以西结书 21
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
耶和华审判的刀
21 耶和华对我说： 2 “人子啊，你要面向耶路撒冷，说预言斥责以色列和圣所， 3 告诉以色列，耶和华这样说，‘我要与你为敌，我要拔刀将你那里的义人和恶人一同消灭， 4 从南到北不留一人， 5 使世人都知道我耶和华已拔刀出鞘，不再收回。’ 6 人子啊，你要在他们面前哀叹，要伤心欲绝地哀叹。 7 如果有人问你为什么哀叹，你就说有噩耗传来，听见的人都胆战心惊、两手发软、精神萎靡、膝弱如水。灾难必很快发生。这是主耶和华说的。”
8 耶和华对我说： 9 “人子啊，你要说预言，告诉他们，耶和华这样说，
“‘有一把刀，
有一把刀磨快擦亮了，
10 磨得锋利，为要杀戮，
擦得亮如闪电。
我们岂能因我儿的权杖而快乐？这刀鄙视一切权杖。 11 这刀已交给人去擦亮，好握在手中，这刀已磨快擦亮，预备交给屠杀的人。 12 人子啊，号啕大哭吧，因为这刀要攻击我的子民和所有以色列的首领，他们都要死于刀下。所以你要捶胸顿足。 13 这刀必试验他们，这刀所鄙视的权杖若不复存在，怎么办呢？这是主耶和华说的。’
14 “人子啊，你要拍掌对他们说预言，你要拿刀挥舞两三次，预示这刀要从四面八方大肆杀戮， 15 使他们吓得肝胆俱裂，许多人倒在家门口。我已赐下这亮如闪电的刀，用来杀戮。 16 刀啊，你要左砍右劈，大肆杀戮。 17 我要拍掌，我的烈怒要平息。这是我耶和华说的。”
18 耶和华对我说： 19 “人子啊，你要为巴比伦王的刀画出两条进攻之路，两条路要从一个地方出发，要在通往城邑的路口设路标。 20 一条路通往亚扪的拉巴城，一条路通往犹大的坚城耶路撒冷。 21 巴比伦王将站在两路的岔口，摇签求问他的神像，察看祭牲的肝。 22 他右手拿到的是攻打耶路撒冷的签，于是，他用撞城锤来攻耶路撒冷的城门，厮杀吶喊，建垒筑台围攻城池。 23 犹大人必认为这是虚假的征兆。他们曾向巴比伦王发誓效忠，但巴比伦王要使他们想起自己的罪，并掳走他们。
24 “主耶和华说，‘因为你们的过犯昭然若揭，你们的罪恶表露无遗，因此，你们必遭掳掠。 25 你这邪恶败坏的以色列首领啊！你的结局到了，审判你的日子来了。’ 26 主耶和华说，‘取下你的头巾，摘下你的冠冕吧，时局转变了。要提拔卑微的，贬抑高贵的。 27 毁灭，毁灭，我要毁灭这国，使它荡然无存，直到那应得的人来到后，这国才能得到重建，我要把这国交给他。’
28 “人子啊，你要说有关亚扪人及其耻辱的预言，告诉他们，主耶和华说，‘有刀，有刀已出鞘，为要杀戮；它亮如闪电，要行毁灭。 29 有关你们的异象和占卜是虚假的，你们将与其他恶人一同被杀，因为你们的结局到了，审判你们的日子来了。 30 你们要收刀入鞘，我要在你们的家乡，在你们的出生之地审判你们， 31 我要把烈怒倒在你们身上，将我的怒火喷在你们身上，把你们交在嗜杀成性的恶徒手中， 32 你们必被当作柴焚烧，你们的血必流在自己的土地上，无人再记得你们。因为这是我耶和华说的。’”
Ezekiel 21
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 21
The Sword of the Lord. 1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 [a]Son of man, turn your face to the south: preach against the south, prophesy against the forest land in the south. 3 Say to the forest in the south: Hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God: See! I am kindling a fire in you that shall devour every green tree as well as every dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched so that from south to north every face shall be scorched by it. 4 All flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.(A)
5 But I said, “Ah! Lord God, they are saying about me, ‘Is not this the one who is forever spinning parables?’” 6 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 7 Son of man, turn your face toward Jerusalem: preach against its sanctuary, prophesy against the land of Israel.(B) 8 Say to the land of Israel: Thus says the Lord: See! I am coming against you; I will draw my sword from its scabbard and cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.[b] 9 Thus my sword shall come out from its scabbard against all flesh from south to north 10 and all flesh shall know that I, the Lord, have drawn my sword from its scabbard. It cannot return again.(C)
Act Symbolic of the City’s Fall. 11 As for you, son of man, groan! with shattered loins and bitter grief, groan in their sight. 12 When they ask you, “Why are you groaning?” you shall say: Because of what I heard![c] When it comes every heart shall melt, every hand fall helpless; every spirit will grow faint, and every knee run with water. See, it is coming, it is here!—oracle of the Lord God.
