Tag Archives: Nebuchadrezzar

Ezekiel 29 Against Pharoah of Egypt

5 Replies

Nile Crocodile Eating a Wildabeast in the Masai Mara By Arturo de Frias Marques – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34596035

Ezekiel 29:1-9a

1In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 2Mortal, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt; 3speak, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD:
I am against you,
Pharaoh king of Egypt,
the great dragon sprawling
in the midst of its channels,
saying, “My Nile is my own;
I made it for myself.”
4I will put hooks in your jaws,
and make the fish of your channels stick to your scales.
I will draw you up from your channels,
with all the fish of your channels
sticking to your scales.
5I will fling you into the wilderness,
you and all the fish of your channels;
you shall fall in the open field,
and not be gathered and buried.
To the animals of the earth and to the birds of the air
I have given you as food.
6Then all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know
that I am the LORD
because you were a staff of reed
to the house of Israel;
7when they grasped you with the hand, you broke,
and tore all their shoulders;
and when they leaned on you, you broke,
and made all their legs unsteady.
8Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: I will bring a sword upon you, and will cut off from you human being and animal; 9and the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

The oracles against Egypt are equal in length to all the previous oracles against the nation, and this seventh nation mentioned now receives seven oracles against it. Six of the seven are given specific dates with this first oracle being the earliest. This oracle is dated January 7, 587 BCE which is roughly one year into the eighteen-month siege of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 44:30 indicates that Pharoah Hophra is the king of Egypt at this point who is referred to throughout this oracle. Tova Ganzel (Ganzel, 2020, p. 272)connects this prophecy with the actions of Jeremiah 37:5-10:

Meanwhile, the army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they withdrew from Jerusalem. Then the word of the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah: Thus says the LORD, God of Israel: This is what the two of you shall say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: Pharaoh’s army, which set out to help you, is going to return to its own land, to Egypt. And the Chaldeans shall return and fight against this city; they shall take it and burn it with fire. Thus says the LORD: Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go away. Even if you defeated the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men in their tents, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.

Although Ezekiel, unlike Jeremiah, was already in exile in Babylon it is likely that he and his fellow exiles were following events around Jerusalem. Ezekiel and Jeremiah both viewed Nebuchadrezzar’s siege of Jerusalem as God’s punishment and viewed the actions of the Egyptians as interference. Now amid what others in Judah may have considered a hopeful moment, Ezekiel speaks against the Egyptians (who many in Jerusalem would have looked to for aid at this time).

Ezekiel uses metaphor again, this time Pharoah Hophra is a great crocodile (NRSV great dragon) lying in the Nile. The Hebrew word tannin which in this image is obviously a crocodile like creature is often used with mythological overtones throughout scripture (hence the NRSV’s translation of great dragon) as a great monster or force of chaos which must be overcome. It is sometimes linked with both Rahab and Leviathan, and Job’s similar image of Leviathan is worth considering:

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down its tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in its nose, or pierce its jaw with a hook? Job 41: 1-2.

Now Pharoah is drawn out with a hook, and with it all the fish that are caught in its scales. It had considered itself immovable from its place in the channels of the Nile, but now it is removed from its place of dominance to the wilderness where it becomes prey for the animals and birds. As Katheryn Pfisterer Darr notes this would be the ultimate disgrace for an Egyptian Pharoah who expended enormous resources and wealth on constructing a royal tomb to ensure their passage to the afterlife. (NIB VI: 1405)

Egypt was one of the few nations which had the military resources to resist Babylon, but as I mentioned in Egypt’s Role in the Geopolitics of Israel/Judah During the Time of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empire they were often an unreliable ally. Both 2 Kings and Isaiah record Rabshakeh’s taunt about the unreliability of Egypt:

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. 2 Kings 18:19-21, Isaiah 36:4-6

Once again resorting to metaphor, to use Egypt as a crutch is to have it splinter in one’s shoulder and to lean on it for support makes the legs unsteady when it fails. Egypt’s support only causes more damage in the prophet’s view.

