The King of Babylon at the Parting of the Way
18 Yahweh’s word came to me again, saying, 19 “Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come. They both will come out of one land, and mark out a place. Mark it out at the head of the way to the city. 20 You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified. 21 For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination. He shook the arrows back and forth. He consulted the teraphim. He looked in the liver. 22 In his right hand was the lot for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, and to build forts. 23 It will be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken. 24 “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have caused your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to memory, you will be taken with the hand. 25 “‘You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day has come, in the time of the iniquity of the end, 26 the Lord Yahweh says: “Remove the turban, and take off the crown. This will not be as it was. Exalt that which is low, and humble that which is high. 27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. This also will be no more, until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it.”’ 28 “You, son of man, prophesy and say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says this concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach: “A sword! A sword is drawn! It is polished for the slaughter, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning; 29 while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day has come in the time of the iniquity of the end. 30 Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, I will judge you. 31 I will pour out my indignation on you. I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath. I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy. 32 You will be for fuel to the fire. Your blood will be in the middle of the land. You will be remembered no more; for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.”’”
A pagan king shakes arrows at a crossroads to decide which city to attack, and the lot that comes up is the one God had already determined.
Ezekiel is told to draw a map. Two roads leave one country, and at the fork he is to set up a signpost — one way to Rabbah of the Ammonites, the other to Jerusalem. Then the scene at the fork is described as it happens: the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way... to use divination. He shook the arrows back and forth. He consulted the teraphim. He looked in the liver.
Three pagan techniques are named without comment. Marked arrows shaken in a quiver until one falls out, household images consulted, and the liver of a sacrificed animal read for markings. Nothing in the passage suggests these methods work. What it says is that the result was right: In his right hand was the lot for Jerusalem. A king using superstition to choose his next campaign arrives at the decision that had already been announced by a prophet a thousand miles away.
That is the same claim the book makes when it calls a foreign king a servant, and it is worth stating carefully. The passage does not endorse divination and does not say God spoke through the arrows. It says that a man free to choose, choosing by a method with no power in it, chose what God had determined. The verse that follows anticipates the objection from the city's side. To those in Jerusalem who had sworn oaths it will look like a false divination — an obvious fraud, easily dismissed — and they will be taken anyway.
The chapter then addresses the king of Judah directly, and the sentence on him is delivered in the vocabulary of a coronation reversed. Remove the turban, and take off the crown. This will not be as it was. And then a word repeated three times, which is as close to a shout as the book comes: I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. The last clause is the only thing left standing in the paragraph, and it is a promise rather than a threat — until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it. The crown is taken off, the office is emptied, and the emptiness is given a term. Somebody is coming who has a right to it, and the book does not say here who that is.
held with reason What this mark means