Ezekiel 21:22

With his right hand he will pick up the arrow marked ‘Jerusalem’. He will then command his soldiers to go to Jerusalem. When they arrive there, they will set up ◄rams/devices to batter down the walls,► and then the king will give the command for them to slaughter the people. They will shout a battle-cry, and they will set up the rams against the city gates. They will build a dirt ramp against the walls around the city, and set up things to bash those walls.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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

In Context

21When the army of Babylonia comes to where the road divides, they will stop, and the king will perform magic rituals to decide which road to go on. He will throw arrows; then consult his idols about which road to go on, and he will ◄examine/look at► the liver of a sheep.

23The people in Jerusalem who had promised to be loyal to the King of Babylonia will think that those rituals must be wrong. They will think that his army should not be attacking them. But he will remind them of the sins [MTY] that they had committed, and his army will capture them.

Read all of Ezekiel 21

Cross References

Exodus 32:17Joshua heard the very loud noise of the people shouting. So when he and I got near the camp, Joshua said, “There is a noise in the camp that sounds like the noise of a battle!”

Joshua 6:20So they did what Joshua told them to do. When the priests blew a long blast on their trumpets, the people/army shouted loudly, and the wall of the city collapsed! Then the Israeli soldiers rushed in and captured the city.

Job 39:25They neigh joyfully when they hear someone blowing the trumpet. They can smell a battle even when they are far away, and they understand what it means when the commanders shout their commands to their soldiers.

Jeremiah 33:4This is what I, Yahweh, the God whom you Israeli people say you belong to, say: ‘ The men in this city have torn down some of their houses, and even parts of the king’s palace, to get materials to strengthen the walls around the city, in order that the soldiers of Babylonia will not be able to break through the walls after they climb up the ramps that they have built against the walls, and kill the inhabitants with their swords.

Jeremiah 52:4So, on January 15, when Zedekiah had been ruling for almost nine years, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army to attack Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built dirt ramps up to the top of the city walls to enable them to attack the city.

Ezekiel 5:12One-third of your people will die inside the city because of the plagues they will experience or by ◄famine/lack of food►. One-third of your people will be killed by your enemies’ swords outside the city. And one-third I will cause to be scattered in all directions; but your enemies will still pursue you and kill you with their swords.

Matthew Henry on Ezekiel 21:19-28

Judgments Predicted. ( b. c. 592.) 18 The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, 19 Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the 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. 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 stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination:… Read the whole commentary →

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