you, and say to you:
How you have vanished from the seas,
O city renowned,
once mighty on the sea,
you and your inhabitants,
who imposed your terror
on all the mainland!
¹⁸Now the coastlands tremble
on the day of your fall;
the coastlands by the sea
are dismayed at your passing.
¹⁹For thus says the Lord GOD: When I make you a city laid waste, like cities that are not inhabited, when I bring up the deep over you, and the great waters cover you, ²⁰then I will thrust you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of long ago, and I will make you live in the world below, among primeval ruins, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you will not be inhabited or have a place in the land of the living. ²¹I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more; though sought for, you will never be found again, says the Lord GOD.

In contrast to the relatively brief oracles against Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia, Tyre receives a sprawling collection of oracles only eclipsed by Ezekiel’s words against Egypt. Tyre and their partner Sidon had been present in the discussion of envoys in Jeremiah 27: 1-7 and continued to resist Babylon even after the fall of Jerusalem. Egypt and Tyre become the only two powers left to resist the Babylonians, and Tyre’s position as a major trading site made it an attractive but difficult target for the Babylonians.

If you visit Tyre in modern day Lebanon it is a peninsula, but at this point Tyre was an island roughly six hundred yards from the coastline. It has two ports, one facing north towards Sidon (twenty-five miles away) and one facing south towards Egypt and Africa. Tyre as a city has ancient origins but began its “golden age” under Hiram I (969-936 BCE). This coincided with the golden age of the Davidic monarchy under David and Solomon, and both partnered with Hiram I. Hiram provided material and masons to build David’s house (2 Samuel 5:11) and would later provide material and masons for Solomon’s ambitious building projects. (1 Kings 5) Solomon gained great wealth copying the practices of Tyre, but this also brought about Solomon’s demise as his adoption of the economic practices brought him into alliances by marriage and the adoption of the worship of his wives. Tyre would later form alliances with Samaria, most famously with King Ahab who marries the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians (whose throne was in Tyre).[1] Tyre often receives condemnation in the Bible for its commercial wealth, but they were often allied with Judah and Israel for trade.

The dating of this oracle against Tyre is incomplete and there is no straightforward way to resolve its intended date. In the date there is no month, and the fall of Jerusalem comes in the eleventh year of King Zedekiah in the fourth month on the ninth day.[2] Presumably this is a time close to the fall of Jerusalem, which fits with what we know about the beginning of Nebuchadrezzar’s siege of Tyre. If Daniel Block’s hypothesis that it is the first day eleventh month of the eleventh year (February 3, 585 BCE), then you can fix an exact date. (Block, 1998, p. 35) Yet, a date within a year of the fall of Jerusalem makes sense and is close enough for any reasonable attempt at dating, especially since the siege of Tyre lasts for thirteen years according to ancient sources.

Tyre’s offense is seeing an opportunity for profit in the aftermath of Jerusalem’s demise. Jerusalem is a central location for overland trade between Egypt and Africa in the south and Babylon, Cyprus, and Greece to the north and east. Although Jerusalem and Tyre had a mutually beneficial trading relationship in the past, Tyre may see the unrest on the overland routes in the countries along the Eastern Mediterranean as a boon to their maritime trading. Yet, for Ezekiel this schadenfreude exhibited by the residents of Tyre is the reason for the LORD’s condemnation of them.

Initially the opponent against Tyre is the LORD the God of Israel directly. God hurls the nations at Tyre like the sea breaking against the rock of the island. God personally scrapes the soil from the island making it a bare rock while the nations break down the walls and towers that protect the city. Tyre will become the plunder for the nations, and the ‘daughter-towns’ which are the land cities which provide the water and food the city requires are killed by the sword. The first oracle ends with the declaration that amid this destruction the people of Tyre will know that the one who has brought about their destruction in the LORD. The sovereignty of God is an important point for Ezekiel but throughout the book the nations are never streaming to the LORD in adoration, only in subjugation.

The second oracle begins with announcing the tool that the LORD will use in this judgment: Nebuchadrezzar. This is the first time the King of Babylon is mentioned by name. He brings his military might against the city. The description of siege warfare is detailed and reflective of practices of the day for assaulting a city on land. Yet, the issue is that Tyre is an island, and it is nearly impossible to set up a ramp against an island fortress or bring the battering ram to bear. In contrast to the expectations of Ezekiel, the siege of Tyre lasted for thirteen years but the city is never captured or destroyed. Nebuchadrezzar at the end of the siege deported the king of Tyre and exacted tribute, but the city would not be destroyed until Alexander the Great created a land bridge and captured the city in 332 BCE. The land bridge continued to gather deposits from the sea and now forms the peninsula that connects Tyre to the coast of Lebanon. Ezekiel acknowledges the failed siege of Tyre and promises Egypt as a payment to Nebuchadrezzar in Ezekiel 29: 17-20.

A lament for the city of Tyre begins in verse fifteen. The princes of the sea may be kings and rulers who traded with Tyre, or they may be merchants who made their living off the trade through their ports. The imagined removal of Tyre as a trading partner and a military power in the region causes the surrounding region to tremble and mourn. A similar tone is struck in Revelation 18 at the lament over Babylon (which is significantly longer than this short lament).

The final declaration of God in this chapter brings mythological language into the destruction of Tyre. God brings up the deep (Hebrew tehom) over them. Tehom is often used in scripture as the cosmic waters or chaos that can resist God or can be that which creation is pulled from, but here it becomes a tool like Nebuchadrezzar utilized for God’s judgment. After the deep comes over the city the residents go down to the Pit, the place of the dead. As a place of the dead, it is not necessarily a place of torment, like the much later notion of hell, but it is a place that separates the living from the dead. Here it is a ruin separated from the dwelling places of the living. The chapter closes with the first instance of “I will bring you to a dreadful end, and you shall be no more; though sought for, you will never be found again” which structurally helps provide a marker for these three chapters of words against Tyre. Tyre, like Ammon and Moab, is to be no more in this prophecy.

