Ezekiel 14:21

21 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "How much more when I send my four punishments--the evil sword, and famine, and [a] fierce animal, and a plague--to Jerusalem to cut it off, [both] human and animal!

Ezekiel 14:21 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 14:21

For thus saith the Lord God, how much more
If the Lord would not be entreated by such good men as those mentioned, for a land that had sinned against him, to whom he only sends some one of the above judgments, either famine, or noisome beasts, or the sword, or the pestilence, how much more inexorable and deaf to all entreaties must he be; or if anyone of those judgments makes so great a desolation in the land, then how much greater must that detraction be, when I send my four sore judgments on Jerusalem:
or "evil" ^F1 ones; as they are to men, though righteously inflicted by the Lord; when all these four are sent together, what a devastation must they make! namely, the sword, and the famine, and the, noisome beast, and the pestilence,
to cut off from it man and beast;
three of them, it is evident, were sent upon Jerusalem at the time of its siege by Nebuchadnezzar, the sword, famine, and pestilence; and no doubt the other, even the noisome beasts; and if not literally, yet figuratively, for Nebuchadnezzar himself is compared to a lion, ( Jeremiah 4:7 ) ( 50:17 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (Myerh) "mala", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Starckius; "pessima", Junius & Tremellius, Vatablus.

Ezekiel 14:21 In-Context

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,

20 and [if] Noah, Daniel, and Job [were] in the midst of her, {as surely as I live}," {declares} the Lord Yahweh, "surely not [a] son, surely not [a] daughter will they save by their righteousness; they would save {themselves}."

21 For thus says the Lord Yahweh: "How much more when I send my four punishments--the evil sword, and famine, and [a] fierce animal, and a plague--to Jerusalem to cut it off, [both] human and animal!

22 But look! A remnant will be left over in it, sons and daughters {who will be brought out}. Look! They are coming out to you, and you will see their way, and with their deeds you will be consoled with respect to the evil that I brought over Jerusalem, all of [it] that I brought over it.

23 And they will console you when you see their way and their deeds, and you will know that not for nothing I did all that I did in it," {declares} the Lord Yahweh.