Ezekiel 14:17

17 Or, if I bring a sword over that land, and I say, 'Sword, let it cross over into the land!' And I will cut off from it [both] human and animal.

Ezekiel 14:17 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 14:17

Or [if] I bring a sword upon that land
The land which had grievously sinned; the same land into which a famine should come, and through which evil beasts should pass; to which, if the Lord should add, as he would, a third judgment, the sword; suffer a foreign enemy to come in among them, and destroy them. So the Targum,

``or if those that slay with the sword I should bring upon that land;''

the Chaldean army, as he did; the sword has its commission from God; war is not by chance; the invasion of a foreign enemy is from the Lord; and all the mischiefs and ravages of a tumultuous army are all by divine order: and say, sword, go through the land;
not only enter the borders of it, or proceed far in it, but even go through it; which is terrible indeed! but if the Lord bids it go, it must go, and does; it is a servant of his, and punctually obeys his commands; that is, such are those that use it, however profane and wicked they may be in themselves, as generally armies consist of dissolute persons; yet these are under a divine direction, and are obedient to the will of God, though they may know it not. So the Targum,

``and I say that they that kill with the sword pass through the land:''

so that I cut off man and beast from it;
by the sword; the one being destroyed as an enemy, the other for food.

Ezekiel 14:17 In-Context

15 "If a fierce animal I [should] let cross through the land, and it [should] make it childless and it will be [a] desolation, so that [there will] not [be] one crossing over [the land] {due to} the presence of the animal,

16 [even if] these three men [were] in the midst of it, {as surely as I live}," {declares} the Lord Yahweh, "surely they will not save sons and daughters; {they themselves alone}, they will be saved, but the land will be [a] desolation.

17 Or, if I bring a sword over that land, and I say, 'Sword, let it cross over into the land!' And I will cut off from it [both] human and animal.

18 And [if] these three men [were] in the midst of it, {as surely as I live}," {declares} the Lord Yahweh, "they will not save sons and daughters, but {they alone} will be saved.

19 And if I [were to] send a plague to that land, and I pour out my rage on it with blood to cut it off, [both] human and animal,

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "in"