John Wesley on Ezekiel 21

The holy places - The temple and all parts of it.

The righteous - It is no unusual thing, that in publick calamities, those who are indeed righteous should be involved with others.

All flesh - All the Jews that dwell in the land.

Shall not return - It shall not return into the scabbard 'till it hath done full execution.

Sigh therefore - Thereby express deep sorrow. Breaking of thy loins - Like a woman in travail.

Because - The saddest news you ever heard is coming.

Furbished - Made clean and bright.

Of my son - To whom God saith, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Psa 2:9. This sword is that rod of iron, which despiseth every tree, and will bear it down.

It - The devouring sword. Upon thy thigh - In token of thy sense of what they must suffer.

If - But if the king and kingdom of Judah despise this trial, both shall be destroyed and be no more.

And smite - In token of amazement and sorrow. Of the slain - Wherewith many shall be slain. Privy chambers - Where they were hidden in hope to escape.

All their gates - Both of cities, of palaces, and of private houses. Wrapt up - And hath been carefully kept in the scabbard, that it might not be blunted.

Go - O sword, take thy own course.

Smite my hands - In token of my approbation.

Appoint - Paint, or describe them on a tile. One land - That is, Babylon. Chuse - Pitch on some convenient place, where thou mayest place Nebuchadnezzar's army, consulting where this one way divides into two, which was on the edge of the desert of Arabia. At the head - Where each way runs, toward either Rabbath, or Jerusalem; for there Nebuchadnezzar will cast lots.

To Judah - The Jews.

Stood - The prophet speaks of what shall be, as if it were already. To use - To consult with his gods, and to cast lots. Arrows - Writing on them the names of the cities, then putting them into a quiver, and thence drawing them out and concluding, according to the name which was drawn. He consulted - Perhaps by a divine permission, the devil gave them answers from those images. In the liver - They judged of future events, by the entrails, and more especially by the liver.

The divination - The divination which concerned Jerusalem, was managed on his right hand.

Them - The Jews. That have sworn - Zedekiah, his princes, and nobles, who swore allegiance to the king of Babylon, these perjured persons will contemn all predictions of the prophet. He - Nebuchadnezzar. The iniquity - The wickedness of their perjury and rebellion. They - Zedekiah, and the Jews with him

Your transgressions - Against God, and against the king of Babylon. Discovered - To all in court, city, and country. With the hand - As birds, or beasts in the net, are taken with the hands, so shall you, and be carried into Babylon.

And thou - Zedekiah. Whose day - The day of sorrows, and sufferings, and punishment is at hand. Shall have an end - Shall bring the ruin of king and kingdom, and with the overthrow of your state, the means of sinning shall end too.

The diadem - The royal attire of the head, which the king daily wore. Shall not be the same - The kingdom shall never be what it hath been. Him that is low - Jeconiah. The advance of this captive king, came to pass in the thirty - seventh year of his captivity.

Shall be no more - Never recover its former glory, 'till the scepter be quite taken away from Judah, and way be made for the Messiah. He hath an incontestable right to the dominion both in the church and in the world. And in due time he shall have the possession of it, all adverse power being overturned.

Their reproach - Wherewith they reproached Israel in the day of Israel's afflictions.

While - While thy astrologers, and soothsayers, deceive thee with fair, but false divinations. To bring thee - To bring thee under the sword of the Chaldeans, and destroy thee as the Jews; to make thee stumble and fall on their necks, as men that fall among a multitude of slain.

Shall I cause it - God will by no means suffer the sword to be sheathed. Judge thee - Condemn, and execute.

I will blow - As those who melt down metals blow upon the metal in the fire, that the fire may burn the fiercer.