Like the previous chapter with its oracles against the nations surrounding Judah, this is the cry of a conquered people attempting to make sense of their place with God and the nations. Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed and yet the nations who taunt them seem to prosper. The only person they can turn to for vengeance in their humiliation is their God. These chapters are difficult as a modern reader. Troubling for some readers is the reality that the events described by Ezekiel do not occur as the prophet foresaw. Other readers may be troubled by the portrayal of a vengeful God. Yet, our struggles with this text are miniscule compared to the struggle to reinterpret the faith of the people of Judah in the aftermath of the destruction of their society.

[1] Tyre and Sidon are often mentioned together and often the term Sidonians refers to both.

[2] 2 Kings 25:3, Jeremiah 39:3.

Ezekiel 25 Against Ammon, Moab, Edom and the Philistines

6 Replies

Kingdoms around Israel 830 BCE. *Oldtidens_Israel_&_Judea.svg: FinnWikiNoderivative work: Richardprins (talk)derivative work: Richardprins (talk) – Kingdoms_of_Israel_and_Judah_map_830.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10876701

Ezekiel 25: 1-7 Against Ammon

¹The word of the LORD came to me: ²Mortal, set your face toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them. ³Say to the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord GOD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Because you said, “Aha!” over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and over the house of Judah when it went into exile; ⁴therefore I am handing you over to the people of the east for a possession. They shall set their encampments among you and pitch their tents in your midst; they shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. ⁵I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon a fold for flocks. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. ⁶For thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the malice within you against the land of Israel, ⁷therefore I have stretched out my hand against you, and will hand you over as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and will make you perish out of the countries; I will destroy you. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel is a book in the bible that has relatively few readers except for certain well-known passages, and within the book these chapters proclaiming judgment against other nations are probably the least likely to be read and dwelt upon. Yet, within many of the prophets there is a pattern of completing the judgment against Israel or Judah, turning to a judgment against the nations, and then the emergence of hope for a new beginning. Isaiah and Zephaniah follow this pattern and in its Septuagint arrangement Jeremiah does as well.[1] Ezekiel will highlight seven nations in these judgments: Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt. The section is structures with the first six nations receiving their judgments followed by a brief word of hope in Ezekiel 28: 24-26 followed by a judgment against Egypt which is equal in length to the first six nations’ judgments combined. (Block, 1998, p. 5) Although many readers may skim or pass these eight chapters of judgements against the nations, I am going to continue my pattern of working through the book sequentially and reflect upon these sections.

When peering back this far into history there are relatively few sources to help give a broader context to these words against Ammon, Moab, Edom and Philistia. All these nations are neighbors to Israel and have at various times been enemies and allies. Ammon and Moab, according to Genesis, have their origins with Lot, Abraham’s nephew.[2] It makes sense to begin with the judgment against Ammon since they were mentioned as the road not taken by the Babylonians in Ezekiel 21: 18-32 when they proceeded to Jerusalem. Jeremiah also mentions Ammon (along with Moab, Tyre, and Sidon) as the nations who convene with King Zedekiah to discuss forming an alliance against Babylon[3] (presumable with the support of Egypt). There is no way of knowing whether an alliance was formed or whether Ammon or the other nations worked in support of Jerusalem or against them in their conflict against Babylon. Both Jeremiah[4] and Ezekiel indicate that Ammon celebrates the destruction of the city. They shout “Aha” and clapped their hands and stamped their feet against them. Ezekiel had been commanded to clap his hands and stamp his feet against the abominations occurring in the temple (Ezekiel 6:11) and later God strikes God’s hands together against the people (Ezekiel 21: 14, 17; 22:13) but now in the aftermath of the destruction God has once again taken a protective stance towards the people.

Ammon’s judgment is here given to the ‘people of the east.’ These are probably nomadic raiders coming out of the Arabian desert. Josephus (writing shortly after the time of Jesus) states that five years after the destruction of Jerusalem Babylon would conquer both Ammon and Moab, but that is probably not what this prophecy refers to. Ultimately in the oracle Ammon disappears from the list of nations. The prophecy indicates destruction, but historically it seems that the Ammonites assimilated to and merged into the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and finally Roman empires.

Ezekiel 25: 8-11 Against Moab

⁸Thus says the Lord GOD: Because Moab said, The house of Judah is like all the other nations, ⁹therefore I will lay open the flank of Moab from the towns on its frontier, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. ¹⁰I will give it along with Ammon to the people of the east as a possession. Thus Ammon shall be remembered no more among the nations, ¹¹and I will execute judgments upon Moab. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

Moab and Ammon share a common origin in Genesis and a common fate in this set of declarations against the surrounding nations. Like Ammon their judgment is left to the ‘people of the east’ and they are to be remembered ‘no more among the nations.’ It was also one of the nations who sent emissaries to King Zedekiah in Jeremiah 27 and who did not assist Jerusalem in the conflict with Babylon. The primary offense laid against Moab is their consideration of Judah like the other nations. Israel and Judah have frequently desired to be like the other nations, but they are not like other nations before God or in relation to the world. As mentioned above Josephus refers to the conquest of Moab by Babylon five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, but Moab, like Ammon seems to have assimilated into the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and finally Roman empires. Moab receives an entire chapter in Jeremiah’s oracles against the nations. (Jeremiah 48)

Ezekiel 25: 12-14 Against Edom

¹²Thus says the Lord GOD: Because Edom acted revengefully against the house of Judah and has grievously offended in taking vengeance upon them, ¹³therefore thus says the Lord GOD, I will stretch out my hand against Edom, and cut off from it humans and animals, and I will make it desolate; from Teman even to Dedan they shall fall by the sword. ¹⁴I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall act in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath; and they shall know my vengeance, says the Lord GOD.

