EXEGETICAL NOTES. (Ezekiel 21:8-17.) The sword is sharpened for slaying. As they are a people who refuse to understand, the judgment is announced in the plainest terms.
Ezekiel 21:9. “And also furbished.” As if the sword so long unused had rusted in its sheath. “The repetition—a sword, a sword, is not without effect—definitely pointing to the destructive weapon to be employed in the war. To augment the terror which the announcement was calculated to inspire, the sword is described as sharpened, prepared to do execution, and also polished. The glittering of a highly-polished sword, wielded in the sun, is truly terrific (Deuteronomy 32:41; Job 20:25”).—(Henderson.)
Ezekiel 21:10. It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter. Heb. That slaying it may slay. It is made ready not for display, but for its terrible work of judgment. It is furbished that it may glitter. Heb. Have lightning, Comp. Ezekiel 21:28. This is the sword spoken of in Deuteronomy 32:41, where the expression, “My glittering sword “is literally” the lightning of My sword.” Such also is the sword wielded by the Cherubim (Ezekiel 1:13-14), and by those who were the avengers of God’s broken Law. (Exodus 19:16). “Should we then make mirth?” Nothing could be worse-timed than to make light of these judgments. “It contemneth the rod of My son, as every tree.” “My son,” is the same as “My people,” in Ezekiel 21:12. The expression, the rod of My son, is the genitive of object—i e., the instrument employed in punishing My son. In accordance with this is the rendering of the Revised Version, “The rod of My son, it contemneth every tree.” The sword of Nebuchadnezzar was the rod which punished God’s people, and that rod of the universal conqueror set at nought all others.
Ezekiel 21:11. “And He hath given it to be furbished that it may be handled.” “He hath given,” used impersonally for and it is given, according to an idiom common in Hebrew. “The instrument of destruction was quite prepared, and only required to be employed by Jehovah against His apostate people.”—(Henderson.)
Ezekiel 21:12. “For it shall be upon My people.” The object of the Chaldean expedition is here clearly pointed out. The Jews were not to delude themselves with the idea that it was Egypt or any other neighbouring nation that was to come under the judgment of God’s avenging sword. The punishment would fall upon themselves.
Ezekiel 21:13. “Because it is a trial.” “These words point with the utmost brevity to the character of the impending time, which presented itself in rosy hues to the politically excited people. Trial is a terrible word to a people that suffers the deepest calamities. When the trial comes, nothing remains undisclosed, nothing unrequited; every varnish disappears, and all glitter vanishes.”—(Hengstenberg). “And what if the sword contemn even the rod? it shall be no more, saith the Lord God.” “With a view to the sanguine imaginations by which the people sought to banish the thought of the hardness of the times, the prophet then asks, ‘And how? should the despising rod (the punishment that far outstrips all other punishments, Ezekiel 21:10) not be?’ And the answer to this question he gives in the names of God, which utter a loud no to these illusions.”—(Hengstenberg.) “If Nebuchadnezzar should really despise the resistance made by the Jewish state, which he did (Ezekiel 21:10)—what was to be expected as the consequence? That state must necessarily come to an end, it shall not be. Such I regard as the meaning of this most difficult verse.”—(Henderson.) The general idea of the text is, what if, under this terrible judgment, Judah’s temporal power and royalty shall cease to exist? And in Ezekiel 21:27, we are told that this result shall certainly come to pass. But the kingdom shall be restored by One whose sceptre of righteousness despises every earthly power.
Ezekiel 21:14. “And let the sword be doubled the third time.” “These words are designed to express the tremendous size and power of the sword to be employed. It was no ordinary foe that was to attack the Jews. All hopes of escape were vain. It was a sword that had been well tried, and proved successful in many a battle,—the sword of the slain.”—(Henderson.) “Which entereth into their privy chambers.” It will invade the sanctity of their houses (Deuteronomy 32:25). There may be some reference also to its penetrating into their secret “chambers of imagery” (Ezekiel 8:12).
Ezekiel 21:15. “I have set the point of the sword against all their gates.” The gates of their city are to be besieged by the naked sword. “And their ruins be multiplied.” Heb., And the fallen be numerous in all their gates. “Wrapped up for the slaughter.” Rather, made keen, or sharpened, for the slaughter.
Ezekiel 21:16. “Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.” The address is to the sword, as if it were an army. The “right” and “left” show how wide is the area over which God shall execute His judgments; so wide that it embraces not only Judea, but a whole group of peoples. The word “whithersoever” seems to imply the idea of direction by the “living creatures” (Ezekiel 1:9; Ezekiel 1:12).
