Ezekiel 21:12-22
Good News Translation
12 Howl in grief, mortal man;
this sword is meant for my people
and for all the leaders of Israel.
They are going to be killed
with all the rest of my people.
Beat your breast in despair!
13 I am testing my people,
and if they refuse to repent,
all these things will happen to them.[a]
14 “Now, mortal man, prophesy. Clap your hands, and the sword will strike again and again. It is a sword that kills, a sword that terrifies[b] and slaughters. 15 It makes my people lose courage and stumble. I am threatening their city with a sword[c] that flashes like lightning and is ready to kill. 16 Cut to the right and the left, you sharp sword! Cut wherever you turn.[d] 17 I also will clap my hands, and my anger will be over. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
The Sword of the King of Babylonia
18 The Lord spoke to me. 19 “Mortal man,” he said, “mark out two roads by which the king of Babylonia can come with his sword. Both of them are to start in the same country. Put up a signpost where the roads fork.[e] 20 One will show the king the way to the Ammonite city of Rabbah, and the other the way to Judah, to the fortified city, Jerusalem. 21 The king of Babylonia stands by the signpost at the fork of the road. To discover which way to go, he shakes the arrows;[f] he consults his idols; he examines the liver of a sacrificed animal. 22 Now! His right hand holds the arrow marked ‘Jerusalem’! It tells him to go and set up battering rams, to shout the battle cry, to place battering rams against the gates, to throw up earthworks, and to dig trenches.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ezekiel 21:13 Verse 13 in Hebrew is unclear.
- Ezekiel 21:14 Some ancient translations terrifies; Hebrew unclear.
- Ezekiel 21:15 Probable text threatening … sword; Hebrew unclear.
- Ezekiel 21:16 Verse 16 in Hebrew is unclear.
- Ezekiel 21:19 Probable text Put … fork; Hebrew unclear.
- Ezekiel 21:21 When faced with a decision, people in ancient times would sometimes take a handful of arrows, throw them down, and study the pattern in which they fell, in order to learn what to do.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
