For it will not be a testing—what could it do if you despise the rod?” declares the Lord GOD.
Here is another prophecy of the sword, which is delivered in a very affecting manner; the expressions here used are somewhat intricate, and perplex interpreters. The sword was unsheathed in the foregoing verses; here it is fitted up to do execution, which the prophet is commanded to lament. Observe, I. How the sword is here described. 1.
Commenting on Ezekiel 21:8-17
I have set the point of the sword against all their gates,.... The word rendered "point" is nowhere else used, and is differently translated: by some the "fear" of the sword (z), as Menachem and Kimchi; by others the "cry" of the sword, or of those that are slain with it, as Jarchi; and the Targum paraphrases it, "those that slay with the sword:'' some...
it is a trial--rather, "There is a trial" being made: the sword of the Lord will subject all to the ordeal. "What, then, if it contemn even the rod" (scepter of Judah)? Compare as to a similar scourge of unsparing trial, Job 9:23. it shall be no more--the scepter, that is, the state, must necessarily then come to an end.