Ezekiel 21:30

30 turn thou again into thy sheath, into the place in which thou were made. I shall deem thee in the land of thy birth, (turn thou again into thy sheath. And in the place where thou were made, I shall judge thee, yea, in the land of thy birth,)

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, The Lord God saith these things to the sons of Ammon, and to the shame of them; and thou shalt say, A! thou sword, A! thou sword, drawn out to slay, made bright, that thou slay and shine, (And thou, son of man, prophesy, and say, The Lord God saith these things to the Ammonites, yea, for their shame; and thou shalt say, O! thou sword, O! thou sword, drawn out to kill, made bright, that thou shine and kill,)

29 when vain things were seen to thee, and leasings were divined, that thou shouldest be given on the necks of wicked men wounded, the day of which before-determined shall come in the time of wickedness, (when false things were seen by thee, and lies were divined, so that thou shouldest be brought down upon the necks of the wicked who be killed, the which predetermined day hath come in the time of wickedness,)

30 turn thou again into thy sheath, into the place in which thou were made. I shall deem thee in the land of thy birth, (turn thou again into thy sheath. And in the place where thou were made, I shall judge thee, yea, in the land of thy birth,)

31 and I shall shed out mine indignation on thee; in the fire of my strong vengeance I shall blow in thee, and I shall give thee into the hands of unwise men, and making death. (and I shall pour out my indignation upon thee; I shall blow against thee, with the fire of my strong vengeance, and I shall give thee into the hands of the unwise, and those making, or bringing in, death.)

32 Thou shalt be meat to fire, thy blood shall be in the midst of earth; thou shalt be given to forgetting, for I the Lord spake. (Thou shalt be food for the fire, thy blood shall be in the midst of the land; and thou shalt be forgotten, for I the Lord have spoken.)