Bible Strands
Ezekiel 21:22
In his right hand appears the portent for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to call for the slaughter, to lift a battle cry, to direct the battering rams against the gates, to build a ramp, and to erect a siege wall.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Ezekiel addresses the Judean exiles in Babylon, describing the immediate military preparations of the Babylonian king against Jerusalem. The vision occurs at the moment the king stands at a fork in the road, having just cast lots to determine his next target.
The words — The text highlights הַקֶּ֣סֶם (ha.qesem, "the divination" or "the portent") and כָּרִים (karim, "battering rams"). The divine portent manifests in the king's right hand as a signal to deploy siege engines and initiate the assault.
The thread — This siege imagery recurs in Ezekiel 4:2, where the prophet enacts a siege against Jerusalem, and in Ezekiel 26:9, where battering rams target city walls. The tactical language echoes the broader biblical motif of divine judgment executed through human warfare.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that human military strategy operates under sovereign direction to accomplish stated judgment. Readers must observe how the text frames siege preparation not as mere historical detail but as the mechanism for fulfilling prophetic declaration.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 4:2 Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides.
- Ezekiel 26:9 He will direct the blows of his battering rams against your walls and tear down your towers with his axes.
- Exodus 32:17 When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “The sound of war is in the camp.”
- Joshua 6:10 But Joshua had commanded the people: “Do not give a battle cry or let your voice be heard; do not let one word come out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you are to shout!”
- Joshua 6:20 So when the rams’ horns sounded, the people shouted. When they heard the blast of the horn, the people gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. Then all the people charged straight into the city and captured it.
- 1 Samuel 17:20 So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with a keeper, loaded up, and set out as Jesse had instructed him. He reached the camp as the army was marching out to its position and shouting the battle cry.
- Job 39:25 At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor. He catches the scent of battle from afar, the shouts of captains and the cry of war.
- Jeremiah 32:24 See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!
- Jeremiah 33:4 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah that have been torn down for defense against the siege ramps and the sword:
- Jeremiah 51:14 The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself: “Surely I will fill you up with men as with locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.”