Ezekiel 21:13-22
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 For consider: What! If you despise the rod, will it not happen?[a] says the Lord God.
14 And you, mortal, prophesy;
strike hand to hand.
Let the sword fall twice, thrice;
it is a sword for killing.
A sword for great slaughter—
it surrounds them;(A)
15 therefore hearts melt,
and many stumble.
At all their gates I have set
the point[b] of the sword.
Ah! It is made for flashing;
it is drawn for slaughter.
16 Attack to the right!
Engage to the left!
—wherever your edge is directed.
17 I, too, will strike hand to hand;
I will satisfy my fury;
I the Lord have spoken.(B)
18 The word of the Lord came to me: 19 Mortal, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them shall issue from the same land. And make a signpost; make it for a fork in the road leading to a city;(C) 20 mark out the road for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites or to Judah and to[c] Jerusalem the fortified.(D) 21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the fork in the two roads, to use divination; he shakes the arrows; he consults the teraphim;[d] he inspects the liver.(E) 22 Into his right hand comes the lot for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to call out for slaughter, for raising the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up ramps, to build siege towers.
Read full chapterNew Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.