Edom seems to have taken a more active role in the humiliation of Judah and Jerusalem. Edom biblically has its origins in Esau, Jacob’s older brother,[5] and the conflicted relationship of the brothers continued in the troubled relationship between the nations. Edom is not present at the discussions with King Zedekiah mentioned in Jeremiah 27. Their actions in this time evoke multiple reactions among scriptural writers. Psalm 137:7 records them crying out against Jerusalem:

Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem’s fall, how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!”

While Obadiah’s vision is almost completely focused on the Edomites, and Jeremiah’s language for the Edomites is harsh, declaring that they will become an object of horror.[6] In a hopeful note for the people of Judah, they are once again declared ‘God’s people’ and are raised up to take an active role in the vengeance against Edom. Edom is later called Idumea, and this will be the area that Herod the Great and his ancestors hail from.

Ezekiel 25: 15-17 Against the Philistines

¹⁵Thus says the Lord GOD: Because with unending hostilities the Philistines acted in vengeance, and with malice of heart took revenge in destruction; ¹⁶therefore thus says the Lord GOD, I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines, cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the rest of the seacoast. ¹⁷I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful punishments. Then they shall know that I am the LORD, when I lay my vengeance on them.

The Philistines were the long-time antagonists of Israel and are frequently mentioned in the stories of King Saul and King David. Yet, there is no knowledge of what role the Philistines took in the actions against Jerusalem. Ezekiel and Jeremiah 47 both indicate that the Philistines are to be destroyed and cut off. The Babylonians to conquer the area of the Philistines and take them into exile where they maintain an identity as men of Gaza or Ashkelon but between the Babylonian and Persian period they assimilate with the population between periods of exile and resettlement.

Ezekiel, unlike Jeremiah, is not in Jerusalem to witness any actions by Ammon, Moab, Edom, or the Philistines. His voice is one from a shattered people who have seen their nation humiliated and yet continue to believe that the God of Israel is also the God of the nations. If Judah’s actions have resulted in punishment, so will the actions of these nations who celebrated or participated in Judah’s humiliation. These chapters of judgment on other nations are always difficult to deal with since the other nations are not in a covenantal relationship with the God of Israel. Yet, the scripture spends far less time on these nations than they do on the condemnation of Judah or Israel’s unfaithfulness.

[1] The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Bible. In English translations (following the Hebrew ordering) Jeremiah concludes his book with these judgments against the nations. (Jeremiah 47-51)

[2] Genesis 19: 30-38.

[3] Jeremiah 27: 1-7. Jeremiah’s focus is on God’s message to these envoys, not on the content or result of these conversations, which it is unlikely that Jeremiah had access to.

[4] Jeremiah 49: 1-6

[5] Genesis 36: 1-8.

[6] Jeremiah 49: 7-22.

Ezekiel 24 The Painful Judgment of God

3 Replies

By John Singer Sargent – This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the National Gallery of Art. Please see the Gallery’s Open Access Policy., CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81473181

Ezekiel 24:1-14 The Boiling Pot

¹ In the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: ² Mortal, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem this very day. ³ And utter an allegory to the rebellious house and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Set on the pot, set it on, pour in water also;
⁴ put in it the pieces, all the good pieces, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with choice bones.
⁵ Take the choicest one of the flock, pile the logs under it; boil its pieces, seethe also its bones in it.
⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the bloody city, the pot whose rust is in it, whose rust has not gone out of it! Empty it piece by piece, making no choice at all.
⁷ For the blood she shed is inside it; she placed it on a bare rock; she did not pour it out on the ground, to cover it with earth.
⁸ To rouse my wrath, to take vengeance, I have placed the blood she shed on a bare rock, so that it may not be covered.
⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile great.
¹⁰ Heap up the logs, kindle the fire; boil the meat well, mix in the spices, let the bones be burned.
¹¹ Stand it empty upon the coals, so that it may become hot, its copper glow, its filth melt in it, its rust be consumed.
¹² In vain I have wearied myself; its thick rust does not depart. To the fire with its rust!
¹³ Yet, when I cleansed you in your filthy lewdness, you did not become clean from your filth; you shall not again be cleansed until I have satisfied my fury upon you.
¹⁴ I the LORD have spoken; the time is coming, I will act. I will not refrain, I will not spare, I will not relent. According to your ways and your doings I will judge you, says the Lord GOD.

Before addressing the content of this allegory or metaphor[1]it is necessary to address the dating of this portion of Ezekiel. If the dating is done according to the pattern of the rest of the dates of Ezekiel then the time from the beginning of the siege until Ezekiel is notified that the siege has ended is almost three years. We know that the siege of Jerusalem lasted roughly eighteen months and it is unlikely that it would have taken another eighteen months for the information about the fall of Jerusalem to reach Ezekiel. Yet, it is not surprising that the dating changes since the same date is referenced in both 2 Kings and Jeremiah.

And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it; they built siegeworks against it all around. So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine became so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. 2 Kings 25:1-3, see also Jeremiah 39: 1-3.

Whether Ezekiel changes his dating scheme based on the command to write down the name of the day by the LORD, or whether a later scribe corrects Ezekiel’s dating scheme to reflect the standard dating practice, the siege of Jerusalem begins in the ninth year of King Zedekiah’s reign in the tenth day of the tenth month of the year. The prophesied siege has finally begun. The words of Ezekiel are finally occurring in a way that the people can now see that there has been a prophet among them.

Ezekiel has frequently built upon previously used images and throughout this metaphor he pulls together the image of the pot previously used in chapter eleven and the bloody city from chapter twenty-two. There is a poetic quality to the image, and it is possible that Ezekiel is utilizing a cooking ditty that gets repurposed into this image, taking something familiar and using it in an uncomfortable manner to warp the preconceived notions of the hearer. But even if this is utilizing a song about a cooking pot, this is no ordinary meal being prepared. The copper pot indicates either a cultic use or court use because most people at this time would use clay pots.

