Ezekiel 6:12

6:12 The one far away will die by pestilence, the one close by will fall by the sword, and whoever is left and has escaped these ¹  will die by famine. I will fully vent my rage against them.

Ezekiel 21:3

21:3 and say to them, ²  ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, ³  I am against you. ⁴  I will draw my sword ⁵  from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. ⁶ 

Ezekiel 23:47

23:47 That army will pelt them with stones and slash them with their swords; they will kill their sons and daughters and burn their houses. ⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “the one who is left, the one who is spared.”

² tn Heb “the land of Israel.”

³ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) draws attention to something and has been translated here as a verb.

⁴ tn Or “I challenge you.” The phrase “I am against you” may be a formula for challenging someone to combat or a duel. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:201-2, and P. Humbert, “Die Herausforderungsformel ‘h!nn#n' ?l?K>,’” ZAW 45 (1933): 101-8.

⁵ sn This is the sword of judgment, see Isa 31:8; 34:6; 66:16.

⁶ sn Ezekiel elsewhere pictures the Lord’s judgment as discriminating between the righteous and the wicked (9:4-6; 18:1-20; see as well Pss 1 and 11) and speaks of the preservation of a remnant (3:21; 6:8; 12:16). Perhaps here he exaggerates for rhetorical effect in an effort to subdue any false optimism. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:25-26; D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 1:669-70; and W. Zimmerli, Ezekiel (Hermeneia), 1:424-25.

⁷ tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”