Yehezkiel 21:3

21:3 and say to them, ¹  ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, ²  I am against you. ³  I will draw my sword ⁴  from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. ⁵ 

Yehezkiel 21:12

21:12 Cry out and moan, son of man,

for it is wielded against my people;

against all the princes of Israel.

They are delivered up to the sword, along with my people.

Therefore, strike your thigh. ⁶ 

Yehezkiel 21:22

21:22 Into his right hand ⁷  comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal ⁸  for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, ⁹  to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall.

Yehezkiel 21:24

21:24 “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have brought up ¹⁰  your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force. ¹¹ 

Yehezkiel 21:28

21:28 “As for you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says concerning the Ammonites and their coming humiliation; ¹²  say:

“‘A sword, a sword drawn for slaughter,

polished to consume, ¹³  to flash like lightning –

[21:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the land of Israel.”

[21:3]  ² tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws attention to something and has been translated here as a verb.

[21:3]  ³ tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.

[21:3]  ⁴ sn This is the sword of judgment, see Isa 31:8; 34:6; 66:16.

[21:3]  ⁵ sn Ezekiel elsewhere pictures the Lord’s judgment as discriminating between the righteous and the wicked (9:4-6; 18:1-20; see as well Pss 1 and 11) and speaks of the preservation of a remnant (3:21; 6:8; 12:16). Perhaps here he exaggerates for rhetorical effect in an effort to subdue any false optimism. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:25-26; D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:669-70; and W. Zimmerli, Ezekiel (Hermeneia), 1:424-25.

[21:12]  ⁶ sn This physical action was part of an expression of grief. Cp. Jer. 31:19.

[21:22]  ⁷ tn Or “on the right side,” i.e., the omen mark on the right side of the liver.

[21:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “to open the mouth” for slaughter.

[21:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “to raise up a voice in a battle cry.”

[21:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “caused to be remembered.”

[21:24]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Because you have brought to remembrance your guilt when your transgressions are uncovered so that your sins are revealed in all your deeds – because you are remembered, by the hand you will be seized.”

[21:28]  ¹² tn Heb “their reproach.”

[21:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “to contain, endure.” Since the Hebrew text as it stands makes little, if any, sense, most emend the text to read either “to consume” or “for destruction.” For discussion of options see D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:693.