Ezekiel 29: 9b-16

Because you said, “The Nile is mine, and I made it,” 10therefore, I am against you, and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia. 11No human foot shall pass through it, and no animal foot shall pass through it; it shall be uninhabited forty years. 12I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among desolated countries; and her cities shall be a desolation forty years among cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them among the countries.
13Further, thus says the Lord GOD: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered; 14and I will restore the fortunes of Egypt, and bring them back to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin; and there they shall be a lowly kingdom. 15It shall be the most lowly of the kingdoms, and never again exalt itself above the nations; and I will make them so small that they will never again rule over the nations. 16The Egyptians shall never again be the reliance of the house of Israel; they will recall their iniquity, when they turned to them for aid. Then they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

This continues the first oracle against Egypt but instead it moves from a poetic rhythm to an explanatory tone. Now in response to the declaration of the Pharoah that, “the Nile is mine, and I made it,” the declaration is made that the entirety of Egypt from western border to the eastern border and to the border of Ethiopia to the south will be uninhabited. Egypt is sentenced to forty years of desolation in this oracle, devoid of both human and animals. The mighty empire of Egypt is to be a wasteland where nothing lives, but the sentence is for a generation and then the people and animals will return. But Egypt, in the oracle, will never be a power who extends its influence towards Israel. They will never appear to be a strength that Israel can turn to again in their troubles.

Egypt is never a wasteland depopulated of people or animals. Although there is some conflict between Babylon and Egypt that will be talked about more in the following section, Egypt never becomes a part of the Babylonian empire, and the population is never forced into exile. The oracle is unique among the seven nations in that it does have a future for Egypt (the other nations have no future in Ezekiel’s oracles) and it may be impossible for the prophet to imagine a world without Egypt occupying some role. Egypt existed long before Israel and had always been major power to the south. Yet, Egypt’s time of independence would come to an end with the advent of the Persian empire a generation later.

Ezekiel 29: 17-21

17In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me: 18Mortal, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre; every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare; yet neither he nor his army got anything from Tyre to pay for the labor that he had expended against it. 19Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will give the land of Egypt to King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon; and he shall carry off its wealth and despoil it and plunder it; and it shall be the wages for his army. 20I have given him the land of Egypt as his payment for which he labored, because they worked for me, says the Lord GOD.
21On that day I will cause a horn to sprout up for the house of Israel, and I will open your lips among them. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.

This is the second oracle and the latest of the oracles that receive a date. Ezekiel’s date places this oracle on April 26, 571 BCE, sixteen years after the oracle at the beginning of the chapter and twenty-two years after Ezekiel’s commission by the LORD. This oracle also marks a sharp departure from the oracles against Tyre in chapters 26–28 since now Tyre remains unconquered and King Nebuchadrezzar’s men need payment for the thirteen years spent in siege of the city.

Ezekiel’s prophecies against Tyre are not fulfilled in the manner that Ezekiel declared. There may have been people among Ezekiel’s peers who wondered if that made him a false prophet. Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah would have been criticized for their pro-Babylonian messages (since both viewed Babylon as acting on the LORD’s behalf). Yet, Ezekiel’s words were preserved as a prophet and the LORD the God of Israel has changed God’s mind before and remains free to allow things to proceed according to God’s designs. Still this inclusion of Ezekiel 29:18 owns that the previous prophecies against Tyre did not occur as foreseen.

The prophesies of Ezekiel attempt to provide a theological framing to the events of the world and I think both the theological framing and the historical events can provide insight into how we approach these passages. Theologically the Babylonian empire is cast as a tool utilized by the LORD and since the Babylonians are doing God’s will they deserve to be rewarded. In the absence of a reward for cracking open the island fortress of Tyre the riches of Egypt are offered in exchange. Egypt remained both a rich nation with a powerful military and a large, fertile territory. Historically it is important to remember that military action in the ancient world was about economics. A thirteen-year long siege would have been costly both in material resources but also in reputation for the Babylonians. It is plausible that the king of Tyre reached an agreement to become a vassal state, but the baldness and rubbed bare shoulders likely refer to the hard work of the attempted siege.

Looking this far back into the historical record is difficult because there are very few sources. The Babylonians did invade Egypt unsuccessfully between 601 and 599 BCE but this points to a later invasion. There is a cuneiform text that refers to Nebuchadrezzar marching against Egypt in his thirty-seventh year (568 BCE) roughly three years after this oracle. (Block, 1998, p. 151) It is also known that Pharoah Hophra dies and Amasis takes his place.[1] It is plausible that Nebuchadrezzar sees this time of transition as an opportunity to attack a weakened Egypt. It is also likely that an incursion into Egypt taxed Babylon’s forces even further. Nebuchadrezzar would die in Babylon six years later and Egypt would remain unconquered. Although Babylon likely did extract some wealth and resources from this conflict any evaluation of the ‘successfulness’ of these actions[2] would require sources that we do not have. As I have stated before I am making educated guesses based on what we do know and what we understand about the world at this point in history.

