Ezekiel 14:17

17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, `Sword, go through the land,' so that I cut off man and beast from it,

Ezekiel 14:17 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 14:17

Or [if] I bring a sword upon that land
The land which had grievously sinned; the same land into which a famine should come, and through which evil beasts should pass; to which, if the Lord should add, as he would, a third judgment, the sword; suffer a foreign enemy to come in among them, and destroy them. So the Targum,

``or if those that slay with the sword I should bring upon that land;''

the Chaldean army, as he did; the sword has its commission from God; war is not by chance; the invasion of a foreign enemy is from the Lord; and all the mischiefs and ravages of a tumultuous army are all by divine order: and say, sword, go through the land;
not only enter the borders of it, or proceed far in it, but even go through it; which is terrible indeed! but if the Lord bids it go, it must go, and does; it is a servant of his, and punctually obeys his commands; that is, such are those that use it, however profane and wicked they may be in themselves, as generally armies consist of dissolute persons; yet these are under a divine direction, and are obedient to the will of God, though they may know it not. So the Targum,

``and I say that they that kill with the sword pass through the land:''

so that I cut off man and beast from it;
by the sword; the one being destroyed as an enemy, the other for food.

Ezekiel 14:17 In-Context

15 If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts,

16 though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters. They only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate.

17 Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, `Sword, go through the land,' so that I cut off man and beast from it,

18 though these three men were in it, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves.

19 Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury upon it in blood to cut off from it man and beast,