Ezekiel 21:17. “I will also smite Mine hands together.” “By a strong anthropopathy Jehovah declares He will do what He had commanded the prophet to do (Ezekiel 21:14). Smiting the hands together is an indication of violent grief. “I will cause My fury to rest” signifies, not the forbearing to pour it out in judgment, but the full and permanent infliction of it” (Henderson.) The fury of God is said to “rest” when it reaches its object, thus abiding upon it. “Jehovah will smite His hands together and cool His wrath upon them” (Keil).
HOMILETICS
THE SACRED, TERRIBLE SWORD-SONG
The prophets doubtless treated politics both on their outward and inward side, but only the politics of the kingdom of God (Ezekiel 21:9). God shows us the sword, and waves it over our heads, so that we should be duly and profitably alarmed. He can use every creature as His sword; it is always prepared to execute His command. War as a divine judgment, therefore, for the punishment of evil doers; but it is also a preaching of repentance, when God sharpens the sword and makes it glitter. He who will not submit to the sword of God’s word (Hebrews 4:12) will be overtaken by the sword of the enemy. God Himself takes the offering which men will not give Him voluntarily (Ezekiel 21:10). There can be joy amid the deepest sufferings, but not over another’s suffering, especially when it is punishment for sin. The sin of the people presses the sword into the hand for war (Ezekiel 21:11). Sin was also interwoven with the conquering chaplets of the victors, as the dew upon these chaplets was innumerable tears and drops of blood. This must ever be remembered amid songs of triumph! Fortune of war, as men call it, what a sad fortune! God is the judge behind and in the conqueror. “Upon all the princes of Israel” (Ezekiel 21:12.) Even the great have no privilege to sin. Trial is a terrible word to a people that suffers the deepest calamities. A tried sword is a dreadful thing when it turns against a people whom God has given up to judgment. One day an end will be made of all despisers of God and man. The history of the world as the fulfiment of prophecy (Ezekiel 21:14). Symbolical prophecy—the emblems of punishment. Some must prophesy judgment who would so willingly speak of redemption, and redemption alone; men will not have the blessing, and therefore the curse must be exhibited. God’s sword draws not back from human elevation; it reaches the dwellers in the valley, and those also who sit on lofty seats. No earthly throne is a protection from the sword of God; the history of the world is filled with proofs of this. The last mighty pierced-through one is Antichrist. Alas, who can hide from the wrath of God!—(Lange.)
“Because it is a trial.” We may consider Ezekiel 21:12-13 as thus understood: There is cause thou shouldst cry, howl, smite upon thy thigh, because the sword shall be a trial; and what also if it shall not be a despising rod? If it be a trying rod, there is cause enough to mourn, but it shall be a despising rod, and so there is more cause to mourn. If this rod make them not try their ways, repent, and turn, it shall be a rod to despise the stoutest of them and to destroy them.
1. That the judgments of God are trials. They discover and make known what people are. The fire tries the metals, and declares what is good silver, good gold and what is reprobate. God kept the children of Israel forty years in the wilderness, to prove them, and know what was in their hearts (Deuteronomy 8:8). The hard things they met with there discovered some to be murmurers, some idolaters, some fornicators, some backsliders. “It shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God” (Isaiah 8:21). When evil was upon them, then their wickedness appeared. So Jehoram said, “This evil is of the Lord, why should I wait for the Lord any longer?” His vileness came out in the time of his distress. When great winds are abroad, they discover what trees are sound or rotten.
2. God tries before he destroys. Rods of trial came before rods of destruction. When the sword is drawn, furbished, and whet, the Lord tries men thereby, whether they will consider their ways, repent and turn to Him, before He cut and destroy therewith. Tidings and terrors of the sword precede the strokes of it. God tries His people by threatenings, by bringing judgments near unto them, by inflicting lesser judgments upon them, before He makes an utter destruction of them; that they may learn righteousness, humble themselves, and so either prevent the judgments, or have them turned into mercies.
3. When rods of trial do us no good, then follow rods of destruction. When the trying rod hath been despised, then comes the rod that will not regard high or low, prince or people. At first God did lightly afflict Zebulun and Napthali, but that being in vain, afterwards He afflicts them more grievously (Isaiah 9:1). When Dimon profited not by her first strokes, God laid more upon her (Isaiah 15:9). When smiting the lintel of the door, and shaking the posts, did not prevail, then did the Lord cut and slay with the sword (Amos 9:1). If fear work not, He hath a pit; if that do it not, He hath a snare (Isaiah 24:17-18). When paternal chastisements profit not, God hath destroying judgments. He will deal then with men, not as erring children, but as open enemies.—(Greenhill.)