20:45–49 The passage begins with the prophet’s being commanded to prophesy against the southern part of Judah, which is described by three different Hebrew words in verse 46: “southland” (Hb. teman), “south” (darom), and “Negeb” (negeb). The forest land of this wilderness area will be set on fire, something that was likely a well-known phenomenon in that parched part of the country. Yet this fire will destroy not just the dry trees, which would be expected to burn easily, but also the green trees as well. Its flames will not be quenched before every single face from south to north has been scorched. Everyone will recognize that this is the Lord’s work: when the Lord sets a fire, there is no fire department on earth that can put it out.

Clearly, as Ezekiel notes, people will be able to recognize that he is recounting a parable of some kind, but, as with many parables, its meaning is not immediately transparent. The oracle suggests that comprehensive judgment is coming on all kinds of trees, scorching every face, from south to north—but what is the southern wilderness, and why has it been singled out?

21:1–5 The interpretive key is given in what follows. The three terms for “south” in the parable are matched by three objects of judgment in the interpretation: “Jerusalem,” “the sanctuaries,”158 and “the land of Israel” (v. 2). From the perspective of the traditional “enemy from the north” (cf. comment on 1:4), Israel was the southland, dry tinder ready to be ignited. The image of fire represents the sword of the Lord, unsheathed and ready to consume the righteous (the green tree) as well as the wicked (the dry tree) in a judgment that would spread from south to north and affect everyone in between. The sword of judgment will not be resheathed until its comprehensive work is complete. In that way everyone will recognize that this judgment comes from the Lord, from whom there is no escape and no rescue. Unlike the relatively short-lived invasion of 597 BC, the coming judgment on Judah and Jerusalem will be all-encompassing; if it includes the righteous as well as the wicked, no one can expect to survive.

21:6–7 The last part of the first oracle is the prophet’s response to what he has been shown. He is instructed to groan publicly with a “breaking heart”159 and bitter grief as a sign-act before all the people. When the people question him as to why he is displaying this deep public show of emotion, he is to reply that this terrible sorrow will shortly be everyone’s experience. When the news arrives of the Babylonian invasion of Judah, threatened in chapter 7, every heart will melt and courage will ebb away, with a concomitant loss of control of bodily functions (lit., “Every knee will run with water”; 21:7; cf. 7:17). Because this already-threatened judgment is coming from the Lord, it is inevitable and unavoidable. The contrast between the prophet’s own response of devastated grief to the inevitable fulfillment of his earlier words and the people’s casual dismissal of the prophet as a mere “maker of parables” could not be more stark. The watchman delivered his warning, but the people wanted nothing to do with it (cf. 3:17–21).

21:8–11 The second oracle begins with a song focusing attention on the sword soon to come and destroy the land. The song focuses on the actions of sharpening and polishing, by which the sword is prepared for action (v. 9). These parallel the earlier judgment themes of cutting and burning, especially given the connection made between polishing the sword and lightning (v. 10). The last part of verse 10 is very difficult to interpret. We may translate it, “Should we rejoice? The scepter, my son! It [the sword] despises every tree!”160 On that reading the saying challenges the immediate response of Ezekiel’s hearers, which was to misunderstand the announcement of the sharpened sword as good news of coming deliverance. Instead of something to rejoice over, it is news of coming judgment: the sword will take out every tree in front of it, including “the scepter, my son”—the Davidic ruler (cf. 19:11, 14; 20:12). Once it has been fully prepared for its death-dealing task, the sword is then handed over to the executioner to wreak his deadly toll of destruction throughout the land.

21:12–13 Once again the focus shifts to the prophet’s emotive response. In the face of a people who simply do not grasp or believe his message, the prophet is summoned to cry out and wail as well as beat his thighs, a gesture of shock and despair (v. 12). To take seriously the judgment that is to come demands no less a response. The Lord’s people and their princes are about to be delivered over to the sword of the Lord in the hands of the Babylonians. Verse 13 is as challenging as the last part of verse 10, with which it seems to be linked. In light of our rendering of verse 10, it should perhaps be translated, ‘“It will surely be a trial! And if [the sword] despises even the scepter, [the scepter] will not continue.’ This is the declaration of the Lord God.”161

21:14–17 The prophet is instructed to clap his hands in a threatening gesture (cf. 6:11), not merely once or twice but three times, representing the completeness of the coming judgment. The people are totally surrounded, with a glittering sword on all sides blocking every gate (21:15). This is reminiscent of the fiery sword wielded by the cherubim guarding the entrance to the garden of Eden (Gen. 3:24),162 though here the sword keeps people trapped inside the doomed city rather than outside the garden, preventing any access to the tree of life. This already hints at what is made explicit at the end of the oracle: the prophet who earlier was called to identify with the people and give expression to their pain and suffering is now incarnating the Lord’s response to the people’s rebellion. He is the one who is clapping his hands and summoning the lethal weapon into action against his own people. Through this comprehensive judgment the Lord will satisfy his fury against them.

21:18–24 In the third part the sword of the Lord takes concrete shape: it is the sword of the king of Babylon (Ezek. 21:21). Ezekiel is instructed to prepare another sign-act, in which he will create a map (perhaps by drawing on the ground), showing Nebuchadnezzar’s options as he moves southward. At some point along the way, probably near Damascus, Nebuchadnezzar will have to choose between two divergent roads—one that leads east of the Jordan River, to Rabbah of the Ammonites (modern Amman in Jordan), and another that passes west of the Jordan, down through the hill country of Israel and on to Jerusalem, which has been fortified to meet his coming. Humanly speaking, either of these locations could equally well be Nebuchadnezzar’s target; both are important cities at this time. Which city will survive and which will be destroyed by the Babylonian sword hangs in the balance as Nebuchadnezzar hesitates at the crossroads.

