Ezechiele 21:20 Commento

In this chapter we have, I. An explication of the prophecy in the close of the foregoing chapter concerning the fire in the forest, which the people complained they could not understand (Eze 21:1-5), with directions to the prophet to show himself deeply affected with it (Eze 21:6, Eze 21:7). II. A further prediction of the sword that was coming upon the land, by which all should be laid waste; and this expressed very emphatically (Eze 21:8-17). III. A prospect given of the king of Babylon's approach to Jerusalem, to which he was determined by divination (Eze 21:18-24). IV. Sentence passed upon Zedekiah king of Judah (Eze 21:25-27). V. The destruction of the Ammonites by the sword foretold (Eze 21:28-32). Thus is this chapter all threatenings.

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 21 This chapter contains an explanation of a prophecy in the latter part of the preceding chapter; and a new one, concerning the sword of the Chaldeans, and the destruction of the Jews and Ammonites by it. The prophecy of the fire in the forest is explained, Eze 21:1, upon which the prophet is directed to show his concern at it by sighing, in order to awaken the attention of the people to it, Eze 21:6, then follows a prophecy of a very sharp and bright sword, which should do great execution upon the people and princes of Israel; and therefore the prophet, in order to affect them, with it, is bid to howl and cry, and smite on his thigh; and smite his hands together, and the Lord says he would do so; all which is designed to set forth the greatness of the calamity and the distress, Eze 21:8, next the prophet is ordered to represent the king of Babylon as at a place where two ways met, and as at a loss which way to take, and as determined by divination to go to Jerusalem first, Eze 21:18, and then Zedekiah, the then reigning prince of Israel, has his doom pronounced on him, and he is ordered to be stripped of his regalia; and an intimation is given that there should be no more king over Israel of the house of David until the Messiah came, Eze 21:26 and the chapter is concluded with a prophecy of the destruction of the Ammonites in their own land, which should certainly be, though their diviners might, say the contrary, Eze 21:28.

At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem,.... All his divinations, whether by arrows, or by images, or by liver, all directed him to his right hand, to turn to that which led to Jerusalem; and thus what appeared to him to be the effect of divination was overruled by the providence of God, to direct him to go and do what he designed he should: to appoint captains to open the mouth in the slaughter; upon which he appointed his several captains and officers their distinct bodies of men they were to lead on to the siege of Jerusalem; and give them the word of command when to attack the place, scale the walls, or make breaches in it, and fall upon the enemy, and make a slaughter of them. The word for "captains" signifies "rams"; and Joseph Kimchi interprets it of battering rams, to beat down walls; but these are after mentioned; and is both by Jarchi and David Kimchi explained of general officers of the army; and so the Targum, "to appoint generals to open the gates, that the slayer may enter by them:'' to lift up the voice with shouting; which is usually done in sieges, when a shout is made, and a place is stormed; both to animate the besiegers, and to terrify the besieged: to appoint battering rams against the gates; to break them down, or break through them, and so make way for the army to enter in; these were engines used in sieges, to beat down walls, and make breaches in them, that the besiegers might enter; so called from the iron heads of them, which resembled rams; and are thus described by Josephus (o), "the ram is a huge beam, not unlike the mast of a ship; the top of it is capped with a thick piece of iron, in the form of a ram's head, from whence it has its name: this is hung by the middle with ropes to another beam, which lies across, supported by a couple of posts; and thus hanging equally balanced, is, by a great number of men violently thrust backwards and forwards, and so beats the wall with its iron head; nor is there any tower so strong, or wall so broad, as to resist its repeated strokes.'' Vitruvius (p) says it was invented by the Carthaginians at the siege of Cadiz; but Pliny (q) affirms it was invented by Epeus at the siege of Troy; but the first mention of them is made by Ezekiel here, and in Eze 4:2, and Diodorus Siculus (r) affirms they were not known in the times of Sardanapalus, when Nineveh was taken by Arbaces. The Targum interprets it of officers set at the gates, as before; and so Jarchi: to cast a mount; made up of earth, to raise their batteries upon: and to build a fort; to cast out their arrows from thence, and protect the besiegers; See Gill on Eze 4:1. (o) De Bello Jud. l. 3. c. 7. sect. 19. Vid. Valtrinum de Re Militari Roman. l. 5. c. 6. p. 526. (p) De Architectura, l. 10. c. 19. (q) Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56. (r) Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 113.