The translation of the corruption of the pot as rust is problematic because copper does not rust. Copper when it oxidizes turns green and so if the corruption is with the pot then a better translation would be corruption that would need to be smelted away if the pot is to be clean. Yet, the more likely indication is that the meat is corrupted rather than the pot and that rather than the content of the pot being choice cuts of the choicest animal of the flock what they ended up with is putrid flesh. (Block, 1997, p. 777) This resonates with the imagery of chapter eleven where the leaders view themselves as the choice meat safe within the pot, while the LORD indicates that they are rotten.

Ezekiel, along with Jeremiah and others, has been challenging the Zion theology that viewed the temple and Jerusalem as guarantees of the LORD’s protection for the people. In this theology the exiles were the ones discarded while those remaining in the city were the choice cuts who are safe. Now with the beginning of the siege the pot which once offered safety is now heated until it glows. If this was being used for either consumption or cultic use the law would expect the blood of the sacrificed animal to be poured out on the ground, but the blood is in the pot and everything in the pot is heated to the point where the corruption is consumed. The blood still testifies to the violence committed in the city and there is no beginning without the contents of the pot being consumed. There can only be a new beginning once there is an ending. God has spoken and now those words are realized. It is only in retrospect that the people can understand that a prophet has been among them. It is only after the destruction of the city and in the time of exile that a new beginning can occur. For Ezekiel, the judgment of this time is just and yet this journey will take a difficult toll on him personally as well as any loss he may feel at the destruction of the city he grew up in and the temple he had been trained to serve in.

Ezekiel 24: 15-27 A Tragic Final Sign

¹⁵ The word of the LORD came to me: ¹⁶ Mortal, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. ¹⁷ Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban, and put your sandals on your feet; do not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners. ¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did as I was commanded.

¹⁹ Then the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting this way?” ²⁰ Then I said to them: The word of the LORD came to me: ²¹ Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and your heart’s desire; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. ²² And you shall do as I have done; you shall not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners. ²³ Your turbans shall be on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but you shall pine away in your iniquities and groan to one another. ²⁴ Thus Ezekiel shall be a sign to you; you shall do just as he has done. When this comes, then you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

²⁵ And you, mortal, on the day when I take from them their stronghold, their joy and glory, the delight of their eyes and their heart’s affection, and also their sons and their daughters, ²⁶ on that day, one who has escaped will come to you to report to you the news. ²⁷ On that day your mouth shall be opened to the one who has escaped, and you shall speak and no longer be silent. So you shall be a sign to them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Even though the book of Ezekiel is one of the longer books in the bible we know very little biographical information about the prophet: we know that he was thirty years old at the time of his call[2], that he was a part of the initial group of exiles in Babylon, that he is a priest and the son of Buzi, and now we learn that he is married. Being a thirty year old male we may have assumed he was married but in this time of upheaval it is likely that many traditional markers in the personal life of individuals may be delayed. Now that we have learned that he has a wife described here as the delight of his eyes it helps provide some answers to how the prophet was able to become the living sign that God required him to be. Presumably when Ezekiel portrays the siege of Jerusalem with his body for over four hundred days it would be his wife who ministered to him and cared for him. Throughout the book of Ezekiel, the prophet has been obedient in contrast to the disobedience of the people and only protests when he is asked to do something that makes him unclean or when he feels that all of Israel is being destroyed. Now Ezekiel who has occupied the space between a heartbroken God and the disobedient people endures his own personal heartbreak with no set of listening ears to hear his grief. Ezekiel has often been a living sign for the people of Israel and his actions have cost him physically, but now his family becomes one final sign before the destruction of Israel, and he is unable to collapse in mourning because of the imperative of his mission from God.

Ezekiel is addressed as Mortal[3] and then told that with ‘one blow’ God is taking away his wife and he is not to mourn of weep. The term translated ‘one blow’ elsewhere has referred to death from a plague, but here it conveys the suddenness of the death. There was no indication that Ezekiel’s wife is sick before this announcement but in the span of a day his wife is dead. The lack of the standard actions associated with mourning is a noticeable departure from the expected activity and it makes people demand an explanation from the prophet. Throughout the book the prophet has been both the medium and the messenger, but one last time he is both the physical sign to the people and the one to explain the sign. Instead of mourning and covering the upper lip,[4] he is to dress and carry on in a normal manner. In Leviticus Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar were not allowed to mourn Aaron’s two sons who offered an ‘unholy fire’ before the LORD and were killed (Leviticus 10: 6-7) and later this becomes the expected practice for the high priest (Leviticus 21: 10-12). In the absence of the temple, now perhaps we are to see the prophet as the new high priest for the people. The ‘stronghold, joy, and delight of the people’ (the city and temple) in addition to their sons and daughters of the people are being taken away and the prophets will become the new center of faith at the beginning of a new era in Babylon.

Ezekiel embodies obedience throughout his ministry, and this has come at a high cost. This portion of Ezekiel’s life resonates with Abraham’s call to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. Yet, unlike Abraham’s offering in Genesis 22 there is no lamb to take the place of the beloved one. Ezekiel pays a steep price for the privilege of serving as God’s agent charged with carrying the difficult message of the judgment on Jerusalem, the leaders of Israel, the temple, and the land. Daniel Block argues that he pays a price higher than any other recorded prophet. (Block, 1997, p. 793)

Why does God ask such a high price from God’s most faithful people? This is a difficult question without one simple answer, but this is a question that any reading of the scriptures does prompt. Prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah often find themselves caught between the people who God loves and the God who the people have rejected, and they become living witnesses to the tension in this broken relationship. I’ve often told my community that “God sends God’s very best in the hope that the people God loves will return.” This thought is captured in Jesus’ parable of the wicked tenants (Matthew 21: 33-46, Mark 12: 1-12, Luke 20: 9-19) where the house master (NRSV landowner) continually sends servants to tenants who resist them, eventually sending the Son. This is an opportunity for the tenants, but it means that the servants (or slaves) of God suffer abuse. Some prophets have protested the treatment they have received, but Ezekiel throughout these twenty-four chapters that lead to the exile has demonstrated a quiet obedience to God’s will. The book of Ezekiel does not consider sharing the emotional struggle of the prophet worthy of space (and any speculations we make are merely speculations) in contrast to the essential task of communicating the word of God to a resistant people.

