Ezekiel 21:18-27

C. The Sword of the King of Babylon 21:18-27

TRANSLATION

(18) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (19) Now as for you, son of man, make for yourself two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; the two of them shall come forth out of one land; and fashion it. (20) You shall make a way that the sword may come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in the fortress of Jerusalem. (21) For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to employ divination; he shakes the arrows, he inquires of the teraphim, he observes the liver. (22) In his right hand is the divination of Jerusalem to set battering rams to open the mouth for the slaughter, to lift the voice in a battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to construct mounds, to build siege forts. (23) And it shall be unto them as false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths unto them. But he brings iniquity to remembrance, that they may be taken. (24) Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have caused your iniquity to be remembered in that your transgressions have been uncovered, so that your sins appear in all your deeds; because you are remembered, you shall be seized with the hand. (25) And you, O profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the iniquity of the end; (26) thus says the Lord GOD: The turban shall be removed, and the crown shall be taken off; things will be thrown into confusion; the lowly shall be exalted, and the high shall be brought low. (27) A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I have made it; this also shall not be until he come whose right it is, and I will give it to him.

COMMENTS

Ezekiel received a new revelation (Ezekiel 21:18) in which he was commanded to sketch a road which, at a certain point, branched in two directions. The road came forth out of one land, i.e., out of the land of Babylon. That was the road which God's divinely appointed sword, the king of Babylon, would travel. At the crossroads the prophet was to draw, or perhaps cut out and place, a signpost (literally, a hand) pointing the way to the city, i.e., Jerusalem (Ezekiel 21:19). The other branch in that road led to Rabbah Ammon (Ezekiel 21:20).

His props in place, Ezekiel was to depict the king of Babylon standing at that crossroads attempting to discover by means of pagan divination which of those two routes to travel. Three forms of divination are mentioned. Shaking the arrows involved writing the names of the two objectives on arrows, shaking them up in the quiver, and drawing forth one of them. The precise manner by which the small household gods called teraphim were used to receive oracular direction is unknown. Examining the color and markings of a liver from a sacrificial animal, however, is a well-known form of divination among the Babylonians, although this is the only place the custom is mentioned in the Scriptures (Ezekiel 21:21).

Ezekiel pictures Nebuchadnezzar drawing two arrows from the quiver. The one in the right hand had the name Jerusalem written on it. His pagan divination informed him that he was to employ every siege weapon to assault the city battering rams to assault the walls and gates; mounds of earth and mobile forts from which to hurl missiles over the walls. As he attacked Jerusalem his men would open the mouth for the slaughter, i.e., lift up their voices in blood-curdling battle cries designed to terrify the inhabitants of the city (Ezekiel 21:22).

To the men of Jerusalem. what Nebuchadnezzar had done was but vain divination. Still they lulled themselves into a false sense of security. They had escaped the king's wrath in the past by swearing oaths of allegiance to him,[352] and they were fully prepared to take such oaths again. But this time, says the prophet, Nebuchadnezzar would come to settle the account with the rebels he will bring iniquity to remembrance. This time they will be taken, i.e., seized by the invader and either slain or made prisoners (Ezekiel 21:23).

[352] The Hebrew reads literally, oaths of oaths are theirs. Keil thinks the reference is to the oaths of the Lord which He had sworn unto His people, They were trusting in divine promises of protection and deliverance, However, God would bring to remembrance their iniquity.

The iniquity of Judah had forced, not only the king of Babylon, but the Lord Himself to remember their iniquity. Their more recent transgressions had caused their former iniquities to be remembered before God. Because of their consistent record of willful disobedience they would fall into the hand of the God of judgment (Ezekiel 21:24).

Zedekiah is prophetically addressed in Ezekiel 21:25 as a profane and wicked prince. This weak-kneed monarch had shown himself to be unfaithful both to his overlord Nebuchadnezzar and to the God in whose name he had taken his vassal oath. Now his day had come. He had committed his final iniquity which brought down on him the final punishment (Ezekiel 21:25). He would lose the insignia of his rank. Things would be thrown into confusion.[353] The rulers of Judah would be brought down and abased; the humble citizens who heeded God's word would be exalted (Ezekiel 21:26). The honors offered Jeremiah after the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem might be an example of the exaltation of the humble (cf. Jeremiah 40:5 f.). The monarchy would be in utter ruin (emphasized by the threefold repetition of the noun) as a result of the calamity which would befall Zedekiah. The monarchy would exist no more until he come whose right it is. There can be little doubt that this is a Messianic prediction. The kingly line would be overthrown and God's people would remain without a king until that one arose who had been anticipated throughout Old Testament history. When Messiah finally came, the crown and diadem would be given to him, for he would be the culmination of everything to which the Davidic house and the Messianic kingship in Israel have always pointed.[354]

[353] Literally the Hebrew reads, thus not this. The paraphrase of Lofthouse has been followed here.

[354] Taylor, TOTC, p. 165.