Ezekiel 12:14

12:14 All his retinue – his attendants and his troops – I will scatter to every wind; I will unleash a sword behind them.

Ezekiel 12:22

12:22 “Son of man, what is this proverb you have in the land of Israel, ‘The days pass slowly, and every vision fails’?

Ezekiel 21:10

21:10 It is sharpened for slaughter,

it is polished to flash like lightning!

“‘Should we rejoice in the scepter of my son? No! The sword despises every tree! ¹ 

Ezekiel 30:16

30:16 I will ignite a fire in Egypt;

Syene ²  will writhe in agony,

Thebes will be broken down,

and Memphis will face enemies every day.

Ezekiel 38:21

38:21 I will call for a sword to attack ³  Gog ⁴  on all my mountains, declares the sovereign Lord; every man’s sword will be against his brother.

Ezekiel 44:29

44:29 They may eat the grain offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering, and every devoted thing in Israel will be theirs.

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¹ tn Heb “Or shall we rejoice, scepter of my son, it despises every tree.” The translation understands the subject of the verb “despises,” which is a feminine form in the Hebrew text, to be the sword (which is a feminine noun) mentioned just before this. Alternatively, the line may be understood as “let us not rejoice, O tribe of my son; it despises every tree.” The same word in Hebrew may be either “rod,” “scepter,” or “tribe.” The word sometimes translated as “or” or taken as an interrogative particle may be a negative particle. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:672, n. 79.

sn The people of Judah should not place false hope in their king, symbolized by his royal scepter, for God’s judgment (symbolized by fire and then a sword) would destroy every tree (see 20:47), symbolizing the righteous and wicked (see 21:3-4).

² tc The LXX reads “Syene,” which is Aswan in the south. The MT reads Sin, which has already been mentioned in v. 15.

³ tn Heb “against.”

⁴ tn Heb “him”; the referent (Gog, cf. v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.