gates I have set the dread of the sharp sword, the sword that is
furbished to glitter, that is made ready for slaughter.

21:16. Be thou sharpened, go to the right hand, or to the left, which
way soever thou hast a mind to set thy face.

21:17. And I will clap my hands together, and will satisfy my
indignation: I the Lord have spoken.

21:18. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

21:19. And thou son of man, set thee two ways, for the sword of the king
of Babylon to come: both shall come forth out of one land: and with his
hand he shall draw lots, he shall consult at the head of the way of the
city.

21:20. Thou shalt make a way that the sword may come to Rabbath of the
children of Ammon, and to Juda unto Jerusalem the strong city.

21:21. For the king of Babylon stood in the highway, at the head of two
ways, seeking divination, shuffling arrows: he inquired of the idols,
and consulted entrails.

21:22. On his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to set
battering rams, to open the mouth in slaughter, to lift up the voice in
howling, to set engines against the gates, to cast up a mount, to build
forts.

21:23. And he shall be in their eyes as one consulting the oracle in
vain, and imitating the leisure of sabbaths: but he will call to
remembrance the iniquity that they may be taken.

21:24. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because you have remembered
your iniquity, and have discovered your prevarications, and your sins
have appeared in all your devices: because, I say, You have remembered,
you shall be taken with the hand.

21:25. But thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come that
hath been appointed in the time of iniquity:

Thou profane, etc... He speaks to king Sedecias, who had broken his
oath, and was otherwise a wicked prince.

21:26. Thus saith the Lord God: Remove the diadem, take off the crown:
is it not this that hath exalted the low one, and brought down him that
was high?

Is it not this that hath exalted the low one... The royal crown of Juda
had exalted Sedecias from a private state and condition to the sovereign
power, as the loss of it had brought down Jechonias, etc.

21:27. I will shew it to be iniquity, iniquity, iniquity: but this was
not done till he came to whom judgment belongeth, and I will give it
him.

I will shew it to be iniquity, etc... Or, I will overturn it, viz., the
crown of Juda for the manifold iniquities of the kings: but it shall not