The first half of Ezekiel has been leading to this point where the consequences of the disobedience of the people of Israel occur in the siege of Jerusalem by Babylon. This is a difficult portion of scripture to read but the people valued these difficult words enough to preserve them as a continual witness to warn against the loss of the covenantal dimension of the relationship between the people of God and the God of Israel. Ezekiel will be an influence on several later prophets as well as the New Testament, particularly Revelation. As we continue in this book the focus shifts from Judah to the nations. The LORD the God of Israel is not merely the God of Israel. Ezekiel like many prophets will have messages for many other nations and as the next eight chapters of Ezekiel will concern Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, and Egypt. Now that the forces of Babylon are on the march these nations which conspired with Judah will not be exempt from the judgment of King Nebuchadrezzar (and by extension the LORD).

[1] This is the Hebrew masal which can be translated parable, proverb, allegory or metaphor.

[2] Presuming the initial dating of the thirtieth year is Ezekiel’s thirtieth year, see chapter one.

[3] Literally son of man, as throughout the book. This is God’s characteristic address to the prophet Ezekiel.

[4] Elsewhere in the bible this is a sign of shame (Micah 3:7) and perhaps communal mourning, but this passage assumes that this is also a common practice symbolizing bereavement.

Ezekiel 23 Oholah and Oholibah the Metaphor of Unfaithfulness Revisited

1 Reply

Ezekiel 23: 1-4 Jerusalem and Samaria as Unfaithful Women

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² Mortal, there were two women, the daughters of one mother; ³ they played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore in their youth; their breasts were caressed there, and their virgin bosoms were fondled. ⁴ Oholah was the name of the elder and Oholibah the name of her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

Ezekiel returns to the metaphor of Samaria and Jerusalem as women utilized in chapter sixteen, but the imagery serves a different purpose than in the earlier chapter. In chapter sixteen the metaphor of infidelity was used primarily about the practice of worshipping other gods but now the issue is the alliances with other nations. The names Oholah and Oholibah both derive from the Hebrew ‘ohel which means tent. Oholah means her own tent and may be an allusion to the shrines in Bethel and other places where the Samaria worshipped after the split. Oholibah means my tent is in her and reflects the presence of the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem. This metaphorical narration of the story of Samaria and Jerusalem continues Ezekiel’s earlier narration (chapter 20) of Israel’s rebellion beginning in Egypt, now portrayed as women who are sexually active in a time prior to their marriage to the LORD. Both Samaria and Jerusalem are claimed by the LORD, and they bear children for their husband before both prove to be unfaithful women.

Ezekiel 23: 5-10 The Judgment of Oholah (Samaria)

⁵ Oholah played the whore while she was mine; she lusted after her lovers the Assyrians, warriors ⁶ clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, mounted horsemen. ⁷ She bestowed her favors upon them, the choicest men of Assyria all of them; and she defiled herself with all the idols of everyone for whom she lusted. ⁸ She did not give up her whorings that she had practiced since Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her and fondled her virgin bosom and poured out their lust upon her. ⁹ Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians, for whom she lusted. ¹⁰ These uncovered her nakedness; they seized her sons and her daughters; and they killed her with the sword. Judgment was executed upon her, and she became a byword among women.

Ezekiel’s portrayal of Oholah and Oholibah are shocking because of their departure from the expected role of women at this time. Oholah abandons the security of her relationship with the LORD for the Assyrians, portrayed as handsome and powerful warriors and leaders. The metaphor here is about the practice of Samaria, in this case, forming military and trade alliances with the Assyrians and putting their trust in them instead of the LORD. These partnerships also likely involved the leaders of Samaria adopting practices and attitudes of the Assyrians. Israel was always intended to be an alternative to the ways that the nations were governed, but the narration of Israel’s history in 1 and 2 Kings illustrates that most of the kings leading Samaria adopted both the practices of the nations they allied themselves with and frequently their worship of other deities. Ezekiel does not concretely link the metaphor to any specific event, but the memory of Samaria’s conquest by Assyria was to be a warning for Jerusalem about how they were to respond to the temptation to engage with other nations in this manner. Cast as infidelity in the metaphor Oholah becomes a proverb (or byword) spoken among the other women about how not to live. Her unfaithfulness cost her not only her children and her position but also her life in the image.

Ezekiel 23: 11-35 The Judgment of Oholibah (Jerusalem)

¹¹ Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt than she in her lusting and in her whorings, which were worse than those of her sister. ¹² She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and commanders, warriors clothed in full armor, mounted horsemen, all of them handsome young men. ¹³ And I saw that she was defiled; they both took the same way. ¹⁴ But she carried her whorings further; she saw male figures carved on the wall, images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion, ¹⁵ with belts around their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like officers — a picture of Babylonians whose native land was Chaldea. ¹⁶ When she saw them she lusted after them, and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their lust; and after she defiled herself with them, she turned from them in disgust. ¹⁸ When she carried on her whorings so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she increased her whorings, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt ²⁰ and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose emission was like that of stallions. ²¹ Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your young breasts.

²² Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD: I will rouse against you your lovers from whom you turned in disgust, and I will bring them against you from every side: ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, governors and commanders all of them, officers and warriors, all of them riding on horses. ²⁴ They shall come against you from the north with chariots and wagons and a host of peoples; they shall set themselves against you on every side with buckler, shield, and helmet, and I will commit the judgment to them, and they shall judge you according to their ordinances. ²⁵ I will direct my indignation against you, in order that they may deal with you in fury. They shall cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors shall fall by the sword. They shall seize your sons and your daughters, and your survivors shall be devoured by fire. ²⁶ They shall also strip you of your clothes and take away your fine jewels. ²⁷ So I will put an end to your lewdness and your whoring brought from the land of Egypt; you shall not long for them, or remember Egypt any more. ²⁸ For thus says the Lord GOD: I will deliver you into the hands of those whom you hate, into the hands of those from whom you turned in disgust; ²⁹ and they shall deal with you in hatred, and take away all the fruit of your labor, and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whorings shall be exposed. Your lewdness and your whorings ³⁰ have brought this upon you, because you played the whore with the nations, and polluted yourself with their idols. ³¹ You have gone the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand. ³² Thus says the Lord GOD:

You shall drink your sister’s cup, deep and wide; you shall be scorned and derided, it holds so much.

