Ezekiel 21:30

30 Shall I cause it to return into its sheath? I must judge thee in the place where thou wast raised, in the land of where thou hast lived.

Ezekiel 21:30 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 21:30

Shall I cause it to return into his sheath?
&c.] The drawn and furbished sword of the Chaldeans? no, I will not; it shall never return or be put up until the Ammonites are utterly consumed. Some read these words in the imperative, as the Targum,

``return the sword to its sheath;''

so the Vulgate Latin version, "return to thy sheath"; and so may be considered as a direction to the Ammonites to put up their swords, and not stand in their own defence, since it would be to no purpose; though Jerom, and Grotius after him, take the words to be an apostrophe to the drawn sword of the Chaldeans to sheath itself, having done its work upon the Jews and Ammonites; or to the Chaldeans to return to Babylon, and where they also should be punished; and so interpret all that follows of the destruction of the Babylonians by the Medes and Persians; but the first sense is best: I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of
thy nativity;
not in the place where their father Ammon was born, which was at Zoar; but where they first became a kingdom and state, a body politic; or where the present generation of them were born; they should not be carried out of their own land, but destroyed in it.

Ezekiel 21:30 In-Context

28 And thou, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach; even say thou, The sword, the sword is drawn for the slaughter; it is furbished to consume with brightness:

29 They prophesy vanity unto thee; they divine a lie unto thee, to give thee over among the necks of the wicked who are sentenced to death, whose day is come in the time when the iniquity shall be brought to an end.

30 Shall I cause it to return into its sheath? I must judge thee in the place where thou wast raised, in the land of where thou hast lived.

31 And I will pour out my indignation upon thee; I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath and deliver thee into the hand of fearful men who are skilful to destroy.

32 Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire; thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; thou shalt no longer be remembered: for I the LORD have spoken.