Song of the Sword. 13 The word of the Lord came to me:(D) 14 Son of man, prophesy! say: Thus says the Lord:
A sword, a sword has been sharpened,
a sword, a sword has been burnished:(E)
15 Sharpened to make a slaughter,
burnished to flash lightning!
Why should I stop now?
You have rejected the rod and every judgment!
16 I have given it over to the burnisher
that he might hold it in his hand,
A sword sharpened and burnished
to be put in the hands of an executioner.
17 Cry out and howl, son of man,
for it is destined for my people,
For all the princes of Israel,
victims of the sword with my people.
Therefore, slap your thigh,[d]
18 for it is tested, and why not?
Since you rejected my staff,
should it not happen?—
oracle of the Lord God.
19 As for you, son of man, prophesy,
and clap your hands!
Let the sword strike twice, a third time.
It is a sword of slaughter,
A sword for slaughtering,
whirling around them all,
20 That every heart may tremble;
for many will be made to stumble.
At all their gates
I have stationed the sword for slaughter,
Made it flash lightning,
drawn for slaughter.
21 Slash to the right!
turn to the left,
Wherever your edge is directed!(F)
22 Then I, too, shall clap my hands,[e]
and spend my fury.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
Nebuchadnezzar at the Crossroads. 23 The word of the Lord came to me: 24 Son of man, make for yourself two roads over which the sword of the king of Babylon can come. Both roads shall start out from the same land. Then put a signpost at the head of each road 25 so the sword can come to Rabbah of the Ammonites or to Judah and its fortress, Jerusalem. 26 For the king of Babylon is standing at the fork of the two roads to read the omens:[f] he shakes out the arrows, inquires of the teraphim, inspects the liver.(G) 27 Into his right hand has fallen the lot marked “Jerusalem”:[g] to order the slaughter, to raise the battle cry, to set the battering rams against the gates, to throw up a ramp, to build siege works. 28 In the eyes of those bound by oath this seems like a false omen; yet the lot taken in hand exposes the wickedness for which they, still bound by oath, will be taken in hand.
29 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because your guilt has been exposed, your crimes laid bare, your sinfulness revealed in all your deeds—because you have been exposed, you shall be taken in hand.(H) 30 And as for you, depraved and wicked prince of Israel, a day is coming to end your life of crime.(I) 31 Thus says the Lord God: Off with the turban and away with the crown! Nothing shall be as it was! Exalt the lowly and bring the exalted low! 32 A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I shall make it! Nothing will be the same until the one comes to whom I have given it for judgment.(J)
To the Ammonites.[h] 33 As for you, son of man, prophesy: Thus says the Lord God to the Ammonites and their insults:
O sword, sword drawn for slaughter,
burnished to consume, to flash lightning!
34 Your false visions and lying omens,
Set you over the necks of the slain,
the wicked whose day had come—
an end to their life of crime.
35 Return to your scabbard!
In the place you were created,
In the land of your origin,
I will judge you.
36 I will pour out my anger upon you,
breathing my fiery wrath against you;
I will hand you over to ravagers,
artisans of destruction!
37 You shall be fuel for the fire,
your blood shall flow throughout the land;
You shall not be remembered,
for I, the Lord, have spoken.
Footnotes
- 21:2–4 In Babylon Ezekiel looks toward Judah, pictured as a forest about to be destroyed by fire.
- 21:8 Cut off from you the righteous and the wicked: a more complete devastation of Jerusalem than that described in 9:6.
- 21:12 What I heard: the news of the fall of Jerusalem; cf. 33:21–22.
- 21:17 Slap your thigh: a gesture signifying grief and dread; cf. Jer 31:19.
- 21:22 Clap my hands: the Lord declares himself no longer responsible for Judah; cf. 22:13; Nm 24:10; Jb 27:23; Lam 2:15.
- 21:26 Three forms of divination are mentioned: arrow divination, consisting in the use of differently marked arrows extracted or shaken from a case at random; the consultation of the teraphim or household idols; and liver divination, scrutiny of the configurations of the livers of newly slaughtered animals, a common form of divination in Mesopotamia.
- 21:27–28 A lot marked “Jerusalem” falls out, which marks the guilt of the city’s inhabitants.
- 21:33–37 In vv. 23–32 Ezekiel imagines Nebuchadnezzar deciding whether to attack Jerusalem or Rabbath-Ammon. As it happened, the Babylonians decided to attack Jerusalem first. Here (vv. 33–37) Ezekiel prophesies to the Ammonites that a nation which serves as an instrument of the Lord’s judgment will itself be judged.
Ezekiel 21
King James Version
21 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 sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked.
4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:
5 That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.
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 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 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 slayer.
12 Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be upon my people, it shall be upon all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon my 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 the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which entereth into their privy chambers.
15 I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their 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 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 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: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
22 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.
23 And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: 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.
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, and abase him that is high.
27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.
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: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering:
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 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 indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, and skilful to destroy.
32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt be no more remembered: for I the Lord have spoken it.
Chinese Contemporary Bible Copyright © 1979, 2005, 2007, 2011 by Biblica® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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