³³ You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. A cup of horror and desolation is the cup of your sister Samaria;

³⁴ you shall drink it and drain it out, and gnaw its sherds, and tear out your breasts; for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.

³⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore bear the consequences of your lewdness and whorings.

Now the image turns to Jerusalem (Oholibah) who failed to head the proverbs spoken about Samaria (Oholah). Jerusalem desires the same warriors and leaders that her sister Samaria did in the metaphor but sees images of the Chaldeans (Babylonians) and desires them. As in chapter sixteen, Jerusalem surpasses Samaria in her offensive practices and fails to heed the warning of the judgment of Samaria. Yet, when Oholibah (Jerusalem) summons the Babylonians and they come and defile her, and she recoils from them in disgust. Literally her nephesh[1] recoiled from than. She had invited the attentions of the Babylonians but something in the way in which they treated her evoked this disgust reaction. Elsewhere the imagery has been about two sisters with unfulfilled sexual desire who continually seek partners, but now there is something about the Babylonians which this sister finds repulsive.

When Oholibah turns away from the Babylonians she does not return to the LORD but instead turns to the Egyptians who were the sexual partners of her youth. The language to describe her Egyptian partners is graphic and shocking, but Ezekiel is intentionally using this imagery to shock. Yet, Oholibah has turned to the Assyrians, the Chaldeans/Babylonians, and the Egyptians. Everyone except the LORD who is the cuckolded husband in this metaphor. Oholibah has failed to attend to the previous experience of her sister Oholah when she was turned over to her previous partners.

As with Oholah, Oholibah is now turned over to her former lovers. Yet, for Oholibah the lovers she is handed over to are the ones she recoiled from in disgust. Pekod, Shoa, and Koa may refer to three Aramean tribes, but these words are similar to the Hebrew words for “perish,” “cry for help,” and “shriek.” (NIB VI: 1326) These warriors who were appealing in imagery are now terrifying as a threat. The punishments experienced by Oholah are now expanded in detail in the judgment of Oholibah. The imagery here includes facial mutilation (cutting off the nose and ears in the image) which was practiced by the nations in the region.

The metaphor of a cup of suffering or wrath is utilized in both Jeremiah 25: 15-29 and Habakkuk 2: 15-16. Now the cup that was formerly given to Samaria to consume is now handed on to Jerusalem with devastating consequences. It contains so much, but Jerusalem will drink it completely and gnaw at the shards of the cup looking for more. The disfigurement practiced by the Babylonians with facial mutilation is now matched by self-mutilation as the woman tears out her breasts.

The imagery of this chapter is similar to chapter sixteen, or Jeremiah 3: 15-16 or the beginning of Hosea. It was shocking then and remains shocking today. The image of marital infidelity is one of the most painful images in both the ancient world and our own. The image indicates by implication that God is the cuckolded husband reacting in anger to the unfaithfulness of their partner. This is the language of heartbreak, and the prophet stands between a wounded God and a wounding people. Unlike Jeremiah, in Ezekiel there is no romanticization of the past, Samaria and Jerusalem have always been unfaithful to God and in Ezekiel the penalty is harsher. In Jeremiah God is divorcing Israel, but here the handing over of Israel leads to mutilation and death. These are difficult and even offensive images but as mentioned above they are images that come out of the experience of heartbreak. I know this is not a section of scripture the most people will dwell on for very long because it is uncomfortable but perhaps for all its shocking imagery it demonstrates the impact of the behavior of the people on their God.

Ezekiel 23: 36-49 The Metaphor of Unfaithfulness Concluded

³⁶ The LORD said to me: Mortal, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominable deeds. ³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; with their idols they have committed adultery; and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me. ³⁸ Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my sabbaths. ³⁹ For when they had slaughtered their children for their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. This is what they did in my house.

⁴⁰ They even sent for men to come from far away, to whom a messenger was sent, and they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments; ⁴¹ you sat on a stately couch, with a table spread before it on which you had placed my incense and my oil. ⁴² The sound of a raucous multitude was around her, with many of the rabble brought in drunken from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on the arms of the women, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.

⁴³ Then I said, Ah, she is worn out with adulteries, but they carry on their sexual acts with her. ⁴⁴ For they have gone in to her, as one goes in to a whore. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, wanton women. ⁴⁵ But righteous judges shall declare them guilty of adultery and of bloodshed; because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands.

⁴⁶ For thus says the Lord GOD: Bring up an assembly against them, and make them an object of terror and of plunder. ⁴⁷ The assembly shall stone them and with their swords they shall cut them down; they shall kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses. ⁴⁸ Thus will I put an end to lewdness in the land, so that all women may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done. ⁴⁹ They shall repay you for your lewdness, and you shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry; and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

Any English translation of this text is the translator’s best efforts at a text that Moshe Greenberg called, “incoherent, odd, and disconcerting.” (NIB VI: 1329) Yet, the overall direction of many of the images is clear as it concludes the metaphor of unfaithfulness. The actions of Oholah and Oholibah have turned the world upside down. The children born to the LORD were sacrificed to other ‘idols,’ the sanctuary is defiled, and the sabbath profaned. The imagery of chapters sixteen and twenty merge with the metaphor here and the idolatry of worshipping other gods now seems merged with the political unfaithfulness with other nations. Yet, for all their actions both Oholah and Oholibah seem to be unsatiable. The LORD hoped they would wear themselves out and change their ways but no change occurred. Jerusalem and Samaria have become like the woman dressed as a prostitute in Proverbs 7: 10-27, but with the added implication that the incense and oil mentioned are likely the incense designated for use in the temple and the oil designated for the temple offerings. Holy things have been used for unholy purposes. Women set aside for the LORD prostitute themselves to every nation. The wounded party is God. The children offered to these idols are God’s children, the sanctuary defiled is God’s sanctuary, the abominable things are done in God’s house, God’s holy things are misused. Ultimately the people have done this to God. God has waited and desired for both sisters to change but now in this disconcerting metaphor they finally bear the penalty, long delayed, for their actions.

