Ezekiel 21:14 - Exposition

Smite thine hands together , etc. Another gesture follows, either of horror and lamentation, or perhaps, looking to Ezekiel 21:17 , of imperative command. The sword is to do its thrice-redoubled work (the words emphasize generally the intensity, and are scarcely to be taken numerically, of the repeated invasions of the Chaldeans); it is "the sword of the slain" (better, pierced ones , or, with Revised Version, the deadly wounded ). The next clause should be taken, with the Revised Version, in the singular— the sword of the great one that is deadly wounded ; sc . the sword should smite the king as well as the people. For entereth into their privy chambers , read, with the Revised Version (margin), Ewald, and Keil, it compasseth them about .