the holy places--the three parts of the temple: the courts, the holy place, and the holiest. If "synagogues" existed before the Babylonian captivity, as Psa 74:8 seems to imply, they and the proseuchÃ&brvbr;, or oratories, may be included in the "holy places" here.
glitter--literally, "glitter as the lightning flash": flashing terror into the foe.
should we . . . make mirth--It is no time for levity when such a calamity is impending (Isa 22:12-13).
it contemneth the rod of my son, &c.--The sword has no more respect to the trivial "rod" or scepter of Judah (Gen 49:10) than if it were any common "tree." "Tree" is the image retained from Eze 20:47; explained in Eze 21:2-3. God calls Judah "My son" (compare Exo 4:22; Hos 11:1). FAIRBAIRN arbitrarily translates, "Perchance the scepter of My son rejoiceth; it (the sword) despiseth every tree."
smite . . . upon . . . thigh--a mark of grief (Jer 31:19).
it shall be no more--the scepter, that is, the state, must necessarily then come to an end. Fulfilled in part at the overthrow of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, but fully at the time of "Shiloh's" (Messiah's) coming (Gen 49:10), when Judea became a Roman province.
sword . . . doubled the third time--referring to the threefold calamity:--(1) The taking of Zedekiah (to whom the "rod," or scepter, may refer); (2) the taking of the city; (3) the removal of all those who remained with Gedaliah. "Doubled" means "multiplied" or "repeated." The stroke shall be doubled and even trebled.
of the slain--that is, by which many are slain. As the Hebrew is singular, FAIRBAIRN makes it refer to the king, "the sword of the great one that is slain," or "pierced through."
entereth . . . privy chambers-- (Jer 9:21). The sword shall overtake them, not merely in the open battlefield, but in the chambers whither they flee to hide themselves (Kg1 20:30; Kg1 22:25). MAURER translates, "which besieged them"; FAIRBAIRN, "which penetrates to them." English Version is more literal.
ruins--literally, "stumbling-blocks." Their own houses and walls shall be stumbling-blocks in their way, whether they wish to fight or flee.
made bright--made to glitter.
wrapped, &c.--namely, in the hand of him who holds the hilt, or in its scabbard, that the edge may not be blunt when it is presently drawn forth to strike. GESENIUS, translates, "sharpened," &c.
Go . . . one way--or, "Concentrate thyself"; "Unite thy forces on the right hand" [GROTIUS]. The sword is commanded to take the nearest route for Jerusalem, "whither their face was set," whether south or north ("right hand or left"), according to where the several parts of the Chaldean host may be.
or other, . . . on the left--rather "set thyself on the left." The verbs are well-chosen. The main "concentration" of forces was to be on "the right hand," or south, the part of Judea in which Jerusalem was, and which lay south in marching from Babylon, whereas the Chaldean forces advancing on Jerusalem from Egypt, of which Jerusalem was north, were fewer, and therefore "set thyself" is the verb used.
cause . . . fury to rest--give it full vent, and so satisfy it (Eze 5:13).
out of one land--namely, Babylon.
choose . . . a place--literally "a hand." So it is translated by FAIRBAIRN, "make a finger-post," namely, at the head of the two ways, the hand post pointing Nebuchadnezzar to the way to Jerusalem as the way he should select. But MAURER rightly supports English Version. Ezekiel is told to "choose the place" where Nebuchadnezzar should do as is described in Eze 21:20-21; so entirely does God order by the prophet every particular of place and time in the movements of the invader.
to Judah in Jerusalem--instead of simply putting "Jerusalem," to imply the sword was to come not merely to Judah, but to its people within Jerusalem, defended though it was; its defenses on which the Jews relied so much would not keep the foe out.
made . . . bright--rather, "shook," from an Arabic root.
arrows--Divination by arrows is here referred to: they were put into a quiver marked with the names of particular places to be attacked, and then shaken together; whichever came forth first intimated the one selected as the first to be attacked [JEROME]. The same usage existed among the Arabs, and is mentioned in the Koran. In the Nineveh sculptures the king is represented with a cup in his right hand, his left resting on a bow; also with two arrows in the right, and the bow in the left, probably practising divination.
