Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Ezekiel 21

Ezekiel announces God’s sword against Jerusalem and Ammon, exposing false assurances and placing royal authority under God’s judgment.

YHWH sends Ezekiel to announce judgment against Jerusalem, its sanctuaries, and the land of Israel. A drawn, sharpened sword pictures the slaughter to come, and Ezekiel must mourn before the people. The vision then follows Babylon’s king to a fork in the road, where divination points his army toward Jerusalem. Israel’s prince will lose his crown, with rule awaiting the one entitled to receive it. The closing oracle declares that Ammon also faces destruction.

sermon or Bible study notesleadership weightfear for the future
Read
2“Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and preach toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel.
3Tell the land of Israel, ‘The LORD says: “Behold, I am against you, and will draw my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.
4Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore my sword will go out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north.
5All flesh will know that I, the LORD, have drawn my sword out of its sheath. It will not return any more.”’
6“Therefore sigh, you son of man. You shall sigh before their eyes with a broken heart and with bitterness.
7It shall be, when they ask you, ‘Why do you sigh?’ that you shall say, ‘Because of the news, for it comes! Every heart will melt, all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord GOD.’”
9“Son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘The LORD says: “A sword! A sword! It is sharpened, and also polished.
10It is sharpened that it may make a slaughter. It is polished that it may be as lightning. Should we then make mirth? The rod of my son condemns every tree.
11It is given to be polished, that it may be handled. The sword is sharpened. Yes, it is polished to give it into the hand of the killer.”’
12Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people. It is on all the princes of Israel. They are delivered over to the sword with my people. Therefore beat your thigh.
13“For there is a trial. What if even the rod that condemns will be no more?” says the Lord GOD.
14“You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together. Let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the fatally wounded. It is the sword of the great one who is fatally wounded, which enters into their rooms.
15I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied. Ah! It is made as lightning. It is pointed for slaughter.
16Gather yourselves together. Go to the right. Set yourselves in array. Go to the left, wherever your face is set.
17I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest. I, the LORD, have spoken it.”
19“Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come. They both will come out of one land, and mark out a place. Mark it out at the head of the way to the city.
20You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.
21For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shook the arrows back and forth. He consulted the teraphim. He looked in the liver.
22In his right hand was the lot for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, and to build forts.
23It will be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken.
24“Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have caused your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to memory, you will be taken with the hand.
25“‘You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,
26the Lord GOD says: “Remove the turban, and take off the crown. This will not be as it was. Exalt that which is low, and humble that which is high.
27I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. This also will be no more, until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it.”’
28“You, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘The Lord GOD says this concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach: “A sword! A sword is drawn! It is polished for the slaughter, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;
29while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day has come in the time of the iniquity of the end.
30Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, I will judge you.
31I will pour out my indignation on you. I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath. I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.
32You will be for fuel to the fire. Your blood will be in the middle of the land. You will be remembered no more; for I, the LORD, have spoken it.”’”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Ezekiel 21:7Ezekiel’s public grief anticipates the fear that will overtake the people when the announced disaster arrives.
Ezekiel 21:25The accusation against Israel’s prince brings the sword oracle to the throne, where royal status offers no protection.
Ezekiel 21:29Ammon’s false visions promise security while God declares that its own day of judgment has come.
Where this chapter reaches

Jeremiah shares Ezekiel’s warnings of Babylonian attack and its exposure of false prophecy, linking Jerusalem’s fall with God’s judgment on persistent wrongdoing. Leviticus also names the sword among covenant judgments, connecting the threatened devastation with Israel’s accountability to YHWH.

Ezekiel 21's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What does Ezekiel’s commanded grief show you about the weight of announcing God’s judgment?

Write on this

Which source of security does this chapter expose most sharply, and what makes it seem secure?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Ezekiel 21

Why does Ezekiel 21 say God will cut off the righteous and the wicked?

The sword threatens the whole land, so the coming war will reach righteous and wicked people alike. The wording describes the breadth of a national catastrophe. It does not say that their conduct is morally equal or explain the eternal standing of each person caught in the destruction.

Why does the king of Babylon use divination in Ezekiel 21?

At the fork between roads to Jerusalem and Rabbah, Babylon’s king uses arrows, household idols called teraphim, and a liver to seek direction. The result points toward Jerusalem. Ezekiel presents this decision as serving YHWH’s announced judgment; the account gives no approval of these practices.

Who is the one whose right it is in Ezekiel 21:27?

The phrase follows the removal of Israel’s ruler and crown. It points toward a coming figure who has the right to rule and receives that authority from God. The verse leaves him unnamed. Christian readers understand this expectation as messianic and see its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Ezekiel 21. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Ezekiel · 48 chapters
123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748
What the Bible says about fear →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).