Ezekiel 21:26-28
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
26 For the king of Babylon is standing at the fork of the two roads to read the omens:[a] he shakes out the arrows, inquires of the teraphim, inspects the liver.(A) 27 Into his right hand has fallen the lot marked “Jerusalem”:[b] 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.
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- 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.
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