Bible Strands
Ezekiel 33:21
In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a fugitive from Jerusalem came to me and reported, “The city has been taken!”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Ezekiel addresses the exiled house of Israel during the twelfth year of their Babylonian captivity. A fugitive from Jerusalem arrives to deliver the report that the city has fallen.
The words — The Hebrew וַ/יְהִ֞י (va/y.Hi) translates to "and it was," establishing the chronological marker. בַּ/חֲמִשָּׁ֥ה (ba./cha.mi.Shah) means "on five," specifying the exact day the fugitive delivered the news.
The thread — This chronological notation parallels Ezekiel 1:2, which also anchors events to the fifth day of a month during the exile. The reported fall aligns with the siege details recorded in 2 Kings 24:4 and 2 Kings 25:4 regarding Jerusalem's breach and the flight of its defenders.
Why it lands — The text states a precise historical date before noting the fugitive's announcement, establishing that judgment arrives on a fixed timeline. Readers must recognize that prophetic warning culminates in concrete historical fulfillment rather than abstract theology.
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
And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 1:2 On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin—
- 2 Kings 24:4 and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was unwilling to forgive.
- 2 Kings 25:4 Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They headed toward the Arabah,
- 2 Kings 25:10 And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
- 2 Chronicles 36:17 So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,
- Jeremiah 39:1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to the city.
- Jeremiah 52:4 So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.
- Ezekiel 24:26 on that day a fugitive will come and tell you the news.
- Ezekiel 32:1 In the twelfth year, on the first day of the twelfth month, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
- Ezekiel 40:1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month—in the fourteenth year after Jerusalem had been struck down—on that very day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and He took me there.