Yehezkiel 5:12

5:12 A third of your people will die of plague or be overcome by the famine within you. ¹  A third of your people will fall by the sword surrounding you, ²  and a third I will scatter to the winds. I will unleash a sword behind them.

Yehezkiel 5:17

5:17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you and they will take your children from you. ³  Plague and bloodshed will overwhelm you, ⁴  and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Yehezkiel 21:3-4

21:3 and say to them, ⁵  ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, ⁶  I am against you. ⁷  I will draw my sword ⁸  from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. ⁹  21:4 Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will go out from its sheath against everyone ¹⁰  from the south ¹¹  to the north.

Yehezkiel 21:9-15

21:9 “Son of man, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Lord says:

“‘A sword, a sword is sharpened,

and also polished.

21:10 It is sharpened for slaughter,

it is polished to flash like lightning!

“‘Should we rejoice in the scepter of my son? No! The sword despises every tree! ¹² 

21:11 “‘He gave it to be polished,

to be grasped in the hand –

the sword is sharpened, it is polished –

giving it into the hand of the executioner.

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. ¹³ 

21:13 “‘For testing will come, and what will happen when the scepter, which the sword despises, is no more? ¹⁴  declares the sovereign Lord.’

21:14 “And you, son of man, prophesy,

and clap your hands together.

Let the sword strike twice, even three times!

It is a sword for slaughter,

a sword for the great slaughter surrounding them.

21:15 So hearts melt with fear and many stumble.

At all their gates I have stationed the sword for slaughter.

Ah! It is made to flash, it is drawn for slaughter!

Yehezkiel 29:8

29:8 “‘Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look, I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will kill ¹⁵  every person and every animal.

Yehezkiel 38:21-22

38:21 I will call for a sword to attack ¹⁶  Gog ¹⁷  on all my mountains, declares the sovereign Lord; every man’s sword will be against his brother. 38:22 I will judge him with plague and bloodshed. I will rain down on him, his troops and the many peoples who are with him a torrential downpour, hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

[5:12]  ¹ sn The judgment of plague and famine comes from the covenant curse (Lev 26:25-26). As in v. 10, the city of Jerusalem is figuratively addressed here.

[5:12]  ² sn Judgment by plague, famine, and sword occurs in Jer 21:9; 27:13; Ezek 6:11, 12; 7:15.

[5:17]  ³ tn Heb “will bereave you.”

[5:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “will pass through you.” This threat recalls the warning of Lev 26:22, 25 and Deut 32:24-25.

[21:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “the land of Israel.”

[21:3]  ⁶ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws attention to something and has been translated here as a verb.

[21:3]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ sn This is the sword of judgment, see Isa 31:8; 34:6; 66:16.

[21:3]  ⁹ 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.

[21:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all flesh” (also in the following verse).

[21:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Negev.” The Negev is the south country.

[21:10]  ¹² tn Heb “Or shall we rejoice, scepter of my son, it despises every tree.” The translation understands the subject of the verb “despises,” which is a feminine form in the Hebrew text, to be the sword (which is a feminine noun) mentioned just before this. Alternatively, the line may be understood as “let us not rejoice, O tribe of my son; it despises every tree.” The same word in Hebrew may be either “rod,” “scepter,” or “tribe.” The word sometimes translated as “or” or taken as an interrogative particle may be a negative particle. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:672, n. 79.

[21:10]  sn The people of Judah should not place false hope in their king, symbolized by his royal scepter, for God’s judgment (symbolized by fire and then a sword) would destroy every tree (see 20:47), symbolizing the righteous and wicked (see 21:3-4).

[21:12]  ¹³ sn This physical action was part of an expression of grief. Cp. Jer. 31:19.

[21:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “For testing (will come) and what if also a scepter, it despises, will not be?” The translation understands the subject of the verb “despises,” which is a feminine form in the Hebrew text, to be the sword (which is a feminine noun) mentioned in the previous verses. The text is very difficult and any rendering is uncertain.

[29:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I will cut off from you.”

[38:21]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “against.”

[38:21]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Gog, cf. v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.