21:1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,

3 And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth my (red radius) sword out of his (red radius) sheath, and will cut off from thee the (Gemini) righteous and the wicked (586 B.C.).

4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the (Gemini) righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my (red radius) sword go forth out of his (red radius) sheath against all flesh (Taurus included) from the south to the north:

5 That all flesh may know that I the Lord (Orion) have drawn forth my (red radius) sword out of his (red radius) sheath: it shall not return any more (to its sheathe).

6 Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.

7 And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every (Taurus) heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God.

8 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

9 Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord; Say, A sword, a sword (two horns of Taurus or two red radius lines) is sharpened, and also furbished:

10 It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it contemneth the rod of my son, as every tree.

11 And he hath given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the (Orion or Taurus) slayer.

12 Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my (Gemini) people, it shall be upon all the (Gemini) princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the (red radius) sword shall be upon my (Gemini) people: smite therefore upon thy thigh.

13 Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord God.

14 Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite thine hands together. and let the sword be doubled (two horns of Taurus or two red radius lines) the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great (Gemini) men that are slain, which entereth into their privy (red radius line) chambers.(Where they were hidden in hopes of escaping)

It is probable that the three great slaughters which should be made of the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem are here intended, namely, 1st, During the siege, in which, undoubtedly, great numbers fell who were without the walls of the city, and many within: 2dly, When the city was taken by assault, which certainly was not without great slaughter: and 3dly, The massacre of Gedaliah, and those that sided with him.

15 I have set the point of the sword against all their (solar) gates, that their (lunar) heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.

16 Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand, or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.

17 I will also smite mine hands together, and I will cause my (solar) fury to rest: I the Lord have said it.

18 The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying,

19 Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two (red radius line) ways, that the (Orion) sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.

God here foreshows his prophet, that when the king of Babylon should come with his army into Syria, and find the Ammonites had entered into a confederacy with Egypt as well as Zedekiah, he would be in doubt against which of the two people he should first make war, and would commit the decision of the matter to his arts of divination, described Ezekiel 21:21; and that God should direct the divination to be for taking the road that leads to Jerusalem. The words, Let both go forth out of one land, seem to mean, that the single way should divide itself into two, leading to different places. This, as appears from what follows, was the road coming out of Arabia, which afterward parted into two, one leading to Rabbath, and the other to Jerusalem.

20 Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.

21 For the king of Babylon (Orion) stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his (red radius) arrows bright, he consulted with (solar and lunar and Gemini) images, he looked in the (lunar black Taurus) liver.



When the king of Babylon stood at the head of the two ways, to consult which of the two he should take, the tokens that were shown him, God so ordering it, induced him to march with his army to the right, that is, toward Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar must be considered as coming from Dan, and marching along the river Jordan. Rabbath was therefore situated to the left hand, and Jerusalem to the right

22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint (Gemini) captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint (red radius) battering rams against the (solar) gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.

23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths (Orion): but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.

24 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.

Nebuchadnezzar will remember Zedekiah’s breach of his oath, and all his and his people’s treacheries, and will avenge himself by taking the city, and making him and his subjects prisoners of war. The form of expression seems to imply that the king of Babylon had had it chiefly in his mind to go against Rabbath; but the divinations all signifying that he should go against Jerusalem, caused him to reflect on the perfidious behaviour of the Jewish nation toward him, and so determined him to take the way to Jerusalem, in order severely to punish the inhabitants of it.

25 And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end,

26 Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low (Orion), and abase him that is high (Auriga).

This seems to be spoken of Jehoiachin, who was many years kept in prison at Babylon; but at length, as we read 2 Kings 25:27, was taken out of prison, kindly treated, and advanced to great honour by Evil-merodach, king of Babylon. And abase him that is high — Namely, Zedekiah; who was to be pulled down from his throne, have his eyes put out, and be kept in prison the remainder of his days.

27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is (our Lord); and I will give it him.

The crown and kingdom of Judah; which being expressed three times, has not respect, as Kimchi thinks, to the three generations, in which the crown ceased after the captivity, as those of Asir, Shealtiel, Pedaiah; and in the fourth generation was restored to Zerubbabel; for he was no king, nor was there any of David's line after; nor were the Maccabees or Hasmoneans properly kings; but the phrase denotes the utter abolition of the kingly power, and the certainty of it, which could not be restored, notwithstanding the attempts made by Gedaliah and Ishmael; all their schemes were overturned, and so in successive ages and may also denote and include the troubles that were in the Jewish state, not only during the captivity, but from that time unto the Messiah's coming; there were nothing but overturnings, overturnings till that time came:

28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord God concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn (two horns of Taurus or two red radius lines): for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:

Concerning the Ammonites - They had reproached and insulted Judea in its low estate, see Ezekiel 25. This prophecy against them was fulfilled about five years after the taking of Jerusalem. See Joseph. Ant. lib. 10 c. 11; and Jeremiah 27, 48, 49; Ezekiel 25.

As a matter of history, the Ammonites were conquered, and their country desolated, by Nebuchadnezzar a few years after the destruction of Jerusalem, (see Ez. 25:1-7)

this, as Josephus says, was accomplished five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, in the twenty third year of Nebuchadnezzar: Antiqu. Jud. l. 10. c. 9. sect. 7.

Five years after the fall of Jerusalem, Ammon was destroyed for aiding Ishmael in usurping the government of Judea against the will of the king of Babylon (2Ki 25:25; Jer 41:15) [Grotius].

29 Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end.

30 Shall I cause it to return into his (lunar) sheath? I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.

31 And I will pour out mine (red radius) indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the (solar) fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish (Gemini) men, and skilful to destroy.

32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the (solar) fire; thy (red radius) blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the Lord have spoken it.