(Verse 18 and following) And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, set before yourself two ways, and let the sword of the king of Babylon come. From one land they will both go out, and by hand he will take a decision: he will cast lots at the head of the city's road. You shall set a road, so that the sword may come to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon, and to Judah, and to Jerusalem, the fortified. For the king of Babylon stood at the crossroads, at the head of the two roads, seeking divination, mixing arrows. He questioned the idols, consulted the entrails. To his right, a divination was made concerning Jerusalem, to set up battering rams, to open the mouth in slaughter, to raise the voice in lamentation, to set up battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege mound, to build fortifications. And it will be as if he is consulting in vain their oracle, imitating the rest of the sabbath, but he himself will remember the iniquity in order to capture it. Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because you have brought your iniquities to memory and have revealed your transgressions, and your sins have appeared in all your thoughts; because of this, I say, you will be taken captive by the hand. I know that in this place, according to the Septuagint interpreters, I have read the diverse exposition of a certain law, Rabbath of the sons of Ammon, referring to the Gentile people. But to Judah and Jerusalem, to those who gather under the name of Christ, and to those who give dignity to his name, the king of confusion, the devil, stands at the head of every road and lies in wait in secret. And he fulfills that verse: 'They have placed a stumbling block in my path' (Ps. 139). And he stands at the crossroads, desiring to hold onto those who are his, or to acquire new servitude for himself. And he always goes to the right, namely, to those who are situated on the right side, in order to conquer them, to exult in their destruction, to take miserable Jerusalem by force and by the gathering of earthly works. And first of all, so that it seems that he is doing nothing, and striving in vain. But by recalling their iniquities, those who dwell in the Church, indeed even bring to mind the opposing powers with their evil works, they bring to light all the sins of the people and their thoughts, and for this reason they are captured, because they have heaped up old crimes with new ones. Another person may have said this: the truth of the history begun by us must be pursued. When, he said, the divine word had spoken to me: Prophesy, son of man, and speak to the sword and say: Sword, sword, and the rest that the prophecy of the sword contains; a second time the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Do you want, son of man, to know who this sword is, and to learn more clearly the person of the raging sword? Listen to what I say: set up two roads, so that through them the sword of the king of Babylon may come, who will indeed go by one route of the Chaldeans, but when he comes through the desert and wilderness to the crossroads of the land of Arabia, which is called the sons of Ammon, one road leads to Jerusalem on the right side, but the left leads to Rabbath of the sons of Ammon, which is the capital city and is now called Philadelphia: remember, he says, the annihilation that happened to the Assyrian king when 185,000 were killed in one night, he will fear to turn to the right and go against the heavily fortified Jerusalem; but he will stand at that junction, and according to the customs of his people, he will consult the oracle, to send his arrows into the quiver, and mix them, or label them with the names of each, to see whose arrow comes out, and which city he should besiege first. Now the Greeks call this kind of divination belomancy, or rhabdomancy. Therefore, he consulted the idols and examined the entrails. The divination pointed to his right, indicating that he should march against Jerusalem, besiege it, build ramparts, set up battering rams, construct fortifications, surround the city, open his mouth for slaughter, and stir up the roaring and howling of his exultant army. By doing this, he said, he would appear to the inhabitants of Jerusalem to consult an oracle in vain and, like someone spending his time on Sabbath leisure, to engage in play and accomplish nothing. But the king of Babylon, not relying on his own strength, but on the wickedness of the people, which he knows has offended God, and has added sins of the fathers to new offenses, and all their transgressions have been revealed; and for this reason he will not hesitate in victory, because he trusts in the wickedness of Jerusalem. These things, according to the Hebrew, from which the Septuagint diverge in many places not so much in meaning as in words.

The prophet goes on to denounce the fate of Jerusalem and Judea; using signs of vehement grief, to denote the greatness of the calamity, Eze 21:2-7. He then changes the emblem to that of a sharp and bright sword, still denoting the same sad event, Eze 21:8-17; and, becoming yet more explicit, he represents the king of Babylon, who was to be employed by God in this work, as setting out to take vengeance on both the Jews and the Ammonites, for joining with Egypt in a confederacy against him. He is described as standing at the parting of the roads leading to the respective capitals of the Jews and Ammonites; and doubting which to attack first, he commits the decision of the matter to his arts of divination, performed by mingling arrows inscribed with the names of the different nations or cities, and then marching against that whose name was written on the arrow first drawn from the quiver. In this case the name Jerusalem comes forward; and therefore he proceeds against it, Eze 21:18-24. History itself could scarcely be more explicit than this prophecy. The profane prince Zedekiah as then declared to be given up by God, and his kingdom devoted to utter destruction, for that breach of oath of which the prophet foretells he should be guilty, Eze 21:25-27. The remaining verses form a distinct prophecy relating to the destruction of the Ammonites, which was fulfilled about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, Eze 21:28-32.

PROPHECY AGAINST ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM, AND AGAINST AMMON. (Eze. 21:1-32) the holy places--the three parts of the temple: the courts, the holy place, and the holiest. If "synagogues" existed before the Babylonian captivity, as Psa 74:8 seems to imply, they and the proseuchÃ&brvbr, or oratories, may be included in the "holy places" here.

Rabbath of the Ammonites--distinct from Rabbah in Judah (Sa2 12:26). Rabbath is put first, as it was from her that Jerusalem, that doomed city, had borrowed many of her idols. to Judah in Jerusalem--instead of simply putting "Jerusalem," to imply the sword was to come not merely to Judah, but to its people within Jerusalem, defended though it was; its defenses on which the Jews relied so much would not keep the foe out.