21 And all his fugitives, with all his bands, By sword do fall, and those remaining, To every wind they are spread out, And ye have known that I, Jehovah, have spoken.
And the force of the Chaldeans pursue after the king, and overtake him in the plains of Jericho, and all his force have been scattered from him;
And the rest of the people, those left in the city, and those falling who have fallen to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude, hath Nebuzaradan chief of the executioners removed;
`And all who are round about him to help him, and all his bands, I do scatter to every wind, and a sword I draw out after them.
O Jehovah, high `is' Thy hand -- they see not, They see the zeal of the people, and are ashamed, Also, the fire -- Thine adversaries, consumeth them.
And the forces of the Chaldeans pursue after the king, and overtake Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his forces have been scattered from him,
Therefore fathers do eat sons in thy midst, And sons eat their fathers, And I have done in thee judgments, And have scattered all thy remnant to every wind.
And they have known that I `am' Jehovah, Not for nought have I spoken to do to them this evil.
And I have broken down the wall that ye daubed with chalk, And have caused it to come unto the earth, And revealed hath been its foundation, And it hath fallen, And ye have been consumed in its midst, And ye have known that I `am' Jehovah.
And I have set My face against them, From the fire they have gone forth, And the fire doth consume them, And ye have known that I `am' Jehovah, In My setting My face against them.
I have seen the Lord standing by the altar, and He saith: `Smite the knob, and the thresholds shake, And cut them off by the head -- all of them, And their posterity with a sword I do slay, Not flee to them doth the fleer, Nor escape to them doth a fugitive.
For lo, I am commanding, And I have shaken among all the nations the house of Israel, As `one' doth shake with a sieve, And there falleth not a grain `to' the earth. By sword die do all sinners of My people, Who are saying, `Not overtake, or go before, For our sakes, doth evil.'
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ezekiel 17
Commentary on Ezekiel 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
God was, in the foregoing chapter, reckoning with the people of Judah, and bringing ruin upon them for their treachery in breaking covenant with him; in this chapter he is reckoning with the king of Judah for his treachery in breaking covenant with the king of Babylon; for when God came to contend with them he found many grounds of his controversy. The thing was now in doing: Zedekiah was practising with the king of Egypt underhand for assistance in a treacherous project he had formed to shake off the yoke of the king of Babylon, and violate the homage and fealty he had sworn to him. For this God by the prophet here,
Eze 17:1-21
We must take all these verses together, that we may have the parable and the explanation of it at one view before us, because they will illustrate one another.
Let us now see what the matter of this message is.
Eze 17:22-24
When the royal family of Judah was brought to desolation by the captivity of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah it might be asked, "What has now become of the covenant of royalty made with David, that his children should sit upon his throne for evermore? Do the sure mercies of David prove thus unsure?' To this it is sufficient for the silencing of the objectors to answer that the promise was conditional. If they will keep my covenant, then they shall continue, Ps. 132:12. But David's posterity broke the condition, and so forfeited the promise. But the unbelief of man shall not invalidate the promise of God. He will find out another seed of David in which it shall be accomplished; and that is promised in these verses.