21:8-10 Another of Ezekiel's messages was to be poetic. He was to announce that a sword had been sharpened and polished and was now ready to go to work slaughtering people quickly.
"A sword, a veritable Excalibur with a life of its own, is made ready for its grim destiny."296
How could the people rejoice since the rod (scepter, symbol of authority) of God's representative (son) would have no respect for anyone (despise every tree, cf. 20:47) in this judgment? They could not. God's son here refers to Nebuchadnezzar who would accomplish God's will by executing His punishment.
The figures of the rod and the son of God both describe Messiah elsewhere (cf. Gen. 49:9-10; 2 Sam. 7:14), so Ezekiel's hearers were accustomed to thinking of these figures as representing their deliverer. But here they learned that God had another son with a scepter who would destroy them (cf. Isa. 10:5, where the rod is the Assyrians).
21:11 It was as though God had polished the sword with which He would judge His people and had placed it in the hand of their slayer, Nebuchadnezzar.
21:12-13 Ezekiel was therefore to cry out and slap his thigh in great despair because this judgment was coming on the people and officials of Judah (cf. Jer. 31:19). The leaders would die with the rest of the people. This cutting off of Israel's leadership was a cause for even greater sorrow than the destruction of the ordinary Israelites. This would really test the nation. The Judahites should not despise the rod that the Lord would use to judge them; they should not think that Nebuchadnezzar lacked the power to destroy Judah. Nevertheless even Nebuchadnezzar would not prevail over Israel ultimately because the rod Messiah would be the final victor.
21:14-15 Ezekiel was to clap his hands together as he continued to prophesy symbolizing his approval of God's will (cf. 6:11; 22:13; 25:6; Num. 24:10; 2 Kings 11:12; Job 27:23; Ps. 47:1; Isa. 55:12). But he was also to announce the awfulness of the coming sword-like judgment.
Some translators interpret the description of the invasion as coming three times and doing double damage the third time (e.g. NKJV). This may be a reference to Nebuchadnezzar's three invasions of Jerusalem in 605, 597, and 586 B.C., the last invasion being twice as bad as the other two.297Another preferable translation is that the sword would strike twice or even three times (e.g. NIV). This suggests that the invasion would come fast from several different angles, that the sword would double or triple itself in its influence.298The invasion would be unusually devastating. Even the great among the people would not escape.299The invaders would surround everyone.
21:15 The sword would cause the people to lose heart and die in the gates of the city, the place where the leaders did business. The Lord had an instrument of judgment (sword) that He had prepared and kept ready that would slaughter His people suddenly (like lightning), namely, Nebuchadnezzar.
21:16-17 The Lord spoke to His instrument of judgment urging it to show itself sharp by slaying His people on every side, as the Lord directed. Yahweh would also give His approval by clapping His hands and appeasing His wrath against His sinful people.
"At least some of the problem that Ezekiel's audience had in accepting such a gloomy picture of the future can be traced to the natural religious tendency to think of God as kindly and thus not really capable of punishing people decisively. Why would God destroy His own beloved people in whom He had invested such time and effort since He brought them out of Egypt centuries before? Some of the problem lay also in people's natural, routine optimism. It is hard to imagine the country in which one grew up and enjoyed life in the past actually coming to an end, never again to be an independent nation, never again to have its own government and laws and economy and stable traditions."300
