EZEKIEL 21


1 And the word of Yahweh came unto me, saying,

The final culminating indictment of wicked Israel

2 Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel,



8 Again the word of Yahweh came unto me, saying,

The terrible sword of the Lord has been drawn, and it cannot be re-sheathed. It must now do its work relentlessly unto the end. As God said at the same time to Jeremiah:

"Pray not for this people" (Jer. 7:16; 11:14; 14:11).

Bro Growcott - Prophecies in the captivity



21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.

The king of Babylon stands at the crossroads, casting lots on whom he should attack, and the lot fell on Jerusalem. Then follow those well-known words of doom to both Zedekiah and the nation (v. 25)-

"Profane wicked prince . . . whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end!"

"Crown" of verse 26 is the royal crown, but "diadem" is the word used only and always for the High Priest's mitre. Christ is the Heir of both the throne and the high priesthood. Both are now suspended until he comes.

This is important. There was a restoration under Cyrus, but it was just an empty shell, like the Ark-less Tabernacle in the days of Saul. God was with them in a degree, and required the Temple to be rebuilt, as we see from the prophecies of Haggai in the days of Zerubbabel.

But it was never again the same. The Shekinah-glory never returned to the golden cherubim above the Mercyseat. There never arose a High Priest with Urim and Thummim. The "tabernacle of David" remained fallen; though the nation must continue as such in some form till the true Heir to both crown and mitre should come and be presented to them.

These verses are another interesting link in the chain of evidence showing Christ to be the Heir of both the Kingship and the Priesthood.

Bro Growcott - Prophesies in the captivity



26 Thus saith Adonai Yahweh; Remove the diadem [mitznefet], and take off the crown [ateret]: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high [ exalted].

27 I will [make it] overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is [ ad bo asher lo hamishpat]; and I will give it him.


According to this word so it has been to the letter. The king's eyes were put out; Zion was ploughed as a field; and not a tribe remained in the land. After seventy years captivity, there was a restoration under Ezra, Zerubbabel, Joshua, and Nehemiah. But until B.C. 165, the Israelites in Canaan were not even a kingdom; but a subject province of the Persian monarchy, and afterwards of the Macedonian. About the year named they became a kingdom again; but not David's.

The throne was that of the Asmoneans, who were of the tribe of Levi. Their dynasty was superseded by the Roman senate, which set up Herod's family instead. He was an Idumean, and reigned till after the birth of Jesus, whom he sought to put to death. He was succeeded by Archelaus, who was deposed by the Romans, and Judea reduced into the form of a province under a procurator; thus verifying, as is supposed, that the sceptre should depart from Judah when Shiloh came: and so it came to be when God called his son Jesus out of Egypt.

From that time to this, there has been no kingdom, or throne of Israel, in Canaan. The Hebrew commonwealth was broken up by the Romans about thirty years, or so, after the crucifixion; and it has been, and will be, no more, until the Lord Jesus come, who is the King of the Jews, and whose sole right it is to reign.

Elpis Israel 2.4.