[1] Nephesh is the Hebrew word often translated in English as ‘soul’ but the Hebrew idea of nephesh is the essence of life, not the Greek idea of a soul which is separate from the body.

Ezekiel 22 A Bloody City, Impure Ore, and No One to Stand in the Breach

5 Replies

Interior of the Silver Smelter of Corralitos By Philippe Rondé – Le Tour du Monde, volume 4 [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82418139

Ezekiel 22: 1-21 The Bloody City

The word of the LORD came to me: ² You, mortal, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to it all its abominable deeds. ³ You shall say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A city! Shedding blood within itself; its time has come; making its idols, defiling itself. ⁴ You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed, and defiled by the idols that you have made; you have brought your day near, the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a disgrace before the nations, and a mockery to all the countries. ⁵ Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.

⁶ The princes of Israel in you, everyone according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. ⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you. ⁸ You have despised my holy things, and profaned my sabbaths. ⁹ In you are those who slander to shed blood, those in you who eat upon the mountains, who commit lewdness in your midst. ¹⁰ In you they uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women in their menstrual periods. ¹¹ One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you defiles his sister, his father’s daughter. ¹² In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest, and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; and you have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD.

¹³ See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made, and at the blood that has been shed within you. ¹⁴ Can your courage endure, or can your hands remain strong in the days when I shall deal with you? I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it. ¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your filthiness out of you. ¹⁶ And I shall be profaned through you in the sight of the nations; and you shall know that I am the LORD.

The prophet Nahum in the 7^th Century BCE issues oracles against the Assyrian capital Ninevah he declares that it is a city of bloodshed. Ninevah had been responsible for the conquering of Samaria and Nahum viewed their violent actions as meriting God’s judgement. “Ah, City of bloodshed, utterly deceitful, full of booty—no end to plunder” (Nahum 3:1) Although it is not certain that Ezekiel would have known these words from a prophet a couple of decades prior to his ministry, the content of this oracle reflects similar language, although now the bloody city is Jerusalem instead of Ninevah. Ezekiel is now called to judge the city which has transformed itself by its actions from the city of God to the bloody city.

The actions of bloodshed and idolatry have led the city to this space where they stand under God’s judgment. The punishment long withheld is finally arriving and Jerusalem instead of occupying a privileged space of honor as Zion now occupies a space of mockery and dishonor before the nations. The society of Judah has unraveled. They have lost their grounding in the covenant and in this dangerous city the fundamental building block of society (the family) has broken down and the vulnerable are exploited.

Throughout the law it is clear that leaders in Judah have a responsibility to maintain justice among the citizens. Their position is one of responsibility and not primarily one of privilege. Ezekiel accuses the princes of Israel of practicing exploitation instead of justice. Family is treated with contempt, the vulnerable (aliens, orphans, and widows) are exploited, the holy things of God are profaned, dishonest words are used to spill blood, unholy actions and things are lifted up, the boundaries of decency in family and among neighbors is broken, profit is made upon the misfortune of others (by charging interest) and all of this points to the reality that the people has forgotten the LORD. The list of unrighteous actions is the opposite of the righteous man who can save his own life in Ezekiel 18:5-9 and both build upon the understanding of holiness expressed in Leviticus 18-19.

Ezekiel paints a bleak picture of the communal life of Jerusalem. When they can be referred to in a similar way to Ninevah (or Samaria and Sodom as in 16: 44-58) then they are a society that has lost its moorings. When the city of shalom (Jeru-shalom) has become the bloody city the world has turned upside down. Ezekiel’s language is evocative. He paints this blood red image of violence to demonstrate the brokenness of Jerusalem and the righteousness of God in calling for judgment. These words, which are preserved beyond the judgment may have enabled the children to look upon the actions of their parents, consider and not do likewise. (Ezekiel 18:14)

Ezekiel 22: 17-22 Israel is Dross

¹⁷ The word of the LORD came to me: ¹⁸ Mortal, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them, silver, bronze, tin, iron, and lead. In the smelter they have become dross. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. ²⁰ As one gathers silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into a smelter, to blow the fire upon them in order to melt them; so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. ²¹ I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted within it. ²² As silver is melted in a smelter, so you shall be melted in it; and you shall know that I the LORD have poured out my wrath upon you.

Israel was to be a treasured possession, a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation (Exodus 19: 5-6). Just as the city of peace became the blood city, now the treasured possession has become dross. The imagery of the refinement of silver from the silver ore which contains multiple elements (copper, iron, lead and tin) becomes the metaphor for God’s action of pouring out anger to melt the elements to separate the dross from the precious metal. There is a resonance with the metaphor here and Egypt as the iron smelter which God delivered his people from (Deuteronomy 4:20) but a stronger resonance exists in Isaiah’s earlier description of Judah:

How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her—but now murderers! Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water. Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them. Isaiah 1: 21-23 (emphasis mine).

Yet, Ezekiel’s image may indicate that there is nothing precious left in Israel. They are completely dross. It is only God’s action that dross which has nothing precious can emerge from the smelter as silver. Any hope for Israel’s future lies in the same God whose blast of wrath is melting the people in their current state.

