# Ezekiel 21

> Lumin Translation

Source: https://www.lumin.faith/read/ezekiel/21

Lumin’s own translation, drafted with AI from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, checked verse by verse against them, and approved by Lumin. Brackets mark verses not found in the earliest manuscripts.

How it was made: https://www.lumin.faith/lumin-translation.md

1. The word of Yahweh came to me:
2. “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, preach against the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel.
3. Say to the land of Israel, ‘This is what Yahweh says: I am against you. I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked.
4. Because I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will go out from its sheath against all people from south to north.
5. Then all people will know that I, Yahweh, have drawn my sword from its sheath; it will not go back again.’
6. As for you, son of man, groan! Groan in front of them with a breaking heart and bitter grief.
7. When they ask you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you are to say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt, every hand will go limp, every spirit will grow faint, and every knee will turn to water. It is coming, and it will happen, declares Lord Yahweh.’”
8. The word of Yahweh came to me:
9. “Son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what the Lord says.’ Say: ‘A sword, a sword, sharpened and polished,
10. sharpened for a slaughter, polished to flash like lightning! Or should we rejoice? It despises the scepter of my son, as it despises every tree.
11. The sword is given to be polished, to be gripped in the hand. It is sharpened, the sword, and it is polished, to be put into the hand of the killer.’
12. Cry out and wail, son of man, for it is against my people; it is against all the princes of Israel. They are handed over to the sword along with my people. So beat your thigh.
13. For a testing has come. And what if even the scepter that it despises is no more? declares Lord Yahweh.
14. So you, son of man, prophesy, and clap your hands together. Let the sword strike twice, even three times. It is a sword for the slain, the sword for the great slaughter, closing in on them from every side,
15. so that hearts will melt and many will stumble. At all their gates I have set the sword’s point. Ah! It is made to flash like lightning; it is grasped for slaughter.
16. Gather yourself, strike to the right! Set yourself, strike to the left, wherever your edge is aimed!
17. I too will clap my hands together, and I will bring my fury to rest. I, Yahweh, have spoken.”
18. The word of Yahweh came to me:
19. “As for you, son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come by. Both of them are to start from the same land. And make a signpost; make it at the head of the road to a city.
20. Mark out a road for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites, and to Judah, to fortified Jerusalem.
21. For the king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road, at the head of the two roads, to practice divination. He shakes the arrows, he consults the household idols, he inspects the liver.
22. Into his right hand comes the lot for Jerusalem: to set up battering rams, to call out for slaughter, to raise the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to heap up a siege ramp, to build siege walls.
23. To them it will look like a false divination, since they have sworn solemn oaths. But he will call their guilt to mind, so that they will be captured.
24. Therefore this is what Lord Yahweh says: Because you have called your guilt to mind by letting your transgressions be uncovered, so that your sins appear in all your deeds, because you have been called to mind, you will be seized in his grip.
25. As for you, profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time for final punishment,
26. this is what Lord Yahweh says: Remove the turban, and take off the crown! Things will not stay as they are. Lift up the lowly, and bring down the lofty.
27. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I will make it! This too will be no more, until he comes to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him.
28. As for you, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘This is what Lord Yahweh says concerning the Ammonites and their taunts.’ Say: ‘A sword, a sword is drawn for slaughter, polished to devour, to flash like lightning,
29. while they see false visions for you and divine lies for you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, the time for final punishment.
30. Return it to its sheath! In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.
31. I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath. I will hand you over to brutal men, skilled at destroying.
32. You will be fuel for the fire; your blood will be in the middle of the land. You will not be remembered, for I, Yahweh, have spoken.’”

## Nearby chapters

[Ezekiel 20](https://www.lumin.faith/read/ezekiel/20.md)
[Ezekiel 22](https://www.lumin.faith/read/ezekiel/22.md)

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