Finally, there is the final line about a ‘horn’ sprouting up for the house of Israel and the prophet’s lips being opened among them. Horns in the bible are images of power. They can be utilized in both positive imagery[3] and negative imagery,[4] but in both uses it is a symbol of power. There will be a new power that will arise for the house of Israel. This may be a hope for a renewed line of David, as in Psalm 132, but that type of Davidic/kingly expectation is not explicit here. What is explicit is that the prophet will now have his lips opened by God to be a messenger of hope among the people and the people will know the LORD. God’s actions against the nations are a portion of Israel’s renewed knowledge of the LORD.

[1] Josephus indicates that Nebuchadrezzar slew Hophra while Herodotus indicates that his own general, Amasis, kills Pharoah Hophra.

[2] Success depends upon the criteria used. Nebuchadrezzar, and most ancient kings, would view success as continuing to bring wealth and resources to themselves and the empire. The bible’s evaluation of the kings of Israel is on a completely different basis. See my comments on 1 Kings 11.

[3] For example, Psalm 132:17, “There I will cause a horn to sprout up for David;”

[4] For example, the blasphemous horn of Daniel 8.

 

 

 

The Babylonian Empire

1 Reply

Most readers of the Bible do not have much exposure to the history of the region 2,600 years ago, but this time is critical for much of the Hebrew Scriptures (or Old Testament). One of my Hebrew Bibles professors used to joke that if you were taking an exam on the Hebrew Scriptures and did not know the answer that the Babylonian exile was a solid guess. This is the time period that the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel address and it is where 2 Kings concludes the Deuteronomic History[1] and shortly before 2 Chronicles ends its narration.[2] This becomes a time of redefinition for the Jewish people where the stories and writings are collected together to form a unified tradition to hand on to their descendants away once the temple, Jerusalem, and the Davidic kings no longer reign.

When talking about the Babylonian Empire in relation to scripture, it is actually the Second Babylonian Empire or the Neo Babylonian Empire. The Babylonians were also known as Chaldeans in scripture and historical references, and you will occasionally see this time referred to as the Chaldean Empire. Babylon begins its rise after the coronation of King Nabopolassar in 626 BCE and the rise of Babylonian power coincides with the collapse of the Assyrian Empire in 612 BCE.[3] In 605 BCE King Nebuchadrezzar II (or Nebuchadnezzar II) succeeded his father Nabopolassar as king. Shortly before his father’s death Nebuchadrezzar II won a critical victory over Pharoah Neco II’s Egyptian Army at the battle of Carchemish ensuring Babylonian power over the Levant (the region bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea which includes Israel/Judah).

Neo-Babylonian_Empire_under_Nebuchadnezzar_II By IchthyovenatorSémhur (base map) – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=105732621

In 601 BCE Babylon marched into Egypt to counter rising Egyptian influence in the Levant and this campaign ultimately failed in 599 BCE but did end Egyptian power in the Levant. During this war King Jehoiakim (or Jehoiakim) in Judah allied his country with Egypt[4] and Nebuchadrezzar after leaving Egypt turned his forces towards Jerusalem. In 598/597 BCE Jerusalem surrenders to Babylon, King Jehoiakim is taken captive to Babylon along with many of the elites of the land. This is the exile that Ezekiel is experiencing as he prophesies, and this is also the setting at the beginning of the book of Daniel. King Zedekiah is left in charge of Jerusalem as a puppet king of the Babylonian empire.

Egypt continued to be a regional force and both Jeremiah and Ezekiel point to the influence of Egypt in the decision of King Zedekiah to refuse to pay tribute in 589 BCE. In 587 BCE Ammon, Edom, and Moab all come together to form a mutual alliance against Babylon, but in 586 Babylon responds. Jerusalem is destroyed, and the Kingdom of Judah ends in 586 BCE with the survivors being taken captive in Babylonia. After the defeat of Judah, Babylon would continue to be militarily active ensuring the submission of the region under Babylonian control and repelling Egyptian influence. The Babylonian Empire would maintain control over the region until they were conquered by Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire in 539 BCE.

[1] The books starting in Joshua and running through 2 Kings in most Christian bibles (excluding Ruth) which called the Deuteronomic history by scholars because they theologically follow the book of Deuteronomy.

[2] 2 Chronicles has two final verses which point to the end of the Babylonian exile under the Persian King Cyrus.

[3] The Assyrian Empire is responsible for the capture of Samaria and the ending of the Kingdom of Northern Israel in 721 BCE.

[4] Jehoiakim had been appointed by Pharoah Neco II so Judah’s alliance with Egypt against Babylon is not surprising.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ezekiel 21: 8-17 The Song of the Sword

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.