Ezekiel 21:16

16 Stab again and again! Plunge right, plunge left, wherever your edge goes.

Ezekiel 21:16 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 21:16

Go thee one way or another
Go to some one place: or "unite thyself" F1; to other swords, or join other soldiers holding swords; the address is to the sword, to steer its course some one way, and slay as it goes along, sparing none: either on the right, or on the left; or south, or north;
so the Targum,

``unsheathe, and slay on the south, and destroy on the north:''
whithersoever thy face is set;
or prepared, as the Targum, or appointed for destruction; this is the usual interpretation: but why may not the words be an apostrophe to the prophet, to go alone or single, either to the right or left, south or north, as his face was set, ( Ezekiel 21:2 ) , sighing and crying, smiting his hands together, in order to affect the minds of the people with the sense of their calamities coming upon them?
FOOTNOTES:

F1 (ydxath) "unito Montanus", Piscator, Polanus; "unitor te", Starckius; "in unum dirigitor", Cocceius.

Ezekiel 21:16 In-Context

14 And you, human one, prophesy! Strike hand to hand. Let the sword strike twice, three times! It's a deadly sword, a great deadly sword. It whirls around them
15 to make hearts shudder, to make many stumble and fall. I've set the slaughtering sword against all their gates. Oh! It's crafted to flash like lightning, polished for slaughter!
16 Stab again and again! Plunge right, plunge left, wherever your edge goes.
17 It is I who strike hand to hand! I'll satisfy my wrath! I, the LORD, have spoken.
18 The LORD's word came to me:
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