Tyndale Open Study NotesEzekiel 21

This chapter repeatedly mentions a sword (Ezekiel 21:3–5, 9, 11–12, 14–16, 19, 28–30). Each time, the sword represents God’s judgment.

• The Lord himself was the true enemy Israel needed to fear. He was about to bring a complete judgment against them.

• Normally, people expect the righteous to escape judgment and the wicked to receive it. This contrast is like the green tree and the dry tree in the parable (Ezekiel 20:47–48).

  God’s judgment on sin would be like a very hot fire. It would burn everything it touched.

Ezekiel's groaning showed that in the coming judgment, even the bravest would feel fear and the strong would become weak. The judgment that had been announced was now a harsh reality (compare Ezekiel 7:1–4).

sword, sharpened and polished: These actions prepare the weapon to be deadly and effective.

Once the sword is ready, it will be given to the executioner (the one who carries out a death sentence). He will use it against God’s people.

Cry out and wail: Ezekiel would represent the people’s response to the judgment.

As the Lord's representative, Ezekiel was to clap his hands in a threatening way and wave the sword three times. This action symbolized the complete massacre to come.

There would be no place to escape. No one could hide from the sword of judgment. When the Lord was ready to act, he would destroy his people. In this way, he would satisfy his fury (his burning anger). They would be filled with terror. Their courage would disappear.

The sword of the Lord was not just a symbol. It would become the sword of the king of Babylon.

That king was Nebuchadnezzar. His army would carry out God’s judgment.

Ezekiel showed this in a visual way. He drew a map to show the king’s two possible targets. One was Rabbah, the capital of Ammon. The other was Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.

• Omens were signs that people believed came from the gods. People looked for these signs through divination (trying to learn the future through special rituals).

• He shakes the arrows, he consults the idols, he examines the liver: These were common ways people tried to receive omens from their gods.

A treaty with the Babylonians would not save the people of Jerusalem because they had broken its terms. The king of Babylon would remind them of their rebellion. He would show in public that rebelling against a covenant overlord (a powerful ruler who made a binding agreement) brings serious consequences. If rebellion against their Babylonian ruler brought punishment, how much more would rebellion against the Lord bring judgment?

• This judgment would affect Zedekiah, the corrupt and wicked leader of Israel, and the people. Ezekiel refers to Zedekiah by his title, showing that his position was also judged. He would lose his royal symbols and be humbled, while the Lord would lift up the humble. The old order would face destruction.

• the arrival of Him … to whom I have assigned the right of judgment: Many people understand this coming judge to be the Messiah (God’s chosen one), as in Genesis 49:10. In this context, however, the Lord was giving Judah to the Babylonians for judgment (see Ezekiel 23:24).

  Ezekiel was likely reshaping the traditional promise in Genesis 49:10. Instead of pointing to a future king, he applied it to a coming judgment. Nebuchadnezzar would act as God’s instrument. God would take the scepter (symbol of royal rule) away from Judah for a time because its rulers had sinned. Later, God would restore it.

The Ammonites should not have celebrated when Nebuchadnezzar chose to go to Jerusalem instead of Rabbah (Ezekiel 21:18–20). They were also among the wicked facing judgment day.

The sword would return to its sheath. This does not mean it would rest. It would return in order to carry out the Lord’s judgment against its own land, Babylon.

God would also pour out his fury and the fire of his anger on Babylon. These words describe God’s intense judgment. Babylon did not receive special protection just because God had used it to judge other nations.

Judgment may have begun with God’s household (1 Peter 4:17), but it did not stop there. God’s judgment also included the surrounding nations that did not worship him.