The destruction of Jerusalem by the sword is further described: the ruin
also of the Ammonites is forshewn. And finally Babylon, the destroyer of
others, shall be destroyed.
21:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
21:2. Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and let thy speech flow
towards the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel:
21:3. And say to the land of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I
come against thee, and I will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and
will cut off in thee the just, and the wicked.
21:4. And forasmuch as I have cut off in thee the just and the wicked,
therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh,
from the south even to the north.
21:5. That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my sword out of
its sheath not to be turned back.
21:6. And thou, son of man, mourn with the breaking of thy loins, and
with bitterness sigh before them.
21:7. And when they shall say to thee: Why mournest thou? thou shalt
say: For that which I hear: because it cometh, and every heart shall
melt, and all hands shall be made feeble, and every spirit shall faint,
and water shall run down every knee: behold it cometh, and it shall be
done, saith the Lord God.
21:8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
21:9. Son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Say: The
sword, the sword is sharpened, and furbished.
21:10. It is sharpened to kill victims: it is furbished that it may
glitter: thou removest the sceptre of my son, thou hast cut down every
tree.
Thou removest the sceptre of my son... He speaks (according to St.
Jerome) to the sword of Nabuchodonosor: which was about to remove the
sceptre of Israel, whom God here calls his son.
21:11. And I have given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this
sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, that it may be in the hand of
the slayer.
21:12. Cry, and howl, O son of man, for this sword is upon my people, it
is upon all the princes of Israel, that are fled: they are delivered up
to the sword with my people, strike therefore upon thy thigh,
21:13. Because it is tried: and that when it shall overthrow the
sceptre, and it shall not be, saith the Lord God.
21:14. Thou therefore, O son of man, prophesy, and strike thy hands
together, and let the sword be doubled, and let the sword of the slain
be tripled: this is the sword of a great slaughter, that maketh them
stand amazed,
21:15. And languish in heart, and that multiplieth ruins. In all their
gates I have set the dread of the sharp sword, the sword that is
furbished to glitter, that is made ready for slaughter.
21:16. Be thou sharpened, go to the right hand, or to the left, which
way soever thou hast a mind to set thy face.
21:17. And I will clap my hands together, and will satisfy my
indignation: I the Lord have spoken.
21:18. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
21:19. And thou son of man, set thee two ways, for the sword of the king
of Babylon to come: both shall come forth out of one land: and with his
hand he shall draw lots, he shall consult at the head of the way of the
city.
21:20. Thou shalt make a way that the sword may come to Rabbath of the
children of Ammon, and to Juda unto Jerusalem the strong city.
21:21. For the king of Babylon stood in the highway, at the head of two
ways, seeking divination, shuffling arrows: he inquired of the idols,
and consulted entrails.
21:22. On his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to set
battering rams, to open the mouth in slaughter, to lift up the voice in
howling, to set engines against the gates, to cast up a mount, to build
forts.
21:23. And he shall be in their eyes as one consulting the oracle in
vain, and imitating the leisure of sabbaths: but he will call to
remembrance the iniquity that they may be taken.
21:24. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have remembered
your iniquity, and have discovered your prevarications, and your sins
have appeared in all your devices: because, I say, You have remembered,
you shall be taken with the hand.
21:25. But thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come that
hath been appointed in the time of iniquity:
Thou profane, etc... He speaks to king Sedecias, who had broken his
oath, and was otherwise a wicked prince.
21:26. Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, take off the crown:
is it not this that hath exalted the low one, and brought down him that
was high?
Is it not this that hath exalted the low one... The royal crown of Juda
had exalted Sedecias from a private state and condition to the sovereign
power, as the loss of it had brought down Jechonias, etc.
21:27. I will shew it to be iniquity, iniquity, iniquity: but this was
not done till he came to whom judgment belongeth, and I will give it
him.
I will shew it to be iniquity, etc... Or, I will overturn it, viz., the
crown of Juda for the manifold iniquities of the kings: but it shall not
be utterly removed, till Christ come whose right it is: and who shall
reign in the spiritual house of Jacob, that is, in his church, for
evermore.
21:28. And thou son of man, prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God
concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach, and
thou shalt say: O sword, O sword, come out of the scabbard to kill, be
furbished to destroy, and to glitter,
Concerning their reproach... By which they had reproached and insulted
over the Jews, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.
21:29. Whilst they see vain things in thy regard, and they divine lies:
to bring thee upon the necks of the wicked that are wounded, whose
appointed day is come in the time of iniquity.
21:30. Return into thy sheath. I will judge thee in the place wherein
thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity.
Return into thy sheath, etc... The sword of Babylon, after raging
against many nations, was shortly to be judged and destroyed at home by
the Medes and Persians.
21:31. And I will pour out upon thee my indignation: in the fire of my
rage will I blow upon thee, and will give thee into the hands of men
that are brutish and contrive thy destruction.
21:32. Thou shalt be fuel for the fire, thy blood shall be in the midst
of the land, thou shalt be forgotten: for I the Lord have spoken it.