images--Hebrew, "teraphim"; household gods, worshipped as family talismans, to obtain direction as to the future and other blessings. First mentioned in Mesopotamia, whence Rachel brought them (Gen 31:19, Gen 31:34); put away by Jacob (Gen 35:4); set up by Micah as his household gods (Jdg 17:5); stigmatized as idolatry (Sa1 15:23, Hebrew; Zac 10:2, Margin).
liver--They judged of the success, or failure, of an undertaking by the healthy, or unhealthy, state of the liver and entrails of a sacrifice.
captains--The Margin, "battering-rams," adopted by FAIRBAIRN, is less appropriate, for "battering-rams" follow presently after [GROTIUS].
open the mouth in . . . slaughter--that is, commanding slaughter: raising the war cry of death. Not as GESENIUS, "to open the mouth with the war shout."
but he, &c.--Nebuchadnezzar will remember in consulting his idols that he swore to Zedekiah by them, but that Zedekiah broke the league [GROTIUS]. Rather, God will remember against them (Rev 16:19) their violating their oath sworn by the true God, whereas Nebuchadnezzar kept his oath sworn by a false god; Eze 21:24 confirms this.
with the hand--namely, of the king of Babylon.
when iniquity shall have an end-- (Eze 21:29). When thine iniquity, having reached its last stage of guilt, shall be put an end to by judgment (Eze 35:5).
this shall not be the same--The diadem shall not be as it was [ROSENMULLER]. Nothing shall remain what it was [FAIRBAIRN].
exalt . . . low, . . . abase . . . high--not the general truth expressed (Pro 3:34; Luk 1:52; Jam 4:6; Pe1 5:5); but specially referring to Messiah and Zedekiah contrasted together. The "tender plant . . . out of the dry ground" (Isa 53:2) is to be "exalted" in the end (Eze 21:27); the now "high" representative on David's throne, Zedekiah, is to be "abased." The outward relations of things shall be made to change places in just retaliation on the people for having so perverted the moral relations of things [HENGSTENBERG].
it shall be no more, until he come whose fight it is--strikingly parallel to Gen 49:10. Nowhere shall there be rest or permanence; all things shall be in fluctuation until He comes who, as the rightful Heir, shall restore the throne of David that fell with Zedekiah. The Hebrew for "right" is "judgment"; it perhaps includes, besides the right to rule, the idea of His rule being one in righteousness (Psa 72:2; Isa 9:6-7; Isa 11:4; Rev 19:11). Others (Nebuchadnezzar, &c.), who held the rule of the earth delegated to them by God, abused it by unrighteousness, and so forfeited the "right." He both has the truest "right" to the rule, and exercises it in "right." It is true the tribal "scepter" continued with Judah "till Shiloh came" (Gen 49:10); but there was no kingly scepter till Messiah came, as the spiritual King then (Joh 18:36-37); this spiritual kingdom being about to pass into the literal, personal kingdom over Israel at His second coming, when, and not before, this prophecy shall have its exhaustive fulfilment (Luk 1:32-33; Jer 3:17; Jer 10:7; "To thee doth it appertain").
their reproach--This constituted a leading feature in their guilt; they treated with proud contumely the covenant-people after the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Eze 25:3, Eze 25:6; Zep 2:9-10), and appropriated Israel's territory (Jer 49:1; Amo 1:13-15).
furbished, to consume--MAURER punctuates thus, "Drawn for the slaughter, it is furbished to devour ('consume'), to glitter." English Version, "to consume because of the glittering," means, "to consume by reason of the lightning, flash-like rapidity with which it falls." Five years after the fall of Jerusalem, Ammon was destroyed for aiding Ishmael in usurping the government of Judea against the will of the king of Babylon (Kg2 25:25; Jer 41:15) [GROTIUS].
when their iniquity shall have an end--See on Eze 21:25.
in the land of thy nativity--Ammon was not to be carried away captive as Judah, but to perish in his own land.
brutish--ferocious.
skilful to destroy--literally, "artificers of destruction"; alluding to Isa 54:16.
be no more remembered--be consigned as a nation to oblivion.
Repetition of the charges in the twentieth chapter only that there they were stated in an historical review of the past and present; here the present sins of the nation exclusively are brought forward.