In classic ancient Near Eastern fashion, Nebuchadnezzar does not consult his generals or simply flip a coin. Instead he utilizes three distinct forms of pagan divination. “Shaking arrows” is like drawing straws: two (or more) arrows are marked with the different choices, then shaken together, with one drawn out, giving the divine leading as to which choice to make. The use of “teraphim” is less clear, even though the word occurs several times in the Bible with reference to household gods (cf. Gen. 31:19; Judg. 17:5; 1 Sam. 19:16; 2 Kings 23:24; Hos. 3:4; Zech. 10:2). Often some kind of divination is in view in these passages, perhaps with colored stones. Meanwhile, extispicy (the study of the internal organs and the liver of sacrificial animals for distinctive markings) was a well-known practice in antiquity. Its widespread nature is reflected in the diversity of locations in which models of livers with interpretive instructions have been found.163 Normally, any one of these methods might be deemed sufficient, but the agreement of all three surely confirms divine direction.

Of course, in this case the divine direction will not come from the pagan deities being consulted by Nebuchadnezzar. Rather, it is directed by the Lord himself, bringing the Babylonians in judgment against his own city. As the writer of Proverbs puts it, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (Prov. 16:33). This simple “accident of fate” leads to deadly consequences for Jerusalem: it is surrounded by battering rams, siege towers, and mounds with which to overcome the city walls and gates (Ezek. 21:22). The inhabitants of Judah should be experts in lying divinations, given their own love of the practice (cf. 13:7), so it is powerfully ironic that the Lord chooses this particular means to bring judgment upon them. For once the divination will reveal the truth, however unorthodox the technique. The oaths that the Judean leaders solemnly swore to the king of Babylon (and then casually broke; cf. 17:11–21) will not save them. He comes to “bring their guilt to remembrance,” in the sense of making it public knowledge (21:23). It is not coincidental that the subject is not explicit in the last part of verse 23. The “he” who brings their guilt to remembrance is both Nebuchadnezzar and, ultimately, God. The result of this conviction is the sentence in verse 24: they will be “taken in hand” (or “captured by force”).

21:25–27 At this point the prophet shifts his condemnation from the people to their prince, following up the obscure hints earlier to the cutting down of the scepter (cf. vv. 10; 13). Zedekiah is not identified by name but is cuttingly described as the “profane wicked one,” having defiled himself by breaking his oath to Nebuchadnezzar made in the Lord’s name (cf. v. 23; 17:19). He does not deserve to be called king but is rather named “prince of Israel.” The time of his final punishment is fast approaching, thanks to Nebuchadnezzar’s decision to target Jerusalem rather than Rabbah (21:20). Zedekiah will be stripped of his royal insignia, the turban and the crown (v. 26), a change which will lead to widespread upheaval across society as the low are exalted and the exalted are brought low. The Lord will make Jerusalem a “ruin” (Hb. ʿawwah, v. 27; repeated three times for emphasis), which is the fitting punishment for Zedekiah’s sin (ʿawon; from the same Hb. root). Again the Lord stresses the fact that this chaotic anarchy is not the result of some kind of impersonal karma; rather, he will make it a ruin.

The last verse of this portion of the oracle has often been seen positively as a messianic oracle, anticipating the coming of the one to whom the “right” (mishpat) of kingship belongs.164 However, mishpat nowhere else in Ezekiel has this positive sense of “right, claim,” and in 23:24 natati mishpat clearly refers to the Lord’s handing over judgment to the Babylonians. Ezekiel has reworked the messianic oracle of Genesis 49:10 into a threatening oracle of judgment. Now the scepter will not depart from Judah until the coming of the judge, who is Nebuchadnezzar!165 Yet on a deeper level the messianic reading is not entirely misguided. Nebuchadnezzar comes as the immediate embodiment of the Lord’s wrath against the sin of Zedekiah and his people, but he does so only as the Lord’s agent of judgment. By reminding his hearers of the Lord’s unbreakable promise in Genesis 49 that the scepter belongs to Judah’s line, the prophet implicitly assures them that, though the immediate future holds destruction for Judah, in which the scepter will depart from the defiled scions of David’s line, there is room for a future fulfillment of that messianic hope when the final King comes for the judgment of all people and the salvation of his elect.

21:28–32 This wider reality is the focus of the final part of the oracle. If judgment begins in this terrible way with the household of God, then those who are outsiders should not rejoice but tremble in fear, for they too must face this same God of justice (cf. 1 Pet. 4:17). If the Ammonites were tempted to take pride in their reprieve by the Lord’s oracle that directed Nebuchadnezzar to Jerusalem (Ezek. 21:20), they should think again. They too are the profane wicked whose time of punishment is fast approaching, as Zedekiah’s is (compare v. 29 with v. 25), and so the sword is prepared for their necks as well. The inclusiveness of the original parable, in which fire consumed every tree from the south to the north, is not just an inclusiveness within Israel but spreads more widely as well. Such a comprehensive judgment on the profane wicked must eventually extend to include even the sword of the Lord’s judgment, Babylon herself. It was drawn from the Lord’s scabbard in verse 5 and is finally returned to its sheath in verse 30, where it in turn will be judged for its actions. Babylon too, like the trees of Israel in the parable, will be fuel for the fire of God’s wrath (v. 32). But in her case there will be no remnant delivered from that outpouring of the Lord’s wrath: after the barbarians have finished wreaking their destruction upon her, Babylon will be remembered no more.