Ezekiel 22: 23-31 No One to Stand in the Breach

²³ The word of the LORD came to me: ²⁴ Mortal, say to it: You are a land that is not cleansed, not rained upon in the day of indignation. ²⁵ Its princes within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it. ²⁶ Its priests have done violence to my teaching and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. ²⁷ Its officials within it are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. ²⁸ Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord GOD,” when the LORD has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the alien without redress. ³⁰ And I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. ³¹ Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; I have returned their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord GOD.

This third section within the chapter continues to build upon previously used imagery and has echoes of the words of Jeremiah, Micah,[1] and especially Zephaniah. The image of princes as roaring lions was seen in chapter 19 and prophets are covering up the flaws in the society with whitewash as in chapter 13. Like many speakers these images are brought again to hearers to reinforce the injustice done by the rulers of the society. For the first time in Ezekiel the priests are brought into the condemnation. The overall passage, as mentioned above, echoes the language of Zephaniah 3:

Ah, soiled, defiled, oppressing city! It has listened to no voice; it has accepted no correction. It has not trusted the LORD; it has not drawn near to its God. The officials within it are roaring lions; its judges are evening wolves that leave nothing until the morning. Its prophets are reckless, faithless persons; its priests have profaned what is sacred they have done violence to the law. Zephaniah 3: 1-4 (emphasis mine).

The echoes between prophets may originate in a tradition of preserving the words of the prophets and studying these words, but if we take seriously the claims that the prophets are proclaiming the word of the LORD, then they share a common source. Through multiple voices similar images and messages have attempted to break through the resistance of the people of Israel, but now the people stand at the precipice of judgment with no one to stand in the gap for them.

The narrative of the flood in the book of Genesis (Genesis 6-9) deals with God’s attempt to cleanse the land from the wickedness, corruption, and violence of humanity. Now this violence, wickedness and corruption are focused in Judah and the action of the LORD is to purify the land once again. The princes, officials, priest, and prophets have all practiced violence, corrupted the teaching of the law and profaned the holy things, shed blood for dishonest gain, and covered up the corruption in the society. The result is a society that was intended to provide justice to the poor, needy, and the alien are now exploiting those vulnerable members of society.

The LORD seeks someone who will stand in the breach before God on behalf of the land. Gary Anderson points to the way Moses filled this role for the people in both Exodus 32: 7-14 and Numbers 14: 11-20. (Anderson, 2008, p. 223) Moses after both the Golden Calf and the rebellion against Moses and Aaron stands between the people and God and calls upon God not to destroy the people, initially for the sake of the name of God and then later picking up on God’s declared identity in the aftermath of the first betrayal. There is no Moses to stand in the breach for the people, to both defend the people from the wrath of the LORD, but also to reorient the people on the way of the law.

In a time where there is no Moses to stand in the breach and the princes, prophets, officials, and priests have all betrayed the ways of God the society is disordered. There is no reform that will reorient this broken society, only the wrath of God which washes over and consumes can purify the dross into silver. When Jerusalem is bloodier than Ninevah then perhaps only the destruction of the city can bring about the healing of the land. There is no hope in Ezekiel which does not pass through the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, the Davidic line of kings, and the loss of the land. There are only two more chapters of Ezekiel prior to the exile of the majority of the people, and throughout the book there has been no expectation that the people would hear and respond to the words of the prophet. Ezekiel does provide a lens for the people to look backward through in the aftermath of exile once they realize that there has been a prophet among them.

[1] Jeremiah 5: 1-5, 31; Micah 3:11.

Ezekiel 21 God’s Sword Against Judah

3 Replies

Swords Hanging in my Office, the sword on the left is a U.S. Army Ceremonial (Dress) Saber, the one on the right is a replica 1860 cavalry saber.

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

¹The 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.

Replica 1860 Cavalry Saber hanging on my office wall

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.

Sign of the Rose

Searchings: Sacred and Secular

Category Archives: Biblical Reflections

Military Actions as an Economic Decision in the Ancient World

Military Actions as an Economic Decision in the Ancient World

Egypt’s Role in the Geopolitics of Israel/Judah During the Time of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

Egypt’s Role in the Geopolitics of Israel/Judah During the Time of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

Ezekiel 28 Against the Rulers of Tyre, Sidon and a Renewed Hope for Israel

Ezekiel 28: 1-10 Against the “Prince” of Tyre

Ezekiel 28: 11-19 Against the “King” of Tyre

Ezekiel 28: 20-23 Against Sidon

Ezekiel 28: 24-26 Hope for a Restored Israel

Ezekiel 27 A Satirical Lament for Tyre

Ezekiel 27

Ezekiel 26 Against Tyre

Ezekiel 26

Ezekiel 25 Against Ammon, Moab, Edom and the Philistines

Ezekiel 25: 1-7 Against Ammon

Ezekiel 25: 8-11 Against Moab

Ezekiel 25: 12-14 Against Edom

Ezekiel 25: 15-17 Against the Philistines

Ezekiel 24 The Painful Judgment of God

Ezekiel 24:1-14 The Boiling Pot

Ezekiel 24: 15-27 A Tragic Final Sign

Ezekiel 23 Oholah and Oholibah the Metaphor of Unfaithfulness Revisited

Ezekiel 23: 1-4 Jerusalem and Samaria as Unfaithful Women

Ezekiel 23: 5-10 The Judgment of Oholah (Samaria)

Ezekiel 23: 11-35 The Judgment of Oholibah (Jerusalem)

Ezekiel 23: 36-49 The Metaphor of Unfaithfulness Concluded

Ezekiel 22 A Bloody City, Impure Ore, and No One to Stand in the Breach

Ezekiel 22: 1-21 The Bloody City

Ezekiel 22: 17-22 Israel is Dross

Ezekiel 22: 23-31 No One to Stand in the Breach

Ezekiel 21 God’s Sword Against Judah

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

Ezekiel 21: 8-17 The Song of the Sword

Ezekiel 21: 18-27 Nebuchadrezzar Wielder of the Sword

Ezekiel 21: 28-32 The Future Judgment of Ammon