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The Blue Letter Bible

Ezekiel 21 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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The Lord Has Drawn His Sword

Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:1 - [fn] The word of the LORD came to me:
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:2 - “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries.[fn] Prophesy against the land of Israel
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:3 - and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am against you and will draw my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:4 - Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from south to north.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:5 - And all flesh shall know that I am the LORD. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:6 - “As for you, son of man, groan; with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan before their eyes.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:7 - And when they say to you, ‘Why do you groan?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that it is coming. Every heart will melt, and all hands will be feeble; every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it is coming, and it will be fulfilled,’” declares the Lord GOD.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:8 - And the word of the LORD came to me:
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:9 - “Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord, say:
“A sword, a sword is sharpened
and also polished,
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:10 - sharpened for slaughter,
polished to flash like lightning! (Or shall we rejoice? You have despised the rod, my son, with everything of wood.)[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:11 - So the sword is given to be polished, that it may be grasped in the hand. It is sharpened and polished to be given into the hand of the slayer.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:12 - Cry out and wail, son of man, for it is against my people. It is against all the princes of Israel. They are delivered over to the sword with my people. Strike therefore upon your thigh.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:13 - For it will not be a testing—what could it do if you despise the rod?”[fn] declares the Lord GOD.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:14 - “As for you, son of man, prophesy. Clap your hands and let the sword come down twice, yes, three times,[fn] the sword for those to be slain. It is the sword for the great slaughter, which surrounds them,
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:15 - that their hearts may melt, and many stumble.[fn] At all their gates I have given the glittering sword. Ah, it is made like lightning; it is taken up[fn] for slaughter.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:16 - Cut sharply to the right; set yourself to the left, wherever your face is directed.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:17 - I also will clap my hands, and I will satisfy my fury; I the LORD have spoken.”
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:18 - The word of the LORD came to me again:
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:19 - “As for you, son of man, mark two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them shall come from the same land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the way to a city.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:20 - Mark a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites and to Judah, into Jerusalem the fortified.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:21 - For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shakes the arrows; he consults the teraphim;[fn] he looks at the liver.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:22 - Into his right hand comes the divination for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth with murder, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build siege towers.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:23 - But to them it will seem like a false divination. They have sworn solemn oaths, but he brings their guilt to remembrance, that they may be taken.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:24 - “Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have made your guilt to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins appear—because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:25 - And you, O profane[fn] wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time of your final punishment,
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:26 - thus says the Lord GOD: Remove the turban and take off the crown. Things shall not remain as they are. Exalt that which is low, and bring low that which is exalted.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:27 - A ruin, ruin, ruin I will make it. This also shall not be, until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:28 - “And you, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach; say, A sword, a sword is drawn for the slaughter. It is polished to consume and to flash like lightning—
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:29 - while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies for you—to place you on the necks of the profane wicked, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:30 - Return it to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:31 - And I will pour out my indignation upon you; I will blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and I will deliver you into the hands of brutish men, skillful to destroy.
Unchecked Copy BoxEze 21:32 - You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall be no more remembered, for I the LORD have spoken.”
ESV Footnotes
Ch 21:6 in Hebrew
Some Hebrew manuscripts, compare Septuagint, Syriac against their sanctuary
Probable reading; Hebrew The rod of my son despises everything of wood
Or For it is a testing; and what if even the rod despises? It shall not be!
Hebrew its third
Hebrew many stumbling blocks
The meaning of the Hebrew word rendered taken up is uncertain
Or household idols
Or slain; also verse 29
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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Ezekiel Chapter 21 — Additional Translations: