Ezekiel 21:5

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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מִתַּעְרָ֑הּ

taʻar

H8593

“from · razor · her”

Preposition + Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct + Suffix, Personal, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular

Appears 13× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 6:5

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H6168

TWOT: 1692e

razor, sheath (making naked) - razor - sheath (of sword)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

12: words
12: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is מִתַּעְרָ֑הּ razor H8593 — appearing just 13 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

מִתַּעְרָ֑הּ razor H8593 occurs in 13 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
5 nouns
1 pronoun
1 conjunction
1 adverb
1 particle

Verb forms

וְיָֽדְעוּ֙ Qal · Sequential Perfect
הוֹצֵ֥אתִי Hiphil · Perfect
תָשׁ֖וּב Qal · Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 23 words from the Hebrew and 24 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 12 Hebrew tokens and 14 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Ezekiel 21:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Ezekiel 21:30 Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, will I judge you.
Nahum 1:9 What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end. Affliction won't rise up the second time.
1 Samuel 3:12 In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end.
Jeremiah 23:20 The anger of Yahweh shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly.
Ezekiel 20:48 All flesh shall see that I, Yahweh, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.
Numbers 14:21–23 but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Yahweh;
Deuteronomy 29:24–28 even all the nations shall say, Why has Yahweh done thus to this land? what means the heat of this great anger?
1 Kings 9:7–9 then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

Isaiah 45:23 By myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from my mouth [in] righteousness, and shall not return, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Isaiah 55:11 so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Ezekiel 21:5 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וְיָֽדְעוּ֙ כָּל בָּשָׂ֔ר כִּ֚י אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֔ה הוֹצֵ֥אתִי חַרְבִּ֖י מִתַּעְרָ֑הּ לֹ֥א תָשׁ֖וּב עֽוֹד

and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Ezekiel 21:5 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον μηδαμῶς κύριος κύριος αὐτός λέγω πρός ἐγώ οὐ παραβολή εἰμί λέγω οὗτος

and all flesh shall know that I the Lord have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath: it shall not return any more.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וַאֲמָרֵית קַבֵּיל בָּעוּתִי יְיָ אֱלֹהִים הָא אִינוּן אָמְרִין לִי הֲלָא מַמְתֵיל מַתְלִין הוּא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Ezekiel 21:5 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Eze 21:5 That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more.

Ver. 5. Have drawn forth my sword.] And put it in commission; not to return till the circuit ended, till it hath done full execution.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 5. It shall not return any more.] That is, till all the work that I have designed for it is done. Nor did it; for Nebuchadnezzar never rested till he had subdued all the lands from the south to the north, from the Euphrates to the Nile.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) It shall not return any more—i.e., until it has fully accomplished its purpose. Other judgments upon Israel had been arrested in mercy—the sword had been returned to the scabbard while its work was still incomplete. This will go on to the end.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

Sigh, therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins,.... As if thy loins were broke, and go as if they were, and sigh as thou goest; or as a woman in travail, having her hands upon her loins as ready to break, and in the utmost distress; or heave, and groan, and sigh, till the girdle of the loins is broke, and by these motions and gesture show the miserable state of this people, and how much thou art affected with it:

and with bitterness sigh before their eyes; in the sight and hearing of the captives at Babylon; who would take care, by some means or other, to inform their brethren at Jerusalem of it, how the prophet sighed and groaned, under an apprehension and assurance of a dreadful calamity coming upon them; using along with his sobs and sighs, and brinish tears, doleful words and bitter lamentations.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Back, (ver. 30.) without doing execution, Jeremias l. 9. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

That they that smart and suffer may see and own God in their just sufferings, they that see and hear it may confess God’s doings herein.

It shall not return any more: in Eze 20:48 it is expressed thus, it shall not be quenched, for there it was a fire; here, it shall not return into the scabbard till it hath done full execution.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Shall not return - It shall not return into the scabbard 'till it hath done full execution.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

‘Is he not an inventor of parables’ when I prophesy to them in language of parable and riddle, such as a forest and a fire consuming [trees] moist and dry.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Ezekiel, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 12 words (12 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is taʻar (“razor”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “razor” (taʻar) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Numbers 6:5, which shares the word «razor», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
«וְיָֽדְעוּ֙» is a Qal Sequential Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Adam Clarke's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 12 Hebrew ↔ 14 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 13 words in this verse.
12 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 12 words in this verse.