Читать книгу Ezekiel Unmasked - A Revelation of Yeshua's Justice (Chapters 25-39) - P.D. Dalling - Страница 16

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pleasure over the news of Israel’s defeat. Secondly, the king of Babylon used divination to decide which of the two cities to attack first; Judah or Rabbah (Rabbath, KJV), a city of the Ammonites.

Let’s go back to Ezekiel 21:19-23 applying the NIV: “Son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to take, both starting from the same country. Make a signpost where the road branches off to the city. Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites and another against Judah and fortified Jerusalem. For the king of Babylon will stop at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: he will cast lots with arrows, he will consult his idols, he will examine the liver. Into his right hand will come the lot for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to give the command to slaughter, to sound the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to build a ramp and to erect siege works. It will seem like a false omen to those who have pledge allegiance to him, but he will remind them of their guilt and take them captive.” It is clearly seen here that the king of Babylon had a choice to attack Judah or the Ammonites, but Judah was chosen not by the king’s divination as he thought, but by the divine judgment of the LORD upon His people.

The third hypothesis is found in the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream by Daniel, an exile from Jerusalem who served in the king’s palace: “You, O king were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold . . . This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory; and wherefore the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all you are the head of Gold” (Daniel 2:31, 32a, 36-38 NKJV).

Using the timelines of Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, the men of the east most likely were the Babylonians, because the head of gold that was given dominion over the earth during that period of history was the Babylonian Empire. It can therefore be concluded that most likely the men from the east were Nebuchadnezzar’s army. When the Babylonian army had completely subdued Judah, the Ammonites were their next target followed by the Moabites. The Edomites living in the